E-sports are a relatively new phenomenon that has taken over the gaming world. From the days of Quake and Counterstrike to the Modern equivalents of Valorant and League of Legends. As games have evolved and become better and more complex over the years, E-sports have also risen in popularity along with gaming in general. But one E-sport stands out from the rest as being particularly unique from every other E-sport being played. It was not a shooter, or a top-down strategy or even a simulation of a real-life sport. No this was something entirely different a new game came out in 2016 that would change E-sports forever. This video game felt less like a video game and more like the creation of a brand-new sport. This game was called Rocket League and it would go on to be one of the biggest E-sports in the world.
What makes Rocket League Different?
Traditional E-sports have always been built around games with very clearly Defined genres. You have first person shooters, Moba’a, Strategy and many more of the traditional competitive multiplayer genres. The Popular genres have the highest dedicated fan bases that are as willing to watch the games as they are to play them by themselves. This is part of the biggest problems when it comes to growing E-sports as finding a game that is as fun to watch as play is difficult and is not a problem faced by most actual sports. This niche is perfectly fit with the creation of a game like Rocket League. In Rocket League the skill gap and skill ceiling present within the game and between pros and regular people is a lot more comparable to that of real professional sports. I’ll put it like this when one watches Pro Call of Duty players the game looks the same as any regular Call of Duty game. You have a sense that while their aim and positioning are superhuman there is a sort of feeling that says “I could do that” while watching a game like this. This applies to most E-sports, while the skill level is obviously extremely high, the games played by the pros tend to not look very different comparatively to an average game player by most gamers. This why for some It can be hard to get into E-sports because there is a sense that “why would I watch them play this when I could just do it myself”. This major problem with E-sports is completely solved through Rocket League and RLCS. Like with professional physical sports when you are watching an RLCS match you are sitting there one hundred percent certain that you would not even begin to be able to replicate what the pros are doing. The Rocket league control scheme allows for extremely precise and accurate movements to be made that take tremendous amount of skill and coordination in order to pull off. When you watch a RLCS match you see people flying all over the place in the air, passing the ball to teammates, and making incredible saves that the average gamer would look silly trying to replicate.
What RLCS Offers
Much like playing football in the front yard compared to watching the NFL, playing rocket league and watching RLCS are two very different experiences. The reason we love to watch professional sports is getting to see superhuman athletes face off against one another in the same way seeing the pro players who pulling off aerials, ceiling shots, and flip resets all while playing against some of the best players in the world. For players watching RLCS can not only help them get better at the game, but it gives a ceiling to aim for much like kids dream of pro athletes growing up. But there is no sugar coating how much better a pro on a RLCS team is even compared to the other top 10% of players. I believe the skill gap is truly comparable to the skill gap present between professional sports players and regular people. That is a large claim, but it can be understated the depth of the game of rocket league, more than any other game before it if feels like a new activity was created.
Why RCLS is Better than Other E-Sports Championships
Energy, whatever it is called inside a stadium when a goal is scored, or a touchdown is made. That live in person energy is one of the main reasons that’s sports are so popular, there is something special about the collective wishes of 100,000 people at once all in the same place, for the exact same thing, wishing for the same outcome. This is part of the reason college football and sports are so special because you will never find a more committed fanbase. This energy that gets brought to live sporting events is what makes sports special, and Rocket League has managed to capture that in RLCS. From the chants in the crowd, to the flags, to the team jerseys of favorite players that fans can buy. Everything about how RLCS is run makes it more comparable to a live sporting event rather than an E-sports LAN event. There is certainly energy in the air of other E-sports championships, I’m not denying this, but there is something different about the feel of a Rocket League grand finale. There is palpable tension in the air, people are extremely invested in the teams and orgs that they have watched throughout the season, it’s a total culmination of everything that make Rocket League special. It IS the E-Sport, more than StarCraft, CS GO, Dota, League, or any of the other possible popular genre. Rocket League is literally a virtual sport, one with the skill gap and ceiling of a real sport that allows player to really appreciate what the top 0.001% looks like. All of these reasons culminate in the RLCS tournament and make it must watch for most fans of the game.
