FaZe Figures It Out, OCE’s Ultimate Spoilers, And More Takeaways From The First Set of RLCS Regional 3

A lot of RLCS teams’ seasons ended last weekend. Eight months of grinding ranked, scrims, and tournaments in order to try and reach a Major, and even the vaunted World Championships. For a small minority of squads, though, the final regional of their year is really just the start. With the last two RLCS events on LAN and two chances to be etched into history (one of which is also etched into Champions Field), the most exciting part of the Rocket League year is just beginning. Let’s get into it. 

NA Ends As It Began, As FaZe Figures It Out

Photo Courtesy of @ZeeboDesigns

When it was announced that Allushin was out and Sypical was in at FaZe Clan Rocket League, the hot takes flew like they hadn’t since Squishy joined NRG. To some, the former SSG cornerstone made perfect sense as a defensive mastermind complimenting two of North America’s most impressive offensive weapons. To others, the dirty work on the field, and leadership off of it, that Allushin brought would be sorely missed and the move would come back to bite FaZe in the long run.

For nearly two splits, the pessimistic view of the Sypical-Allushin move looked like the correct one. FaZe never looked truly in sync, and while they still placed well, the so-called superteam had failed to win a regional through five events. Fans lauded Sypical’s untimely open-net misses and pointed out every double-commit. Even when the team went on a strong lower bracket run in the Winter Major, one that included perfect sweeping BDS in a fashion so dominant that the roster broke up, detractors still pointed to their fourth-place finish. On Sunday, though, the critics were finally silenced, and NA came full circle; just as they won the season’s first tournament, the new-look FaZe was finally on top of the region.

They did it in style, too, by taking down the monolith G2 twice. For the first time since the Major, FaZe looked truly calibrated- especially Firstkiller and Sypical, who were a carball Kobe and Shaq throughout much of the nail-biting bracket reset in the final before Ayyjayy finally came alive in game 7. It was the FaZe that had been posed as a hypothetical monster when the Sypical move was first announced: a team containing three players who could hard-carry the other two on any given day, and a truly unstoppable offense when all three were peaking. FaZe is clicking at just the right time: possibly the worst sentence the rest of the World Championship teams could hear.

Kaka’s Minions Play The Ultimate Spoiler

Leading up to Championship Sunday, the team that would have been considered the ‘21-22 season’s greatest spoilers was Complexity, who sent SSG packing in the Fall Split tiebreaker and eliminated NRG from a shot at London this past weekend. Shad, Reysbull and AJG surely beat bigger-name teams, but in terms of their control over the destiny of others, they pale in comparison to Kaka’s Minions, the OCE team that literally eliminated, then un-eliminated a team from the Major. 

Consisting of former R!OT GAMING members Finn and kaka as well as new pickup Shorez, Kaka’s Minions had already had a solid debut split, finishing 3rd in the first regional and placing 5-6th in the second. They were an established threat, but as the final tournament loomed, talk surrounding OCE was mostly focussed on which of the region’s big three was going to knock another out of a LAN spot. None of PWR, Renegades, or Pioneers did the deed; instead, it was Kaka’s Minions, first sweeping PWR out of the lower quarterfinal and essentially ending their season in most people’s eyes.

All Renegades had to do was win one series, and they were in. Sadly, it was the lower final against Kaka’s Minions, who weren’t interested in having their villain role taken away yet. With a 4-3 win over Renegades, the fan favourites wouldn’t be appearing in London, and the trio that had seemingly ruined PWR’s chances at the Spring Major had now just blessed them a spot. Kaka’s Minions eventually lost out to Pioneers, the now clear-cut best team in the region and the only OCE team who look good enough to win a couple of series at the Major.

It was an especially tough go for Renegades, who lost two game 7s en route to their Spring Split being finished. It was also the end of a lesser-known RLCS event streak, as Kamiii had made seven straight LANs before this. Thankfully, it most likely won’t be the end of the Renegades season, as they would need both OCE teams to win a series, and Pioneers to get top 8, in order to lose their Wildcard placement. They’ll be gearing up to make a run in Dallas, and we suspect they’ll be scrimming Kaka’s Minions quite a bit. 

What’s Next For NRG?

The General NRG - Photo Courtesy of Psyonix

There are two possible outcomes for the future of NRG, Rocket League’s most beloved roster, following their miserable Spring. The first is the good ending, in which they bootcamp, figure out their issues, and perform well at Worlds (let’s say, anything higher than 3-4th, and if they lose, it’s to G2, Moist, or BDS). In that case, the team can recognize that they needed to be humbled and goes into RLCS ‘22-23 motivated and ready to return to the powerhouse they’ve been since the organization entered the esport half a decade ago. 

The bad ending is the opposite of that, where their performance in Dallas mirrors what happened in Los Angeles and the entirety of the Spring Split. At that point, what do you do? The easy answer is to replace someone, probably Squishy; he’s still a very good player, but Jstn and GarrettG are both better and too ingrained into the fabric of NRG Rocket League to be kicked at this point. But beyond a potential honeymoon phase, the (still, somehow?) defending RLCS champs may need more of an easy fix. A playstyle change? A team house, or travelling to bootcamp and play together during regionals? Who knows. What is apparent is that it sucks watching the world’s most notable team struggle. Hopefully, the solution comes soon.

Cola May Be MENA’s Next Powerhouse

The big news coming out of last week’s MENA tournament was that Team Falcons became the first team to sweep an entire season of regionals, going nine-for-nine. It’s an incredible feat, considering that MENA is either the third or fourth-best region depending on who you ask. Beyond Falcons and Veloce, who will likely be the two teams that MENA sends to Worlds and who both have a chance to win a series in the main event, there’s a third team that’s looked like a true competitor on the global stage: Cola. 

Cola won’t have a spot at the World Championship Wildcard even if MENA gets three spots because they were formed in the Spring, and they won’t be at the Spring Major because MENA only get one spot (something we advocated to change a few weeks ago). That means EU-NA only viewers won’t get a chance to see how good Ali, Nwpo, and Venom are, but the results speak for themselves. In just their third event together in regional 2, Cola beat Falcons in the upper bracket before inexperience cost them a regional against the titans in the grand final. This past regional, they entered the Grand Final with another bracket-reset lead on the Falcons, and managed to take two games from them before falling again.

To see a team this young chemistry and experience-wise compete with Falcons, who has faced little to no resistance from anyone else in the Middle East, sets up a rivalry for next season. Nwpo in particular has turned head, and his mechanical skill has gained the respect of elite players like Moist’s Rise, who praised him on Rizzo’s Chalked Podcast this past week. Cola’s rise is just another reason why you should be watching MENA RLCS next year, as the quality of play is getting scary high. 

Turbo Holds His Own, and Extends His Career In The Process

Team Envy’s Turbopolsa - Photo Courtesy of Beyond the Summit

It’s been tough watching Father Time come for the second generation of RLCS greats. Rizzo and Fireburner are long retired; ViolentPanda and Fairy Peak struggle to find a roster to make main event; GarrettG and Kaydop have gone from having chokeholds on their respective reasons to struggling to place within the top 6 (Nobody told JKnaps this was happening, apparently). None of these players are as decorated and have been dealt as much of a raw deal as Turbopolsa.

As early as the Fall Split, Turbo’s place in the RLCS elite didn’t seem in jeopardy; he had just come off a year with Envy in which they looked like a top-5 team in the world, and entered the Sweden major as NA’s #4 seed. Then, disaster: Envy bottomed out of Swiss with a 1-3 record, and Atomic left for G2. What followed was an extremely disappointing Winter that saw Envy miss the major, and Turbo’s subsequent benching for coach Allushin. As much as the Rocket League world loves Turbo, it was tough to say that the move to sub him wasn’t the correct one. Envy was third place in NA going into Regional 3, on track to take NRG’s spot in London. 

When it was announced that Allushin would be missing Regional 3 due to illness, Turbo was given the chance to prove his worth as an RLCS player. If Envy took an early exit and missed the Major, it would be tough to justify another roster picking Turbo up over a young player they could develop and improve with. But, like Turbo has done his entire career, he got the job done. Envy beat all the teams they were supposed to, secured a major spot, and Turbo even scored the game-winning OT goal against Akrew to secure top 6. It proved that he’s still good enough to contribute to a solid team and make good runs into regionals, which could keep his career alive for a whole lot longer. It may not be on Envy next year, look for Turbo to stay around, in NA or EU, for a while. 

Bonus: Nobody Is Talking About Envy’s 200IQ Roster Move

Team Envy’s Mist - Photo Courtesy of Psyonix

Speaking of Allushin, it isn’t spoken about enough how Envy was essentially able to break the RLCS’ transfer rules through a loophole in order to completely rebuild their roster in one split and keep all their points. When Atomic left for G2, Envy technically used their one roster move for the season on replacing him with Dreaz. But, they also picked up Allushin, who had just come off a fantastic performance at LAN, as their coach. In doing so, they were able to then replace Turbo with Allushin in the Spring Split without losing their Worlds points. Is it a rule that should be changed to be more consistent with the guidelines surrounding transfers? Yes. Was it a genius move anyway, that saved Envy’s season? Also yes.