It was only a matter of time. Psyonix and Twitch have banded up to create the Rocket League Championship Series, the official eSports organisation for Rocket League. Over the course of three months, with registration starting on March 25th, teams of three will compete for their share of $10,000 in a pair of online championships. Then, at the end of the third month, a live, international finals will take place for the remaining $55k. It should be absolutely brilliant.
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The announcement came today with a teaser trailer that has a bit of flash, not a lot of info:
The partnership between Twitch and Psyonix means the streaming service is the official (and only) broadcast partner for the league, and they will also be organising it as a whole using their expertise. About the partnership, Twitch’s Director of eSports Operations Nick Allen had this to say:
“The Twitch community has collectively rallied around Rocket League to help it achieve organic success on our platform. By working with Psyonix to build an official professional league around this grassroots phenomenon, Rocket League’s legions of players and fans can potentially turn their passion into a career.”
While Psyonix’s Vice President Jeremy Dunham explains that, “From the moment we hit the pitch last July, we knew that Rocket League was a legitimate eSport. Twitch and its streamers have been an instrumental part of our success since we launched last July, and that made them a perfect match for us. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with a team that we respect as highly as we do Twitch, and we can’t wait to show the world what we can do in eSports together!”
It’s a great move, and has the potential to become regular if it’s successful. Having watched a little bit of high-level Rocket League back near its launch, I can confirm it’s going to be absolutely brilliant to watch, whether you’ve understanding of the game’s subtleties or not. Equally, I’d like to have seen a high-stakes 1v1 tournament as well, though I understand why making it a team sport is valuable, especially in its first iteration – more people involved means more success, and team games dominate 1v1s when it comes to eSports success on every metric.
A little more info and instructions on how to take part over on the brand new official site. We’ll keep you posted about when events are being broadcast.