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Interview: Gale Force Win the RLCS Championship
Rocket League's new champions discuss their dominant run and Turbopolsa's back-to-back feat.
Four games: that's all it took for Gale Force Esports to win the grand finals this weekend at the Rocket League Championship Series' World Championship. The last two seasons saw the eventual victors rise up from the lower bracket, forcing a reset and extending the tense series. But this time around, the one and only grand finals series was surprisingly one-sided, with Method falling in the minimum number of games.
Calculated, precise and efficient: that's been the Gale Force way ever since this roster was formed at the start of the summer. Jos "ViolentPanda" van Meurs stuck with the organization after last season's disappointing finish, taking the captain role and building a new European dream team with former RLCS grand finalist Alexandre "Kaydop" Courant and season three champion Pierre "Turbopolsa" Silfver. Quickly, they disrupted the regional balance of power, stealing the spotlight away from last season's champions, EnVyUs (ex-Northern Gaming).
They rode that momentum into the grand finals of nearly every significant Rocket League LAN since, culminating in the dominant season four RLCS victory. How did they keep their cool against such a stacked pool of talent, and what's next for this team? We spoke with Gale Force backstage to find out.
After the win
"It feels great. It's amazing," said ViolentPanda when we first asked about the win. It had only been a matter of minutes since he lightly lofted the ball backward from the right corner of the pitch, putting it a perfect position for Kaydop to sink in despite the best efforts of Method's defenders. They had just lifted the trophy and felt the confetti rain down on them, collecting a shared $55,000 bounty in the process, but the team seemed as cool and collected as ever.
"Just keeping calm onstage" was the key to the win, ViolentPanda explained. "[Method] were maybe stressed, maybe nervous … I don't know. But just keep calm and play your game — that's what we try to do."
It clearly worked for Gale Force. Method faced a grueling run at the end of day on Sunday, and they had already faced Gale Force in the winners' finals, ultimately falling 4-3. That put Method into the losers' finals against Cloud9, the heavily-favored North American squad that many thought could win the whole tournament. But Method kept on grinding and making key passing plays when it counted, and after six games, they got their rematch against Gale Force.
Turbopolsa, ViolentPanda, and Kaydop (from left)
© Psyonix
"I think they had a lot of mistakes. I don't know, they felt kind of slow. They were a lot faster the first series in the upper bracket final," affirmed Turbopolsa. ViolentPanda chimed in: "They were probably really tired after playing those series after each other."
Despite the potential fatigue, Method wouldn't go down without a fight. The series may have been a 4-0 sweep, but the final game lasted more than six-and-a-half minutes in overtime, as Method kept trying to extend the series — and Gale Force had to wait longer and longer to hoist the trophy. ViolentPanda admitted that the he was starting to consider that tantalizing possibility during the extended overtime, but said that he had to rein himself in and stay in the moment.
"I was thinking about it, but to be honest, you have to just focus on the game and not think about it — just try to win it," he said. "Most of the time, you need to just see it as its own game and not look at the whole series."
Matching Method
As mentioned in our recap of the weekend's best moments, the grand finals were somewhat anticlimactic, but only because the earlier series had been a lot more competitive and exciting, with more back-and-forth momentum between the teams.
The jewel in the lineup was the earlier Gale Force and Method series that went a full seven games, as mentioned, with Method ultimately taking the loss. But they didn't make it easy on Gale Force at all. Just like in the grand finals, the winners' final had a six-minute overtime — and Method ultimately took that game six win with a dazzling midfield passing play.
Despite Method's quick exit at the end, they proved themselves worthy rivals to Gale Force, and strong runners-up for the weekend in the third straight all-Europe RLCS grand finals. Captain Linus "Al0t" Möllergren served as both Method's primary offensive force and chief motivator, exploding with excitement onstage while keeping his teammates pumped up and in good spirits. Paired with the duo of Joonas "Mognus" Salo and Otto "Metsanauris" Kaipiainen, who both tend to hang back on the pitch behind Al0t, Method were formidable foes.
"To be honest, the first time [against Method] were the most intense games," ViolentPanda said. "They played out of their minds, so we had to step up as well."
We might not have seen it on the stage or the stream, but Gale Force's captain admitted that the pressure of the earlier seven-game series was weighing on him. "I was really nervous in that game, because it felt more important to me than the grand finals," he said. "There was only a best-of-seven — we had to win that or else we would have been down. In the grand finals, we had two best-of-sevens, so we kind of had a second chance."
Gale Force and Method had two thrilling battles
© Psyonix
But Gale Force didn't need a second chance in the grand finals. They didn't even need an extra game, unless you count that game four overtime. Gale Force dispatched Method in the grand finals, just like they'd done in the winners' finals, and just as they did to both Ghost Gaming (3-0) and G2 Esports (3-1) in the earlier rounds. It was a startlingly breezy run through the winners' bracket, and the fact that they only dropped four total games across the weekend shows the efficiency of their dominance.
And the four games they fell short in? Each was decided by a single goal. They might have lost a few, but Gale Force didn't have any truly bad games in the bunch. Gale Force's 1.17 goals allowed per game (stats via Octane) were the lowest of any team by far — the next closest is Method at 1.56 goals allowed per game. Meanwhile, Gale Force led all teams with 9.0 shots per game, and fell just behind Mock-It Esports and Cloud9 with 2.22 goals per game. In short: they scored nearly twice as many goals as they allowed. That'll work.
Turbo two-time
Following the win, Turbopolsa was awarded MVP honors for his stellar play across the weekend — but he demurred onstage, suggesting that Kaydop truly deserved the honors. Turbo handed his MVP medal over to his teammate to cheers from the crowd. Truly, Kaydop turned it up during the grand finals, sinking six of the team's 10 goals, including the championship winner. But Turbo also contributed offensively, notching a hat trick in game two.
Last season, it was Turbopolsa's Northern Gaming teammate David "Deevo" Morrow suggesting that Turbo should've won the MVP instead of him. Afterward the win, we asked Turbopolsa why he thought Kaydop should've officially earned it this time around. "He made some clutch plays," Turbopolsa explained. "Of course, we all made mistakes, but it felt like [Kaydop] was doing the most."
For Turbopolsa, there's something extra to this win, and it's not just the MVP selection: this is his second RLCS championship, making him the first ever two-time winner. And in back-to-back seasons, no less. Turbo joked that there probably will never be another two-time champion, but "maybe a three-time — probably me."
He said the championship win didn't feel different from last time, but the circumstances have changed. Last time around, Turbopolsa had sat out the entire regular season as a substitute for Northern Gaming, recruited for the possibility that starter Nicolai "Maestro" Bang might miss finals due to school exams. That's exactly what happened, and alongside Deevo and captain Remco "Remkoe" den Boer, they made the lower bracket run and came out as champions back in June.
Turbopolsa and Goldenboy share a fist bump onstage
© Psyonix
Some might have seen it as a situation of Turbopolsa getting lucky and falling into a world-class roster spot at Worlds, despite not playing before the postseason. But in winning this second championship with a totally different roster and being there every step of the way, he can confidently silence any doubters. Maybe he was the secret weapon that helped Northern win last time around. After all, without Turbopolsa, his former championship teammates were both back at home this weekend following a dismal regular season.
Even if the crowning moment is much the same, Turbopolsa admitted that being a full-time starter does add a certain something to the championship journey. "It feels a lot more rewarding to go through league play and the playoffs, and finally the championship here," he affirmed.
Winds of change
It was also RLCS redemption for his teammates, as well. Both are past grand finalists with different Mock-It rosters: ViolentPanda back in season two, and Kaydop last season against Turbopolsa's winning squad. For ViolentPanda in particular, it was also a chance to prove himself after Gale Force missed out on LAN last season and the old roster splintered apart.
Gale Force in action earlier in the weekend
© Psyonix
"Season two was quite some time back, so I've had a lot of time to readjust myself — look at other teams, look at my team and myself," he explained. "Season three was obviously not that great for me; we didn't even make LAN, so I knew I had to make some adjustments. We came up with this team and won."
Kaydop, who speaks limited English, acknowledged the idea of redemption after falling just short last season, and suggested that he's found a happy fit with this squad. After all, Kaydop and ViolentPanda had been itching to team up for some time, and when they finally did it, they were able to come in and get the job done. "I feel good in this team," said Kaydop.
Clearly, all three of them feel pretty good about this team, now that they're RLCS champions together, and they've had a lot of shared success in a relatively short span of time. They took 2nd place at the X Games and both DreamHack tournaments over the summer, while Kaydop and ViolentPanda won NBC's 2v2 Universal Open. They also won the European regional championship last month, and then sealed the deal with this World Championship win. They're all incredibly skilled individual players, but what makes them so effective as a team?
"I just think it's overall chemistry: looking at team plays, looking at where each other are on the field," ViolentPanda explained. "We don't make flashy plays — we are not that team. We just pass and shoot, and pass and shoot. We just try to find each other as much as possible."
"And keep the positivity up in this environment here," added Turbopolsa, a player known as much for his championship-caliber play as his banter — both on stage and on Twitter. "Have fun while you're playing and you'll play well."
Taking a selfie with their shiny new companion
© Psyonix
Gale Force lived up to their name this season, sweeping into the competitive scene with incredible speed and simply overpowering the competition. Given their swift success, what's next for this squad?
"Winning the next world championship," asserted ViolentPanda. "ELEAGUE is coming up — we'll see how that goes, and all the offseason tournaments that may be coming. You never know."
And perhaps wielding a bit of his newly-expanded championship clout, Turbopolsa shot a glance over towards Gale Force chief operating officer Freddie "Mavnis" Crespo and said, "Buying a first-class ticket home now." We'd say they've all earned that luxury.
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