RDSRT3 Recap — All Signs Point To Goat (R1, P2-P5)

Posted 2025-02-02

You might've been wondering where the RDSRT3 recaps were. Well, I wasn't feeling great, considering... everything. But I seriously need to put all of this down somewhere because this is making me go absolutely feral. Round 1 ended today, and with it were some absolutely buckwild levels, as usual, but the story is finally getting somewhere, and I've got a real scoop on my claws... (This'll also serve as my catch-up blog post, if you're looking for highlights.)

A Summary Of Everything That's Happened Since Last Time

A tier list containing every Round 1 level placed into categories ranging from 'Edible, Very Delicious' to 'This Would Kill Me'. Each level thumbnail also has flavor text like 'red velvet cake', 'fruity soda', or 'burnt cable'.
Every Round 1 level ranked by edibility (according to Kin)

P2: Wolfedy vs Somney vs JoeDaFarmer vs Dimples

The first 4-player pit match! These were intended to shape the bracket into the proper tournament format once Round 2 begins. Scores were judged not per-level, but on total misses across all three levels. In the end, Wolfedy got through with a total miss count of 47!

Levels

  • Power / Diljá — Symphony (40:45)
  • People I Don't Like / UPSAHL — Shareoff (49:06)
  • That's Right! / Swingrowers — Symphony, Shareoff (55:02)

Shareoff once again showing off her amazing text decoration skills... I loved how the lineup kinda made it a showcase of both their styles individually and then together in the last one.

P2: Rikri vs Dusk

The fabled RDSRT2 Grand Finals rematch... It was really close (yet another 1-miss difference!) but Rikri won 2-1. That last level had some interesting electrics, huh?

Levels

  • HITO Mania / Sasuke Haraguchi — Kin, Shareoff (1:40:18)
  • For The Goat / 3xp0 — Claire de Lune (1:45:22)
  • Curtain Call / James Landino — Pepperflash (1:52:18)

The highlight of the set for me was HITO Mania. I love that song, and the level really did it justice. For The Goat was very tense with how it just kept going... and just a tiny lapse in concentration could break my S+ rank — which it did.

P3: OGNusen vs Willow

First actual miss tie of the event! But we didn't get to see a tiebreaker, as Willow won 2-0. Maybe we'll see if Zack's concerns about its performance are warranted... if they make it past Round 2.

Levels

  • Johnny Delusional / FFS — Dee (23:13)
  • This Isn't Love / DAZBEE — Shareoff (30:01)
  • Baby I'm Yours / Breakbot, Irfane — 1257Plays (35:18)

I don't have too much to say about these levels, they were all pretty solid. It was fun to recognize Baby I'm Yours though. And This Isn't Love is a pretty catchy song too, and once again Shareoff had some great text decorations going on.

P4: Klyzx vs Mei

It was close (yet another 1-miss moment...), but Klyzx won this match 2-1. Shoutout to Mei, though. It has a really cool YouTube channel where it shows off so many levels (and always gets S+ ranks on them). Glad that there's someone that can really document everything custom levels have to offer.

Levels

  • Your favorite sidekick (feat. 8485) / underscores — 3xp0 (18:49)
  • You Will Never Know / Bill Kiley — Zulax, TwoWayFort (25:14)
  • The Government Knows / KNOWER — #Guigui, DPS2004 (34:33)

Zulax and TwoWayFort are the rising stars of the levelmaking community right now, I feel like. It's wild how they just came out swinging with that one Pizza Tower compo level. The Government Knows was really fun, too.

P5: InfectiousStepocity vs ThatOneGuy

How many times have there been 1-miss moments now??? It happens so much... InfectiousStepocity ended up sweeping the entire thing. No upsets today, unfortunately.

Levels

  • Alien Blues / Vundabar — KirbyCreep, WolfPlay013 (42:53)
  • Baka Tsuushin / inosuke — Shareoff (49:44)
  • TOXY! / KUJIRAGI, NILFRUITS — fiascone, tepid (57:10)

This set kicked ass. Apparently Shareoff got inspiration to make Baka Tsuushin from a message I sent in the level ideas channel, which is neat. But TOXY knocked it outta the park. Always gotta watch for Vocaloid songs charted by tepid...

P5: Rikri vs Dusk (again?!)

The fabled RDSRT2 Grand Finals rematch... rematch. Yeah, Curtain Call was kind of an ambiguous level with those electric cues. Rikri and the event team were gracious enough to offer a rematch, so of course I had to accept! Still lost, but at least I got to make up for that 1-miss moment last time.

Levels

All solid levels! Felt a lot better after this set than the previous one, even if I still lost. I feel like if you gave Rikri and I a level to sightread, it could literally go either way...

P5: Lunaduskjr vs PJ vs Monkwee vs Punminty

The second pit, all (relative) newcomers! ...Except for Luna, who's been in RDL since basically the beginning. She ended up winning with 44 misses in total.

Levels

  • song about imAGINARY PEOPEL / quinn — 3xp0 (2:34:32)
  • mines.ogg / Nightmargin, NoveDeht — DawnAndNight (2:40:01)
  • Facade / DawnAndNight — DawnAndNight (2:48:50)

For The Goat was the first level with an original song of the event, and Facade was the first to be composed as well as charted by the same person. Very cool stuff! This set also reminded me to actually get to playing Oneshot one of these days...

Okay, So Why Are You Going Feral Over These Cutscenes Then

Two cutscene screenshots depicting a computer virus taking the form of a shadowy creature with a goat skull for a head and wearing a dark cloak. Left: It is staring at the list of levels for the event. Right: It has selected a level to consume.
It's this guy

Yeah, But What Happened

Timestamps

Well, the tech is going haywire. Not unusual, considering that connectifia abortus exists, but the event seems to be going just fine for whatever reason, so something must be going on. Rodney's on the case! Everyone (Rodney, Aimee, and Dr. Forrest) splits up to investigate, and... yeah, Dr. Forrest is up to something that... may or may not be ethical, considering he doesn't want to get caught having messed with Middlesea's IT infrastructure. And at the end of the stream, the (very staged) conversation between the event hosts gets cut off to reveal what we might be going up against — a goat in the system, hell-bent on consuming levels and imitating their creators for (possibly) nefarious ends...

What Makes This So Wild

Screenshot from TOXY by fiascone and tepid. A shadowy representation of the goat entity circles around Paige, seemingly messing with her pager's functionality.
Thanks to InfectiousStepocity for pointing this out in TOXY

I've been in RDL since basically the beginning, and I've been moderately active thoughout pretty much most of it. So when references to goats started appearing in levels like For The Goat and The Government Knows, I was like "why does all of this seem familiar..." And then it hit me right in the face. In 2019, there was a megacollab that fell through.

A message from 'notRat has me on his list again' from December 2019. It reads: 'Okay so the jist of the idea there's a virus trapped inside a sacrificial goat file (A file designed to do nothing but be infected by a virus for studying, because of RDs theme of viruses infecting electronics and biology it made sense that's how they research em) breaks out and starts imitating other levels visually and gimmickally, when it swaps it changes appearance to an facsimile of the creator (cause its still trapped in the goat file it has horns and stuff)'
'sorry rdl newbies only the Oldheads get to understand the lore lmao' - DPS2004

Now watch that last cutscene in full. It has a goat skull for a head. It's in the computer and it's consuming the levels these creators made. It takes on their appearances to a T, only recognizable by its purple eyes and pair of horns. This goat fits exactly that description.

Screenshot from TOXY by fiascone and tepid. The sillhouette of the goat entity is clearer here.
Also this art is just really good I love its design

What makes it so wild to me is that all of this could've just gone past everyone's radars. It would've still been super cool, but with this context? I feel like it brings this up to an even higher level. And in general I think it's really cool that they're taking this concept that kinda just fell though and deciding to repurpose it for a huge event like this. Makes me wonder what else the RDSRT3 team has up their sleeve...

Find out when Round 2 starts! ...At some point. The upcoming matches are:

  • Willow vs Klyzx
  • RandomGuyJCI vs Wolfedy
  • Lunaduskjr vs Zack101155
  • InfectiousStepocity vs Rikri

You can check out all of the VODs on the Rhythm Doctor Lounge YouTube channel. Don't be a heartbreaker!

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