Best eSports teams - RLCS Edition

Rocket League. A fun game with an incredibly steep learning curve, for at least the first week or two that you play it you’ll likely struggle to a point where you feel like you’re chasing the ball but not touching it, then one day it just clicks, from there you’ll spend hours and hours in free play, doing training packs, watching the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) learning how the pros do it, before you know it you’re air dribbling, flip resetting, flying up the ranks. But will you ever make it to the big stage? Only time will tell.

If you do make it to the big stage, maybe you’ll be one of the people we talk about in future iterations of this article, but for today, we’ll be taking a look at who I would consider my TOP 5 teams in RLCS history. We won’t be limited to any specific region, however as an EU based fan I do pay “more attention” to the European scene. As always, we’ll start by listing my top teams and then I’ll do a quick breakdown of why they are where they are.

Gale Force Esports/Dignitas – Kaydop, ViolentPanda, Turbopolsa
Cloud 9 – Gimmick, Squishymuffinz, Torment
FLIPSID3 TACTICS – Kuxir97, M1k3Rules, Markydooda
Team BDS – Extra, Marc_By_8, M0nkeyM00n
NRG – GarrettG, Jstn, Turbopolsa

Gale Force Esports/Dignitas

Honestly, there isn’t much that needs to be said here for me and “arguably” you could’ve put Cloud 9 here, but my problem with that will be explained in a moment. Gale Force Esports/Dignitas DOMINATED, it started when they picked up Pocket Aces, a team consisting of ViolentPanda, Paschy90 and Chausette45, they let go of pashy and chausette (who is now killing it on another team) to make way for Kaydop, previously of Mock-it who had JUST lost the Season 3 world finals to Northern Gaming and Turbopolsa of, you guessed it, Northern Gaming. Who’d have thought a team made up of the genius mind of ViolentPanda, a world championship runner up and a sub turned MVP of a world championship would turn out well?

Violentpanda, Kaydop and TurboPolsa lifting the RLCS Season 5 Worlds trophy. Source: Red Bull

TURNS OUT, they absolutely dominated everything. They went on to win back to back world championships, which actually made Turbopolsa a THREE TIME world champion, which he now has four, by the way. Insanity! They then made it to a third final, getting beat by…

Cloud 9

After beating Dignitas in the RLCS Season 6 world finals, C9 didn’t do what I would consider to be A LOT, they finished 2nd in NA for RLCS Season 7 and finished 3-4 getting beat by Vitality in the RLCS Season 7 world finals. But their roster of Gimmick, Squishy and Torment arguably changed the way a lot of people viewed pro rocket league and in doing so, changed the game forever.

They took what F3 did, they improved it in EVERY WAY, while also being insane mechanically and outrageous in 1v1s meaning their solo plays were just outstanding. Torment & Gimmick are now playing for V1 and doing pretty well. Squishy on the other hand, yeah he’s slaying it over in NRG winning 2 majors and a regional!

FLIPSID3 TACTICS

Some people may question why F3 are here and it’s simple, they changed the way professional rocket league was played. They were runners up in the first ever RLCS finals, coming back stronger in season 2 to get first place. But it was the way they played which caught the attention of fans. They may not have invented the passing style play they’re renowned for, but they definitely made it famous.

Fast rotations, incredible off the wall/corner passes to the center would catch even the highest level players off guard. They were so satisfying to watch, even if it was hard to keep up as an amateur.

Team BDS

While it’s true we can’t REALLY know for sure whether Team BDS are as good a team as we currently think they are purely down to the fact we don’t have LANs right now, damn you covid. I think it’s fair to say they belong in the discussion, after winning the Rocket League Rival Series (RLRS) and earning a place in the RLCS X Fall Regional Event 1, they have absolutely DOMINATED the European region. Racking up an impressive amount of wins along the way.

How many wins, I hear you ask? 2 out of 3 regionals in the Fall split, 2 out of 3 regionals in the Winter split, 1 of the 3 regionals AND the Grid in the spring split, though they may have taken their foot off the gas a little having qualified for what would have been worlds some way through the Winter split. Not only that but they won the MAJOR of ALL THREE splits. Finishing the season on 5301 championship points, almost 2000 points ahead of the team in second, Renault Vitality, for reference, in NA, 1100 points separated the top FOUR teams. It really has been an insane season from Team BDS who continue to improve game by game. I can’t WAIT to see if they can back this up on LAN!

NRG

NRG have always been in and around the top of the NA scene occasionally popping off at worlds, but after they acquired Turbo they finally went on to dominate the world stage. Winning Season 8, they were a force to be reckoned with, Turbo being the S8 worlds MVP. They again refined the recipe and showed everyone how the game SHOULD be played. NRG have since replaced Turbo with Squishy and are doing pretty well if I do say so myself. The NA Championship should be pretty spicy this season.

RLCS X Source: RL Esports Youtube

With the Championships coming up between June 15th and 20th, there’s PLENTY of Rocket League still to watch this season. I know where my money will be going, and with more bookmakers like Heritagesports eu and bet365 opening markets for esports now since covid wiped out most physical sports for the best part of 6 months, you gotta look around before you take that plunge you know? *psst* My money will be on Envy, Team BDS, Cringe Society and FURIA. Don’t tell everyone though.