The Rocket League community has called into question Psyonix’s RLCS 2024 Season announcement, which brings several sweeping changes.
The developers made the RLCS 2024 returns announcement post yesterday evening, saying: “We’re increasing open competition, focusing on long-term sustainability, and widening prizing for more players than ever before.”
But while the announcement was presented positively, several in the community expressed their uncertainty and disappointment around some of the changes.
The overall prize money has dropped from $6m last year to $4.3m this year, while a split has been removed, from three to two.
The prizing will be more widely distributed, with each open qualifier now awarding cash prizes to the top 128 teams (in NA and EU), the top 64 teams (in South America, Oceania, and MENA) and the top 32 teams (in APAC and SSA).
Perhaps the biggest change to the RLCS 2024 Season, however, is total open qualification, which will see top teams having to go through an open qualifier for all six regionals (three per split). Even if a team wins a major, they will have to play against lower-tier teams to still qualify for the next event. One senior esports source told Esports News UK this ‘makes no sense’.
A qualifier spot has also been taken from EU and NA for Majors. Previously, the top five teams from each region would qualify, now it’s the top four.
Other teams that can qualify for Majors and the Rocket League World Championship (Worlds) will be the top two teams from MENA, top two from Oceania, top two from South America, plus the top one from APAC and the top one from SSA.
This means Worlds will now have 16 teams, down from last year’s 24.
There will be three in-person tournaments during the RLCS 2024 Season: Major 1, Major 2 and Worlds.
The news comes after the minimum age to compete in the RLCS 2024 Season was recently lowered to 13 years old, with Psyonix saying this will ‘further open the league for more players to compete in and win cash prizes’.
Each Minor that participates in any in-person event will require a parent or guardian to attend, and esports team coaches and managers must be at least 18 years old.
The first open qualifier starts on January 26th 2024.
‘Poor updates don’t have players’ interests at heart’ – community responds to RLCS 2024 Season changes
We’ve collated a host of different tweets and viewpoints from various esports personalities, managers, coaches and more, including the Rocket League Players’ Association (RLPA), which formed last summer.
UK coach Gregan, who recently returned to coaching, said: “This comes across like “We are excited to announce we had budget cuts and this is the format now!”
Only 4 NA and EU teams for Majors AND Worlds when y’all are getting rid of a major?
— Jayson (@Fireburner) January 10, 2024
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.
