The Season 7 Rocket League Championship Series Worlds are going to look a lot different than the last. It's partially because of the addition of an untested new region, South America, which will send two teams in the hopes of catching veteran teams off-guard. It's also due to a new groups format, which replaces the previous double-elimination approach and will surely alter the tenor of the weekend.
But after this past weekend's North American and European Regional Championships, we now know that the World Championship will also feel different thanks to a shake-up in qualified teams, with half of last season's combined NA/EU teams replaced – and a few giants on the sidelines. Didn't follow the action? Here's what you need to know ahead of June's RLCS World Championship in Newark, New Jersey.
NRG didn't lose a match throughout league play, notching their second-ever perfect 7-0 season. And they did even better at the North American Regional Championship: they didn't even lose a single game. A sweep against the inconsistent Rogue was hardly shocking, but when NRG repeated the 4-0 series feat against Cloud9 to secure the NA title, it erased any doubts that they're playing on a whole different level this season. And one of those latter wins included an 11:12 overtime, believe it or not.
They also swept all of the regular-season player accolades with their performances, with Justin 'Jstn' Morales taking overall MVP honours for the region. Of course, NRG had the heartbreaking World Championship defeat in Season 5 after blazing a path through the winners' bracket (and Jstn hitting the greatest shot of all time) – so they're undoubtedly hungry to finally cash in their regional winning ways for a world title. With a few weeks off until the World Championship, however, we'll have to wait and see whether NRG's momentum holds up 'til then.
Of course, Cloud9 have punched their own ticket to the World Championship as the NA runner-up, and the reigning RLCS champions have an opportunity to repeat the feat in Season 7. G2 Esports didn't have a very good run this past weekend, getting swept by Cloud9 in their only series – but they already secured a trip to Worlds. Hopefully this rejigged line-up (with Reed 'Chicago' Wilen in for former captain Cameron 'Kronovi' Bills) can erase the memory of bad back-to-back World Championship performances by G2.
Amazingly, Rogue pulled through and secured the final NA spot for Worlds, with captain Kronovi guiding the team from a rough 2-5 season to what will be his own fifth appearance at the RLCS finals. As of now, Rogue look like a longshot to make much noise in Newark, but Kro is an RLCS champion himself – he could rally this squad and surprise some people.
North American kept three of its four World Championship teams from last season, but Europe saw a huge shake-up: only one team is returning from last season. How the European Regional Championship ended up with that result was a bit of a shock.
Two of Europe's recent powerhouses, Dignitas and Team SoloMid, both had rough seasons – and we wrote just last week that one of those fan-favourites wasn't going to make the World Championship. Instead, both teams were cast aside. Dignitas punted TSM out with a 4-2 win, but then Dignitas couldn't seal the deal on its own Worlds slot, losing to PSG Esports in a shocking 4-1 defeat. Dignitas played in the last three World Championship grand finals, winning in Seasons 4 and 5, but the offseason loss of Alexandre ‘Kaydop’ Courant left the veteran squad with clear inconsistencies.
PSG Esports is the aforementioned lone returning squad, and the team has been consistently overlooked and undervalued amidst the region's powerhouses over the last two seasons. But the other three Season 6 teams (including The Bricks, the former FlipSid3 Tactics roster) didn't make it, and PSG is back. They'll be joined by Europe's two newest teams that rose up from the promotion tournament this season: Triple Trouble and FC Barcelona (ex-Savage!).
Ultimately, however, it was league play victors Renault Sport Team Vitality that won the European regional championship, surviving a close 4-3 match against PSG before knocking out FC Barcelona 4-2 to secure the title. It’s Kaydop's fifth-straight European championship, ever since claiming the Season 3 title with Mock-It Esports (alongside current teammate Victor ‘Fairy Peak’ Locquet), and his new tandem with the young Kyle ‘Scrub Killa’ Robertson has been hugely dominant this season.
Can Kaydop guide his new team to the World Championship title next month? If so, it would be his third Worlds win, tying him with former team-mate Pierre "Turbopolsa" Silfver.
South America's Grand Series also awarded the region's first-ever champion – Lowkey Esports – this past weekend, with INTZ eSports also heading to the World Championship next month. The region is a total wildcard, much like Oceania was back in Season 3. Oceania's first Worlds brought highs and lows, with one OCE roster upsetting an NA team and the other getting handily crushed, but we'll have to see how SAM fares this time around.
As for Oceania, the region won't pick its two Worlds representatives until this coming weekend, when the Gfinity Rocket League Oceania Masters series concludes. Renegades, the former Chiefs roster, ultimately finished league play in first at 6-1, while ICON Esports was next with the same match record but a couple of extra game losses to its name. Those are the same teams that have ruled Oceania for a while now and made it to Worlds last season, but maybe Out of Order or 1NE eSports OCE will pull off an upset this weekend.
It could be an arduous few weeks as we wait until June 21 for the RLCS World Championship, although the Promotion Tournament is coming up the weekend after next, plus DreamHack Dallas is the weekend after that. Until then, we're sure to be dreaming up amazing car-football battles in our heads and waiting to see whether Season 7's expanded World Championship will set the new standard for a Rocket League finals.