Rocket League Tournaments and Leagues

Rocket League esports are categorized into four different tiers; S-Tier, A-Tier, B-Tier and C-Tier. S-Tier type Rocket League tournaments are the most prestigious with $100,000+ prize pool. C-Tier, on the other hand, are smaller tournaments within specific regions or countries that are hosted frequently with prize pools of $5,000 or less. On this page, you’ll find out more about the different types of Rocket League tournaments in this new up and coming esport that provides a ton of excitement when betting.

History of competitive Rocket League

Thankfully, Rocket League took the name Rocket League when being developed as a predecessor of the original game. The original Rocket League game was named Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars, commonly abbreviated as SARBPC or SARP. Most competitive tournaments in SARBPC was small-scale grassroots styled arrangements. Far from today’s Rocket League Championship Series X. “Official” rules were posted on forums, regions were locked out from each other and people were playing for fun. There were no real aspirations of competing as SARBPC pros, and the competitive community was made up of maybe 200 players in total. Most matches were played in 2-vs-2 or 1-vs-1 format. Prizes would be PC hardware or PlayStation gift cards.

The sequel, Rocket League, was finally released in 2015. Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars never gained any widespread fame. So, while there was a player base with cult-like following eagerly awaiting Rocket League, that player base was so small that it wouldn’t lead to any huge sales. Psyonix, the developers, were a small company at the time, and they had no budget to work with. They hyped up the game through content creation on blogs, YouTube and Twitch. The marketing scheme worked, and Rocket League became an instant hit upon release. Within the first week, Rocket League tournaments were being hosted. It didn’t take more than a year for Psyonix to launch an official Rocket League tournament – Rocket League Championship Series. Online Canadian Bookmakers were quick to offer Rocket League odds. Over the past four years since the first matches of RLCS, Rocket League have grown massively.

Rocket League tournament tiers explained

S-Tier

S-Tier is the new Premier segment for Rocket League tournaments. S-Tier tournaments always culminate in large offline LAN-events. Leading up to the LAN finals there’s a regular-season qualifier system where the top teams in Rocket League esports compete. These Rocket League tournaments always have prize pools exceeding $100,000+.

A-Tier

A-Tier is the former Major format where top teams compete, but the tournaments have a less strict qualifying system than the top tier. Through open qualifiers, more teams can compete and try to qualify for the tournaments. These Rocket League tournaments have prize pools of $50,000+.

B-Tier

B-Tier Rocket League tournaments are mixed with medium-to-top teams competing for medium-sized prize pools between $5,000-$50,000. B-Tier tournaments usually span more than one region. B-Tier tournaments can sometimes be domestic, depending on if the country in question has a star-packed Rocket League competitive scene. North America is a good example of a region that can have domestic B-Tier tournaments of larger size.

C-Tier

C-Tier makes up smaller tournaments where it’s usually local domestic tournaments with a smaller prize pool of $5,000 or less.

Rocket League Tournaments

RLCS X – S-Tier

Rocket League Championship Series X is the predecessor of RLCS which was the premier Rocket League tournament for years. The reason behind the name change is that a change in the structure of how Rocket League Championship Series is played. As Psyonix themselves say, they rebuilt the foundation of Rocket League esports so it can become more competitive in the esports industry.

Instead of bi-annual seasons, RLCS X will have an open circuit that runs through the year and finally culminates with the Rocket League World Championship. The overall prize pool for RLCS X is enormous, set to breach $4,500,000. The goal of the RLCS X format is to reward consistent, high-level performance. Points are collected during the regular season which then grants entry to the Rocket League World Championship.

The format is similar to that of League of Legends where seasonal splits are played. Points are awarded to the best teams. There are three splits in total; Fall, Winter and Spring. Each split will have regional events for North America and Europe. After the regional events, each split will culminate with a Major tournament.

Regional Events will have prize pools of $100,000 with 20 to 32 teams competing. Majors will have $250,000 prize pools and the grand final, the Rocket League World Championships will have $1,000,000. All in all, more than $4.5 million is distributed across all teams and regions.

Currently, the format is only available in its full form for North America and Europe. Psyonix is working with South American and Oceanic esports organizations to create regional circuits in respective regions. When this happens, the total prize pool for RLCS X is expected to grow beyond $4.5 million.

Rocket League World Championship S-Tier

As we mentioned already, as the RLCS X finishes, after the three splits are completed; the best teams get ready to play in the Rocket League World Championship. The new circuit approach of the RLCS X will ensure that the very best of Rocket League esports will be present at the LAN finals.

The Rocket League World Championship has the best 16 teams competing for a prize pool of $1,000,000. The top Rocket League teams from North America, Europe, Oceania and South America, participate and compete for the huge prize pool. And of course, the eternal glory of winning a world championship.

RLCS The Grid S-Tier

The Grid is a weekly tournament circuit bringing the top Rocket League teams together. Teams compete for Grid Points, seeding and sports for the major Rocket League tournaments and of course prize money. The weekly prize pool is $10,000 per region per week. The team that manages to accumulate the most amount of Grid Points in a specific period will qualify for that Split’s major; Fall, Winter or Spring. The Grid Points are reset after each Split. No qualifications to the Rocket League World Championship is available through the Grid.

An exciting aspect with the Grid is that there’s no traditional broadcast production around the weekly tournaments. Instead, for each match, the teams and players are responsible for streaming the events. This is a great concept where fans can get super close and get a great insight into how the pros play the game.

Collegiate Rocket League B-Tier

As the name suggests, CRL is played among universities in North America. CRL is played in two splits; Fall and Spring. The league is immensely popular around universities and Canada and the USA. Literally, hundreds of teams play in the open qualifiers to try to get a spot in the CRL Season.

The CRL has an NCAA style setup where 32 teams from Western and Eastern Conference compete during the regular season splits. This is then concluded with a Conference Clash or Finals following the Fall split.

The 2020 CRL Fall split had $100,000 in academic awards for the students who participate in the league. The participating players must be enrolled full-time in college, university or a vocational school in either Canada or the USA. Also, a participant must have a minimum of 2.5 PGA or similar to be eligible for play.

The CRL has its broadcast and is legitimately building an NCAA-like structure for esports. No betting is available on the CRL yet.

RLO Grand Slam, RLO Open and RLO Masters

RLO is short for Rocket League Oceania and is exclusive to the region. RLO was formed in 2016 with the goal of organizing top-quality Rocket League tournaments for the region. The most prestigious tournaments are the RLO Grand Slam.

Along with the Grand Slam, there’s the smaller RLO Open and RLO Masters which are run on a weekly and monthly basis. This is an open circuit where smaller sums of money are distributed along with Master Circuit Points.

The Grand Slam, as we mentioned, is the best Rocket League tournament alongside the regional RLCS X and Grid tournaments. It’s an A-Tier type of tournament. RLO Grand Slam sees the top teams from the oceanic region competing for a prize pool of $46,000.

Rocket League The Kickoff – A-Tier

RL The Kickoff is a new tournament series exclusive to the Middle East and Asia region. The Kickoff is organized by APL (Asia Pro League), an organization which was founded in 2019 with the goal of bringing top Rocket League tournaments to Asia region.

Since APL’s started, they’ve been incredibly busy setting up tournament series such as the Nicecactus Clash, Asia Pro League, Ketteisen Cup, Asian Nations Cup, APL Esports Clash and APL Weekly tournament series.

The premier tournament is the Kickoff which was first played in July 2020. There was one Kickoff tournament for Asia and one for the Middle East, both with a prize pool of $22,750 respectively.

Rocket League LATAM Championship – A-Tier

As this name suggests, LATAM Championship is a Rocket League tournament dedicated for the top teams in Latin America. The LATAM Championship is hosted by Rocket Street, a South American esports organization focusing on Rocket League tournaments.

The LATAM Championship is an A-Tier type Rocket League tournament where the six best leagues in the region compete for a prize pool of $37,000.

Rocket Baguette – A-Tier

Rocket Baguette: Summer Grand Prix is a top European Rocket League tournament which is hosted by Psyonix. Twelve of the best teams in Europe are invited where the likes of Renault Vitality and FC Barcelona participated in 2020. Rocket Baguette has a prize pool of $44,000+.

Rocket League tournaments FAQ

What is the best League of Legends tournament for betting?

Very few of the 1000+ Rocket League tournaments that were played since 2016 have been available for betting. Most of these tournaments are B-Tier and C-Tier which are too risky to offer Rocket League odds for. The main events for betting are the ones that are labelled as S-Tier and A-tier with the best one being RLCS X matches and of course the Rocket League World Championship.

Was the Rocket League World Championship cancelled because of the Coronavirus?

Yes, the Season 9 Rocket League World Championship was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The money will instead be distributed among the regional championships in each region; North America, Europe, Oceania and South America. All matches and broadcasting will take place online.

What is the largest ever Rocket League prize pool?

The largest price that was ever distributed in Rocket League tournaments was the Season 7 and Season 8 World Championships. In each tournament, a sum of $529,500 was paid out. The RLCS X will surpass this in 2021 with a planned prize pool of $1,000,000.

Summary

With a revamped tier system for Rocket League tournaments, this relatively new esport will fly to even higher heights in the esports industry. Rocket League Championship Series X will set a new standard in Season 10 with a total prize pool of over $4,500,000. With an overall rise in standards across all regions, we should see more Rocket League betting options in bookmakers.