The End Of “Minor Regions”, The Importance Of Mechanics, and More Takeaways From The RLCS Spring Major
Copper Box Arena - photo courtesy of Psyonix
If you’re a fan of Rocket League esports, you might want to consider booking a spa day sometime in the next month. We just came off what may be the single most stressful LAN in history, with unthinkable upsets, all-time classic series, and perhaps the greatest lower bracket run in the history of the game. Favourites fell early, underdogs prospered, and London continued its legacy of being Rocket League’s premier location. Let’s take a look at what we learned from LANdon 2.0.
The Term “Minor Region” Is Outdated, And Frankly, Just Plain Wrong
Team Falcons’ OKhalid - photo courtesy of Psyonix
When South America and Oceania were given the chance to represent themselves in the RLCS years ago, it was seen as a long-term project to help the most promising teams and players in each region gain experience so they’d eventually catch up to the powerhouses in Europe and North America. For the longest time, series at Worlds that featured OCE and SAM teams were seen as formalities; a reward for the highest-seeded EU and NA teams to breeze through. Whenever one of those teams did pull off a win, fans reacted as if they’d just seen pigs fly.
Thus the term “minor region” was born; a way to refer to non-NA and EU regions, since nobody took them seriously anyway. Yet as LAN Rocket League returned post-COVID, teams from these so-called “minor regions” began to show signs of life; first, it was the long-awaited debut of Sandrock Gaming in the RLCS Fall Major, where they made it through Swiss before losing to NRG. Then, in the Winter Major, FURIA won their group and narrowly lost to eventual champion G2 and eventual runner-up Moist in two tightly contested series.
LANdon will be remembered for a lot of things, but the most important thing that occurred was that it signified the end of the “minor region” era. Call them smaller regions, sure: they have less of a player base. But the best of those players have done more than enough to prove that they can keep up with anybody. Once again, FURIA proved themselves to be the real deal, rebounding from a first-round whooping at the hands of Karmine Corp to make top 6 and come less than a minute from reverse sweeping the very team that sent them to the lower bracket in the first place. Falcons, the organization that picked up Sandrock Gaming, looked like the favourites to win the entire tournament from the first game they played, only falling short in the Grand Finals to the anime protagonists that are Joyo, Rise, and Vatira.
Should FURIA have held on to that final game in their Karmine rematch, we would have had a final day that included four teams from four different regions. But even before their and Falcons’ deep runs, non NA and EU teams were making noise in the bracket. BDS, considered one of the two favourites to win the tournament, couldn’t even take a single game from SAM #2 seed Team Secret or OCE upstarts Pioneers, who also came one game from defeating Spacestation in their first series of the major. It’s time to start respecting the best of every region for what they are: the cream of the crop, in a game that can finally, truly, be called global.
Elite Mechanics Are No Longer A Nice Addition; They’re Required
FURIA’s yanxnz - photo courtesy of Psyonix
Take a look at the final six teams that were standing in London. There was only one team that featured less than two mechanically gifted players. That team was Version1, led by a historic performance by perhaps the greatest defender in history and the world leader in creating havoc on the pitch. Without heavily specialized players like Torment and Comm, there simply isn’t room for teams who can’t put two mechanical wizards on the attack.
Before Spacestation played Moist in the lower quarterfinals, TBates said something that best summed up the present-day meta. When explaining his reasoning for picking Moist, despite having a reputation as the most NA-biased man on Earth, he offered this: “When SSG plays these mechanical teams, they’ve shown they have a great gameplan, and execute it well. But a gameplan can only seem to bring them so far.” It was a summary for the entire tournament, in which veteran teams who usually made up for their lack of mechanics with better gamesense still couldn’t keep pace with the pure skill of their opponents.
Going forward, teams are going to start having to make decisions regarding their roster. Do you drop the proven winner who’s relied on experience for the young mechanical monster? It doesn’t always work out: look at BDS, who dropped the very Comm-like Marc_by_8 for Seikoo and flamed out. But on the flipside, there’s a possibility that not being mechanically brilliant takes you out of contention completely. It’s not a coincidence that the grand finals featured possibly the most mechanically talented matchup to ever play on LAN. In the ever-changing meta of the RLCS, the newest standard has been set.
Team Liquid Will Be Sorely Missed In Dallas
Team Liquid - photo courtesy of Psyonix
We’ve talked a lot about the rise of Team Liquid, a squad that seemed to nearly skip the “young, inexperienced bubble roster” phase completely to become a top-three team in Europe after only one split together. Still, questions surrounded the team as they travelled to London. Some people saw them as an immediate contender to win the tournament, while others were skeptical about their lack of LAN experience. Yet like they’ve done all Spring, Liquid showed out and proved that they’re going to be a force in years to come.
The concerns around Liquid going into London seemed to be on full display in their first-round loss to Falcons, where they looked outpaced and uncomfortable. We didn’t know it at the time, but that wasn’t a knock on Liquid; besides Moist and Arsenal, nobody could keep up with them. It was a case of a bad matchup and nothing more: Liquid had simply run into a team that did what they’re good at better than them. Once they got the jitters out, things looked a lot better. They ran over PWR in the lower round 1 before pulling off a brilliant reverse sweep of defending champions G2 in what may have been the most impressive win of the entire event. Their elimination at the hands of Moist was nothing to be ashamed of, either; they pushed the champs five games and could’ve easily come away with the victory if a few more things had gone right.
While Worlds will certainly still be a blast, and looks to cap off the most exciting season in the history of the RLCS, it’s a shame that Liquid won’t be able to participate. They’re clearly better than some of the European teams that made it - I’m not sure there’s a single fan of the esport that would rather see SMPR, who haven’t been a real contender since the Fall and have since lost their superstar, compete instead of Liquid. The only silver lining is that when your favorite team loses, you can say Worlds was a Mickey Mouse tournament because Liquid wasn’t there.
Moist Can’t Seem To Just Beat Teams; They Have To Break Them
Moist Esports - photo courtesy of Pysonix
Since Moist began their reign of terror over the RLCS at the beginning of the Winter Split, the phrase “plot armor” has been used to describe their runs in regionals and LANs regularly. At the Winter Major, the way that they blitzed the lower bracket was anything but one-sided; it was a string of tightly contested series that went down to the wire, in which Moist, then Team Queso, would miraculously pull off a victory. They’re constantly finding ways to take down their opponents in the most heartbreaking ways, and that trend only continued at LANdon.
Moist’s journey to the title at the Spring Major started eerily similar to their Cinderella run in LA, with another early loss at the hands of supervillain Comm. Once they dropped to lowers, though, it seemed like they weren’t satisfied with just beating teams; they had to break their soul and win in a fashion that made them seem inevitable to anyone who crossed their path next. They stomped Pioneers, who were riding a high from sweeping BDS. They came back from a 2-1 series deficit and eeked out a win versus Liquid in a thrililng game 5. They stole game 7 away from Spacestation through a kickoff goal that left Arsenal wondering if God was testing him. In their rematch with V1, they erased any ideas that they had a kryptonite in a sweep that seemed personal.
Though Moist had been seconds from elimination multiple times throughout the tournament, they were the clear-cut best team at the event. So long as they’re able to avoid what may be a budding Major-winner curse given how G2 and BDS did following their respective victories, Moist is young, mechanical, and clutch enough that we could be witnessing the dawn of a dynasty before our very eyes. They haven’t just beaten everyone - they’ve placed a mental block on the competition, and proven that no matter how well you play, they can find a way to crush you. We’ll have to see who has the mental to overcome that and finally take down the best Rocket League team on the planet.
Day 4 May Well Be The Best Day Of Rocket League, Ever
It wasn’t an unpopular opinion that compared to the highs of the Winter Major, LANdon 2.0 had been underwhelming through its first three days. Besides most of the favourites going down early, fans had been subjected to a record number of sweeps. Upsets were fun, but what makes Rocket League so exciting to watch are those close games and long series, where the team you’re rooting for is an outplay away from winning and a mistake away from losing. Through three days, there had been little of that.
In just a single day, LANdon went from a snoozer to arguably the greatest Rocket League tournament ever played. Finally in front of a crowd, the remaining teams gave the fans a show like the esport had never seen. Following a FURIA sweep over OpTic to open the day, Saturday had every series go down to the wire. There were two serious attempts at a reverse sweep, both of which ended with the team who was originally down 3-0 blowing a lead of their own in the final seconds. It had the entire community in pandemonium, a rare moment where it felt like every single person with a vested interest in the game was focussed on the exact same thing.
If you were to try and convince a friend of yours who wasn’t keyed into Rocket League esports to watch, there may never be a better argument than simply telling them to tune in that Saturday. It had everything that makes the RLCS so spectacular; nail-biting series, otherworldly highlights, and underdog comebacks. You’d have to go back to January’s enthralling Bills-Chiefs playoff game to find a day where it was as good to be a sports fan, virtual or otherwise. Most of all, it was a perfect payoff for hardcore fans who spent their weekends watching regionals and keeping their Shift post notifications on for even the most minute of roster moves. In layman’s terms, Day 4 was Rocket League.
Bonus: The Most Satisfying Call Of All Time
Most people that follow the RLCS know about the long wait that Falcons endured before finally being given the chance to play in the pros. Their run to the grand finals was satisfying in itself, a validation that they’ve belonged here for a long time. But there was one moment that really wormed its way into my heart, and it wasn’t a goal, or a save, or a reaction from one of the players. It was Johnnyboi saying a single phrase: “Khalid, with the mind game…”
For anyone who knows the instrumental role that Johnny played in providing opportunity for Khalid and the rest of Falcons to make a name for themselves, you’d probably heard him say that on stream countless times. Fakes were a signature for OKhalid during his run as the clear-cut best 1v1 player in the world, and that was always Johnny’s response. To hear it in front of a packed house and over 100,000 people watching online was heartwarming. Both parties had put so much time and effort for Falcons to get to that point, and it represented a culmination of all of that. It was wonderful.