Gaming
With pro Rocket League more popular than ever, we chat with one of Europe’s best teams to find out what’s going on in the ever-changing scene.
Over the past few months the Rocket League competitive scene in Europe has, fittingly for a game about rocket-propelled cars, exploded. Big organisations came in and signed top players, competition was closer than it has ever been, and a major new tournament started up in the form of the Gfinity Elite Series. And all of this happened while the Rocket League Championship Series continued to accelerate, pulling in the fans to watch top flight vehicular-gravity-soccer.
During this time one team has established themselves as one of the best in the world. The Method roster was one of the standout teams in the Elite Series, ending up in the top four, and currently sits at the top of the new RLCS season with an undefeated record. The roster is made up of Linus 'al0t' Möllergren, Otto 'Metsanauris' Kaipiainen and Joonas 'Mognus' Salo, who we caught up with to see how things are going in the world of Rocket League.
You guys have been playing together for a while, and have been in many different organisations. How different is Method compared to all the others you have been in?
al0t: Method obviously being the way larger organisation out of all of them, they've been good to us, giving us good exposure and experience.
It’s probably fair to say that the Rocket League scene hasn't been the most stable in terms of teams staying with one org for a while. Why do you think that is? Why are teams so reluctant to hold onto teams for a long time?
al0t: The past RLCS Seasons, there hasn't been any consistency in teams because of the way RLCS was set up. Now there will be more teams sticking together because, if you want to create a new team, with two different people, you're gonna have to go through open qualifiers to qualify for RLRS [Rocket League Rival Series], and then play RLRS to qualify for RLCS.
Are we now starting to see players and teams commit to more long-term relationships with orgs?
al0t: There will and already has been a change in the way RLCS is set up, making teams want to stick together for longer periods of times.
Do you think the Gfinity Elite Series has been a positive or negative for the Rocket League scene in general?
al0t: It's not been a negative thing at all, giving people a chance who aren't that known in the game itself, to prove themselves and get experience to play against some of the greater teams and players.
What would you like to see changed for the second series of the Elite Series?
Mognus: I'm liking Gfinity Elite Series the way it is. Now that the day for Rocket League has been changed to Saturday it's perfect, it will allow us to play in the RLCS with no problems.
You guys did pretty well in the Elite Series, making the top four – but were you hoping to do better than that?
Mognus: We were confident in getting top one, but when the semi-finals started, me and my teammate Metsanauris were away playing another tournament, which led us to lose in the semis.
You also managed to qualify for the RLCS this season. How important is it for you guys to make it into the RLCS? Would you still be together if you didn’t qualify?
Mognus: Qualifying for RLCS is currently the most important thing in Rocket League since you will play more than one season for big amounts of money. If we failed to qualify for the RLCS we would still be together. You can only accomplish success through mistakes and by practising plenty of hours with your team.
Things have been going well for you in the RLCS. How confident are you of being able to win it this season?
Mognus: When we started playing RLCS we didn't really care about the results, we just wanted to play to win. After seeing us go 4-0 in the season, I became really confident in us to make LAN and possibly to win the whole thing.
What is the level of competition like in the RLCS compared to the Elite Series? Is there a big difference?
Metsanauris: There is quite a big difference right now – the RLCS has been around for a lot longer and is the most established competition in the game. This means that all of the best teams and players are in it. There are a lot of good players in the Gfinity Elite Series too, but not all the top teams currently. There is also a lot of variety with the teams in Gfinity, some of the teams are way better than others.
How good is Europe in general compared with the rest of the world?
Metsanauris: Europe has proven to be the most competitive continent for the last couple of RLCS championships, but the difference to North America is getting smaller. Europe and North America are also dominant compared to the rest of the world.
With the Elite Series starting up and the RLCS continuing, Europe now has two pretty big regular competitions. Do you think there is space for more events like these or would you like to see it stick to these two?
Metsanauris: There is some space for smaller tournaments during the RLCS off-season. But during the RLCS season, it's hard to fit in other tournaments.
Finally, what needs to change in Rocket League for it to grow to become the biggest esport in the world?
Metsanauris: More big organizations need to join in, and prize pools start growing, which is very likely to happen in the future. Rocket League has good potential to become huge.
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