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Rocket Surgery: The weekly Rocket League wrap (30/3)

30 Mar 2018
Stuart Gollan

Rocket League’s tournament update arrives next week, and while it shouldn’t (thankfully) have any impact on the ongoing RLCS season it will bring some improvements across the PC and console games. Switch owners will see a bump in resolution and the option to play in performance or quality mode, performance sacrificing resolution to run at a smooth 60fps while quality offering a better looking but 30fps experience. Video capture will also be enabled for Switch players.

Steps are also being taken to reduce toxicity in the Rocket League community, with chat ban tools being put in place that both automatically identify slurs and inappropriate language and act on player reports. Despite in-jokes the Rocket League scene hasn’t been too bad for toxicity beyond a whole lot of sarcastic use of the quick chat functions and the occasional Twitter or Discord beef, but for a game with such appeal to kids it is good to see a more regulated chat. Now if only they could do the same to Twitch chat (!rewards).

The final quality-of-life update coming on April 3 is more detailed connection issues reporting. Gone is the infamous “red triangle of death”, replaced with individual indicators for packet loss, high latency, latency variation and general server side issues. While many people just want the servers fixed entirely, this will at the least help people identify what is a genuine server issue and what may be a connection problem. That’s enough about updates, let’s get into the week’s RLCS action.

If I was ever going to resort to horrible cliches for headlines, this would be an ideal week to pull out “hail to the chiefs”. Luckily for us all I am above such shenanigans, and instead will retain my dignity and report that Oceania’s reigning champions were at their best, sweeping through two serious contenders in Tainted Minds and JAM Gaming. Chiefs continued to have an answer for everything Tainted Minds can throw at them, while JAM don’t yet have the team cohesion required to regularly crack such a long standing unit. JAM scored only one goal in the series, though Chiefs stellar defensive efforts were a big contributor to that stat.

It didn’t get any better for JAM next series, putting in a disappointing effort against Dark Sided where they conceded 17 goals in four games. It was a revenge series of sorts for Dark Sided, whose roster represented JAM Gaming through season four of RLCS, but the tough series against Chiefs could have played on the minds of JAM in this one. It was Dark Sided’s only series of the day but it was enough for Dumbo to take player of the week honours, having a hand in 14 of the team’s goals for the day will do that.

Tainted Minds had a better run of it in the non-Chiefs leg of their double header, sweeping Retirement Home after it took overtime to break a scoreless first match. Tainted Minds were scrappy but had enough to get their first series win on the board. Retirement Home went none-for on the day, also falling to Legs Are Silly in a reverse sweep in what felt and played out like a battle of the bottom two seeds. They both have upset potential but neither team looks coherent or consistent enough to challenge for a playoff position. Plitz had a big day for Legs Are Silly but there were some highlight reel plays from all three team members.

In the final series of the day poor old Love Decks completed their horror trifecta to start the season, falling to Legacy 3-1. They have now played each of the three undefeated teams so far in league play, and looked a lot better than their 0-3 record suggests. They now find themselves with a run of must-win games, and a slip to Legs Are Silly or Retirement Home will likely see them leapfrogged for that last playoff position. Legacy continued to look good, and their clash against Chiefs this Sunday could be an RLCS preview and will undoubtedly have ramifications in the race for an all important top two finish.

Throwdown and RLCS caster Yumi Cheeseman has been doing some excellent video wrap-ups of the weekly action, which you can check out below.

In North America the big story is Ghost Gaming who have now dropped to 0-4 after losing this week to Rogue and Evil Geniuses, two squads they were expected to beat. Evil Geniuses in particular had their number, dominating possession and giving Klassux victory in his revenge match following an unceremonious dumping from the Ghost squad. Last week was a series of tough but understandable losses for Ghost, this week it feels like they are in some real trouble.

Rogue had an impressive league play debut, new recruit Jacob fitting right in with his new squad as they bested Ghost and Counter Logic, Jacob taking player of the week honours for the region. His old squad NRG also continued their hot start, also beating Counter Logic and conceding only one goal in four games. The addition of attacking superstar Jstn has not come at a cost to the always impressive NRG defence, but next week will give us a better grasp of where they sit in the region as Jacob gets his own revenge match with Rogue, while an NRG v G2 battle closes out the round.

In the final series of the week G2 made their league play debut for season five, needing a two goal comeback and game five overtime to put an impressive Evil Geniuses squad away. After two weeks EG and Ghost are the only squads to have played four games, EG all but assured a top six finish thanks to three wins, while Ghost will need an unlikely sweep of their remaining draw to assure themselves a chance to return to the World Championship. A loss to G2 this weekend will take their fate from their hands.

A touch of normalcy returned to Europe this weekend, as results largely went with the favourites. Vitality backed up their impressive debut last weekend with a big series win over PSG and a more expected victory against Excel. Excel played Vitality close but were outclassed in the end, Freakii in particular stepped up and gave Vitality their second player of the week award for the season.

While PSG dropped a hard fought series to Vitality, their win over Flipside was scratchy by their high standards. PSG were an overtime goal away from a sweep before requiring an awkward game five overtime goal to take the series. It leaves PSG with a 2-2 record, by no means in danger at this stage but the dominant squad of season four has certainly come back to the pack. Miztik was strong for Flipside but they did fall to 1-2, their double header this weekend against Envy and Fnatic will determine whether they are playing for a spot in the World Championship or defending their RLCS position come seasons end.

Speaking of Fnatic, their RLCS return nearly went pear shaped as they dropped their opening two games to Excel before rallying a game three overtime win into a crushing reverse sweep. The former Leftovers couldn’t carry that momentum into what was always going to be a tough series against Gale Force, going down in four games to the defending world champions. After a slow start to their season four campaign, Gale Force hit the ground running this time around and alongside Vitality are the well deserved early favourites for the European championship.

In Rival Series action we are slowly seeing contenders and pretenders emerge. Triple Trouble had a big week in Europe, putting a beating on The Juicy Kids and knocking over Method. They, Servette and Team Secret are the early favourites. Servette took a huge 3-2 series win over Team Secret in their midweek match, sealed for Servette by an incredible, clutch solo play from Skyline that you absolutely have to see:

The biggest surprise is in North America, where preseason favourites Splyce and Dignitas are both sitting at 0-2 and will likely need to sweep their remaining draw to make the top two playoff. Flyquest are proving to be the team to beat, knocking off Allegiance and Splyce this week while Spacestation also made a successful debut, beating Splyce in five games. Spacestation’s double header against Flyquest and Dignitas next week will be crucial to settling the pecking order in NA.

In non-RLCS action, Gfinity Australia begins its Elite Draft Showcase this weekend, a four week exhibition series designed for the non-affiliated Rocket League qualifiers to show their skills off before the Gfinity draft. Each of the six Gfinity franchises must draft at least one player from this group so there is plenty of incentive for these players to bring their A-game. It starts Saturday at 4PM on the Gfinity Twitch channel. The Australian Esports League University Cup is also expected to start this week, though scheduling and team makeup is not available at time of writing.

Series to Watch

Note: Daylight savings in Australia ends Sunday morning, so my apologies if I have made any mistakes with these times.

  • Chiefs v Legacy, 12:30PM Sunday April 1
  • NRG v G2, 9AM Sunday April 1
  • PSG v Gale Force, 7AM Monday April 2
  • Spacestation Gaming v Flyquest, 11AM Saturday March 31

All Rocket League action can be caught on the official Rocket League Twitch channel for RLRS, North America and Europe, or Throwdown TV for Oceania.

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Stuart Gollan

From Amiga to Xbox One, Doom to Destiny, Megazone to Stevivor, I've been gaming through it all and have the (mental) scars to prove it. I love local multiplayer, collecting ridiculous Dreamcast peripherals, and Rocket League.