The Rocket League Spring Series, a month-long tournament designed to determine the best players in one of gaming’s more popular titles, will begin its first regional championship tournament on Saturday.
Here is all you need to know to get ready for the action:
INTRODUCTION TO ROCKET LEAGUE
Introduced for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 in 2015 by San Diego-based developer Psyonix, Rocket League mixes two of gaming’s most tried-and-true bedrocks: sports and cars.
For the Spring Series, Rocket League will be played on PS4, Nintendo Switch, Steam and Xbox One platforms.
Simply put, Rocket League is soccer played by cars. While elements of game play can vary (such as the number of cars on each team), most games are five minutes.
In May 2019, esports powerhouse Epic Games made major news with the acquisition of Psyonix. The move immediately had Rocket League fans and industry insiders alike wondering about the game’s fate. But with Psyonix having reportedly sold more than 10.5 million copies of Rocket League and with 57 million registered online players at the time of the sale, the league appears to be going strong, even with the coronavirus pandemic altering the league’s Season 9 World Championship.
ESPORTS SCENE
Like many other esports leagues around the world, Rocket League combines the skill of its competitors with the passion of its fans with various live events at venues that often sell out. Rocket League was hoping the Season 9 World Championship would be such an event, but the three-day final scheduled for April 24-26 in Garland, Texas, was canceled on March 5 because of the pandemic.
But like many other esports leagues, Rocket League Esports adapted and broke the world championship into a series of online-only regional events that collectively make up the Rocket League Spring Series.
ROCKET LEAGUE SPRING SERIES FORMAT
Matches will be three-on-three and will be five minutes long.
There are four regions in the Spring Series: Europe, North America, Oceania and South America. Regions will be staggered so as to allow the opportunity for fans to watch each region. Beginning this week, each region will play for six days (starting with open qualifying and ending with the grand final), followed by a day off, then the next region begins open qualifying.
With qualifying having begun in January, teams that already qualified before the coronavirus shutdown will be given automatic spots in their respective regions along with preferential seeding.
All open qualifying matches are double elimination and best-of-five. The playoffs will be double elimination and played over two days. All matches are best-of-five except for the loser’s bracket final, winner’s bracket final and grand final, all of which are best-of-seven.
Dates for each region:
—South America: Open Qualifiers on April 14-15, Spring Series on April 18-19
—North America: Open Qualifiers on April 21-22, Spring Series on April 25-26
—Oceania: Open Qualifiers on April 28-29, Spring Series on May 2-3
—Europe: Open Qualifiers on May 5-6, Spring Series on May 9-10
Payouts for each region:
—South America: $50,000
—North America: $125,000
—Oceania: $50,000
—Europe: $125,000
WHERE TO WATCH
Each region’s playoffs will be streamed on Rocket League Esports’ Twitch (www.twitch.tv/rocketleague) and YouTube (here) channels. Rocket League Esports has no official stream for open qualifiers, but the league encourages players and teams to stream their own qualifying matches.
Here are the dates/times for each region’s live streaming:
—South America: April 18-19 (show begins at 10:30 a.m. ET)
—North America: April 25-26 (2:30 p.m. ET)
—Oceania: May 2-3 (9:30 p.m. ET)
—Europe: May 9-10 (11:30 a.m. ET)
—Field Level Media
