The Rocket League Championship Series kicks off its seventh season in NA and EU this weekend. League play will be streamed on twitch.tv/rocketleague starting at 3 p.m EST on Saturday.
By the time the first game is played, it will have been 146 days since Cloud9 took home the World Championship back in November.
RLCS Week 1 NA Schedule and What to Watch for
The season begins with Ghost Gaming taking on NRG Esports on Saturday. NRG won this series in five games last season and Ghost will be looking for revenge after the close loss. The series will be the debut for former Allegiance player Braxton “Allushin” Lagarec with Ghost.
Splyce will be the first challengers on the road to a repeat for Cloud9. Splyce will play their first RLCS match after two seasons in the Rival Series. The schedule designers did them no favors in lining up a warm up game. Cloud9 are heavy favorites in this match up.
Evil Geniuses will take on Rogue in the third series of the day. All eyes will be on Cameron “Kronovi” Bills who will make his RLCS debut with Rogue after five seasons with G2. EG will also trot out their shiny new offseason acquisition, Australian player Matt “Drippay” Den-Kaat. Drippay will be the first ever player to play at the highest level in multiple regions after moving from OCE’s Throwdown Series to NA’s RLCS this season.
Splyce and Ghost will both play their second series during Week 1 as they face each other in the fourth match of the day. This will be a good chance for Splyce to prove themselves against their new competition. It’s also a good opportunity for Ghost to pick up an early win. Both teams will have almost played a third of their schedule after one week.
G2 Esports will round out the first week in an enticing matchup against Spacestation Gaming. Spacestation (who recently acquired Bread) will be making their RLCS debut against one of the game’s oldest orgs. G2 will break in new signing Reed “Chicago” Wilen who played for EG last season. Both teams will be hungry to start the season off with a bang.
RLCS Week 1 EU Schedule and What to Watch for
Triple Trouble will make their RLCS debut against The Bricks, Sunday at 12 p.m. EST. Jack “Speed” Packwood-Clarke will play his first RLCS series against his former teammates on TT. The Bricks will look to continue their momentum after their offseason win at WSOE 4.
Mousesports will take on Team SoloMid in the second series of the day. Former compLexity gaming star Linus “al0t” Möllergren will make his debut for Mouse. Team SoloMid will play their first RLCS game with their new org after playing under the We Dem Girlz moniker last season.
Alexandre “Kaydop” Courant will make his Renault Vitality debut against PSG Esports in the third match of the day. RV player Kyle “Scrub Killa” Robertson guaranteed his team wouldn’t lose to PSG this year. PSG won both of their offseason matches and there will be some bad blood between the teams.
Triple Trouble and Mousesports are the EU teams tasked with double duty this weekend. This match could have an important impact on the bottom of the table as the season goes on. Both of these teams could face relegation and a win here could keep the victor’s head above water.
Dignitas will finish out the weekend with an interesting matchup against FC Barcelona. Barcelona (formerly the org-less team Savage!) will make their RLCS debut against the only team to go undefeated during League Play and the Regional Championship. The two teams met in an epic seven game series at DreamHack Leipzig. Dignitas took the victory in overtime, but Barcelona have proven they’re a tough matchup for the EU champs.
South America Cuts the Ribbon on Grand Series
For the first time ever the RLCS comes to SAM on Sunday with matches set to kick off at 3 p.m. EST. The contests will be streamed on twitch.tv/RocketStreetLive.
Lotus will take on Shoot’em in the first ever Grand Series match. Lotus are among the favorites to qualify for the World Championships, while Shoot’em were one of the last teams to qualify.
INTZ eSports battles FantasyDeath in the second match of the day. INTZ played well in qualifiers but will have their hands full with a very competitive FD team.
Lowkey Esports face Orchid to begin their season. Lowkey are led by star player Gabriel “Caard” Vieira who will look to make his impact on the Rocket League world this weekend.
Lotus and FantasyDeath each play their second match on Sunday. Both teams will have a good idea of their fate for the season after their series.
Erodium will then take center stage against GFactor Galaxy. Caio “CaioTG1” Vinicius is considered one of the best players in the region and will show off his skills against GFactor.
Lowkey and INTZ will play the sixth and final match of the day.
The Gfinity Oceanic Masters begins play in the Oceania region next Saturday on twitch.tv/gfinityau.
Featured image courtesy of @ZeeboDesigns on Twitter.
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