Rocket League: The Ultimate E-sport

Rocket League

If someone mentions to you the name “Rocket League”, unless you have heard of the game, you will most likely think it’s a game that has “rockets” and it’s some sort of league. Nope, not even close. 

 

Rocket League is a game that essentially could be named “car soccer”, let me explain. “Car soccer” is essentially a game where you are placed in the third-person view of a car. This car can do many things your normal car can’t such as; (double) jumping, flipping, boosting, and flying in the air. 

 

The game arrived in stores for $20 in mid-2015 and was a small game. A sequel to the infamous game, with the infamous name, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. or SARPBC, try pronouncing that.

 

The entire game was placed inside a boxed-off stadium and had little “egg” people in the stands cheering and bouncing up and down. Customizable cars and goal explosions are also an option. These customizable items have different rarities, starting from uncommon, then going to rare, very rare, import, exotic, and finally, black market. The game’s currency is called “credits” and is $1 for 100 credits.

 

The game just recently went out in stores as “Free To Play” and that brought an UNHEARD amount of players, sometimes having over 1 million players online at a time! Since then the game has declined in popularity, but still racks in more players a day than before the game went free to play. 

 

Mechanics

The game has many mechanics that involve such things as I mentioned before. The basics of these mechanics are:

 

•  Ariels, hitting the ball while in the air
•  Wave-dashes, front flipping before you hit the ground to propel yourself forward
• Double taps, hitting the ball into the back wall of the opponents net
• Air dribble, dribbling the ball in the air
• Dribbles, carrying the ball on top of your car without it touching the ground
• Flicks, flicking the ball while dribbling.

 

Now, these are the bare bones, almost anyone can do these things mechanics. Some of these are harder than others, but most anyone above the rank of platinum can do ALL (or should be able to). 

 

Speaking of ranks, in the competitive playlist, depending on how good you are, the game will give you a rank. Every win you get, you get a certain amount of MMR (MatchMaking Rank). The higher in the ranks you go, the harder it gets, or longer it takes to get to that next rank. Ranks have levels to them, there is division 1-4, and different levels for the actual name of the rank.

 

Rankings (From worst to best)

 

• Bronze 1 Division 1-4
• Bronze 2 Division 1-4
• Bronze 3 Division 1-4
• Silver 1 Div 1-4
• Silver 2 Div 1-4
• Silver 3 Div 1-4
• Platinum 1 Div 1-4
• Platinum 2 Div 1-4
• Platinum 3 Div 1-4
• Diamond 1 Div 1-4
• Diamond 2 Div 1-4
• Diamond 3 Div 1-4
• Champion 1 Div 1-4
• Champion 2 Div 1-4
• Champion 3 Div 1-4
• Grand Champion 1 Div 1-4
• Grand Champion 2 Div 1-4
• Grand Champion 3 Div 1-4
• Super Sonic Legend (Max)
• 

 

A lot to take in, I know. But this is the thing you say when someone asks you, “What rank are you?” 

 

The Pros

Now the juicy stuff, the actual Esports. Rocket League has had some form of Esport since the first year it came out (mid-2015) and has had many graphics, mechanic, and community changes. This includes changes to the pros, and their level of skill compared to the “Average Joe” Over time the number of pros has increased, and with that, it brought more and more teams.

 

Top 3 Teams From Each (Main) Region

North America

1. The General NRG
2. G2 Esports
3. FaZe Clan

South America

1. True Neutral
2. The Tree Sins
3. Ellevens Esports

 Europe

1. Team BDS
2. Guild Esports
3. Team Vitality

 

Now there are many other teams in the league, but none as important as these. Of course, every team has its players, and some are better than others, and some hit historical shots that we will never forget (looking at you Justin).

 

Top 10 Players Worldwide

1. GarrettG
2. SquishyMuffinz
3. Jstn
4. Monkey Moon
5. Extra
6. Marc_by_8
7. Fairy Peak
8. Kaydop
9. Alpha54
10. Firstkiller

 

This will change over time, teams and players will get better over time, and so will the community. With the new RLCS coming soon, we know what to expect (kind of) and will be rooting for our favorite teams.