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Rocket Surgery: The weekly Rocket League wrap (26/10)

The general feeling in competitive Rocket League is that Europe stands tall over North America and Oceania. Europe has not only won the last two world championships but European teams claimed three of the top four spots in both events, dominating head to head play against NA. That sentiment remained unchanged following season 4 league play, despite the strong efforts of Cloud9 both in RLCS and leading into the season. Method are too fast, PSG too individually brilliant, Gale Force too coordinated.

That has all gone out the window following the Northern Arena Rocket League Invitational last weekend, a Canadian LAN event which brought together seven of the eight RLCS finals qualifiers (only Mockit was not present) and one poor little Canadian qualifying squad Mirage, in a double elimination tournament over two days. Cloud9 emerged victorious from this murderer’s row of Rocket League, storming through the upper bracket with wins over G2, PSG and Method, then surviving a bracket reset against PSG to take the grand final and the title.

Maybe it was jetlag, maybe the European teams had a bit too much fun on Saturday night, but after a successful first day the European squads aside from PSG all struggled on Sunday, Gale Force swept by Ghost and Method bested by NRG. RLCS will be a whole different ball game, teams will be well acclimatised and well practised leading into LAN, but for NRG to beat Method and compete with PSG will be a big confidence booster for them, while Method and Cloud9 had an epic early series that has me salivating at the prospect of an RLCS rematch and the back to back finals between PSG and Cloud9 were a treat.

Not that Cloud9 are unbeatable; NRG took them down convincingly in Pro Rivalry Week, taking 11 of 16 games in winning the series 2-1 though how seriously either squad took the competition is questionable considering their car choices, this may have been more of an extended scrimmage for both teams. In the same competition Method dominated PSG 8-1, giving us the final we never had for the European region.

In short, anybody can beat anybody. North America are more competitive than we think, and Cloud9 right now are the undisputed best team in the world, having taken down the last two worldwide competitions in Northern Arena and Dreamhack Atlanta. Can they make it three from three by winning the big one, RLCS? We’ll find out in a couple of weeks.

While North America and Europe sharpen their swords for the World Championship, locally we still need to decide who will represent Oceania in Washington D.C. That will happen this Sunday at PAX Australia, as the finals for Throwdown Season 4 will decide both our two LAN representatives and our regional champion. It promises to be the biggest LAN in Oceanic Rocket League, so it deserves a suitably epic preview.

The big PAX preview

PAX Australia 2016 was only 12 months ago, but it may as well be another lifetime for how far Rocket League has come in the region in that time. In November 2016 Legacy were kings of the mountain, having earned their spot at PAX through an invitational qualifier, while an unheralded little squad known as Alpha Sydney joined Athletico and Abyss in making it through the open qualifiers for the remaining three places.

Alpha Sydney were still a ways off becoming the dominant LAN force they are known as today, the current Chiefs were the first squad knocked out in straight sets. While a double elimination tournament, time pressures meant the upper bracket winner took a one game lead into the grand final rather than having a bracket reset should they lose the first series. That advantage went to Abyss, but it wasn’t enough to stop a surging Legacy from taking the title in dramatic fashion, a reverse sweep completed with an epic overtime game seven victory.

The team names may have changed but the players of PAX 2016 will be familiar. Two sets of teammates in 2016 will meet in the first round of 2017; Montyconnor and Kira combined for Athletico and now represent JAM Gaming and Scylla respectively, Express and Addzey were part of the vanquished Abyss squad and are also now on opposite sides with JAM and Scylla. Alpha Sydney may now be known as Chiefs, but the roster hasn’t changed in the last 12 months, a continuity that has seen them become the dominant force in Oceania Rocket League in that time.

Chiefs are a good place to start the PAX Australia 2017 preview, as the road to RLCS will go through them. The fact is that Chiefs are undefeated in LAN tournaments since PAX last year, taking down two season of ESL as well as Throwdown season 2 to qualify for RLCS. Their LAN reputation is well deserved, and their international experience includes the only Oceanic series victory at RLCS. For a long time Chiefs have been the team to beat in Oceania, even through some rocky weeks following their return from LAN.

Chiefs are led by Torsos, who has taken his game to another level in the last two months. He took down the golden striker and MVP awards in league play, scoring some incredible solo goals but also benefiting from great lead-up work from his teammates. Chiefs don’t use as much direct passing into the goal square as Pale Horse or JAM Gaming, they originally built their style around backboard plays and despite teams being better equipped to deal with back wall defense these days Chiefs still find ways to break through with their pet play.

That isn’t to say their passing game should be dismissed. No team in OCE is better at redirects and their speed to the ball is hard to match. Their communication and synergy is also among the best in the region, defensively they are rock solid but the occasional double commit can cost them when under pressure. Their backboard based play also impacts their shot accuracy, while Torsos was shooting at an otherworldly 42% in league play, Jake and Drippay sat below the league average at 19% and 24.6% respectively.

Chiefs also have a distinct psychological advantage over at least two of their fellow LAN participants, having taken commanding victories over both Pale Horse and JAM Gaming in recent times both at LAN and online. Pale Horse and JAM haven’t tasted victory against Chiefs since Mockit league play in August, and only Scylla have beaten Chiefs in major tournament play in the last month, taking the final round of Throwdown league play 3-2. Scylla are the only team close to a positive record against Chiefs since July, also beating them in the Throwdown Season 3 gauntlet finals but dropping their most recent meeting in ESL league play.

Scylla certainly trouble Chiefs when the two squads meet, but under the bright lights of LAN I will still have to favour Chiefs against not just Scylla, but anybody in this competition. JAM and Pale Horse can both play them tough and close, but I would be very surprised if Chiefs miss out on a spot in RLCS and they are the favourites to take the Throwdown title.

Despite their disappointing results at RLCS, JAM Gaming came home from international competition far the stronger of the two Oceania representatives and spent most of June through August as the best team in the region. In that time they dominated the Throwdown Season 3 challenge, taking out Pale Horse to win the gauntlet finals and dropping only one league series, to Avant.

Since that time, JAM Gaming have been the clear third place to Chiefs and Pale Horse. Both squads had wins over JAM at the ESL Season 2 LAN, Chiefs beat them twice on the way to winning the Mockit finals and both squads have beaten them in ESL league play and Throwdown league play. One team that hasn’t beaten JAM Gaming in that time is Scylla, their first round opponent at PAX, who have no wins from four attempts in major tournaments since July.

At their best JAM are the toughest defensive squad in OCE, a team that adjusts well to tempo shifts and changes in strategy and who are notoriously difficult to knock off of their own gameplan. That plan usually involves a dual assault on the goal from Express and Shadey, who have formed a deadly combination since Bango stood down from the squad at the end of last RLCS to focus on studies. Montyconnor takes a closer style role, a dominant force at the back who both creates plenty of chances for his sharpshooting teammates and is an excellent finisher in his own right. The most common sight in JAM games is Montyconnor banging a close range shot into an open net following an assault from Shadey or Express, perfectly positioned to capitalise on a stretched defense.

The bread and butter of JAM Gaming is their vertical passing game, creating fast changes of momentum and covering great distance with straight passes up the middle of the field. It comes from a great awareness and confidence in each other, but does require JAM to take defensive control and can be disrupted with aggressive pressure and boost control. If you can force JAM to clear and reset position at goal you can take a lot of their attack away, but if you let them counterattack they are the best at making you pay.

You never feel like you are on top of JAM, they are never out of a series and they are dangerous from so many positions on the pitch. Their recent record against Pale Horse and Chiefs leaves me with some reservations in picking them to take out PAX, but if they end up in a sudden death game against Pale Horse to decide who makes LAN it will be very hard to back against their experience and skill.

Pale Horse themselves are riding a wave of confidence, a relatively new squad that is improving at a dramatic rate since bursting onto the scene as a qualifier in the Throwdown Season 3 challenge and running all the way to the gauntlet final before going down to JAM. With a five man roster continuity was difficult to come by for Pale Horse, but recently their core of CJCJ, Kia and Kamii has played most of their tournament games together and since that has happened, JAM Gaming have yet to defeat them.

Pale Horse are fast, a team that get to the ball first and then decides what to do with it. It leads to opportunities for their short passing game, they are particularly adept with their horizontal crosses at the goal mouth but they can work from the walls anywhere on the pitch. The individual skill of Kamii, Kia and CJCJ makes each of them a threat, but it is the pace at which they play that makes them hard to deal with.

This pace results in plenty of shots on goal, the core roster each finished within the top seven in shots per game in Throwdown league play, and their accuracy is nothing to sneeze at either, particularly CJCJ who finished with nearly 30% accuracy on 3.42 shots per game, second most in the league behind Shadey. Kamii is even more efficient and combined with a strong playmaking role it saw him finish just short of Torsos for league MVP honours. Indeed, Kia and Kamii finished top three in Throwdown for assists, with CJCJ playing the most traditional striker role of any player in OCE as a deadly finisher.

Where Pale Horse have fallen just short in recent series against Chiefs is in their occasional mental lapses. A whiff here, a double commit or missed open net there, if Pale Horse take every chance they create then they are unstoppable, but they can give away an easy goal or miss a makeable shot or open net chance. Some of that is to be expected when playing such a fast paced game, but Pale Horse may rely a little too much on technical ability at the moment, particularly in crucial moments.

Pale Horse’s LAN experience at ESL will prove invaluable, especially after they took down an epic series to eliminate JAM Gaming. Their results against Chiefs at LAN are best forgotten, but the bright lights shouldn’t overwhelm them at PAX, even if there will be a much bigger crowd than for ESL. Indeed Pale Horse are a confidence team, capable of brushing off setbacks and avoiding tilt. They perhaps have the highest ceiling of all OCE teams, but whether they can reach that ceiling at PAX or even RLCS is the big question. They’re very close, but JAM and Chiefs will be there to say that Pale Horse’s time has not yet come.

Scylla are somewhat of a wildcard in Throwdown. A late roster change saw Addzey come in for aoe_emp before qualifiers began, and after an unconvincing progression through those qualifiers Scylla exploded in league play, taking down Pale Horse and Chiefs on their way to a 5-2 record. Their passing game was on point as the season progressed, particularly their sharp, low horizontal crosses that proved undefendable for even the best teams in the region.

Kira led the Scylla revival, the former SnarfSnarf was only some poor shot accuracy away from contending for the MVP award, finishing third in shots per game and fourth in assists but converting those shots into goals at only 19.5%. Dumbo was the primary finisher for Scylla, often on the end of passing plays and deadly accurate at 31.2%, good for fifth in Throwdown. As the season went on Addzey really found his place in the squad, and with that synergy came the big upset wins for Scylla.

Unfortunately for Scylla the one team they haven’t been able to beat is JAM Gaming, their first round opponent. A lower bracket run will prove very tough, and how they respond to pressure will be crucial. With a squad that has already announced it will disband following the current active tournaments, and a core team member in Kira unable to make the RLCS trip should they qualify, if it comes down to who wants it more I would have to back Pale Horse, Chiefs or JAM Gaming against them.

Chiefs and Pale Horse would be nervous if facing off against Scylla in an elimination game, both suffering recent defeats to the squid squad. This revived Scylla are a very stout defensive team, if only occasionally explosive on offense, but they don’t make a lot of mistakes and rarely give goals away. Scylla are the outsiders for an RLCS spot, but by no means would it be a shock if they got through.

So who makes it? Personally I think Chiefs take the upper bracket, edging Pale Horse once more and beating JAM Gaming for the first RLCS spot. In the lower bracket I predict Pale Horse gets over Scylla, then we see an epic, seven game series between Pale Horse and JAM for that second RLCS qualification. Who wins it? I’m going to say Pale Horse pull out the win in a full seven games and earn their first RLCS trip. Chiefs to then win the regional championship, but that isn’t really the major prize here. A chance to represent OCE on the world stage is what everybody is playing for, and the chance to shock the Rocket League world.

RLCS/RLRS Relegation Battle

If the Oceania finals aren’t enough for you, the promotion/relegation battles for RLCS also take place this weekend. In North America we have Renegades and Allegiance defending their positions against Fibeon and Out of Style, in Europe Team Envyus and Team Secret will aim to hold out Fnatic and The Juicy Kids.

The Juicy Kids earned their spot in RLRS the hard way, one of the last two teams to qualify in the RLRS playoff bracket. Despite that close shave they had a great run through league play, but with the dominance of Fnatic and the class of Envy it is hard to see them sneaking into RLCS this year. Fnatic will be hot for revenge against Team Secret, who denied them a place in RLCS in qualifying via an epic five minute overtime in game five. Secret didn’t have a happy RLCS campaign and Fnatic will be favourites in that clash, particularly following their win over Envy in the PRL Rival Week earlier this month. Seeing the former world champion Envy roster drop to RLRS would be a massive shock, but if Europe proved anything this season it is that anything is possible. I have Fnatic and Envy making it through.

Much like Europe, North America also features an RLRS playoff winner in Out of Style and a dominant regular season team out for revenge for their demotion, Fibeon. Just in case that wasn’t enough, Fibeon also bested Renegades in the PRL Rival Week. Both RLRS squads are a real chance at making their way to RLCS in this bracket, Renegades haven’t been able to get it together while Allegiance had a couple of close shaves in league play but could only take single games from the top squads and had too many blowouts scored against them. Out of Style will make a real tough go of it, and are battled hardened in crucial do-or-die games following a big last round reverse sweep to ensure their top two placement. I’ll be rooting for them, but think we’ll see Renegades and Fibeon emerge from this bracket the victors.

Oceania

ESL league play seemed to know it was the warm up act this week, with Avant beating Square One and Chiefs beating Lynx, the two rookie squads each managing to take a game from their more fancied rivals. JAM beat Legacy and Scylla unfortunately had to forfeit to Pale Horse, robbing us of a potential LAN preview.

In the Vapour Nordic finals we saw some really tight series from the start of the day, Feint taking a full five games to beat Lynx, Dedset (former Clarity) needing the same to best Extricity. Dedset put up a valiant effort against Lynx in the lower finals, but again dropped in five, leaving us with a Feint v Lynx rematch for the title. A back and forth series went Lynx’s way to force the bracket reset, but Feint then went two games up in the grand final and Sammy needed an all zeroes goal (driving a Proteus of all things) to force overtime in game three, which Lynx then took down. Lynx rode that Proteus inspired momentum to the reverse sweep in one of the more entertaining series I’ve seen, it is well worth having a watch. Feint certainly stood up after some lacklustre recent results, but were just a bit unlucky to not get the result here.

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About the author

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.