It’s been a busy few weeks for UK Rocket League, with successes at the collegiate level and also a busy transfer window for pro UK Rocket League teams – we’ve rounded up the news here.
Portsmouth Paladins win EURC 2022, reach World Championship with Keele and Salford
First off, university teams Portsmouth Paladins from the University of Portsmouth and Keele Krakens from Keele University have qualified for the 2022 Collegiate Rocket League World Championship.
They qualified via the European University Rocketeers’ Championship (EURC), with Keele finishing third and Portsmouth Paladins winning the entire tournament after beating Berlin Phoenix in the final.
A few other UK teams were present, including Salford Lions (7th-8th), Warwick Park the Bus and Bournemouth Barracudas (9th-12th) but they sadly didn’t reach the qualification spots in the top four.
Update (April 25th): However, Salford Lions have now reached the Collegiate Rocket League World Championship through the Europe Last Chance Qualifier. They reached the upper semi finals, and dropped to the lower bracket after losing 4-3 to Hamburg.
In the lower bracket, Salford Lions beat Warwick Park the Bus 4-3 and then Nijmegen 4-3 in the lower bracket final to secure their spot in the World Championship.
The three UK teams will take part in the Collegiate World Championship in Dallas from June 3rd to 5th 2022.
It was also another big weekend for Portsmouth and Keele earlier in April, as they faced off in the NSE esports finals at Insomnia 68, with Portsmouth winning 5-3.
The news comes a few months after Psyonix announced that Collegiate Rocket League would be expanding to Europe.
There’s more info on the Collegiate Rocket League Dallas finals on the Rocket League website.
Update (June 5th 2022): The three UK teams were unfortunately knocked out of the Collegiate World Championship in the group stage.
UK Rocket League roster shake-up as transfer window closes
Some of the biggest UK esports organisations operating in Rocket League were frantically getting deals over the line over the past week ahead of the transfer deadline on April 17th 2022.
Guild Esports‘ British player Noly has moved to French organisation Karmine Corp, and Guild were rumoured to sign Spanish player MaRc_By_8 from Team BDS or Dorito.
Noly had apparently previously found out he was being replaced via a news article by Shift, with UK caster Stumpy criticising Guild for allowing this to happen.
Endpoint saw their star Frenchman Seikoo depart, who has been linked with a move to Team BDS.
And Endpoint have also signed UK player Archie on loan from fellow UK esports organisation SMPR Esports.
Endpoint will apparently be liable for any costs associated with the player, including salary and travel costs, while 20% of prize money awarded to Archie will go to Semper.
Jassem Osseiran, COO at Semper Fortis, said: “Archie remains a big part of our plans moving forward and we hope that this loan deal will be of great benefit to both parties upon his return next season.”
SMPR have opted for an all-French team, by signing ExoTiiK to their Rocket League roster, as UK coach Billy departs and French coach Finish comes in.
Williams Resolve, meanwhile, have signed Spanish player Stake from Karmine Corp, after parting ways with French player Radosin earlier this month.
The news also comes one month after another UK esports organisation, Rix.gg, paused their involvement in Rocket League. Their former players Oscillon, Speed and Mikeboy have left, with the latter two joining the Pokemaniacs and Suhhh rosters respectively.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
