G2 Stride were crowned RLCS London Major champions on Sunday night in front of Rocket League esports fans at the Copper Box Arena.
The North American side overcame Falcons 4-1 in the grand final, after beating Furia 4-2 in the semi-final earlier in the evening, to take home the $75,000 top prize.
In front of more than 6,000 fans at Copper Box Arena tonight, MVP Landon “BeastMode” Konerman led G2 Esports to victory to lift the first RLCS Trophy in London since 2022.
Championship Sunday saw a Rocket League first, with four different regions represented across the semi-finals, with Furia (Brazil, South America), Team Falcons (Saudi Arabia/Middle East), G2 Esports (USA/North America) and Gentle Mates (France/Europe) featuring in the final four for the first time ever in a RLCS event.
The atmosphere was loud, with Karmine Corp fans celebrating Gentle Mates’ exit from the tournament, when they fell 4-3 to Falcons in the semi-final.
Attendance figures stood at 12,000 across the weekend overall.
Over the past week, 16 of the worlds best RLCS teams descended on London for the first time in two years to battle it out and go for glory to lift the RLCS London Major trophy, and compete for $255,000. The UK and Ireland was represented on home soil with six players in four teams, but sadly fell short with only Jack “ApparentlyJack” Benton from Gen.G Mobil1 Racing making it to the knockout stages.
As well as lifting the RLCS trophy, G2 also claimed the top prize of $75,000 as well as qualification points towards the RLCS World Championships in Fort Worth later this year.
Tournament MVP, G2’s Landon “BeastMode” Konerman, said:
“The London crowd is like nothing else we have experienced before in any other part of the world – from the fan chants to the energy of the arena, it was an incredible experience. We are delighted to be able to lift the trophy in front of the Copper Box Arena.”
BeastMode, G2 Stride
Blast continues to build the UK as a global esports hub, having just hosted three esports events in the space of six weeks, with the Blast R6 Major in Manchester back in May (won by Beastcoast), the Blast Premier Spring Final 2024 at the Ovo Arena Wembley last week (won by Team Spirit) and now the RLCS London Major this weekend.
With the UK holding a 6% share of the global esports market and the global sector expected to reach $1.6 billion by the end of this year, this partnership aims to capitalise on this momentum and foster further growth.
This was the first RLCS event in the Copper Box since 2022, a venue with a rich history in Rocket League esports after hosting the Call of Duty League and Call of Duty world championships and Apex Legends Global Series alongside Rocket Leagues’ two prior events.
FIFAe introduces national team competition: the FIFAe World Cup featuring Rocket League
FIFAe, the esports arm of football body FIFA, has announced a new Rocket League tournament.
With FIFA’s previous game publishing partner EA breaking away from FIFA in recent years to launch its own FC 24 football game series, FIFA has now turned to Rocket League esports instead.
The FIFAe World Cup featuring Rocket League was announced during Championship Sunday at the Rocket League London Major on Sunday.
16 nations will compete in the new Rocket League esports competition, with each nation fielding three players and one substitute. The nations are selected based on the number of representatives from each country in previous Rocket League Majors.
It’s separate to the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia, which also features Rocket League.
Welcome to #FIFAe, @RLEsports! 🌟⚽
— FIFAe (@FIFAe) June 23, 2024
The first-ever FIFAe World Cup featuring @RocketLeague 🚀
Which nation would you like to see compete? Let us know by commenting with your flag! 👀 pic.twitter.com/3tMgwAPWVI
FIFA said in a press release that participating member associations will have the opportunity to host their own qualification tournaments, in order to find the best players to represent their nations and wave their flag on the biggest stage.
Players can sign up via FIFA.GG to find out more information about the qualification in their territory.
Christian Volk, Director eFootball and Gaming at FIFA, said: “The FIFAe World Cup featuring Rocket League marks a new era for FIFAe, providing a groundbreaking platform for FIFA’s member assocations to compete on one of the most relevant esports titles.
“This milestone partnership highlights our commitment to evolve our football esports ecosystem and continue to build the biggest stages for all communities to fame their game.”
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.
