esports

Cosmic Takes the Rocket League Championship for NA

Dominant play ensures Rocket League's first trophy will be staying on home soil.
By Andrew Hayward
6 min readPublished on
Just about the coolest trophy ever

Just about the coolest trophy ever

© Psyonix

Three months' worth of unbelievable aerial battles, epic saves and comeback wins all led to this weekend: the International Live Finals of the inaugural Rocket League Championship Series. And like the earlier online weekends in the RLCS, it didn't disappoint.
Rocket League's eight best teams — four each from North America and Europe — convened at the Avalon in Hollywood for the two-day, double-elimination showdown, but only one pro trio would hoist the trophy by the time the last goal was counted. Although European teams were widely considered the best in the game, iBUYPOWER Cosmic confidently repudiated that belief by winning Rocket League's first major eSports championship.

Cosmic curveballs

For anyone who has been following competitive Rocket League since its community origins, iBUYPOWER Cosmic's success shouldn't be a surprise. Originally called Cosmic Aftershock, the team has been continually anchored by Cameron "Kronovi" Bills, perhaps the highest-profile player in the game — and it sat atop the North American standings after the online final of the Rocket League Championship Series' first qualifying round back in May.
However, the team failed to make July's online final for the second qualifying round, allowing Kings of Urban and Exodus to overtake it on the North American rankings. Luckily for Cosmic, the team earned enough points from previous weekends to still be third-seeded for the international live final. Still, another curveball emerged in late July: Team member Gambit withdrew from competition, citing mental health struggles, and alternate 0ver_Zer0 was promoted to the starting squad.
If either of those developments threw off Cosmic's game this weekend, you wouldn't know it from watching. With Lachinio filling out the roster, Cosmic defeated FlipSid3 Tactics 3-2 in the best-of-five Round 1 battle, and then went on to smash through Flying Dutchmen 3-0 in the upper bracket semifinals. That had Cosmic sitting in the winner's bracket finals for Sunday.
The teams that threw down this past weekend

The teams that threw down this past weekend

© Psyonix

However, the top competition was as stiff as could be on Saturday. Top-seeded European team Northern Gaming (formerly We Dem Girlz), won both of its series 3-0, leaving Genesis and Exodus without a win in those respective matchups. Given its dominant performance in last month's online finals and this weekend's early rounds, Northern Gaming was a favorite to take the crown, and remkoe, gReazymeister and Maestro looked collectively unbeatable at first. Meanwhile, Kings of Urban and Mock-It EU were both bounced from the finals by the time day one was complete.

Grand matchup

Northern Gaming's momentum continued into Sunday's matchup, as the team won the first match against iBUYPOWER Cosmic 5-0 and scored the first two goals of game two, tallying seven unanswered scores. It stopped right about there, however, as Cosmic roared back to win that game and the next in overtime. Northern Gaming managed another win in the series, but Cosmic's pressure was too much to handle, and it took the best-of-seven series 4-2.
Punted into the lower bracket, Northern Gaming still had a chance to claw its way back into a Grand Final rematch against iBUYPOWER Cosmic — but FlipSid3 Tactics stood in the way, and Northern's shocking Sunday decline wouldn't be reversed. FlipSid3 handily won the lower bracket finals 4-1, setting up the Grand Final showing between them and Cosmic.
Rocket League has only been officially released for a year now, but the pairing came across like a battle for the ages. Cosmic has been an early and enduring juggernaut in the scene, with Kronovi's streaming success helping to drive interest in the game's high-level play. But FlipSid3 Tactics has been right there nearly every step of the way, with several previous showdowns between them along with plenty of discussion over who really is the game's best player.
The RLCS stage

The RLCS stage

© Psyonix

Markydooda led many of the RLCS offensive categories after the second group stage, but M1k3Rules and kuxir97 are arguably just as strong overall and form a dangerously effective squad — although the strange forfeit situation during the online finals wasn't a high point. Still, even though neither team was top-seeded for the international live finals, this felt like the showdown that the community really wanted to see; the ultimate battle between Rocket League's first-year titans.

League leaders

The Grand Final proved a close one at times, with iBUYPOWER Cosmic and FlipSid3 Tactics trading goals while maintaining strong defensive rotations. The first goal in game one didn't come until 1:20 remained on the clock, with M1k3Rules lofting a shot above 0ver_Zer0 to give FlipSid3 the 1-0 advantage needed to take the game. FlipSid3 seemed to have game two confidently in hand, as well, but 0ver_Zer0 tied it up to send it into overtime, and Lachinio cashed in a series of passes from Kronovi and 0ver_Zer0 to win the game.
Likewise, game three also went into overtime, during which M1k3Rules bounced in a shot from half court that all three iBUYPOWER members failed to deflect, despite leaps in front of the goal. It would be FlipSid3's final win of the tournament, however, as iBUYPOWER took game four and then amped up its pressure and aggression, winning 5-3 in game five and ultimately closing out the series 3-2 in game six.
iBUYPOWER Cosmic were the first ever RLCS winners

iBUYPOWER Cosmic were the first ever RLCS winners

© Psyonix

Whatever the setback, whether it was missing the last online finals or losing a key starter, iBUYPOWER Cosmic overcame the hardship and proved that it really did deserve the hype, securing the first ever Rocket League Championship Series trophy for North America — and doing it on home soil to boot. Any doubts about the roster shift were surely shut down, as well, with 0ver_Zer0 named MVP for his dominant play throughout.
Twitch and developer Psyonix see a long-term future for the Rocket League Championship Series, but it's still early in Rocket League eSports. We're sure to see further roster changes, format tweaks and strong new contenders before the next season nears, not to mention enhancements to the game and its spectator mode. Even so, for its first live contest, Rocket League proved that it can hang with the eSports giants when it comes to delivering thrills. Now we'll just have to wait and see how the RLCS ups its eSports game for season two.
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