Rocket League's competitive growth has turned its top players into young stars, and Cloud9's Mariano ‘SquishyMuffinz’ Arruda is one of the biggest by far. Squishy began building a following via YouTube videos and Twitch streaming during the early RLCS seasons, and then made a huge splash with his team The Muffin Men by winning last summer's DreamHack Atlanta tournament.
Within a week, they signed to Cloud9. Within a few months, they won North America in the RLCS and were playing on the World Championship stage. And it's there that Squishy pulled off the Rocket League shot seen 'round the world (below), as he drove up the wall to the ceiling, fell alongside the ball, and then rotated and flicked his car to fling in the goal against Method. He looked ice cold onstage, even as his team-mates gawked at him.
Wild plays like that have come to define Squishy as a mechanical master in Rocket League, and Cloud9 have been one of the top NA teams since. But Squishy hasn't slowed his grind, ever devising and learning new skills to help give his team an edge in competition – and he's hungry for an RLCS championship. Ahead of RLCS Season 6, with its $1 million prize pool, we spoke with the 17-year-old star about his own Rocket League rise, how his popular streams impact his pro play, and what it'll take for Cloud9 to clinch the RLCS title.
From FIFA to Cloud9
Appropriately, Squishy's introduction to Rocket League came via a very different kind of football game: FIFA 15 and its 11-on-11 Pro Clubs online mode. He had played steadily with a highly-skilled club, and when the Rocket League beta popped up, they wanted to try it out for fun. Lucky decision, that. "I enjoyed it more than FIFA and stuck with it," he recalls.
Eventually, Squishy's ranked abilities caught the eye of current Cloud9 team-mate Kyle ‘Torment’ Storer, and they started playing together. Instead of joining up with Torment right away in search of RLCS glory, Squishy instead subbed for G2 Esports during Season 2, and soaked up whatever knowledge and insight he could from the then-reigning champions. After G2 crashed and burned that season, Squishy and starter Brandon ‘Lachinio’ Lachin broke away and started their own squad with Torment, which became Team Iris.
Iris was heavily favoured to make it through qualifiers and land in the NA RLCS for Season 3, given their scrims performance – but a botched play-in performance kept them out. Lachinio was crushed, and pulled out of competitive play for a while. Squishy initially considered doing the same, but funnelled that frustration into determination instead.
"It was more motivation than anything. At first, I thought about maybe not playing competitive. Maybe it's not my thing. I get really disappointed in myself after losses – the little things eat away at me. Any little mistake, I pick it apart, and it just bothers me sometimes," he says. "Given that, I didn't think I'd be OK for competitive. But over time, I've learned to just look at the mistakes and try to improve off of them, instead of get disappointed in what I was doing wrong."
Squishy and Torment stuck together after that RLCS close call and elevated Iris sub Jesus ‘Gimmick’ Parra to starter, creating the line-up that's still intact today under Cloud9 – although they almost swapped in G2’s dominant Jacob ‘JKnaps’ Knapman last summer, before contract issues intervened. Whether they knew it at the time, The Muffin Men had all the talent they needed within their roster, even if they hadn't proven it to themselves or anyone else yet at the highest level.
They got their chance to prove that though at DreamHack Atlanta last July, taking down G2 and finally the surging Gale Force Esports – now back-to-back RLCS champions under Team Dignitas – to secure the win. Previous talks with Cloud9 resumed, and they made it official within a matter of days.
DreamHack Atlanta began an incredible run of success for the roster, who overpowered fellow NA RLCS teams that season with sharp passing plays and overwhelming offense. They took the NA regional, won the Northern Arena Invitational LAN tournament, and then capped off RLCS Season 4 with a third-place finish at Worlds. That might seem like a strong conclusion, but Squishy wasn't truly satisfied.
"It's a little annoying. We won DreamHack, we did extremely good at RLCS, and we won Northern Arena – and then going to Worlds, we got third, and it was just like, 'Damn.' We won all of the tournaments we didn't want to win, and lost the one we wanted to win," he admits with a laugh. "But no, it was amazing, obviously. It was better than I could've expected – everything I wanted out of my team, for sure."
The endless grind
It's that lack of complacency that keeps Squishy ever grinding. His mechanics are top-tier, his competitive pedigree already proven after a strong year of top-level performances, but he's always looking for the next potential edge that can disrupt an opposing defense and secure a crucial goal. And it's that grind that leads to unbelievable plays in pro matches, not to mention entertaining streams along the way. What drives him to go for over-the-top shots?
"Honestly, it's my Twitch stream," he replies. "Trying to get new, more impressive things for the viewers to see and enjoy – that's huge for me. I love trying to impress, but when I'm playing tournaments and stuff, I don't go for fancy stuff if it's going to make it more difficult for me to score. I want to use if it's going to help me in scoring."
Most of the acrobatic techniques that Squishy showcases are ones that he first saw performed by freestyle players, but he tries to pick them apart and adapt them to competitive play. He's a showman at times on his Twitch stream (as some of these clips show), but that stuff doesn't fly in high-level matches. Pro players can read an opposing player quickly and will challenge right away, and if he's going for something that's obvious and flashy, defenses will eat him alive. "I always try to learn things that will be very unpredictable for RLCS opponents," he says.
As for the iconic World Championship ceiling shot, Squishy swears that it came out of necessity. "That was the only way I could've possibly scored from where I was. I don't go for that stuff all the time to try to impress and look cool. I only use it in competitive play when it's useful," he explains. "I only use it once I know I've mastered it, like I know I can do it every time."
With that particular shot, he had practiced for hours and hours from various points on the field, both with training packs and in free play. It looked daring and dangerous, and given the scenario, it was definitely both – but it wasn't Squishy throwing caution to the wind. He was executing on a skill that he'd poured immense time into, "in case it ever happened."
On streams, Squishy is both the master and the student. He'll dish out tips, answer questions, and do mini-tutorials for his steady audience of hundreds or even thousands of viewers. But he'll also use that time to focus on some new technique or mechanic, experimenting and failing until he's able to make it work over and over again. And as he gains confidence in it, like the ceiling shot, it's just added to his estimable arsenal of abilities.
There's something of a superhero origin story behind all of this, too. Long before his pro rise, Squishy had terrible internet service at home and couldn't play ranked games. Rather than face bumbling A.I. bots, he'd spend hours speeding around the physics playground of free play, trying to develop new skills. He'd watch early Rocket League heroes like G2's Cameron ‘Kronovi’ Bills and FlipSid3 Tactics' Francesco ‘kuxir97’ Cinquemani on his phone and try to mimic their moves. Squishy credits that months-long stretch for kick-starting his quest for mechanical mastery.
"There was a point where my internet was so bad that I had 800 ping every single game, so I'd just play 6-8 hours of free play. I'd get home from school and just play free play all day," he says. "I'd have my phone up and have a video on the side, so I'm watching the video while playing free play. It was nice and relaxed. But yeah, I got much better at a lot of mechanics. Double taps – I tried to learn it because I saw kuxir do it."
That relentless approach to practice still drives him today. "You have to keep repeating the same thing, the same process, and you'll just get better by learning how to do it different ways," he explains. "I always try to make things as awkward as possible for myself. The more you do awkward things, the better you'll get at it. If you always go for the simple play, I feel like you won't really improve it."
Honing their synergy
Following the off-season roster shuffle, Squishy and Torment are now the longest-standing current duo in professional Rocket League, and that tandem continues to thrive. Asked what makes them click so well together, he suggests that their play styles are very complementary: Torment is the defensive rock that keeps Cloud9 in games while Squishy and Gimmick go wild.
"I think we're just a good mix to have on a team. You can't have three attackers: that's why you don't see a team of me, JKnaps, and [NRG's] GarrettG – or me, [NRG's] Jstn, and GarrettG,” he explains. "You'll never see that happen, because you need that one player like [NRG's] Fireburner, like Torment, or like [Evil Geniuses'] CorruptedG. You need those players that will just hold it down."
Squishy sees change on the horizon, however – but not in terms of a roster move. Rather, they're taking cues from reigning two-time RLCS champions Team Dignitas, whose world-beating EU trio of Jos ‘ViolentPanda’ van Meurs, Alexandre ‘Kaydop’ Courant, and Pierre ‘Turbopolsa’ Silfver has revolutionized the meta. How? By having three ridiculously consistent and incredibly aware players all capable of doing everything on the field.
"Dignitas is the one team that's not like that," he says about his earlier example. "You don't really see someone holding it down. It's more like everyone's equal in rotation. I think that's something that's going to change this season: teams playing more even. We're starting to do that now, and it's working a lot better."
Squishy hopes that his team's decision to continue on together and avoid roster swaps will continue to pay dividends. He points to one of the off-season's more surprising moves, the departure of Otto ‘Metsanauris’ Kaipiainen from compLexity (they added past champion Marius ‘gReazymeister’ Ranheim), as a potential example of why they're not keen on making any swaps. There's so much synergy built up between them now.
"[CompLexity] beat us both LANs and they have a new player now, which I think might make them a little bit worse. Just because they throw away all of that chemistry," he says. "You put so much time in with one player and get used to their play style – I don't know if you're gonna play as good as you did the first season back with them. It might help us out."
Ideally, Cloud9 won't need the assist. They're not content with their fourth-place RLCS World Championship finish this past season, and they know where the inconsistencies are and how to overcome them. Given Squishy's unrelenting commitment to solo improvement, can he also help his entire team work through this nagging need?
"Honestly, I think it's mainly our defense. When we lose games, scoring is never the issue – we always put points up. It's always little mistakes on defense that we really shouldn't be making," Squishy affirms, saying it's a team-wide problem. He adds with a laugh: "I think if we do clean that up, we can at least get above third. At least. I'll take second place. I'll be happy with second."
Squishy's next steps
Before RLCS Season 6 begins league play in September, Squishy and Gimmick will compete in the NBC Universal Open 2v2 finals on 24-26 August. The tournament isn't a favourite of most pros, as the 2v2 format can punish risky play and it lacks the thrill of standard 3v3 action; Squishy says it feels like “you're playing two 1v1s in the same game." He'd be happy to win it all, of course, but potentially lifting the Universal Open trophy won't satisfy his need to be the best.
"I'm not a fan of it, but of course, I'm going to play and try my best – and if we can win it, we'll win it. But that's not going to count as a #1 finish for me, because that's 2v2," he admits. "If we win that, I don't care. It's all about 3s – I want to do well in RLCS."
Squishy already commands large streaming audiences and has over 280,000 YouTube subscribers, and he's thankful for the following. "It's just amazing to be in this position. I'm extremely grateful," he says. But he has ambitious goals there too: he hopes to one day be the most-watched Rocket League streamer and YouTuber, and continue passing on his knowledge to up-and-coming players. "When I was improving and trying to get better, the videos that I make now would have helped me so much if I had that back then," he says.
Most of all, however, Squishy wants to win the RLCS World Championship with Gimmick and Torment. And even with Dignitas' recent dominance and the resurgence of NA rival NRG, Squishy believes that Cloud9 still has plenty of room to grow, and much more to prove. Will we see that shine through this season?
"We're stuck at third and fourth now. It's not horrible. Obviously, there's a lot of teams that would want to be in that position, of course. We want to be the best we can be, and I know we can be better than this too – what we're at now," he asserts. "We have very high potential with each other, especially because we've been playing together for so long. We can reach a much higher level than we're at right now."