Rocket League Championship Series

Last updated

Rocket League Championship Series
RLCS logo.svg
Genre Rocket League tournament
Location(s)Various
Years active2016–present
InauguratedSeason 1 (2016)
Most recent2024
ParticipantsVarious throughout season
World Championship: 16
Organized by Psyonix (2016–2023)
Blast ApS (2024–present)
Website esports.rocketleague.com

The Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) is an annual Rocket League esports tournament series produced by Blast ApS and endorsed by Psyonix, the game's developer. It consists of two online qualification splits in several regions, with teams earning points towards qualifying for midseason tournaments known as Majors and the Rocket League World Championship, both of which are held as LAN events worldwide.

Contents

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 Cameron Bills, Brandon Lachin, and Ted Keil of 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 Mark Exton, Francesco Cinquemani, and Marius Ranheim of 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 season was won by Evan Rogez, Enzo Grondein, and Alexandre Paoli of 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. This season was won by Zen, Alpha54, and Radosin of Team Vitality, beating Team BDS in the grand finals 4-0 after they completely swept the Spring split, winning the EU Open, Cup and Invitational for the split as well as the Spring Major. [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 will see 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 will be 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 will feature the Swiss and knockout stages from open qualifying and award additional points. The combined standings will decide who advances to the World Championship, which will be 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 Seikoo, Itachi, and Juicy of Gentlemates Alpine. The second was won by Atomic, Beastmode, and Daniel of G2 Stride, the first All-American team to win an RLCS LAN. season was won by M0nkey M00n, ExoTiiK, and dralii of Team BDS, beating G2 Stride in the grand finals 4-2 - a recreation of the RLCS 2021-22 grand finals, which took place in the same venue. G2 Stride was also the first RLCS team to have reached every LAN event final in an RLCS season.

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 that lives alongside the traditional 3v3 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]

Seasons

SeasonDatesFinals LocationTeamChampions
1April – August 2016 Los Angeles iBUYPOWER Cosmic [16] Kronovi, Lachinio, 0ver Zer0
2October – December 2016 Amsterdam Flipside Tactics [17] Markydooda,

kuxir97, gReazymeister

3April – June 2017 Los Angeles Northern Gaming [18] remkoe, Deevo, Turbopolsa
4September – November 2017 Washington, D.C. Gale Force eSports [19] Kaydop, Turbopolsa, ViolentPanda
5March – June 2018 London Dignitas [20] Kaydop, Turbopolsa,

ViolentPanda

6September – November 2018 Las Vegas Cloud9 [21] SquishyMuffinz,

Torment, Gimmick

7April – June 2019 Newark Renault Vitality [22] Fairy Peak!, Scrub Killa, Kaydop
8October – December 2019 Madrid NRG Esports [23] GarrettG, jstn., Turbopolsa
9February – April 2020 Dallas Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with regional champions crowned instead.
XAugust 2020 – June 2021
2021–22October 2021 – August 2022 Fort Worth Team BDS  [ fr ] [24] M0nkey M00n, Seikoo, Extra
2022–23October 2022 – August 2023 Düsseldorf Team Vitality [25] Alpha54, Radosin, zen
2024January – September 2024 Fort Worth Team BDSM0nkey M00n, dralii, ExoTiiK

Notes

    Related Research Articles

    Mouz, formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its CS:GO team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. MOUZ's League of Legends team currently competes in the ESL Pro Series, having formerly competed in the European Challenger Series.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper Box Arena</span> Indoor multi-sport venue in London, England

    The Copper Box Arena is a multi-sport venue built for the 2012 Summer Olympics, located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England.

    <i>League of Legends</i> World Championship Esports tournament

    The League of Legends World Championship is the annual professional League of Legends world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games and is the culmination of each season. Teams compete for the champion title, the 44-pound (20-kilogram) Summoner's Cup, and a multi-million-dollar championship prize. In 2018, the final was watched by 99.6 million people, breaking 2017's final's viewer record. The tournament has been praised for its ceremonial performances, while receiving attention worldwide due to its dramatic and emotional nature.

    The FIFAe World Cup, formerly the FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC) and the FIFA eWorld Cup, is an esports tournament series held by FIFA. From its inception until 2023, the tournaments were held on the latest incarnation of the FIFA association football video game series. The open qualifying format for the tournament allowed millions to compete in the initial online stages, which resulted in the FIWC being recognized as the largest online esports game by Guinness World Records. Due to FIFA and EA Sports parting ways after the release of FIFA 23 and EA launching their own esports circuit known as EA Sports FC Pro for the EA Sports FC series, the FIFAe World Cup has shifted to a football-focused tournament series, with Football Manager and Rocket League having tournaments in 2024.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud9</span> American esports organization

    Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional League of Legends team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 and was incorporated into Cloud9 Esports, Inc. on September 6, 2016. Cloud9 has received US$78 million in total raised equity via venture capital funding and was ranked the world's fifth-most valuable esports organization in mid-2022.

    <i>Rocket League</i> 2015 video game

    Rocket League is a vehicular soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix. The game was first released for PlayStation 4 and Windows in July 2015, with ports for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch being released later on. Rocket League was available on Steam for Windows players and the PlayStation Store for PlayStation 4 players. In June 2016, 505 Games began distributing a physical retail version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment taking over those duties by the end of 2017. Versions for macOS and Linux were also released in 2016, but support for their online services was dropped in 2020. Epic Games acquired Psyonix in 2019 and made the game free-to-play in September 2020.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">G2 Esports</span> European professional esports organisation

    G2 Esports is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in League of Legends, Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, Hearthstone, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, Fortnite, and iRacing. The organization was founded in Spain on 24 February 2014 as Gamers2 by former League of Legends pro Carlos "ocelote" Rodríguez Santiago and investor Jens Hilgers. The organization rebranded as G2 Esports on 15 October 2015.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Splyce</span> Former esports organization and media company

    Splyce (SPY) was a professional esports organization and media company based in Rochester, New York. Their League of Legends team was a franchise member of the LEC, Europe's top professional league for League of Legends. Splyce announced its rebranding from Follow eSports in November 2015. On November 29, 2019, Splyce's parent company, OverActive Media, announced it had merged Splyce with its other esports subsidiary, MAD Lions, and that all of Splyce's teams would henceforth compete under that name.

    NRG Esports is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. It has rosters in League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, Apex Legends and a number of streamers on the internet platform Twitch.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Mid-Season Invitational</span> Annual League of Legends tournament

    The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is an annual League of Legends international tournament hosted by Riot Games in the middle of years, since 2015. It is the second most important international League of Legends tournament aside from the World Championship.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Team Vitality</span> French esports organisation

    Team Vitality, or simply Vitality, is a French esport club founded in 2013 by Fabien "Neo" Devide, Nicolas Maurer, Corentin "Gotaga" Houssein, and Kevin "BrokyBrawks" Georges.

    FlyQuest is a professional esports organization based in the United States that was founded on January 6, 2017. It is owned by the Viola family, owners of the Florida Panthers.

    <i>League of Legends</i> in esports

    League of Legends esports is the professional competition of the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It is developed and published by Riot Games and was first released in 2009.

    List of esports events in 2019.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Turbopolsa</span> Swedish professional Rocket League player

    Pierre Silfver, also known as Turbopolsa, is a Swedish former professional Rocket League player.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Overwatch League season</span> Sports season

    The 2022 Overwatch League season was the fifth season of the Overwatch League (OWL), a professional esports league. Contrasted to the first four seasons, which was played on the video game Overwatch, the season was played on an early build of Overwatch 2. The regular season began on May 5, 2022, and ended on October 22. The playoffs were played at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, beginning on October 30, and concluded with the Grand Finals on November 4. The Dallas Fuel won the Grand Finals over the San Francisco Shock to win their first OWL championship.

    <i>Apex Legends</i> Global Series Professional esports league

    The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) is a global competitive esports tournament series for the video game Apex Legends run by Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment. The series uses a promotion and relegation system throughout each season, culminating in the ALGS Championship. The ALGS was announced in 2019, with its inaugural season taking place in 2020–21.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Furia Esports</span> Brazilian esports organization

    Furia Esports is a Brazilian professional esports organization. Furia competes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rocket League, League of Legends, Valorant, Rainbow Six: Siege, Apex Legends and Super Smash Bros.

    This topic lists the esports events for the 2024 year.

    References

    1. Hussain, Tamoor (February 15, 2016). "Rocket League Dev Explains New Esports Drive". GameSpot . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
    2. Makuch, Eddie (March 2, 2016). "Rocket League Pro League Announced, Offers $75,000 in Prizes". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
    3. Lemmon, Kyle. "Introducing the Rocket League Championship Series". Rocket League. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
    4. Faletti, Ian. "NRG Tactics conquer RLCS Season 2 grand finals". ESPN. Archived from the original on December 7, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
    5. Minotti, Mike (February 7, 2017). "Rocket League Championship Series season 3 will have a $300,000 prize pool". Venture Beat . Archived from the original on February 7, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
    6. "Introducing RLCS Season 6". rocketleagueesports.com. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
    7. Nowakowski, Ian (January 29, 2019). "Introducing RLCS Season 7". Rocket League . Retrieved February 18, 2019.
    8. Ocal, Arda. "RLCS championship canceled due to coronavirus outbreak". ESPN. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
    9. Jones, Alistair. "Rocket League Overhauls Its Entire Esports Structure". Kotaku. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
    10. "Announcing the RLCS 2021–22 Season". Rocket League Esports. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
    11. "RLCS 2022-23 Season Information and Sign-Ups". Rocket League Esports. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
    12. "Community Events Take Over the RLCS Offseason". Rocket League Esports. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
    13. "The RLCS Returns for 2024!". Rocket League Esports. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
    14. "BLAST to operate the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) and the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) in expanded multi-year deal". News Powered by Cision. January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
    15. "Rocket League announces new RLCS format for 2025". Esports Insider. September 16, 2024. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
    16. Faletti, Ian. "A chat with Season 1 champions 617 Cosmic". ESPN. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
    17. Faletti, Ian. "Eclipse Tactics conquer RLCS Season 2 grand finals". ESPN. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
    18. Hayward, Andrew. "Bizarre Gaming on Their RLCS Win and What's Next". Red Bull. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
    19. Parker, Max. "Gale Force's RLCS win marks new era in Rocket League supremacy". post-gazette.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
    20. Mejia, Ozzie. "Team Dignitas Wins Rocket League Season 5 Championship After Wild Final Flurry". Shacknews. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
    21. Mejia, Ozzie. "Cloud9 shocks Team Dignitas to win Rocket League Season 6 Championship". Shacknews. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
    22. Mejia, Ozzie. "Renault Vitality wins Rocket League Season 7 Championship". Shacknews. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
    23. Mejia, Ozzie. "NRG Esports wins Rocket League Season 8 Championship". Shacknews. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
    24. Bencomo, Brian. "Team BDS win RLCS 2021-22 World Championship". Nerd Street. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
    25. Marsh, Jack. "Team Vitality win RLCS World Championships 22-23". GGRecon. Retrieved August 13, 2023.