Season 6 starts this weekend

Here’s what you need to know about the 16 RLCS teams

September 7, 2018 - 17:10
Rocketeers / RLCS / Spotlight /

Finally! The wait is over. Season 6 of the RLCS begins this weekend, and I bet that you guys are as excited as I am. There are lots of questions regarding this season: Will Dignitas reign supreme once more? How will the newcomers like Mousesports settle in? Will Scrub Killa be as dominant as his fans expect? How will G2 perform this season? And can Flyquest continue to surprise everyone?

16 teams are playing in the EU and NA RLCS, and it’s easy to lose track of what has changed since the last season. We want to provide you with an overview so that you know which storylines to follow.

EU Region

The broadcasts of the EU region are on Sunday over at the official Rocket League Twitch channel. Make sure to tune in starting 9:00 AM PDT (4:00 PM UTC). Here’s what you need to know about the 8 teams from Rocket League’s strongest region.

Team Dignitas

All eyes are set on the World Champions. But that’s not something that worries Kaydop, Turbopolsa and ViolentPanda too much. These guys are used to the pressure. They won two championships in a row. Turbopolsa even has three World Championship titles to his name. The former GaleForce roster seems to work even better ever since their transfer to Dignitas, which is why it makes sense that there are pretty much no changes apart from the fact that JHZER is their new substitute player. Why change a winning team?

Dignitas come into this tournament with a lot of confidence, but they’re not unbeatable. For example: They “only” finished in second place in Rocket Baguette’s “The Play” tournament, losing to Triple Trouble 1-4 in the Finals. Dignitas are of course the favorites in the EU region, but defending the title once more will be probably their hardest mission yet.

Renault Vitality

Vitality is the team that’ll will be close on Dignitas’ heels, and the main reason for that is Scrub Killa. The young phenom and Rocket League wunderkind is heading into his first RLCS season. Fans and critics alike are wondering if Scrub will live up to the hype. There are two scenarios: Either Scrub Killa dominates RLCS with his unique talent or he’s simply doing well enough to earn Vitality a spot in the upper half of the league.

Scrub comes in as replacement for Paschy’s and FairyPeak’s long-time teammate Freakii. It remains to be seen how the team’s chemistry pans out with this new line-up, but Scrub’s talent is undoubtedly a huge asset for any team, and Vitality are definitely among the strongest looking teams in EU.

CompLexity Gaming

It’s actually a strange look from the outside if a team that finished top 3 in two consecutive World Championships switches out a player. But that’s what CompLexity did, and according to team captain al0t they had good reasons to do so. Metsanauris has been replaced by Rocket League veteran gReazymeister, a roster change that actually spawned a lot of critique from CompLexity’s fans. Many of them will inspect carefully how the new roster performs, and if it can actually get even better results than in the two previous seasons.

We Dem Girlz

WDG is the only team without a proper organization, but the three players are all experienced professionals: remkoe, EyeIgnite and Metsanauris have been released by their former org Envy, and are currently looking for new representation as EyeIgnite told us in our recent interview. Last season, they made it to the World Championship in London, but seemed overall not in their best shape. They’ve switched out long-time teammate Deevo and brought in CompLexity’s Metsanauris to complete this new strong-looking roster.

Flipsid3 Tactics

F3 are still on their quest to reclaim their former Rocket League glory. The start of last season saw the biggest roster change in the history of the team, as Markydooda left and was replaced by newcomer Yukeo . Since then, Flipsid3 are doing okay-ish, but not too spectacular. They missed out on two World Championships in a row, and without any changes I doubt that they will qualify for Worlds in Season 6. However, F3 are always good for a surprise: They finished NARLI2 on 3rd place and have shown time and time again that under the right circumstances they can beat any team on the planet.

PSG eSports

There are few teams who were as disappointing in RLCS Season 5 as PSG. They had moments of genius, only to fall apart one game later. Coming from their impressive Dreamhack Leipzig performance, they were set on being a favorite in the EU region, but didn’t even qualify for the World Championship, which apparently caused a lot of trouble within the roster. After a couple of unwise remarks about his teammates, Bluey, who was arguably the strongest player on the roster, was first benched, and then allowed to leave the team entirely to form a new squad (which qualified for RLRS).

Bluey’s replacement is Fruity, a highly talented player, but whether or not he can fill Bluey’s shoes remains to be seen. It was obvious that PSG needed to change something in order to achieve the results that meet their own requirements, but only the upcoming weeks will show if letting Bluey go was the right decision.

Fnatic

The last season was like a warning shot for Fnatic. To say that the roster underperformed would be an understatement. Fnatic finished last with a 1-6 record, were sent into the Promotional Playoffs where they managed to secure their RLCS spot by defeating Team Secret. Now they aim at redeeming themselves. With MummiSnow as replacement for Sikii they want to show the Rocket League world that they actually deserve to be in the upper house of Rocket League esports.

Mousesports

Mousesports is the newcomer team in the RLCS. The former Servette roster plus Tigreee as a replacement for MummiSnow were signed by one of the most historic esports organizations in the world. However, their first season will most likely be a tough one. Tigreee, Alex161 and Skyline definitely have the skill to secure their spot for next season, but the competition in this year’s RLCS is stronger than ever before.

The first week will already show if Mousesports can keep up with the competition. They have to play two matches on their first day of RLCS: one against Fnatic, the other against Vitality. If they can withstand this pressure, then they’ll get so much confidence that a lot of things are possible for Mousesports even in their first season of the RLCS. But as I mentioned: It’s going to be tough!

NA Region

The broadcasts of the NA region are on Saturday over at the official Rocket League Twitch channel. Make sure to tune in starting 12:00 PM PDT (7:00 PM UTC). Here’s what you need to know about the 8 teams from NA:

Cloud9

SquishyMuffinz, Torment and Gimmick are a strange phenomenon. Last season, there were times where the Cloud9 roster just didn’t look like itself. Their way into the World Championship was paved with moments of inconsistency. However, once they reached the finals, Cloud9 performed in a fashion that left us at times wondering if this team might actually win the whole tournament. In the end, they finished on 4th place.

Now it seems as if Cloud9 have stabilized again and have their old strength back. Squishy and Gimmick won the Universal Open (a 2v2 tournament) just recently, defeating high-profile teams from NA and EU. They seem prepared for Season 6 of the RLCS. Let’s just hope it stays that way.

G2

There’s this false narrative of G2 being an inconsistent team. In general, this storyline that for some reason just stuck with G2 is an absurd one as a look on their major tournament performances indicates. However, the most recent events have shown that G2 are currently not in their best shape. The World Championship in London was a desaster for Kronovi, Jknaps and Rizzo. (animalmedicalcenterinc.com) They lost both their matches (including a 0-3 against CompLexity) on the big stage which was even more disappointing given the fact that they’d finished on 1st place in the NA region. This season is in a lot of ways an important milestone for G2 to show that they’re still as strong as they’ve ever been.

There are very different ways how this season could turn out for G2, but if they can shake off the disappointing end result of an otherwise fantastic season 5, then Kronovi and his boys will easily be one of the top 3 teams in NA again.

Evil Geniuses

One of the biggest surprises of the last World Championship was the performance of Evil Geniuses. Sure, they didn’t manage to secure a top spot, but still: Watching Klassux, CorruptedG and Chrome play gave me the impression that this team can go places in Season 6. Apparently, things on the inside weren’t as bright and colorful as they seemed from the outside, and only a few days after the World Championship the team announced that they’d move Chrome into an inactive role. His replacement is Chicago, a very talented player who was on the original Dignitas roster before they acquired GFE’s World Championship winning team.

With Season 6 coming up, Evil Geniuses are still one of the top 4 teams in NA, and if Chicago can unfold his talent, we might be in for a surprise.

NRG

There’s just no question about it: NRG is the best team in NA, and probably the second best team in the world. If there’s one team that might give Dignitas a run for their money, it’s NRG. Fireburner, GarrettG and former rookie jstn are playing so incredibly good together, and after falling once again to Dignitas at NARLI2, they’re probably sick and tired of finishing on 2nd place. Sadly, Dignitas and NRG won’t meet before the World Championship. Until then it’s up to NRG to reinforce their dominance in NA. Just a friendly reminder: This is still the team that didn’t lose a single match during S5 League Play.

Ghost Gaming

Ghost are seemingly still struggling to find that one missing piece to their line-up. Zanejackey and Lethamyr have made another roster change. Between season 4 and 5 Klassux had to leave and was replaced by Matt who now got kicked after only one season with Ghost Gaming. His replacement is Memory, a player who’s not really a newcomer, but who never managed to find his place in the upper league of Rocket League. He played for Spacestation, Hollywood Hammers and SetToDestroyX – just to mention a few of his stations. The opportunity to play for Ghost Gaming might be a deciding moment in the spotlight of the RLCS. Can he bring the stability to the roster of Ghost Gaming?

Rogue

Rogue were off to a fantastic start in RLCS S5. In their first week they won both matches. But then things seemed to fall apart, and given what we know now, there were good reasons for the tough weeks that followed: Apparently there were quite some troubles between Insolences and his two teammates Jacob and Sizz. This led to an onimous tweet by Jacob which spawned rumours of a mid-season roster change of some sort.

In the end, Insolences and Rogue pulled themselves together and finished the season as a trio with a 3-4 score on 5th place, but shortly after the season concluded, Insolences was kicked for his alleged lack of motivation. The new guy on the team is no other than Joro who was a fan favorite with The D00ds. With this roster, and if the team gets enough hours of practice in, Rogue might perform better than most of us might expect. I’m not suggesting that they’re necessarily going for a top 4 spot, but Jacob is always good for a surprise.

Flyquest

There’s some danger in dominating RLRS, finishing almost unbeaten with a 6-1 record on 1st place and then qualifying for the RLCS: You might get too overconfident. And even if the RLRS skill level is quite high, there’s still quite a difference between your average RLRS opponent and an RLCS team. So far, Flyquest have taken the NA region by storm, but their disappointing two losses at NARLI2 against PSG and F3 have shown that they still have work to do, if they want to secure their spot in the RLCS – and their first week is already a huge challenge: Not only will they face Allegiance, the second team that got promoted, and that will fight for survival in the RLCS, but they also have to take on NA’s strongest team: NRG.

Allegiance

The final team that we want to take look at is Allegiance. They’re the second team that managed to get promoted to the RLCS, and surviving in the upper class of Rocket League will definitely be a challenge. TyNotTyler, Sea-Bass and Allushin are facing G2 and their rivals Flyquest in their first week. In case these matches don’t go well, it will be tough to make a comeback.

Who are your favorites going into RLCS S6? Head over to our Rocket League Discord server and discuss it with the community.
Dorian Gorr
Dorian discovered Rocket League when it first came to PS4. He stopped playing after he saw the RLCS for the first time and became discouraged from trying any more miserable Aerials. As a journalist with more than a decade of experience working for many of the biggest German media companies he now lives out his Rocket League passion as Head Editor for Rocketeers.gg
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