There have been in-game titles for Dreamhack winners + ESL Monthlies and other pre-COVID LANs given to the winners of those tournaments, but since the open circuit began no such titles have been given
Some people might argue it's already the case with the EWC win. Others might say Trk's longevity and influence on the region from his SRG days still puts him ahead.
If you're part of the latter group, what's the smallest accomplishment RW9 and Kiileerrz need to become the GOATs of the region?
I was reminiscing on some of my favorite series that have happened in the open era (when i started watching rlcs) and whilst a lot of my favorite series comes from LANs, i seem to remember a lot of incredible online series that I feel people don’t discuss or talk about often. For me, G2 vs Envy in Fall Regional 3 in the 21-22 season is one of my favorite series of all time since it was so back and forth. Not to mention this is when the grand finals did best of 3 SETS and the two teams ended up going to game 21 😭
A great upset is one that is obviously a large disparity in perceived skill between 2 teams, but not 100%. A great upset also must be significant, the bigger the stage, the higher the stakes, it all adds to the greatness of an upset.
My previous candidate for the greatest upset in RLEsports history was at the RLCS Season 4 World Championship in 2017, when the Chiefs eSports Club (Drippay, Torsos & Jake) eliminared NRG (Fireburner, Jacob & GarrettG) 3-2. Some necessary context being that OCE had only made it's RLCS debut 6 months prior, where said Chiefs roster (then Alpha Sydney) had won their opening round match vs Denial Esports, consisting of Lethamyr, CorruptedG & Sadjunior.
With the height of respect to Denial, in a season where G2 Esports completely bottled worlds qualification (Sadjunior won a game vs them on KBM), and the Muffin Men didn't even qualify for RLCS, along with the generla state of NA Rocket League outside of NRG being pretty poor, it all made for the stars aligning to allow OCE to come in and be victiorious on debut.
Fastforward 6 months and the game had changed significantly. All the top dogs in NA had qualified and planted their flag. G2 was the NA #4 seed, a potentially vulnerable one given how hard Jknaps had to carry them just to make worlds, but Chiefs couldn't even beat them round 1 and was sent to lowers, where they had to play NRG.
No longer the kings of NA, but not for a lack of skill, they had literally won the XGames Invitational to finally get over the LAN hump just a few months prior, and even just 4 weeks before worlds, placed 3rd at the Northern Arena Invitational. Hell, they were only in lowers after losing 3-2 to Method in round 1, even back then your top 8 matches at worlds weren't freebies.
Safe to say, Denial Esports this match was not, but they won. It was one thing to beat the NA 4 seed who realistically would be NA 5 or 6 if you ran it back, it was another to beat proven elite players who had mixed it with the world's best only a few months prior, as your 2nd ever international victory. It changed the game and added so much legitimacy to OCE, and the world, destroying notions that the game only had potential in it's 2 major regions.
Whatever you think of OCE now, they at least have a back catalogue of great wins under their belt, this was a time they might as well have had 0. And they beat NRG. OCE beat NRG.
Was Chiefs 3-2 NRG the biggest upset in terms of a skill difference? Absolutely not, but that match is still one of the most significant results in Rocket League history. And in an elimination match at the World Championship too? Pretty high stakes as well.
So you might ask, what does TSM beating NRG last week have to do with this? After all, especially given NRG's struggles at the Paris Major, and TSM/APAC now establishing themselves to not be fodder at LANs, in terms of skill it's not the biggest upset ever. Hell, from this season alone, FUT losing to Chippy Chips or NiP's random qualifier loss to F9 Eicar in open 1 are bigger skill gaps by a landslide.
The reality is in eveyone's heart of hearts, barring a huge sustained change of the status quo in the future, however poor people perceive OCE, APAC is a tier below. It is a newer region, with less support, less backing and overall less pedigree than OCE, the region that was so bad it literally lost a LAN spot.
Simultaneously, NRG, while not at the peak of their powers, it's not like they were finished like the prior edition of NRG that died a slow painful death. Perception is often reality, and rightly or wrongly, Atomic Beastmode & Daniel is gonna be perceieved pretty damn highly until something unspeakable happens. Sure, the Paris major stunk but it would take a lot more than that to erode the Boston Top 4 or more importantly, the fact they are the reigning world champions. .
And I do think it's that simple, because when you spell if out like this:
>APAC beats World Champions
What tops that? It wasn't RLCS but it was at a major LAN in a critical round 1 game, one that eventually condemned NRG to elimination at the hands of Twisted Minds. Also, unlike VP's LAN wins in 2025, this APAC roster is majority APAC natives thanks to the 2/3 rule, and ain't no way most people thought they could maintain a similar level after having to replace Sosa with Kevin.
Sure, we don't know the future implications, realistically, this NRG roster has already reached the end of it's road, and this will just be a once off for TSM barring a remarkable uptick in form and ability for them. But I genuinely think for something to top TSM defeating NRG (who are also considered among the Top 3 Greatest Rosters of all time let's not forget), it would need our friends in Sub-Saharan Africa getting their first win internationally vs a top dog, but an actual top dog, because even now, how does APAC claim a greater scalp? Making top 8 would be a more significant result for them, but the skill gap would be shrunk because they themsevles are getting more wins now. But in isolation, if they can beat the world champions, they can beat a lot of teams.
Either way, I welcome the day I may have to update this post, because it means something beyond my comprehension will have actually happened, but for now, in my opinion, TSM defeating NRG 3-1, by virtue of it being an APAC team defeating the reigning World Champions, is the greatest upset in Rocket League Esports history.
And let's not forget the most important and significant streak: M0nkey M00n winning worlds every two years at Dickies Arena
Its really hard to tell judging by the recent EWC 2026 event since many underdogs managed to win/deliver and many teams were underperforming. My picks though are falcons, twisted minds, karmine corp if they can get on good form, and same with gentle mates. However it is really back and forth and hit and miss with alot of the teams so my consistent picks are falcons and twisted minds. Id like to hear your guys thoughts
Some interesting stats: Falcons Received the least demos.
Twisted had the most Goals per game, but were 4th worst at goals conceded.
KC went to 4 OTs, lost all.
I feel like there’s a pretty interesting gap between playing ranked seriously and actually getting into organized competition...
Ranked is obviously easy enough to access. The hard part seems to come after that.
Finding a consistent team, finding tournaments that actually fit your level, getting regular competitive experience, figuring out where you stand... there’s a lot going on.
For people here who’ve actually made that transition, what was the hardest part?
Was it finding teammates? Finding tournaments? Getting enough practice together? Or just figuring out where to go next?
Do you think the current grassroots scene does a good job of connecting players with opportunities... or is there still a missing step between ranked and the more established competitive scene?
Curious to hear what you guys think!
By “format,” I don’t only mean the format of the Majors or LAN events, but rather the qualification systems, scheduling, number of LANs, etc.. anything related to enhancing the quality of RLCS while taking logistical limitations into consideration.
Does anybody else find watching 1v1 more entertaining than 3s? It just seems so much more on a knife edge and dramatic.
Plus since it's 1v1, rivalries are so much deeper.. instead of teams having rivalries its just two people. Like Scrub Killa v Fairy Peak back in the day, or Zen vs RW9 at the end of Zen's 1s streak. I just think there's way more potential for salt in this game mode, and I think this will play out over time in RLCS when rivalries start forming across seasons. I also believe that there will eventually be more long-term champions, since obviously players cant switch teams, which I like.. since 3s sometimes feels like a bit of a coin toss for which team will come out on top these days.
Just vouching for 1s RLCS in general, I hope more focus gets put on it.
When i see someone create a super team they go with the boring selections (zen, vati, mm, dralii, nass, rw9, dan ,bmo) rarely do i see someone choose kiileerz. Imo he is my 1st pick, he is arguably the best shooter in the game and is still mechanical and can defend at the same level as his brother.
Who do you think is going to be first to win a major, a wc, an ewc/gamers8 and a fifa e. In my opinion, its probably a french player probably vatira (needs a wc) or zen (needs a ewc), but the twins are very close too (need a wc) and dralii (needs a fifa e) but i dont think morroco is that strong to win it.
Obviously that's been a debate for quite some time now, especially after Worlds 2025 with zen failing to make playoffs and KC getting knocked out in semis yet again. Now obviously, both team's upcoming Worlds result will have a significant impact on wether or not either move will happen, but i'm gonna be focusing on the current state of things for now
I think there are a lot of factors to consider going into this debate:
First, I went for +Atow and not +vatira, In part because of Atow teaming up with zen in 2s, which has showcased how absolutely dominant their partnership can be, but also because I don't see vatira leave the team at all in the near future. And I don't even say that out of favoritism, this guy has been the face of Karmine for 4 seasons now.
However, the same could be said for zen and Vitality. Obviously he's the best player to ever play the game so far, and it's fair to say Vitality definitely don't want him gone. The way I see it is, it's been a while since he won any significant tournament with them, which might weigh on him. Not that he has anything to prove anymore, but the lack of club trophies since 2023 despite all the changes might be a legitimate reason to leave. We also can't ignore the memes and criticism around his teammates; I can't remember how many 1v3 comments I saw whenever Vitality was not performing enough, justified or not. But at the end of the day, just like how vatira is the face of KC, zen is the face of Vitality and he himself may not rush to the exit just yet.
Then comes the hard question: can either team afford those moves? It shouldn't be a problem for Vitality, but KC is definitely in trouble on that point. They signed dralii before by lowering Atow and vatira's salaries, but is zen's price tag cheap enough for this method to be employed again? Hard to say. Not only that but IIRC, zen is still under contract with the beehive until 2027.
But what do you guys think?
What do you think is the best single season ever by a team? I’m extremely bias and think 2024 G2. literally didn’t place lower than top 2 regionally and internationally. only thing holding them back from unanimously being the greatest is they only won 1 international, that being a major.
also i know they didn’t place top 2 in ewc but they played with a sub so that obviously doesn’t count and still placed respectable at top 4 anyway if i remember correctly.
what do you guys think?
Okay so monkeymoon exotiik didn’t work out for zen. I understand giving stizzy a chance cause of last season but zen can’t just keep teaming with exotiik because he’s his friend anymore…
MonkeyMoon still retains a strong hold at number 1, the twins both enter the top 5 and Drali enters the top 10. Obviously the fact that EWC has a huge prize pool influeces the list massively but I want to see people's thoughts on this list right now anyways.
Day 5 of the Esports World Cup, 16th August 2026 in Paris
Show begins around 3:30pm CEST (2:30pm BST, 9:30am EDT)
Matches begin around 4pm CEST (3pm BST, 10am EDT)
Main Streams:
YouTube - Rocket League Esports
Liquipedia | EWC Website | Blast
