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Rocket Surgery: The weekly Rocket League wrap (6/4)

6 Apr 2018
Stuart Gollan

The tournament update for Rocket League has arrived, and naturally as it lands in the middle of the RLCS season it has caused a few concerns. At least this time demolitions haven’t been broken, but server performance has been shaky and unpopular changes have been made to the “alpha” boost, Gold Rush. The exclusive alpha participant cosmetic reward is popular with pro players and runs a casual $1500 USD in the secondary market, so people do get a bit touchy about it. Psyonix has already announced plans for a hot-fix.

The Psyonix April Fools prank got a much more positive reception, as “big head” mode for car toppers was enabled leading to foam hats and disgruntled pigeons the size of an Octane. It did mean some players couldn’t use their trademark toppers in RLCS play this weekend, but I think it was worth it:

There are no Sundays off for Rocket League pros, not even Easter Sunday, and while Throwdown had some heart and played a reduced round of four games it managed to squeeze in a massive upset as Retirement Home bested Dark Sided and another surprise with Love Decks getting their first win of the season against JAM Gaming.

Retirement Home looked good in their win as well, this wasn’t just a bad day in the office for Dark Sided who fell 3-1 in the series. It is an especially tough loss for Dark Sided as it makes their path to a top two finish all the more difficult, and their likely third place finish could see them facing off once again against Retirement Home. Retirement Home’s last three games include two sides tied with them on a single win, so their fate is very much in their own hands right now despite a 1-3 record.

In the other upset Love Decks finally converted some good performances into results, taking down a disappointing JAM Gaming 3-1. JAM have the players to be a strong attacking squad but are inconsistent in their delivery and worryingly fell apart with the series on the line here in game four. After a big upset win against Tainted Minds in week one, JAM have now lost three straight. They also play two of their fellow 1-3 squads in the final two weeks so hold their own fate, but their formline is the most worrying of the group.

Then we had the big one, Chiefs v Legacy in what could be the series that decided the regular season champion. Chiefs were on fire last weekend and that continued here, taking a hotly contested series 3-1. It was a relatively high scoring series by Chiefs’ standards and Legacy showed plenty of fight to have any Rocket League fan salivating at a potential rematch. These two are certainly the class of Oceania right now, and Torsos took a well deserved weekly MVP award.

The last match was a battle between Legs Are Silly and Tainted Minds, which went as expected with a 3-1 win to the season four RLCS veterans. While Legs Are Silly kept it close early, they were eventually blown out in games three and four, the offensive explosion giving hope that Tainted Minds are getting it together after a rocky season start. They still need other results to go their way to crack a top two finish, but a win next week against Dark Sided would go a long way towards that.

We’re slowly getting some clarity in North America, where NRG are the early leaders thanks to another big double win week for the season two and three regional champions. This week they saw off former teammate Jacob and his Rogue squad with a 3-1 series win, completing a rough double for Rogue as they also went down 3-0 to defending regional champions Cloud9, who also sit undefeated after three weeks. It looks increasingly likely that the first seed will be decided by the final game of the season when NRG and Cloud9 meet.

Cloud9 easily accounted for Out of Style as was expected, Gimmick running riot in a big 6-0 win in game three that cemented his player of the week award. Things went slightly better for Out of Style in their cellar clash with Ghost, taking game two but ultimately dropping the series 3-1. Things could have gone very differently had they managed to hold two goal lead with one minute left in game four, but Ghost rose to the occasion and got their first series win for the season.

Unfortunately for Ghost they faced a much stiffer challenge in their second series, coming up against G2. In the end it was a sweep for G2, with commanding wins in the first two games on the back of Rizzo scoring four in game two. It was warm-up for G2, who faced a crucial clash with NRG in the final series of the day. After a big loss in game one, G2 kept it close in games two and three but ultimately fell in a sweep to the regional leaders. Undoubtedly we’ll see these two clash again down the line, but NRG will take confidence from a big win against quality opposition.

Europe has been showing a scary amount of predictability these last two weeks, with favourites once again claiming almost all matches. That included a big win for Gale Force over PSG where they conceded only two goals, winning each of their games with a clean sheet in a 3-1 series victory. They are looking better than ever right now, and much like North America the final game of the season looks like it will decide our champion as Gale Force play the also undefeated Vitality. Gale Force bested Excel 3-0 in their other series, with Kaydop taking player of the week honours.

Gale Force and Vitality won’t have it all their own way for the crucial top two positions, as Complexity took both of their series this week to move to 3-1. Complexity put on a defensive masterclass (and another long overtime) to sweep Fnatic in an entertaining series, before doing things a little tougher in beating Envy 3-2, winning games four and five. Earlier in the day Envy recorded their first win of the season, knocking over Flipside Tactics in five games in a series that started as a defense-optional goalfest before tightening up in the deciding games.

In the last game Fnatic continued a rough day at the office, falling 3-0 to Flipside Tactics, bringing the former champions to a 2-3 record but not out of the relegation zone just yet and facing the tough task of playing a Gale Force/Vitality double header next week to close out their league play. It may be an anxious sweat for Flipside in the final week to see if they go to playoffs or relegation. Big things were expected of Fnatic but they currently sit 1-3 with by far the worst win percentage in the league, it will take a big effort to see them avoid a potential relegation battle.

The Rival Series in both regions is shaping up as a much more competitive affair in season five, with no undefeated team remaining in either region after The Juicy Kids knocked over Servette and Spacestation took a big series against Flyquest in the last week. With off-stream matches starting this week we’ll start to see rapid changes to the table in both regions, as some teams have played five games and others only two.

Triple Trouble are making a name for themselves in Europe with a 4-1 record, their single loss coming to Team Secret, but only Zebra Nose and Ares are out of contention for a top two finish. Similarly, nobody in North America can be counted out just yet, but the 0-3 Incognito would need a drastic change in fortune while 1-3 Splyce need a lot of results to go their way. Flyquest and Spacestation are the early favourites in North America, Triple Trouble, Team Secret and Servette in Europe.

Next week

Games to Watch

  • Cloud9 v G2 – Sunday 10AM AEST – Both of Cloud9’s games this week are big clashes, but it is hard to go past this battle with the only North American team to beat them in the last 8 months in meaningful competition. A loss here will all but eliminate G2 from a top two finish.
  • Retirement Home v Love Decks – Sunday 1PM AEST – Not the highest profile clash, but one of key importance for both sides in their battle to make the playoffs. Hang around for Dark Sided v Tainted Minds straight afterwards.
  • Gale Force v Team Envy – Monday 6AM AEST – Not long ago this would have been the battle for best in the world, but these squads have gone in opposite directions since the Envy roster (with Gale Force’s Turbopolsa as sub) claimed the season three world championship. Regardless of form, these two usually put on a show.
  • Spacestation Gaming v The Doods – Saturday 11AM AEST – Rival Series games are happening all through the week now, but this North American battle is likely to have severe top two consequences for the loser.

All RLCS North America and Europe matches can be seen on the Rocket League Twitch channel. Rival Series matches are broadcast on both the main channel and Rocket League Esports. Oceania matches are found on the Throwdown Esports channel.

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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.