Summer 2025 - Updates on EVERYTHING!

Hey all. I know this year has been kind of dead for new AvA content, and the Patreon is suffering as a result. I just wanted to preface this by thanking each and every one of you who are sticking around to support the channel. I can promise you your money is going right back into the series, and work is being done, even if it's been largely organizational and hands-off up until now. It's officially summer vacation for me, and I'm graduating in the fall, so I am absolutely locking in during August and finishing the literal dozens of projects I have been crafting since late 2023 that I keep teasing and talking about. This post is going to give you an update on EVERYTHING I've announced in any official capacity, as well as giving you the first look into the things I've been working on in the shadows that haven't been announced yet.

Mr. Krabs vs Tom Nook

Krabs vs Nook is THE PEOPLE'S CHAMP 2024 winner, and has been a top priority for me ever since. I promised it 2025 and I am doing by best to deliver. It has been written for a while, and is being recorded currently. Luke Reardon is playing Mr. Krabs (you may know him as the voice and artist of SpongeBob in SpongeBob vs Captain Underpants, or the voice and artist of Mr. Krabs in Dilly's Mr. Krabs vs William Afton) and also providing the full animation. Expect a style similar to that of SpongeBob in SpongeBob vs Captain Underpants. I have been working for a while to try to get Dan Bull as a guest to play Tom Nook, but it unfortunately looks like the timing isn't going to work out, so I'm looking at alternatives. The Stupendium is a heavy consideration. Let me know if you have any other ideas!

I've talked about this a little bit on the Patreon, as well as the beat preview I posted a few months ago, but this battle is more of a spiritual successor to SpongePants than a direct sequel. SpongePants was inspired by The Heart Pt. 5 by Kendrick Lamar, and I took loose inspiration from King Kunta for this one. The beat is tropical, luxurious, west coast G-funk that leaves behind the bombastic instrumentation of SpongePants to let the characters and their personalities shine. I am happy with what I've made - it's not what you may expect, but I think that's for the best. It brings another unique sound to AvA and I'm excited to release it.

Luke is busy working on another big project for another rap battle channel, and will be starting school again in the fall, so despite my initial plans, this is likely not going to be the next one to release. But it is currently the closest to completion, and I will consider putting the audio up on Patreon in the next month or two if the demand is there and you don't mind waiting a little more for the video. Luke plans to chip away at it during the school year, with late 2025 looking probable for a release date.

Smiling Friends vs Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

This project is the other "obligation" battle that I have made a priority to complete by the end of 2025. In case you don't remember, when the Patreon first launched, I had a goal of reaching 100 concurrent patrons, and if it was hit, I would greenlight this project (which was the runner up to THE PEOPLE'S CHAMP). We're currently only around 80, but we did peak over 100 a couple of times since I set that goal, and I'm making good on the promise.

This one was really hard to figure out logistically. I figured people would be disappointed if I did a straight-forward battle that didn't have any concept or story elements, given the outrageous potential of the matchup. I'm a huge fan of both of these properties and their sense of humour, so I really wanted to come up with a concept that represented their series. It took a while, but I did manage to come up with maybe the wackiest "story" concept I've ever tackled in AvA. I don't want to give too much away yet, but the "rap battle" part may or may not be cut short by a certain boss singing a certain kind of song to a certain trio of three. I am teaming up with RecD to write this, and am both nervous and excited to see it to completion. The only other detail I want to reveal is that it will be animated and edited by CyanCoat, who you likely remember as the artist and editor for Saul Goodman in Stan vs Saul, or for his countless animation and art roles in Freshy Kanal's series like TMNT vs Ghostbusters. Here's a first look at his designs for the Smiling Friends in the battle:

This project is both longer and much more complicated than Krabs vs Nook, but it will likely come out sooner because of the availability of the people involved. Our internal estimate is sometime before Halloween. Could maybe be pushed to a Halloween special too. I'll give more detailed updates on this as the weeks pass and it gets further to completion. This is one of the most ambitious projects I've ever attempted, and I hope you guys look forward to it when it finally drops.

(note: this is an outdated cover-art from 2023 when the project was part of CH. II.)

Invader Zim vs Alien Hominid vs Among Us

One of the most anticipated projects I've announced so far as been the alien 1v1v1. I announced it in late 2023 and it is now almost 2 years later and it's not done. Unfortunately, it won't be done until 2026. This is one of the biggest examples of me promising and announcing stuff because I'm excited about it WAYYYYY before I had any right to. It has bar none the craziest beat I've ever used in AvA, involving over 5 different producers like Freshy Kanal, kiwwi, and Zeroh (who you may know from his Friday Night Funkin' work). This is one of the "big 3" battles I have announced and not talked about much as I finished other projects. I don't have much intel to share aside from that it is still being worked on, it is a full BMB animation, and there is a full beat switch. It will be one of if not the longest episodes to date. A new cover art will be made for the updated 2026 CH. III version. This is another project that was difficult to figure out logistically, because the dynamic of a 3-character battle is completely different than the dynamic of a 1v1 and it requires a completely different approach to the second half of the project. Do not expect the video to come out until around this time next year at the earliest.

Snow White vs Ramona Flowers

This is the newest of the "big 3" to be announced and it is easily my favourite project that I've ever worked on. It's almost 6 minutes in length and is the ultimate love letter to Scott Pilgrim, a series that genuinely changed my life. It has one of the most incredible beats ever used in a battle. It's also the one that is the likeliest to come out sometime this year. But it's fully animated, and incredibly complex, so I don't have a solid estimate outside of that. It is a part of a bigger project I have teased a couple times and will talk about publicly for the first time later in this post. TL:DR, this is my baby, and I can't wait to share more details in the coming months.

(note: this is an outdated cover-art from 2024 when the project was part of CH. II.)

Omni-Man vs Homelander

Sigh. This is the white whale of AvA, so to speak. Another example of a project announced much too soon, however this one did actually have a mostly done demo version at the time it was announced. The reason it's not out yet and won't be out until over a year from now is because new seasons of The Boys and Invincible keep coming out!!! And I don't want the video to be outdated less than a year after it releases, so it's been pushed back and pushed back until I find an opportune time to actually get it over the finish line where it wouldn't immediately become antiquated. I have it set tentatively as the season finale of CH. III, so it'll come out when CH. III ends. Which could be as soon as late next year, or it could be until 2028 for all I know. However, I do plan to finalize a script after the final season of The Boys airs next year. I'm sure more Invincible will come out, I don't care. You've waited long enough and I'll pull from the comics if I have to. I know this will be disappointing to some people, but it's not a priority right now, and while I am committed to delivering it, it won't be for a while yet. Hopefully the mystique isn't gone by the time I get around to it - but if it is, it's my own fault. Regardless, I like to consider this my modern take on the Light Yagami vs Monika archetype of battle. It's bloody, it's epic, it's everything you would want out of a battle like this. And it's probably gonna get demonetized too, so your Patreon support is appreciated to help recoup the funds, haha.

Teased Codename Battles

From early 2024 to now, I've done a couple waves of instrumental teasers with codenames attached. These got a lot of people excited, and fuelled speculation in the way I had hoped, but because of the very slow production cycle since then, most of them have not seen the light of day. That doesn't mean they don't exist or aren't happening, though. So here's a lighting round of all the codenames publicly teased and what's going on with them.

• HUMBLE FOLKS WITHOUT TEMPATION - Eric Cartman vs Charlie Brown. Released.

• DOOM WAS IMMINENT - Dr. Doofenshmirtz vs Doctor Doom. Released.

• ALL HANDS ON DECK - The Flying Dutchman vs King K. Rool. Released.

• BOOTS WITH THE FUR - Puss in Boots vs The Cat in the Hat. Released.

• ALL BARK - Mr. Wolf vs Dog Man. Released.

• I'M IN YOUR AREA - Invader Zim vs Alien Hominid vs Among Us. Announced.

• ENTER SUBSPACE - Snow White vs Ramona Flowers. Announced.

These are probably obvious, but I wanted to clarify in case there was any confusion. Also, some people have asked me what the "official codenames" are for these projects. So, yeah. Here they are.

• SUN TZU - A Team Fortress 2 battle. Deprioritized since announced, planned for the latter half of CH. III now. Also went through a beat change since initially teased. Original teased beat was by ToneJonez, new beat is by KOPIA.

• AGNI KAI - An Avatar: The Last Airbender battle. Deprioritized since announced, planned for the latter half of CH. III now. Beat is custom produced by OmarCameUp. Also, people understandably assumed this had to be a fire nation battle because of the codename, but that's not what I was trying to communicate. Any ATLA character is fair game.

• DINNERBONE - A Minecraft battle. Actively being worked on as part of the next line of CH. III projects. Beat is custom produced by Heem.

• PICASSO - An ENA battle. Was scrapped for a period of time after an ENA VA got removed from the show after controversy. Has been retooled and is being actively worked on as part of the next line of CH. III projects. Beat is custom produced by praizewa, and has also gone through a beat change since initially teased.

• ZEPP - I haven't given any information anywhere about the characters in this battle, but I have clarified on the Patreon Discord server before its retirement that the codename is very loose and should not be taken as, for example, a clue that it is a Saw character. Actively being worked on as part of the next line of CH. III projects. Beat is custom produced by praizewa.

• ASTROTURF - Being considered for the next line of CH. III projects. Not a priority, and may be cancelled due to scale and estimated cost. Beat is custom produced by OmarCameUp.

• ROCKEFELLER - Probably cancelled. Made with guest stars that are probably not feasible in mind. Beat is produced by SAMKO PRODUCTION

Also, official codenames for other announced projects that haven't ever had one:

• MIZZENMAST - Mr. Krabs vs Tom Nook.

• DON'T SMILE - Smiling Friends vs Don't Hug Me I'm Scared.

Finally, a couple people have speculated that the codenames are all included in the respective battles' lyrics in some way. I really liked this idea, and have decided to implement it going forward, but it was not always the plan, and was just a coincidence for DOOM IS IMMINENT - the ones for Cartman vs Charlie and Dutchman vs K. Rool aren't in the lyrics for that reason. Just in case anyone was curious.

CHAPTER III - OTHER

There are 5 battles of CH. III currently released, and several more already announced and promised. I won't give you an exact number, mainly because it will likely change slightly, but the rough outline of what battles are planned for CH. III and how many total battles will be included is being finalized. It will be the longest chapter. A lot of the upcoming projects in the chapter have already been announced, or are teased with the codenames, but there are still several completely unseen and unheard, and this year I added two new projects to the lineup for release soon this year as a response for increased demand for certain franchises. I won't announce the matchups themselves publicly yet, but they're both fully animated, and high priority right now. The first one contains a character from DELTARUNE and the second one contains a character from The Amazing World of Gumball. Their opponents are both from new franchises. Alongside Krabs vs Nook and Smiling Friends vs DHMIS, expect these - and one more project - to round out this year's lineup.

BONUS BATTLE?!?!

The rap battle community holds an event in some inner circles every year called the "100 Hour Challenge", where creators come together in small teams to make a project from conception to release in 100 hours. I am participating this year, and my team will be making Tobias (from Gumball) vs Berdly (from DELTARUNE). Note this is unrelated to the other two projects announced in the previous section - it's just a fun matchup I had moderate interest in. This WILL NOT be an official CH. III battle, and will be more of a bonus project. Don't expect crazy visuals, since we're working on a very tight time crunch. The challenge begins on August 8th, and ends on August 12th. After it ends, I will post the battle to Patreon for you guys to listen to and watch early. We are going to polish it up a little bit to be more in-line with the quality standard of the rest of the series that week and release it publicly on the channel on the 15th. It won't be promoted and will be a surprise drop for the fans on YouTube. Hopefully this is moderately exciting and should hold you off until the next couple bigger main series projects are done. We aren't allowed to start making the project until the event starts, but here's a rough mock-up my teammates put together as a proof-of-concept!

Since I'm finished with school and no longer work at my part-time job, I'm excited to participate in this event for the first time with a group of newer rap battle community members who I have not worked with before. I'm looking forward to it and I hope you are too!

INSTRUMENTALS NOW ON [UNTITLED]

Ever since the retirement of the Patreon Discord server, it's become harder for people who want to do covers or casually listen to the instrumentals to do so, because they need to have the Patreon client open. I'm making use of a new website and app called [untitled] to solve this problem!

[untitled] is a streaming service that anyone can upload to and anyone can save anything from for free. It has no ads (unlike SoundCloud), it's free and requires no account (unlike most streaming services) and is entirely independent, meaning there's no concerns about copyright law or sampling clearance issues. The sound is also lossless, and I've enabled downloads on this [untitled] project, meaning you can download the tracks and listen to them locally or record covers easily. I have completely fallen in love with this platform as a means to manage my unfinished music, and have been interested in getting into distributing my work on it. This isn't sponsored or anything, I just strongly believe in making my work as accessible as possible, and with SoundCloud becoming less relevant and major streaming platforms becoming more expensive and less ethical, I wanted to provide this alternative option. You can find the link to the project below which contains every instrumental currently released on the Patreon:

https://untitled.stream/library/project/cdl43UK5MgpLKYE8xgfiQ

(NOTE: Please do not share this link with anyone outside of the Patreon. There is a "private" option on [untitled], but it's password-protected and is limited to only a couple uses per link. I'm making this public so it's easier for YOU GUYS to use, but if it leaks out, I'll have to change it. Thanks!)

It will be updated as new instrumentals are added. As I said before, you don't need an account to listen and it's free, but you can make an account for free and save the project to your dashboard for easy access. Updates are automatic and an account also allows you to save any other project from any other {untitled] user as well as making your own. If you are into the unreleased music community, this is an incredible and convenient way to stream these songs. There are numerous ways to find new projects to save and listen to a google search away. I am currently working on one of these with a complete archive of every battle I've ever made, which I will be releasing publicly. Also, the instrumentals will continue being posted on the Patreon client itself if you prefer. This is just a new option for you if you prefer!

The last things I want to touch on briefly are my two "big projects". Yes - I said two. I have hinted various times in regular conversation about a "big project" I'm working on, and while these are both far away from release and not ready to announce, I wanted to give you guys the first look. Take this more as a "here's what I'm currently working on" than a "this is coming out exactly as advertised. Enjoy!

BIG PROJECT 1 - THE ALBUM

I love music. I'm always listening to new music, and following album rollouts from artists I'm invested in. It's such a fun way to engage with a likeminded community and appreciate the art in a shared way that is very special to me. I have tried to get an AvA album off the ground a couple of times, but plans have fallen through for various reasons over the years. I technically released a compilation album in 2020 called "The Obsidian Collection" to streaming services, but that was just a collection of existing battles in a new package. No, I wanted to make a fully original, concept album. I wanted to bring the excitement of a mainstream album rollout to the rap battle audience. And so, in Summer of 2023, I began working on ENTER SUBSPACE.

ENTER SUBSPACE is a concept album about a lost wanderer in Scott Pilgrim's subspace tunnels. Each door the wanderer finds leads to a new world - a world where characters from different media crossover and... rap battle each other? The wanderer, curious, observes the phenomenon. After each battle is finished, a new door reveals itself, and the wanderer heads through the door, desperate to return home, into a new world with a new crossover and a new battle.

You are the subspace wanderer.

Snow White vs Ramona Flowers and Invader Zim vs Alien Hominid vs Among Us are part of this album. Several other codename battles, like ZEPP, will also debut on here. The album is entirely brand new, original battles. It will be roughly 10-12 tracks in length and somewhere between 30-40 minutes in runtime. Every battle will receive a video shortly(*) after the album releases. It will come out on streaming, and I will be doing a very limited run of CD and Vinyl for it too.

(* I want every video from the album out in under a year after the album's release. It will launch with a video on the same day, and I will likely do weekly battles or some kind of schedule for the first little bit to promote the album.)

So, turns out, making an album is like, really hard, and takes a really long time, and costs an absurd amount of money. Which is why so many of these projects you've seen discussed and teased seemingly have been in the works for a while but you know very little about them. They're being saved for this! I assembled a small army of producers and have been working on a couple dozen projects since summer of 2023 that I am currently in the process of whittling down to a final, cohesive and consistent tracklist. Scott Pilgrim genuinely changed my life and I felt like doing one battle wasn't enough. I was inspired, and ever since this concept emerged, it hasn't left my brain. There's still a fair bit of work to be done on the album, but it's far along enough that I am pretty confident it will happen. This is probably a 2026 deal, but not a late 2026 deal. Working on this album is why CH. II was cut short, it's why CH. III has been so slow going, and it's why there seem to be a huge backlog of battles I've been teasing that haven't surfaced. And yes, every battle from this album is also an official part of CH. III. This means a LOT to me and I cannot wait to share more with you, and the rest of the audience, when the time comes. In the meantime, please wait a little longer and enjoy the projects being released to fill the gap.

BIG PROJECT 2 - THE PILOT

I'm making a show! ....kind of.

This year, I drafted a concept for an original series using the Effarby character. I have since partnered with a close personal friend to begin making this a reality. Now, it won't be a professional, fully animated pilot of a TV show - instead, we're making a stylized animatic, with an anthology format. The "pilot" will be a collection of the first 5-10 minute-long mini-episodes, which will be uploaded to YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels separately. This is a pretty new development, and is not a priority over the other stuff I've talked about, but it is an exciting new prospect for the channel and one I am committed to as a joint venture with my friend. Which friend, you may ask? Well, you'll have to wait and see!

I don't have a timeframe for this, but it has already started development, and we are very excited about it. I will save details for later, but there is one thing I want to show off here....

You all know Effarby the Beaver by now. He's my new channel mascot, and has been accepted by most people with loving arms. I am making his character a big part of my branding, and am already extremely attached to the little guy and his design. He makes cameos in all the new battles (did you catch him in the last two?) and will probably be the subject of a merchandise line down the road. However, if I'm making a show, I need more than just one character. When we designed Effarby, I had plans for a complementary character and their rough backstory and connection to Effarby, but we didn't finalize anything because they had no immediate purpose. But with the advent of the series, the character has become necessary, and has been finally brought to life and fleshed out. So, I would like you all to meet...

Ava the Otter!

Ava is Effarby's chatterbox roommate. Her seemingly endless well of energy and enthusiasm is both incessantly annoying and oddly comforting to the quiet, temperamental Effarby. While an odd pairing on the surface, Effarby and Ava are good friends who learn a lot from each other, and the series centers around their dynamic and the slice-of-life misadventures that follow. I hope you learn to love her as much as I do!!!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I've been making battles since I was 12 years old, and while I am endlessly grateful and extremely happy with the meteoric growth of the channel in the past year, I am also very intimidated by it, and since I'm more or less finished with school entirely now, I am both very excited and extremely anxious about the prospect of doing it full-time. But I love what I do, more than I could possibly explain with words. And I owe it to all of you who have supported me so intensely over the years to give it a try.

Friends have helped me realize this year I am so brutally hard on myself all the time, and a large part of the mental health difficulties I've been battling this year comes from grappling with this very decision and the idea that I'm not good enough, that I'll never make it work, or that I don't deserve what I've built. I was an aggressively overconfident kid and while I'm glad adulthood has humbled me and forced me to chill out a lot, I'm experiencing things like impostor syndrome for the first time, and wow, this sucks. But through incredible, continued support from friends, and encouragement from people like you guys, I know I want to try. I want to face the uncertainty and the doubt with courage. Hopefully, I will come out on the other end a more complete, well-rounded creator, as well as a more self-assured and happy person.

See you in August!

-Eddie