The 2025 season introduces a brand-new 1v1 series, running alongside the traditional 3v3 format, offering individual players a chance to showcase their talents on the global RLCS stage.
New 1v1 Series Format
The 1v1 competition will be divided across the first two splits of the season:
Split 1: Open qualifiers will take place in Europe, South America (SAM), and Asia-Pacific (APAC). Top players will compete for cash prizes, and the winners from Europe and SAM will face off at the first Major’s 1v1 final.
Split 2: North America, Middle East & North Africa (MENA), Oceania (OCE), and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will host their qualifiers, with the top players progressing to the second Major’s 1v1 final.
The winners from these Majors will then battle in a 1v1 showdown at the 2025 World Championship, creating a new dimension of individual competition and rivalries, including the potential for teammates to face each other.
Last Chance Open Qualifiers
A new “Last Chance Open Qualifier” will be introduced, held between Major 2 and the World Championship.
These qualifiers will occur in the four strongest regions based on performance at Majors.
Only one team from each region will advance to the World Championship, raising the stakes and giving underdog teams one final opportunity to qualify.
Expanded World Championship
The 2025 World Championship will expand from 16 to 20 teams, including a new play-in stage.
Four teams from the Last Chance Qualifiers will compete against the lowest-seeded teams from the lowest-ranked regions.
From this stage, four teams will advance to join the top 12 in the main event.
This format gives more teams a shot at glory on the biggest stage in Rocket League.
Ranking Qualification System
A new Rankings Qualification system will also streamline the qualification process.
The top eight teams from each qualifier will automatically advance to later stages in the next Open Qualifier, bypassing early rounds.
This system won’t apply to the first qualifier of each split or the Last Chance Qualifier, maintaining competitiveness for fresh challengers.
With these exciting changes, the 2025 RLCS season promises to deliver more opportunities, intense rivalries, and unforgettable moments.
Fans and players alike can look forward to what could be the most dynamic season in Rocket League history.
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As the curtain fell on the 2022-2023 RLCS season in August, Team Vitality managed to overthrow reigning champions Team BDS, subsequently setting a new benchmark in viewership figures, to show how healthy this esports game is.
Rocket League developer Psyonix is already paving the way for continued action with a slew of off-season tournaments, culminating in the next RLCS season in 2024. An official blog post by Psyonix has shed light on the forthcoming events, emphasizing a vast array of tournaments to keep the Rocket League esports scene ticking over.
This off-season, Rocket League players can expect to delve into varied game modes, spanning from individual face-offs to traditional three-on-three clashes, with certain events even introducing distinctive modifications to the classic gameplay.
A highlight of the off-season calendar, undoubtedly, is the resurgence of the Collegiate Rocket League (CRL). Catering to North American college teams since its inception in 2017, the CRL is poised to host 32 formidable teams for the Fall Semester of 2023, scheduled for October and November.
Further augmenting the off-season line-up, Raidiant Esports is poised to unveil a fresh iteration of the Star Chasers Showdown, a dedicated women’s tournament for North America and Europe, featuring a substantial prize pot of $30,000 (￡24,230).
Meanwhile, Rocket League enthusiasts across APAC, MENA, and SSA regions can look forward to the Asia Pro League’s extensive 15-tournament series, culminating in a grand $50,000 (￡40,400) finale.
Down south in the LATAM region, the Rocket Street Latam Championship is on the horizon.
]]>According to Psyonix, RLCS X will “represent the most fundamental changes to the RLCS since its inception in 2016” by increasing the prize pool and making sweeping changes to the tournament structure in a bid to “build a foundation for competitive Rocket League for the years ahead”.
With the format changes, RLCS will evolve into a longer, event-based circuit with an annual total prize pool of over US $4.5 million. That kitty will be spread across the entire season, which will culminate with the Rocket League World Championship.
Until now, Psyonix hosted the RLCS season twice a year. The old format highlighted weekly league events in the North American, European, Oceanic and South American regions, although events in the latter two jurisdictions were operated by local organisers such as Gfinity Esports Australia, Throwdown, Rocket Street and Lets Play Live.
The most recent season of RLCS took place in February-March 2020, while the RLCS Season 9 World Championship – initially scheduled for late April – was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the cancellation, Psyonix decided to spread the RLCS World Championship prize pool amongst all four regions for their respective regional finals.
How does the new RLCS format work?
The new RLCS format will divide the season into three splits – Fall, Winter and Spring – each with three regional events leading into an international Major event at the end of every split, each with $250,000 on the line. While the North American and European regions already have confirmed dates and formats for the Fall split, Psyonix is still working on the final details for the Oceanic and South American regions.
Each split will showcase a different tournament format. The Fall split will use a 32-team format, the Winter split a 24-team format, and the Spring split a 20-team format.
The opening stage of the RLCS Season X Fall split for North American and European regions will feature 32 Rocket League teams in a Swiss System format. Two groups of 16 teams will play best-of-five (Bo5) matches to determine which eight sides from each section proceed to the second stage.
Stage two will feature only one group of 16 teams, but it will otherwise use the same format to determine which eight teams advance into the final stage of the competition. The third and final stage will use a single-elimination bracket with Bo5 matches for the quarter-finals and Bo7 series for the semi-finals and grand finals.
All regional events will start with open qualifiers handled by Battlefy, who teamed up with Psyonix for RLCS Season X. For the Fall split, teams who qualify through the open qualifiers will join those who already earned their spot through RLCS Season 9, Rocket League Rival Series S9 champions and two Promotion Playoffs champions.
The total prize pool for the European and North American Fall splits is set at $100,000, with $30,000 reserved for the champions. The teams will also be awarded RLCS Circuit Ranking Points based on their placement, which is part of a points-based qualification system that was implemented to determine the invites for Rocket League World Championship Season X.
The season-ending RLCS World Championship will expand to 16 teams due to the new structure. Europe and North America will both be awarded six spots at the event, while Oceania and South America will each have two representatives fighting for the title of world champions and the lion’s share of the $1 million prize pool.
What is The Grid?
Psyonix expanded on the idea to enlarge the Rocket League esports ecosystem by introducing The Grid – a new weekly tournament circuit that will see teams compete for Grid Points, prize money and spots at the Majors.
“The Grid was inspired by the motorsport concept of ‘starting grids’, and this league reflects that philosophy, with results informing RLCS Regional Event seeding and qualifying top-performing teams for RLCS Majors,” read Pysonix’s announcement.
The Grid will see nine weekly tournaments per RLCS split, each with a $10,000 prize pool. The team with the most Grid Points at the end of the split will earn a direct invite to that split’s Major. Points tallies will reset after each split and will not be used to qualify for the RLCS World Championship.
At the end of each split, the top 10 teams will retain their spot, while the bottom six will have to earn their spot in The Grid via qualifiers. The 16 teams invited for the inaugural season are the same sides that earned Rival Series and RLCS auto-qualification with their performances in RLCS Season 9.
The opening event of the RLCS Season X – Fall: Europe is set to begin on Saturday, August 1 and the North American regional event is scheduled for Saturday, August 15, while the Oceanic and South American launch dates are yet to be determined. The RLCS Winter and Spring splits are slated for November and March respectively.
]]>Epic Games, a company which has been under fire due to its management of Fortnite Esport scene and balancing of the game as a whole, looks to have made the first significant move to address these issues.
Psyonix is a small company which developed one of the most popular games (Rocket League) and were expected to be noticed and acquired by a larger company sooner or later.
Psyonix were declined by EA in the early days of Rocket League, which can now go into EA’s book of bad decisions on their part.
So, what does the acquisition of Psyonix mean to the Rocket League community?
First of all, the game will become available at the Epic Games store sometime this year. Psyonix announced thattheir game will continue to be available on Steam, where their players would also get the recent updates. Additionally, Psyonix clarified there will be no changes to the gameplay of the popular “race car soccer” game.
The initial response from the fans was — as expected — negative, as many expected this to have a negative effect on their favourite game. We cannot ignore the fact Epic Games are widely considered to have deep issues as a gaming company, due to the recent incidents surrounding Fortnite.
On the official Rocket League site, Psyonix answered some of the questions about the move. They stated that the game won’t change in the short term. Rocket League will continue developing as it did, with new updates, features, content etc.
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In the long run, however, it is expected to bring Rocket League to Epic Games store, which as mentioned before, is scheduled to happen towards the end of the year.
When asked about the future of Rocket League Esports, Psyonix expressed their enthusiasm and stated that they expect this move to have a positive impact on the Rocket League Esport ecosystem.
“We think this is a great move for the Rocket League Esports ecosystem because it significantly increases our potential reach and resources, just like it does for the game itself. We really do believe that you’ll find our future in esports to be very exciting — especially in the near future, where on June 21-23 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) finals will end our 7th season with a bang!” the statement said.
While there are still some confused faces among Rocket League fans and the future of their favourite game, the merger does seem like a good move for Psyonix and Esports in general.
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It started off as the small indie-developed sports game that could, but has grown into an eSports juggernaut that has blown the industry away.
Rocket League will kick off 2017 with the commencement of Season 3 of its eSports tournament, which will offer a $300,000 prize pool, a small chunk of the larger $1 million prize pool on offer throughout the year.
The Rocket League Championship Series, as its called, will feature the best teams from multiple regions as they battle it out for soccer-football supremacy.
Season 2’s $250,000 was impressive enough for a self-funded eSports tournament, but with an additional $2.5 million investment in the game’s eSport circuit, that number will continue to rise with upcoming seasons.
As one of the most popular indie games in recent memory – 25 million registered players cannot be wrong – it seems like there is no end in sight for the unique and innovative sports game.
Season 3 will allow teams from Australia and New Zealand to compete for the first time, and they will come up against the best teams from North America and Europe.
The plan for the game from Season 3 onward is to have “more meaningful appearances” at major events, including PAC and SXSW.
Community-run tournaments will also be looked at as wildcard qualifiers, with “extensive funding” being pumped into each region.
Adding to the Rocket League eSports hype will be a new weekly talk show on Twitch, while a new eSports hub is also being planned for the official Rocket League website.
Finally, the game’s broadcast and eSports features will be improved and expanded upon to make for a more accessible pro gaming experience.
For newbies, Rocket League is a vehicular soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix, and is perhaps best described as soccer – but with cars.
It is a sequel to Psyonix’s Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, which was no well-received upon launch, but developed a loyal fanbase.
Rocket League, on the hand, has garnered critical acclaim and commercial success, and slowly made its way from PC to Xbox One and PS4, where its place in mainstream gaming really took off, leading into what is now a very popular and entertainment eSports league.
If you’re looking to get into Rocket League eSports – and you should because it is perhaps the most entertainment new eSports scene – then tune into the North American Open Qualifier finale at 12:00pm PST/ 3:00pm EST on Saturday, March 11.
That will be followed by the European Open Qualifier on Sunday, March 12 at 9:00am PDT/ 12:00pm EDT.
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