RLCS World Championship 2025 Group Stage Preview

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 11/09/2025

The RLCS World Championship 2025 begins in earnest today as the Group Stage begins.

ROC Esports, NiP, Virtus.pro, and Gen.G made it through the brutal play-ins to qualify for the main event at the LDLC Arena.

The Play-ins saw TSM, FUT Esports, MIBR, and Shopify Rebellion fall.

Shopify Rebellion fans had high hopes for the competition, but Slater ‘Retals’ Thomas especially struggled, as SR underdelivered to fall out of the competition.

RLCS World Championship 2025 Group Stage Preview

The opening group stage fixtures are:

Group A:

Karmine Corp vs Virtus.pro

The Ultimates vs Geekay Esports

Dignitas vs ROC Esports

Wildcard vs Furia

Group B

Team Falcons vs Gen.G

Spacestation vs Team Vitality

NRG vs NiP

Team Secret vs Twisted Minds

Karmine Corp goes into the event as esports betting sites favourites, following their EWC victory over Geekay Esports.

A repeat of that Grand-Final is on the cards in the group, if they can both win their opening match-ups.

Team Falcons broke their silver curse at RLCS Raleigh Major, but at EWC, a hugely important event for the Falcons’ organisation, the team could only manage a third-place finish after a 2-4 Semi-Final series loss to KC.

NRG and Dignitas are also strong contenders for the title, but their main priority will be to get through the groups cleanly before they worry about playoffs.

Both teams lost to the eventual winners, Falcons, in Raleigh, but showed impressive form to get there, with Dignitas making the final before falling to Falcons 1-4.

For NRG to qualify straight to playoffs and avoid the gauntlet of the lower-bracket, they will face a tough second-round matchup against Secret or Team Secret, who made a famous comeback to reverse sweep and eliminate Karmine Corp in Raleigh.

Team Secret’s Brazilian team outperformed Twisted Minds in Riyadh, qualifying for the playoffs of EWC. Therefore, it will be an interesting opening contest for both teams to assess their form for Rocket League’s biggest event.

RLCS World Championship 2025 Group Stage Format, Dates, Prize Money

Prize Pool: $1,200,000
First Place: $300,000

Dates:-
Group Stage: September 11-12
Playoffs: September 13-14

The RLCS World Championship Group Stage will feature two groups of eight, with a double-elimination format.

Four teams will advance from each group to the playoffs, with the two teams qualifying through the Upper Bracket going straight to the Upper Bracket Quarter-Finals, and the lower two teams entering in Lower Bracket Round 1.

The brackets consolidate in the Semi-Finals, becoming a single-elimination format at that stage, regardless of previous results.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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