Rocket League players are in the grip of Spring Fever! The latest limited time event debuts a new limited currency in flowers, new and colourful items, crates and the chance to pick up more crate decryptors. Spring Fever lasts until 9 April, while on 3 April the Tournaments Update arrives, finally bringing custom tournament functionality and of course, another crate full of items. Find out more about tournaments here.
If you prefer competitive to crates, season five of the Rocket League Championship Series began this weekend, marking the return of the premier competitive stage in Rocket League esports. With a $500,000 USD prize pool (plus another $50,000 USD for the second tier Rival Series) contested over three regions, culminating in a ten team World Championship LAN to decide the best of the best. Defending champions Gale Force will be hot favourites once more, but North America is closing the gap to Europe fast, while Oceania has proven more than capable of matching it with the rest of the world themselves.
In Oceania, the Throwdown OCE Championship saw all teams in action, with none of these horrible bye weeks like the RLCS. In the opener Love Decks proved hard work for Chiefs, who required a two goal comeback and game five overtime (though only seven seconds of it) to edge the Kiwi qualifiers. Love Decks couldn’t back that effort up against Dark Sided, who took a comfortable but hardly easy 3-1 series win against the Decks.
[#RL] @Addzeyy nails the redirect off the back wall on the tightest of angles! Great pass by @MontyConnor
LIVE 🔴 https://t.co/ax7dBPod6j pic.twitter.com/QX4RBAYTj6
— Throwdown Esports (@ThrowdownTV) March 18, 2018
Legs Are Silly had an unhappy league debut, winning one game in a series loss to Dark Sided then being outclassed by their Legacy org replacements in a sweep. Legacy backed up with a series win against Retirement Home, notable for an epic eight minute overtime where Daze sealed Retirement Home’s only win of the day. Legacy were easily the most impressive squad in week one, Delusion taking home player of the week honours in his Throwdown championship debut. Will this be the season that Cyrix and co. finally break the curse and qualify for LAN? The early signs are good for Legacy.
[#RL] @delusionRL fakes the shot and slips under the ball to bump the last defender, allowing @SikiRL_ to double their lead
LIVE 🔴 https://t.co/ax7dBPod6j pic.twitter.com/qnFYmF4q2W
— Throwdown Esports (@ThrowdownTV) March 18, 2018
In the final clash Tainted Minds were swept by JAM Gaming, not so much a surprise in the result (though Tainted Minds were favourites) but the manner of it, JAM scoring early goals and dominating games two and three to announce themselves as serious contenders for the top four. It doesn’t get any easier for JAM next week with a Dark Sided and Chiefs double header, but wins or even a split in those fixtures will really shake up what many predicted would be a top four/bottom four scenario.
North America saw Out of Style make a tough Championship Series debut, dropping series to NRG and Evil Geniuses but managing to take a game in each. It will be the uphill battle that most predicted for them to avoid the relegation tournament this season. Ghost Gaming also went zero for two in their series, but they were far more competitive across the board in losing to the revamped NRG and the defending champions Cloud9, and gave both North American titans a scare by taking series leads before falling short. Matt had a big day on debut for Ghost, twice putting on zero hero goals against Cloud9 to win or tie a game.
THE LAST SECOND STEAL! @rl_matt locks in a crucial game 1 victory!#RLCShttps://t.co/PpKjSDWZR1 pic.twitter.com/EojzqJtFW8
— Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) March 17, 2018
It was an even better debut for last season’s Rival Series killer Jstn, who took player of the week honours as NRG took both series on the day. Evil Geniuses joined NRG in the undefeated ranks thanks to a tight 3-2 win over Counter Logic. Next week we see the much awaited return of G2 and Jacob’s debut for Rogue, while Counter Logic and Ghost get double shots at redemption for week one losses.
Our @OldSpice player of the week is none other than @Its_JSTN from @NRGgg!
What a show from his #RLCS debut!https://t.co/PpKjSDWZR1 pic.twitter.com/yibUgZkFux
— Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) March 17, 2018
It took only one series for Europe to live up to its reputation for crazy results, as the largely dismissed Excel squad did a number on the highly regarded PSG. Flipside Tactics couldn’t get anything going against an impressive Complexity roster, going down in a sweep, so naturally they came through and did an equally impressive demolition job on Excel later in the day to give us absolutely no clarity on who are the contenders and who the pretenders in Europe this season.
The other two series on the day were far closer affairs, PSG getting some redemption on the day with a five game series win over Team Envy, while in the series of the weekend Vitality overcame Complexity in game five overtime. Both teams looked a class above the competition in this series, Freakii and player of the week Fairy Peak both coming up big in clutch moments for Vitality while an unfortunate read that conceded the series sealing goal shouldn’t overshadow some of the awesome defensive work of Metsanauris. Both will be there at the pointy end of the season five World Championship if they continue to play at this level.
Turns out @FairyyPeak is also INSANE!
It's game 5 time!#RLCShttps://t.co/PpKjSDWZR1 pic.twitter.com/kJmruvOXGz
— Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) March 18, 2018
Next week will see the return of the defending World Champions Gale Force along with the long awaited RLCS debut of Fnatic. Going by their efforts this week, Vitality will be a team to watch as they double up against Excel and PSG.
In the Rival Series the biggest surprise was the disastrous start for Team Dignitas, the undefeated Fibeon roster from last season dropped series to both The D00ds and Flyquest in North America, winning only a single game in the process. It puts them in a position where sweeping the rest of their schedule may still leave them relying on other results to make the promotion playoff. They did lose every game by only a single goal, but close losses are losses all the same at the end of the day. In Europe, Team Secret started their redemption tour in style, sweeping through both Zebra Nose and Triple Trouble.
It’s great to have RLCS back, with a fresh coat of paint on the presentation as Psyonix takes on production themselves after partnering with Twitch for the first few seasons. One cost of this move has been the always entertaining weekly magazine show Overtime, but the Rival Series production no longer looks and sounds like it is filmed using potatoes, so take the good with the bad. We’re on our way to finding the fifth Rocket League world champions, start spamming quick chat and enjoy the ride.
Series of the Week
Week two games to watch
- North America: Ghost vs Rogue, 6AM Sunday
Europe: PSG vs Vitality, 6AM Monday
Oceania: JAM Gaming vs Dark Sided, 2PM Sunday
Rivals: Flyquest vs Splyce, 10AM Saturday
Catch all the action on the Rocket League Twitch channel for Europe and North America. Hit up Throwdown Esports on Twitch for Oceania.
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