Who ya got?
If the most accurate description of Rocket League is “cars playing soccer”(football, fútbol, footie for our international audiences), then it’s fitting that the game get a tournament that mimics soccer’s most popular tournament. Later this month, Rocket League is getting its first ever World Cup and it’s going to be nuts.
Beginning July 27, 16 teams will compete in three-on-three action, each squad representing their home country. The 2017 World Cup is formatted the same as FIFA’s World Cup — a pool stage in groups of four, and then the winners of those go onto the knockout stage. There’s a prize pool of $5,000 for the top three teams, which is relatively small for most of these players; this competition is more about national pride.
It’s also worth noting that this tournament isn’t an official Psyonix-endorsed Rocket League event. Instead, it’s organized and hosted by League of Rockets which is run by well-known names within the game’s community. All the games will be streamed live on the League of Rockets Twitch channel.
But it doesn’t matter much that this isn’t officially sanctioned by Psyonix because League of Rockets went out and got most of the best players in the world to compete. That’s where the World Cup gets really interesting: When you look at the rosters. Nearly half the countries have a veritable dream team playing for them, but none of them fully stocked with teammates that they regularly play with (by my calculation, anyway).
Here are all the countries and players playing in the 2017 World Cup:
Australia:
- Bango
- Dumbo
- Express
Brazil:
- CaioTG1
- FirefoxD
- Haberkamper
Canada:
- JKnaps
- Squishy
- Timi
Denmark:
- Maestro
- Pwndx
- Snaski
England:
- Bluey
- Deevo
- Doomsee
Finland:
- JZHER
- Metsanauris
- Mognus
France:
- Fairy Peak
- Kaydop
- Mout
Germany:
- FreaKii
- Paschy90
- Sikii
Italy:
- Darkpier96
- Kuxir97
- MX22
Japan:
- Lime
- Nemoto
- Realize
Netherlands:
- Nielskoek
- Remkoe
- ViolentPanda
Norway:
- Greazymeister
- Reganam
- Sniper
Scotland:
- Markydooda
- Miztik
- Scrub Killa
Sweden:
- Al0t
- Flarke
- Turbopolsa
Switzerland:
- Continuum
- Skyline
- Stocki
USA:
- Fireburner
- GarrettG
- Kronovi
About half of these team are absolutely stacked and that means the World Cup is ripe for drama. France has two-thirds of the RLCS Season 3 runner-ups. England, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden each has one player from Northern Gaming, the team that’s the most recent RLCS champion. USA has two-thirds of the defending North American champions. But, if I were forced to pick, I think I’d put my money on Scotland; Markydooda and Miztik are former world champs, and Scrub Killa is widely considered one of the best players even though he’s not yet old enough to compete in RLCS.
Stitched-together squads in the name of nationalism means that this tournament is going to be a fun one. Right now, the World Cup is mostly wide open for the taking. Expect anything and everything. Only one thing’s certain: On July 30, one of these countries will be named the king of Rocket League.
The 2017 World Cup [Bad Panda]
