The Rocket League scene- The casual of the unaware.
December 5
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The skill ceiling for Rocket league is very high.
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One of the reasons for this game to have this kind of competitiveness is that Psyonix organizes these competitions three times a year, The Rocket League Championship Series.
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This game has been a hit after going free to play.
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Being a content creator-friendly game Rocket league provides a lot of content for the entertainers who make content from this game.
Rocket League is a vehicular soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix in July 2015. There was a recent outburst of the player base because the game went free in September 2020.
This game is basically playing soccer with rocket-powered cars with one to four cars in each team. Each match is five minutes long and sudden death, also called overtime if the scores are equal after five minutes. After some months, the game released newer game modes with decreased ball gravity, a hockey puck instead of the ball, and many other modes. This was possible because of the steam workshop which allowed players to make and design new maps and rules for the specific maps.
Now, coming to the pro scene, this game, being such a fun and interesting game, is not the place to fool around. The skill ceiling for this particular game is ironically way higher than the height of the stadium dome. One of the reasons for this game to have this kind of competitiveness is that Psyonix organizes these competitions three times a year, The Rocket League Championship Series ( RLCS).
Most of the well-established eSports teams have their teams for Rocket League like Cloud9, Flipside Tactics, G2, and many others to name a few. This game had a fan base of over three hundred thousand players who used to play the game daily or regularly, but recently, due to the game going free, the fan base has increased to over a million people playing and watching the game every single day. Most of the newer people are attracted to the ways the pros play, due to which the streams of rocket league players have suddenly started having skyrocketing numbers.
Another reason why this game is overall such a good game for the gaming community is that unlike some other games, this is a content creator-friendly game. This means that this game provides a lot of content for the entertainers who make content from this game. This is actually a very good move from the creators because this is one of the reasons this game is such a hit after going free to play.
Some of the notable pros that dominate the Rocket League pro scene are :
SquishyMuffinz (Mariano Arruda)
A Canadian Rocket League player who is considered one of the best Rocket League players in the world playing in the esteemed team of Cloud9 for over three years now and one of the reasons this play is this much mechanically gifted is because he spent 2 months in the free play itself because his internet connection was not good enough. He was also the fourth pro player to hit one million subscribers on YouTube.
JSTN (Justin Morales)
This American Rocket League player requires no introduction because even if you have played the game for some hours and searched the internet for some pro clips, this player’s goal might be the most popular clip in Rocket League history. This player’s zero-second aerial shot against one of the deadliest team in the world has proved that the competitive scene of Rocket League is not something to be taken casually. Being one of the best players in one of the best teams in the world, this player has total winnings of over two hundred thousand dollars.
Lethamyr (Treyven Robitaille)
This Canadian player is not specifically known for his highlights but he is extremely popular because he might be one of the best content creators on YouTube. He mostly does innovative game modes for entertainment but is also a very talented and skilled map creator and has created multiple fun maps for the community to enjoy.
Kaydop (Alexandre Courant)
This French Rocket League player, hands down, one of the best players in the world. Previously in Team Dignitas, this player has dominated each and every championship he has participated in. With winnings over four hundred thousand dollars, this player has stomped any other teams against him. He is the only player who has won the RLCS Regional Championship five times in a row and the only player who has been in the Grand Finals of every RLCS since Season 3.
The RLCS Season 9 world championship has been canceled due to the spread of Covid-19 which is very unfortunate for the pro scene but as Psyonix quoted.“At Psyonix, we take the safety of our competitive players, fans, and personnel very seriously,” Psyonix wrote on the Rocket League official website. “Due to worldwide health concerns surrounding the developing situation around the Coronavirus (COVID-19), we are canceling the Rocket League Season 9 World Championship live event as scheduled from April 24-26 in Dallas, Texas.
Although this is a very frustrating time for the hardcore rocket league fans this was done keeping in mind the health of the audience. There is a silver lining in this, the pros who do live streaming and have a content creation outlet, are getting a lot more attention than it normally gets which, in some way, is better for the individuals on a personal level.
The RLCS is conducted on an international basis which normally results in a winner of a single team from all over the world, but this situation has changed the format and the RLCS is now being held region wise which basically makes a team of a particular region the champion of their native region due to which the pressure on the teams is considerably lower which results in a more competitive and quality competition. Now, this is something which is up for debate whether this approach to this kind of competition is better than LAN events or not.
Rocket League is a very content creation-friendly game which has resulted in a number of YouTubers who have influenced and changed the Rocket League skin scene in a very big way.
Some of the most famous content creators are:
Pickapixel (Matthew Barrett)
He is another YouTuber who’s channel is slowly rising and has recently reached the milestone of half a million subscribers. This is one of the YouTubers who hosts one of the best tournaments along with one of the best prizes of the lot. He is an upcoming and a very hard working individual who grinds towards the top and has a very rare and unique personality to come by.
SunlessKhan (Jared Zook)
A YouTuber who is one of the most famous faces of rocket league content on YouTube. His channel was on a slow rise for the last two years, which only recently became his full-time job. As he said himself at a point in time, his video “Why you suck at Rocket League” was the video that jump-started his YouTube channel catching the attention of more than he expected. He is a YouTuber with over 1.2 million subscribers and he is the third rocket league content creator to reach the milestone.
Amustycow (Wyatt)
He is a legendary YouTuber who created his own mechanic in Rocket League which is famously known as the ‘musty flick’. He is one of the most famous YouTubers alongside SunlessKhan who raced to 1 million subscribers and made a very big deal about it. He is the second YouTuber to hit a million subscribers in a Rocket League focused channel.
Jon Sandman
He is the first-ever YouTuber to ever hit a million subscribers, and still, to this day publishes a video every single day. He is a very hard working individual who is a very well deserved content creator winning over millions of people every single day He is a very important figure of the Rocket League community.
After all these opinions on the pro scene and the creative community of this game, as a gamer and one of the millions who play this game daily, I would definitely like to say that this is one of the many games which can be played in any mood or in any way you like. This is one of the only games which can be played with your friends and you can have the best day of your life. This game has both sides of the coin, either you play the game as casually as you want and have the most fun out of or you can sweat your hand muscles and grind to the top 100 in your region and be the best out of rest.
In the end, it is a video game and nobody likes to be upset while or after playing something which was meant to be fun to play and Rocket League delivers the exact thing which is the reason for its success.