Welcome to Rocket Launching, a midweek RLCS column that discusses the happenings from the past week’s Rocket League action. Here are some of my favorite observations from the third week of RLCS Season 7.
The Best Goalkeeper in the World
So, this happened on Sunday (the audio glitch is loud, beware headphone users):
This is what JonTron would call “a bad one.” Triple Trouble are about to take a 1-0 lead in game one against PSG when Emil “Fruity” Moselund comes up with an impressive save off the inside of the post he lands upside down, Euan “Tadpole” Ingram moves into to score on the open net, and boom, the admins pause the game.
There was an audio glitch happening for the entire match that was deafening. The admins had two full minutes to stop the game, and when TT was about to score, they decided to pause it. This is pretty inexcusable and is not a good look for Psyonix’s quest to become a tier one esport. Tadpole was rightfully mad about the incident.
Pause the game as I’m about to score nice lads. I know my shooting accuracy is bad but at least give me a chance.
— Tadpole 🏴 (@TadpoleRL) April 21, 2019
Have a look through his account. The memes are juicy. Psyonix hasn’t released an official statement on the save, but they should. What if Triple Trouble wouldn’t have bounced back and won the series? What if that one game loss is the difference in relegation? Psyonix may have blood on its hands and they didn’t even say sorry for it.
Alpha54.exe Has Stopped Working
Some of my friends (we’re friends, right?) over on Reddit already mulled this over, and this clip is a gift that keeps on giving.
Evidently Yanis “Alpha54” Champenois’ controller disconnected right as he went to make the save. That makes since as his car reverses and the player’s last command is repeated when their controller disconnects and Alpha54 is reversing as the ball goes in.
Maybe Alpha just assumed the admins were going to make the save like /u/DoctorSwag suggested. I’d like to think that he carried out the script that Psyonix wrote for him. It’d be a pretty bold move to go down a goal on purpose.
It’s pretty funny either way. Even the pros make mistakes. Sometimes they’re a bit louder than others.
Relegation Scrum (NA)
In the first episode (edition? version? I don’t know) of Rocket Launching I compared NA to the Eastern Conference of the NBA. I think that comparison has proven true. NA’s Big Three of Cloud9, NRG and G2 are clearly on another level than the rest of the league.
What should we call the other five? The Frolicking Five? The Flatulence Five? Maybe the Frazzled Five? In Africa the little five are a group of small game animals, so maybe the Little Five? I don’t know. I’ll workshop that.
For now I’ll call them the Small Five (also a Jackson Five tribute band led by Chausette45). Ghost Gaming are the headliners, sitting at 0-4 in dead last. Ghost’s only hope is that they’ve already played the Big Three and even managed to take a game off NRG. Their lost to Splyce could end up being pretty damning though, and the team isn’t clicking.
Treyven “Lethamyr” Robitaille has proven himself as a player, but has struggled as a talent scout. I’ll never understand the addition of Braxton “Allushin” Lagarec, and that decision may be the last roster move Leth makes as an RLCS player.
Next is Splyce. Splyce are a fun team to cheer for, but they were absolutely bodied by Rogue. They lost by a combined score of 14-1. Oof. They still have G2, Evil Geniuses and Spacestation on the schedule. If they take a game off G2, sneak a series victory against EG or SSG and force the other series to five games they could narrowly escape bottom two.
They’ve shown they can play well, but Jamie “Karma” Bickford needs to pull the team together in these last matches. All three players are in the bottom six of GPG and they’re last in goals scored. They’re last in goals per game and second to last in goals allowed.
EG are 1-4, but face Splyce and Ghost in their last two matches. If they shore up their league-worst defense, they should be fine. You never know with EG though.
I’m actually more nervous about EG than any of these teams. They’re caught in this weird limbo where they’re good enough to make LAN but not even close to being a World Championship contender. There’s no shame in making LANs and cashing checks, but are Gabriel “CorruptedG” Vallozzi and Jason “Klassux” Klass good enough to contend for the title? I don’t think so. Are there any better options available? Probably not.
Rogue and Spacestation aren’t out of the woods yet, but they’re in a pretty good position. Rogue have Ghost and NRG, and SSG have Ghost, C9 and Splyce before the Rogue and SSG face each other. That match could decide the final playoff spot or the final bottom two spot. My money is on the former. Rogue and Spacestation have both played well throughout the season, but this season has been so unpredictable. Can you believe Dignitas are in last place?
Relegation Scrum (EU)
Yeah, so, Dignitas are still in last place. Many a great Alexandre “Kaydop” Courant memes have been birthed because of this, and for that we must rejoice. The world is a better place now…
For everyone except Maurice “Yukeo” Wiehs, Pierre “Turbopolsa” Silfver and Jos “ViolentPanda” van Meurs. Dignitas slammed mousesports 3-0, but they’re still 1-3, which is Mouz’s record right now too. I think Dignitas are still going to qualify for LAN. They still have great players and the Regional Championship format means that the third worst team from league play can still make the playoffs (which, could be a bit flawed).
They have The Bricks, Triple Trouble and Team SoloMid left to play. They’ll be favored in two of those series, and three wins should be enough to avoid the bottom two. The issue is no one knows which version of Dignitas we’ll see on Sunday. A loss to The Bricks or Triple Trouble could make things pretty sweaty for them going into that final TSM series though.
Speaking of sweaty, mousesports. Mouz need to beat two of Barcelona, PSG Esports or Renault Vitality. Given Vitality’s recent run of play, they need to put all their chips on Barca and PSG. Barca have lost to EU’s two best teams and are still an unknown quantity. PSG will lose to Triple Trouble and beat The Bricks on the same day.
Mouz’s stats aren’t bad. They’re middle of the pack in goals, assists and shots and are second in saves. Their defense is still allowing 2.56 goals per game despite their offensive success. They have the worst goal differential in the RLCS, but it’s never too late. I’m cheering for you, Mouz. I’ll buy one of your decals because five years from now it’ll be a collector’s item.
What should we make of The Bricks? They win WSOE, David “Miztik” Lawrie is playing his best Rocket League and they’re still 1-3. They have Barcelona, Dignitas and TSM left on the schedule. They could win any of those series. They could just as easily lose them though. They’re giving up 2.5 goals per game, but are scoring 2.2. If they can lock down the defense, they should be able to beat anybody.
It feels like heresy to say that Francesco “Kuxir97” Cinquemani could be relegated given he’s still one of the best five players in the world (off the top of my head: Kaydop, JSTN, Torment, Kuxir and probably Squishy or octane Fairy Peak). Kux is first in NA/EU in GPG and fifth in EU in saves. He’s also second to last in assists. All this Gibbs talk about “support role Kuxir” is a load of horseradish. Kux is still carrying hard.
Also The Bricks’ name is still dumb.
Barcelona are 1-2, so they still could get relegated, but I think they’re fine. They have Mouz, The Bricks, Triple Trouble and PSG left. Experience is important, and Dan “Bluey” Bluett and David “Deevo” Morrow have been around the block. If Alpha54 can get his controller sorted out and grab wins against Mouz and either The Bricks or Triple Trouble they’ll be clear of the line.
If Triple Trouble had beat Mouz they’d be a shoe-in for LAN in my book, but I have to include them in the scrum because they didn’t. Could you imagine if they were 3-1 with Vitality, Dig and Barcelona left on the schedule? They need to pick up a win against any of those teams, and they’ll be clear. Hopefully, no one pauses the game right as they’re about to score.
PSG could finish top two if they beat TSM this weekend. They’ve got Mouz, TSM and Barcelona left, so a 5-2 finish isn’t out of the question. If they had beat Triple Trouble they would have made me look so dumb for my unsupported comments last week (see last line of relegation scrum, EU). We can’t rule them out, but we can’t rule them in either.
I think it’s totally within play that a three-win team finishes bottom two. It sounds ridiculous, but the lower half of EU is so evenly matched there will be a ton of upsets and close series. No three-win team has ever finished bottom two. If everyone takes care of business against Mouz it’s in the cards.
TSM Has the Coolest Esports Items
I acknowledge that this is completely subjective, but TSM’s decals are so good. Just, so good, man. Look at them:
🚨The #TSM Rocket League items are live! 🚨
The TSM Octane Decal and TSM Player Banner are available from today until tomorrow. Hit up the @RocketLeague Esports Shop to get yours! 👏 pic.twitter.com/SlzlRfFunP— TSM (@TSM) April 20, 2019
This is what I’d call a spicy meatball:
Oh, that’s hot. That’s hot. With the TSM Apex? Goodbye, tax return, hello TSM items.
I also bought a Renault Vitality octane because it actually makes you better at the game. I finally hit Gold One with it equipped along with my hard hat and pickle boost.
So that’s it for a shorter, more relegation focused Rocket Launching this week. Tune in next week to find out if The Bricks’ name will still be dumb (spoiler alert, it will be).
Featured image courtesy of Team SoloMid.
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