Riptide

**Riptide Aquatic Works** is a "returning" team from the rookie years of Super Modified with a vendetta against Orca Advancements. The "original" aquatic based team of the league, **Riptide** was partly responsible for professional experimental teams and has a major stake in Super Modified's current existence as a whole. Despite the much lower budget, **Riptide** has created something monstrous: an agile, high damage craft with incredibly poor shields.

## Important People

### Key Figures

Terada Fischer (Race Engineer)Akio Sumuru (Mechanic)

### Known Drivers

Siruyo Huidon (#1 Driver)Darius Cabrino (#2 Driver)

## History

Riptide Aquatic Works hails from Japan and was established in 2002 as a specialized powerboat company, originally starting as a race boat tuning company that focused on making some of the fastest watercraft on the eastern side of the world. A top end tuning company with a large fanbase, Riptide decided it was time to move into producing their own powerboats with their experience. Starting production in 2010, using some older models from defunct companies as their base, Riptide built themselves up from just a tuning company for other companies into a respected and beloved race boat company, with some of the fastest and strongest sport boats available at time, rivaling Orca Advancements' offerings when they merged in 2016. Attempting to buy out this company but failing, Riptide and Orca had a public falling out that ended with bitter hostility between the 2 companies, with an attempted hostile takeover of Riptide at one point during 2026. Surviving this attempt, however, Riptide had much larger problems to worry about at that point, with the waning popularity of aquatic racing and rising of experimental racing leagues, they had decided to bring some of their expertise to the land stage while still keeping the soul of the "cutting edge aquatic racers" they produce in order to keep the company afloat.

Originally starting out in low level cup racing, they tended to get banned from these cups for unregulated new technology. Though their trials of each piece of tech should have deemed them legal, Riptide was still banned from numerous different small leagues until the advent of Super Modified in 2032, where they joined immediately as a foreign team. Creating friends with another team that joined shortly after, sharing small information about what technology they used, Riptide finally found their place as a Super Modified competitor. With their vehicles having all around strength due to their experience with powerboats translating into aerodynamics and internal combustion engines, Riptide was a consistent top finisher in most events, but couldn't match up to the only other professional level team on the tight and technical circuits of Super Modified's past. However, this peace would soon be cut off in 2037, when their old rivals, Orca Advancements, joined the fray and won their first championship in the same year due to the change in venues.

Once again, Orca attacked Riptide, but this time, it put them out of commission for what seemed to be permanently. Stealing their technology and vehicles and with no more funding available, Riptide was put out of the game for quite a long time, with the company declaring bankruptcy in 2040 and never being heard from again. During this time however, Mikodo, the founder of Riptide-AW, was simply biding his time and figuring out a way to get back into the league, if only for a single season to ruin Orca's financials. Watching over the events that transpired during 2041, he came up with a shrewd plan to weaponize their crafts, by asking Markza for arms since they had been friendly with each other before. Knowing that at some point, they'd get back into the league, Markza accepted the request, sending them their best weapons and ample funding to research and build their vehicles. Returning to form, Mikodo and his team reopened Riptide-AW, but only as a name; the team was now solely dedicated to landcar racing, and revenge on Orca in particular.

Riptide's vehicles were built to old specifications, but were somewhat hindered by the weapon and shield systems. Choosing to compromise on their shields took them back to their generally fast state, but they were also now aware that these vehicles could easily be eliminated. As such, even with their modest budget, they had to train a team specifically oriented towards these vehicles, even recruiting a former legendary South Korean street racer as their race engineer, and a former Markza mechanic who they willingly referred to swap teams with to during their recruitment stage in 2056. After 17 years, the team was trained and drilled in well, and they chose to make their surprise re-debut in 2058, to the awe of old fans and even some of the star drivers.

Though they've been out of the game for a while, Riptide is here to finally rip through the pack and get to Orca in particular, their vehicles now bred to hunt the "Apex Predators" of the league.

## Super Modified Info

> *"A longstanding watercraft company who was nearly put out of business by Orca Advancements' near monopolization of aquatic vehicle research, Riptide-AW is here to show that Orca is still wet behind the ears with cars specifically meant to take out Orca's racers. Incredibly powerful weapons with high handling and acceleration akin to Markza, but even more speed to keep up with the self proclaimed "Apex Predators" of the league, these vehicles can hold their own as long as no one else happens to fire at them."*
>
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- Super Modified Game Guide

Riptide are an exceptionally dangerous and fast team with one major drawback: poor shielding. While they share traits with Markza, they play completely differently, with Markza's agility and better shields allowing for more aggressive play while Riptide's balance allows it to keep up and deal damage while hanging behind. This balance is preferable in many scenarios, but the awful defensive capabilites that this team has make it dangerous to play aggressive without accidentally eliminating yourself. Focus on staying alive and dealing damage, and you'll tear through whoever's in your way quite quickly.

## Team Stats

### Strategy

* Be wary of weapons, even from weaker teams. These can still put quite a dent in your plans, and your shield energy as well.
* Try and stay back, keep hitting shots and eliminate from the back to keep your threats in front minimal as you go for a mad dash to the finish.
* Your car is quite agile, take advantage of it and turn your low shield into an advantage by baiting them into rear facing weapons.

## 2058 Background

*An icon of the old years of Super Modified, Riptide-AW was the original aquatic-based team and one of the fastest and most innovative teams in the league, though an unfortunate incident with an unknown organization led them to losing everything.*

*Returning to the league after a 17 year hiatus, Riptide is here to show that old dogs can still learn new tricks with their old school track-based builds that have incredible weapon power.*

## 2058 Message

**Terada Fischer, Riptide-AW Twitter, April 20th, 2058**

"We're back. Stronger, faster, and deadlier, we are BACK. We don't have much to say right now, as we don't have many issues with other racers. However, Orca? You're toast."

"Also, hi, Dal-Rae."

## Gallery

Riptide's Huracan, used in the Super Modified Class.
## Trivia

* Riptide was the final team developed for Super Modified, and the only team to have retroactive presence in the story.