Rocket League Players’ Association RLPA launches, we speak to UK co-founder about its aims: ‘The idea is to develop Rocket League to be the biggest esport possible and I think that can only be done if there’s a feedback loop between the publisher and the pro playerbase’

Two UK esports professionals have launched the Rocket League Players’ Association (RLPA), which is designed to help develop the esport.

The non-profit group has been set up by co-founders Jonny Davies (Junior Talent Manager at agency Sixteenth) and Noah ‘Noah’ Hinder (Rocket League coach at Moist Esports). We caught up with Jonny to find out more about the RLPA.

Dom Sacco, Esports News UK: Please tell us about the RLPA being set up.

Jonny Davies, RLPA: I used to be an esports agent at AFK, and Noah Hinder, one of my clients, was a coach I represented. People have been calling for this for a year or so now, as transfers could get a bit out of control.

We started chatting about it eight or nine months ago now, and Noah was looking to start something but didn’t know where to go with it. We had more meetings and the idea all took off from there. 

The way we differ from the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) or the LCS Players Association, is it’s going to be fully set up to help the scene. The whole idea is to develop Rocket League, everyone [in the RL scene] wants Rocket League to be the biggest esport possible and a tier one esport, and I think that can only be possible if there’s a feedback loop between the publisher and the pro playerbase.

Before I was involved, Noah said there was this feedback between the players and Psyonix, but over time that’s kind of gone away as things were leaked, so Psyonix doesn’t really trust client confidentiality. 

We want to come in and act as a way to consolidate the opinion of the playerbase so it’s digestible from Psyonix and there will be that direct link. That’s our main overarching goal to start with – improving that feedback and communication, so the pro players can have an impact on the esport and how that moves forward. 

We’ve been having ongoing conversations with players and coaches over the past half a year to see if they’re interested and we’ve had tentative yeses and people who are interested. 

Player associations haven’t seemed to have done that well in esports so far. It seems like the CSPPA is quietly winding down and there was the talk around the LCS player walkout recently. Is there anything you’ve learned from those other player associations? 

I think the main thing for me is transparency. This is going to be as transparent as it possibly can be – all meeting notes will be published and available to the members, everything will be open, we don’t want any secrecy or going behind backs. It’s accountability and transparency. It’s accountable to the members of the organisation and they have an insight into what’s happening. 

To start with, my goal is to build up the esport, promote diversity in the esport, and try and have a say and discourse between players and Psyonix. 

Will you represent Rocket League casters and other talent in the Rocket League Players’ Association?

Because the team is all voluntary to start with [and remote], it will be limited to players and coaches/managers. It’ll be players and a coach or manager from each team. We have requirements for entry too because we want to keep it quite exclusive to start with. 

I’d love to add Womens Car Ball and collegiate Rocket League eventually, but the RLPA will be for RLCS players and coaches to start with. 

Entry requirements: pic.twitter.com/h4RdEmIefg

— Rocket League Players' Association (@TheRLPA) July 17, 2023

What’s the structure of the RLPA? 

In terms of the structure, each major region (North America, South America, Oceania, Apac, Middle East and Europe) will have their own Discord server, and within that they will vote for the four representatives in their regional committee, and they will appoint a chair of that committee. 

Each of those will form the international committee, to gather information from the worldwide playerbase into a digestible discussion. From that, we’ll make reports, and we’d like to produce a monthly report to Psyonix with our questions and suggestions, then gather feedback from them as a two-way street. It needs to be as open as possible. Initially we just want that dialogue and to be able to help, and have an input. 

What are your longer-term goals with the Rocket League Players’ Association?

It will be what the members want it to be. I don’t want to come in and say this is what it will look like in a year, I simply want it to be a representation of the playerbase.

Ideally I will help with the operations, I’ll set things up as a caretaker of the association and what the players want it to be, it will be. 

Was there a series of events that sparked this? 

I guess in the playerbase over the past year or so, there have been calls for it. One of our operations executives, Turinturo, has been vocal about wanting to build something like this – something with a structure and support system. He’s seen support from the community for this. We’ve seen some transfers that have left players in positions they shouldn’t really have been in, and difficulties communicating, and I think that’s the hole we fill: an official body that can be recognised and promote the questions of the playerbase, rather than lots of little ones.

I get it from a Psyonix point of view – if there are a million different questions in a million different places [that’s difficult to manage], but if we come in with one report a month with the key points we want answered, I think it makes it a lot easier from their side. 

How big is the operations team? 

There’s myself as the chief executive, and then four oerations executives – Noah, of Moist Esports, Satthew, the coach of G2, Nick, who is currently working for Falcons, and Turinturo, another player. And that’s all purely on a volunteer basis.

What are the types of membership available? 

On the types of membership, we’ll have full membership, if you qualify/meet the requirements, and then for those who don’t meet that but are playing in open qualifiers etc, there will be associate membership. You won’t have a vote but you’ll have insight into the decisions being made. 

I want to open the doors to as many people as possible but it’ll be difficult with the amount of staff we have and the hours in a day, frankly. So having associate membership will provide insight.

If someone gets to RLCS and can apply for membership, what happens if they drop out later to play in a lower tier league? 

A person shall be eligible to be a full member if he or she has qualified for and competed in at least one RLCS regional event in the last 180 days, so there are ongoing qualification requirements. And there are a couple of other qualifying things like that. 

Do you think the Rocket League Players’ Association opens up any potential conflicts of interest given Noah has a vested interest in Moist Esports in particular?

No I don’t [think it opens up any conflicts of interest]. One thing I want to make very clear is that myself, Noah and the rest of the operations board, as we’re calling it, are giving up all our voting rights. It will be fully democratic from its members. 

Noah and Moist declined to attend the Gamers Without Borders LAN in Saudi Arabia last year. But there haven’t really been boycotts like this since then, has there? I guess players will be able to come together more and discuss this as a collective with a players association. 

I think they’ve made a lot of efforts with the charity work, but I’m not sure on this either way, really. Players can voice concerns and we can be used as a forum to discuss things really, then teams and regions can have a more unified approach. 

Will the Rocket League Players’ Association be offering advice to players around contracts?

At no point do I want to replace agents. I think agents are super crucial and really helpful to players. If you have a good agent that’s definitely something to keep and I don’t want to replace that in any way. 

Initially, I don’t want to offer any contract support or negotiate on anyone’s behalf. Further down the line, we may have a contract template we publish to help players. I know the PFA in football has a template contract and that’s a nice starting point. That might be a nice idea further down the line, but I don’t envisage offering contract advice down the line, but again it’s up to the members with how they want to take it.

Thanks for talking to me Jonny and good luck with the Rocket League Players’ Association.

Related article: UK Rocket League player Rise finishes runner-up at 2022-23 RLCS Spring Major with Team BDS

Dom Sacco

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.