Team Rivals

Team Rivals, is a reoccurring team in The King of Fighters series.

=Description= Team Rivals is one of the many teams found in The King of Fighters. As the name implies, this team is created to act as rivals of the Hero Team, or against a specific character and/or team. The team is composed, in the most part, of characters who are important to some arc story or the game series. After (and during) each saga, the teams receive the following nomenclatures:


 * Orochi Saga: Team Yagami (KOF '95 and  '96) and Team Orochi (KOF '97) (rivals of Team Japan and Team Sacred Treasures, respectively; in KOF '95, this team rivals with the main protagonists of SNK's principal series);
 * NESTS Chronicles: Team NESTS (only in KOF 2001) (rivals of Team K');
 * Tales of Ash: Team Elisabeth (only in KOF XI and KOF XIII) (rivals of Team Ash, only in XI);
 * Shun'ei Saga: Team Official Invitation (only in KOF XIV) (rivals of Team Shun'ei).

=List of Members=

Orochi Saga

 * Iori Yagami (Kyo's rival) - Leader of Rivals Team in '95 until '98/UM.
 * Eiji Kisaragi (Ryo and Kyokungeryu's rival) - Member of Rivals Team in '95. Left the team in '96.
 * Billy Kane (Terry's second rival) - Member of Rivals Team in '95. Left the team in '96.
 * Mature - Member of Rivals Team in '96. Killed off and turned into undead after '96.
 * Vice - Member of Rivals Team in '96. Killed off and turned into undead after '96.
 * Yashiro Nanakase - Leader of Team Orochi (A.K.A. Team New Faces). Appears only in '97 (and in Dream Match games), and returned in XV.
 * Shermie - Member of Team Orochi (A.K.A. Team New Faces). Appears only in '97 (and in Dream Match games), and returned in XV.
 * Chris - Member of Team Orochi (A.K.A. Team New Faces). Appears only in '97 (and in Dream Match games), and returned in XV.
 * Orochi Yashiro - Leader of Team Awakened Orochi. His nickname is Parched Earth. Appears only in '97 (and in Dream Match games).
 * Orochi Shermie - Member of Team Awakened Orochi. Her nickname is Insanely Violent Lightning. Appears only in '97 (and in Dream Match games).
 * Orochi Chris - Member of Team Awakened Orochi. His nickname is Flames of Destiny. Appears only in '97 (and in Dream Match games).

NESTS Chronicles

 * Kula Diamond - Second Leader of Rivals Team in 2001 and 2002/UM.
 * Foxy - Member of Rivals Team in 2001 and 2002 UM.
 * K9999 - Member of Rivals Team in 2001 and 2002 (excluding UM update). Left the team after 2001.
 * Angel - Member of Rivals Team in 2001 and 2002 UM. Left the team after 2001.

Tales of Ash

 * Elisabeth Blanctorche - Third Leader of Rivals Team in XI and XIII.
 * Duo Lon - Member of Rivals Team in XI and XIII.
 * Benimaru Nikaido - Member of Rivals Team. Left the team in XIII.
 * Shen Woo - Member of Rivals Team. Appears only in XIII.

Shun'ei Saga

 * Sylvie Paula Paula - Fourth Leader of Rivals Team in XIV.
 * Kukri - Member of Rivals Team in XIV.
 * Mian - Member of Rivals Team in XIV.

=Members' Participation=

=Trivia=


 * This team won the tournaments of XI and XIII, with Elisabeth leading the team.
 * Most of the protagonist's main rivals are commonly debuted in their respective arc's second game. However, KOF XIV breaks the trend, with the character Kukri.
 * KOF XIV also breaks the trend of the main rival of the protagonist of the saga to be the leader of the Team Rivals. Kukri appears as the second member of the Official Invitation Team, the Rivals Team of this game.
 * Some members of this team, Iori (as Miss X) and Kukri are known for being the final bosses of respective all SNK crossover girls fighters' games: SNK Gals' Fighters and SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy. Beside, Miss X appears in SNK Heroines as a DLC character.
 * In XIII, the Team Elisabeth can be sometimes count as Tales of Ash's last Team Hero at a same time, due to Ash's purpose to go solo and his supposed villainous role, and Elisabeth being the last true main protagonist of the saga.
 * Benimaru Nikaido also appears as a member of Team Hero. He appears as a member of the Team Rivals only in the Tales of Ash saga.