From left to right: SabrinaBrite, RussoPlays, DJ Monopoli.
“This is RB Battles!”
—RussoPlays, in the intro cutscene.
RB Battles (Roblox Battles, RBB) is a Roblox bracket tournament between 16 Roblox YouTubers, where they compete against each other in different Roblox experiences for a grand prize of 1-2 million Robux (Roblox’s in-game currency), depending on the season. The series is hosted by YouTubers Terabrite Games (consisting of DJ Monopoli and SabrinaBrite) and RussoPlays, and posted to the RB Battles YouTube channel. Occasionally, one-off competition videos are posted as well.
Additionally, there is a tie-in Roblox game and event, also named RB Battles, which enables the players and viewers of the event to earn accessory items by playing different games and completing different objectives. Starting with Season 2, the tie-in events tend to have some kind of story attached to them and also require earning badges from challenges in other Roblox games.
Notable competitors include KreekCraft, TanqR, Flamingo, DenisDaily, Sketch, and Thinknoodles.
Season 1 started on September 9th, 2019, Season 2 started on November 16th, 2020, and Season 3 started on December 3rd, 2022. You can find the YouTube channel here
, and their website here.
RB Battles contains examples of:
Tropes found in the video tournament and the creators in the tournament:
- Beware the Quiet Ones: PinkLeaf. One of the quietest (and youngest) competitors in the series, who barely talks within the videos he’s in, but his unrivaled skill in parkour enables him to make it to the Season 3 finals. Even TanqR is scared of him. TanqR.
- Butt-Monkey: Russo tends to be this at the expense of the other two hosts, who tease him a lot.Kreek: Alright, I’m taking your spot, I’m the new judge.
Russo: I’ll do the rest of it behind this pillow.
Sabrina: I like you better anyway, Kreek.
Russo: Wow! I know that was a joke, but my sensitive mentality took it serious. I’m going backstage. - Character Catchphrase: “This is RB Battles!”
- Also, Russo has “Judges?”
- DJ has “Not just yet! If you want this, you’re going to have to earn it!”, said during Season 2’s final battle.
- Chekhov M.I.A.: RussoPlays was missing for the final episode of the first round and for all of the semi-finals as well as the Battle Back in Season 3. Other YouTubers and those famous in the Roblox community filled in his place, such as KreekCraft, NightFoxx:, and MiniToon. This ends up being important to the overall story.
- Colour-Coded Characters: DJ is always associated with green, Russo with blue, and Sabrina with purple.
- Dark Horse Victory: Downplayed. iBella didn’t win the finals, but the fans definitely didn’t expect her to come 3rd in the final standings.
- Friendly Rivalry: KreekCraft, the victor of Season 1, and TanqR, the victor of Season 2 and 3, tend to act like this in videos together - not helped by the hosts constantly pitting them against each other.
- Large Ham: All of the cast have their moments, but special mention goes to the hosts, 'especially' Russo.Russo: Competitors, get in the ball! It’s time…to FIGHT TO THE DEATH!
NightFoxx: Wooo!
MeganPlays: Death? - Pungeon Master: DJ and Russo love making puns whenever they get the chance.
- Rivals Team Up: In the Season 3 finale, KreekCraft and TanqR agreed to work together in order to take down iBella and PinkLeaf.
Tropes found in the game, challenges in other games, and the tie-in story:
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: The rewards you can get from completing objectives in the event are clothing items you can wear on your avatar. This applies to all seasons.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Tower of Hell (Season 3): Time will not accelerate if a person manages to get all 3 halos up the exit, unlike in the original. Which is a good thing, because the game is already Nintendo Hard, and time accelerating will lead to a lot of frustration considering how big it is compared to the original area.
- Because of the massive length of the final battle of Season 3, you can opt to go straight to a checkpoint if you quit at any moment. This is a massive life-saver in the event you encounter a Game-Breaking Bug.
- Big Bad: In the Season 3 event, JP.
- Boss Bonanza: In both the Season 2 and Season 3 event final battles, you have to beat the finalists from each season in one of these, playing minigames found in the base game.
- For Season 2, it was: AshleyTheUnicorn (Dodgeball.io), Hyper (Tiles), TanqR (Cosmic Karts), and then KreekCraft (Progress Predicament).
- For Season 3, it was iBella (Lava Escape), KreekCraft and TanqR (Target Town), DenisDaily (Simulator Scrimmage) and finally PinkLeaf (Battle Crag, an original minigame for the final battle).
- Cerebus Syndrome: Season 1 had no story to it, it was just a light-hearted competition. Season 2 had the players looking for the host’s swords that they lost, only for the hosts to turn on them and try to prevent them from getting the prizes for beating the final battle, even by rigging the game, but this plotline only starts at the end. Season 3 kicks it up a notch with a robot invasion at the opening concert, one of the hosts going missing, and the final battle has you fight against a villain seemingly trying to kill you just because the hosts rigged the last season.
- Elemental Weapon: The host’s swords serve as this, being colour coded to indicate who’s is who’s. They can be used in the Season 2 final battle as power-ups.
- DJ’s Sword of Agility: Gives the player super speed.
- Russo’s Sword of Truth: Reveals any hidden secrets within a certain radius from the player.
- Sabrina’s Sword of Healing: Slowly heals the player when they have taken damage.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: You cannot win against Hyper in the Season 2 final battle, as the hosts give him a jetpack in a game where you’re supposed to avoid falling into lava. No matter what you do, you have to lose in order to progress to the Battle Back against TanqR, where you can actually win.
- Instrument of Murder: Each host has a Signature Instrument, which have powers of their own that the player can use in Season 3's final battle:
- DJ’s Dynamic Dasher: A drum set that acts as a jetpack.
- Russo’s Robotic Resonator: A pair of microphones that can be used to control robots.
- Sabrina’s Cyber Shredder: A guitar that can be used as a battle axe.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: The reveal of JP being Russo’s creator, explaining why he was missing throughout Season 3.
- No Fair Cheating: Season 3’s final battle had an anti-cheat system, wherein if the game detected a player using any exploits in order to beat it, they wouldn’t be able to get the prize at the end. Additionally, everyone who was eligible for a Hood of Heroes (the reward for being one of the first 30 to beat the final battle) had their runs checked to make sure they didn’t use any exploits in order to get it.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: In the Russo's Sword of Truth quest in Build a Boat for Treasure, when the player enters the portal they opened, they end up in a room where the Sword is laying before them and a giant computer says "You win!", while party music plays. When the player approaches, the party music fades out and the lights go out. Cue a boss fight with that giant computer.
