Karmine Corp win RLCS Kick-Off Weekend 2026

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 08/12/2025

Karmine Corp started the season off with a bang by winning Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) Kick-Off Weekend 2026.

The French esports organisation dominated the tournament, sweeping Shopify Rebellion 4-0 in the Grand Final.

The LAN tournament was the first event of the 15th RLCS esports season.

For winning, KCorp have qualified for the RLCS Boston Major, and each member was given a trophy made by Thomas Lyte.

Having won the first EU Open event last week, KCorp were given a bye directly into the semifinals of the RLCS Kick-Off weekend.

There, they convincingly defeated North American organisation Spacestation Gaming 4-1 before defeating another NA team in Shopify.

Shopify also received a bye into the semifinals after sweeping Spacestation 4-0 in the North American Open final.

Meanwhile, it was the debut tournament of Manchester City’s first-ever Rocket League esports team.

The roster, formerly known as 2 Danes 1 Bruv, lost 4-3 to Karmine Corp in the Upper Bracket of the EU Open.

Then at the LAN portion of the event, Man City were eliminated by NOVO Esports, losing 4-3 again in the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals.

What’s next in the RLCS 2025/26 season?

All eyes will now be on RLCS Boston, the first Rocket League esports major of the new season.

KCorp are now qualified for the event, while other teams will be eyeing up the second online Open events across several regions.

The participating teams will be battling for prize money and crucial RLCS Points to later qualify for the RLCS World Championships.

KCorp have established themselves as Europe’s top team after winning the Esports World Cup and Birmingham Major in 2025.

Now, the team have made a statement by winning the RLCS Kick-Off Weekend, making them the team to beat in 2026.

Is Rocket League dying?

Despite winning his fifth LAN, Karmine Corp’s Axel ‘Vatira’ Touret is not happy with the state of the game.

Earlier this year, Vatira proclaimed that Rocket League is dead after his anger with Psyonix and Epic Games hit a new high.

He and many other community members expressed their frustrations as the game continues to be plagued by DDoS issues.

These attacks lag people out of matches to allow hackers to ruin matches and climb ranks unfairly.

This has made it very difficult for pros to practice and even interfered with LAN qualifiers.

Rocket League developers have since responded to the #RocketLeagueIsDead campaign and commented on the DDoS issues.

The developers are increasing servers to deal with the attacks and finding new ways to prevent hackers.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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