While the world of 3v3 competitive Rocket League continues to heat up, its other playlists tend to miss out on the limelight. Rocket League 1v1 is virtually unrecognized in official tournaments, but Twitch and YouTube content creator John ‘Johnnyboi_i’ MacDonald has virtually carried the playlist’s competitive life on his back with tournaments and show matches.
His latest work is the Mannfield Night 5K 1v1 tournament for EU’s top eight solo players. Johnnyboi_i broadcast the tournament that lasted 35 days and included 1v1 superstars and Renault Vitality teammates Victor ‘Fairy Peak’ Locquet and Kyle ‘Scrub Killa’ Robertson.
Per the usual, Fairy Peak looked absolutely dominant during league play. Fairy Peak only dropped two games during league play, one to Scrub Killa and one to Marten ‘Oscillon’ van Zee. His mechanical skill and mental prowess led Fairy Peak to the tournaments Golden Striker award. Fairy Peak finished 2018 without having dropped a single series throughout the year.
Photo courtesy of dailyesports.gg
Scrub Killa had a strong league play and finished in second place, but dropped series to Fairy Peak and eighth place finisher Hrant ‘Flakes’ Yakoub on the last day of round robin play.
Oscillon and Dylan “eekso” Pickering finished third and fourth in league play, appearing to be on equal footing throughout. Eekso bested Ocsillon in their head to head matchup, but a loss to fellow Englishman Dan “Bluey” Bluett knocked eekso to fourth place.
Batmobile superstar Francesco “kuxir97” Cinquemani ditched his famed car in favor the Ocatane’s more favorable hit box. He finished 2-5, along with Gabriel ‘OSM’ Benediktsson, Bluey and Flakes. The players exchanged games and series throughout the tournament.
In the stead of a typical eight team bracket, Johnnyboi_i elected to mix things up to end the tournament. The playoff was instead conducted in the “gauntlet” format where the seventh and eighth seeds would begin the proceedings, the winner of that series would take on the sixth seed, the winner of that series would take on the fifth seed etc. until the winner of the previous match ups faced Fairy Peak.
Flakes went into the gauntlet to face Bluey with some momentum behind him after his surprising win against Scrub Killa to end league play. Bluey outpaced Flakes to a 2-0 lead before Flakes turned the series on its head and won the next four games in a row to advance. Flakes kept the win streak going and swept OSM in round two. He was playing at his peak after he dispatched kuxir97 in five games.
Flakes was flying heading into the series against eekso. He ran into a brick wall. It took a few games for eekso to figure Flakes out, but dispatched of the Dutchman in six games in round four. The rest of the gauntlet went as predicted with the top seed edging out the opponent in the next two rounds.
The grand final was set, Scrub Killa was ready to take on the unbeatable titan Fairy Peak. Fairy had beaten Scrub 3-1 in league play, but the last time the two met in a playoff format was during Twelve Titans, where Scrub beat Fairy.
Scrub started the series off with a game one win. Fairy answered back by winning game two. Then Fairy scored a goal with two seconds left to take game three. Scrub came from behind to win game four 9-8. Watching the matchup felt like watching two heavyweight fighters trading blows. Fairy would pull an unreal flick, and Scrub would follow up with a breathtaking air dribble. It was like a work of art.
With the series tied 2-2 Scrub kicked his game into another gear. Scrub outplayed Fairy and secured an 8-5 win in game five. Fairy responded by digging deep into his bag of tricks and trounced Scrub 8-2 to force a game seven.
Thirty-four days into the tournament and it came to this storybook ending: the two players who had completely separated themselves as the cream of EU’s crop facing off in 1v1 with Rocket League world watching and $1,250 on the line.
Then this happened:
Scrub’s decision to challenge early and pool shot Fairy into own goaling completely swung the momentum into Scrub’s favor. He rattled the 1v1 champion, and maintained control through the rest of the match ultimately winning 6-3.
In the end, Scrub outgunned Fairy when it really mattered. If you replayed the series one hundred times it’s possible Scrub and Fairy would split the contests 50/50, but Scrub came through when he mattered. It’s easy to forget that Scrub Killa is a 15 year-old because of his skill and calm performance under pressure. Playing in these high pressure environments will continue to prepare him for the RLCS grind.
Feature image courtesy of Liquipedia Rocket League
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