History
Psyonix had observed the popularity of Rocket League matches on Twitch and other live streaming platforms like YouTube by early 2016 and were looking to use the game more in Esports. [1] In March 2016, Psyonix announced the first Rocket League Championship Series; the finals took place in June 2016 with a US$55,000 prize pool, and was won by iBUYPOWER Cosmic. [2] [3] The second season of the championship series took place in December 2016 with a $125,000 prize pool, and was won by FlipSid3 Tactics. [4] A third series began in March 2017, with the $300,000 prize pool finals taking place three months later. In this season, two teams from the oceanic region were also invited to compete. [5]
A second division, the Rocket League Rival Series (RLRS), was added in Season 4. The two teams finishing at the bottom of the RLCS and the two teams finishing at the top of the RLRS for each region play each other in a promotion tournament at the end of the season to determine if teams are promoted or relegated. At the advent of Season 5 in June 2018, Psyonix organised and managed the event alone. Previous to this, they partnered with Twitch. Season 6 started in September 2018 and featured a $1,000,000 prize pool. [6] For Season 7, Psyonix introduced South America as a new region. [7] Season 8 took place in December 2019. The Season 9 championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with winners of the regional championships being considered the champions. [8] In July 2020, Psyonix announced a new format for the tenth season of RLCS, known as RLCS X. This format did away with league play and the RLRS in favor of teams earning points through three regional splits, all culminating in three seasonal majors. [9]
The 2021–22 season began in October 2021, bringing in four new regions (Middle East and North Africa, Asia Pacific North, Asia Pacific South, and Sub-Saharan Africa), a more reliable circuit similar to Season X, and a $6 million prize pool. The new circuit consisted of 3 splits, containing 3 regionals and 1 international LAN major each, culminating in a World Championship to finish the season. The Majors were won by Team BDS, G2 Esports and Moist Esports. The season was won by Team BDS. [10]
For the 2022–23 season Asia Pacific North and Asia Pacific South were combined into a single region with point totals being lowered and each regional event being called the Open, Cup and invitational. The Majors were won by Gen.G, Karmine Corp and Team Vitality, the latter of which would go on to win the World Championship. [11]
Unlike the past two seasons, there was a considerably longer offseason after 2022–23 accompanying the removal of one of the splits, meaning that the 13th season of the RLCS wouldn't begin until January 26, 2024. [12] [13] The 2024 season saw the removal of the Open, Cup and Invitational system for each region in favor of three new open qualifying stages, those being a double-elimination qualifying bracket, a Swiss-system tournament featuring the top 16 from open qualifying and a knockout stage featuring the top 8 from the Swiss stage. This open qualifying cycle is repeated three times per split, awarding RLCS points after each stage, before the top teams in RLCS points in each region from those stages advance to that split's Major, which features the Swiss and knockout stages from open qualifying and award additional points. The combined standings decides who advances to the World Championship, which was reduced from 24 to 16 teams in the process using the same format as the Majors.
On January 4, 2024, it was announced that Blast ApS, a tournament organizer known for the Blast Premier circuit in Counter-Strike as well as organizing the esports circuit for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege , would take over from Psyonix as organizer for the RLCS in 2024, having previously run the Fortnite Champion Series (Previously run by Psyonix's parent company Epic Games) since 2022. [14]
The first major of the RLCS 2024 season was won by Gentlemates Alpine, with the second won by G2 Stride. The season was won by Team BDS. Towards the end of the RLCS 2024 World Championship, it was announced that RLCS would return for the 2025 season in January, with a total prize pool of $5,000,000, the addition of a 1v1 tournament, and changes to the 3v3 tournament which include the addition of a last chance open qualifiers tournament between Major 2 and the World Championship, and expanding the World Championship to 20 teams. [15]
The 2025 season uses 2 Swiss groups, 16 teams in each. Top 8 of each group advance to the GSL stage. 2 groups of 8, 4 advance to the hybrid elimination bracket. This format is used for Opens and the World Championship, but Worlds doesn't use the Swiss groups and uses a GSL bracket for the Play-ins. Before the Swiss groups, there is a double elimination bracket and top 32 qualify for the Swiss groups (24 in Open 2, 3, 5 and 6 as top 8 of the last Open automatically qualify for the Swiss groups). Majors use 1 16 team Swiss stage, in which top 8 qualify for the hybrid elimination bracket.
The first major of the season was won by Karmine Corp. The major also debuted the RLCS 1v1 event, which was won by France's Axel "Mawkzy" Timone, defeating Brazil's Yan "yanxnz" Xisto Nolasco 4–3. Mawkzy will compete at the RLCS World Championship at Lyon-Décines in September. [16] The second major of the season was won by Team Falcons and marked the Middle East's first RLCS international title since their introduction to the league in 2021. [17] The Middle East is, to date, the only region outside North America or Europe that have won an RLCS international event. The second major's RLCS 1v1 final also saw Saudi Arabia's Hisham "Nwpo" Alqadi defeat Brazil's João "diaz" Henrique 4–1 to qualify for the 1v1 World Championship, where he faced Mawkzy for the title of RLCS's first 1v1 World Champion, and won 4–1 in the Grand Final. [18] Also in the 2025 World Championship was the 3v3 event, where NRG Esports won against Team Falcons in the Grand Final. [19]
The 2026 season will start on 14 November and end in September 2026. The all new Studio LAN in Copenhagen is set for 5–7 December and will feature the Open 1 top 6 of North America and Europe. 2v2 will also be added to the RLCS. [20]
The first Major of the season will take place in Boston from 19 to 22 February 2026. The qualification process will take place from 14 November 2025 to 8 February 2026. [21]
The second Major of the season will take place in Paris from 20 to 24 May 2026. The qualification process will take place from 13 March to 26 April 2026. [22]
2026 Rocket League Championship Series 
