Photo courtesy of Nerd Street Gamers.
The Rocket League Championship Series — RLCS — is rapidly coming apart. Fewer fans are filling venues, viewership on livestreams is dropping, and overall, more fans of the scene are losing interest with each event.
Reasons for this decline are well documented. What has not been closely examined are ways that this tailspin could be corrected.
One solution would be for Epic Games to merge their esports scenes.
Currently, “Rocket League” and “Fortnite” are down from their peaks in terms of viewership data. They have also seen a drop in active players.
Back when Epic Games bought Psyonix — the developers of “Rocket League” — its intention was to boost the player count of the game.
Epic attempted to do so by making “Rocket League” more like “Fortnite” in hopes of drawing fans of “Fortnite” over to “Rocket League.”
While there was a brief spike in players, the idea never really panned out in the long term. One-time changes like making the game free-to-play aren’t sustainable in continuing to increase player count of a game.
A merger of the competitive scenes of both games could not only save both esports, but it could also boost casual engagement with both games.
If majors and world championships of both events were brought under one umbrella, both esports would see immediate improvements.
Cost of venues would drop, since Epic would no longer be running two separate in-person tournament scenes. Attendance and viewership would both increase, as fans of “Fortnite” and “Rocket League” would tune in to watch their preferred esport and likely be hooked by watching a match of the other.
By engaging both fanbases, the likelihood that fans of one game end up picking up the other skyrockets, leading to a sustainable and renewed casual interest in both “Fortnite” and “Rocket League.”
This approach saves Epic money and brings more interest, sponsors and prize money to both “Fortnite” and “Rocket League” in the long run.
The other solution involves Epic Games spending money. Since they have currently shown no interest in spending more money on the RLCS than they absolutely have to, it’s unlikely that Epic would go for this approach.
Despite that, this solution would be beloved by fans of the RLCS and would likely lead to a permanent resurgence in viewership for the esport. That’s because this solution is a return to the RLCS of old — something fans have been clamoring for since BLAST was selected to manage RLCS tournaments.
For starters, the Esports World Cup — EWC — needs to be embraced by the RLCS. The EWC isn’t funded by Epic Games. It’s a Saudi tournament with a prize pool put together by sponsors and other outside interests.
The EWC currently sits in an awkward spot, being known about by diehard fans of the RLCS but not being really advertised by Epic Games or BLAST.
Epic needs to integrate the event into the RLCS as a replacement for the third major that no longer exists. They need to invest in holding regional qualifiers to get people excited for the event. Then, they need to have the results of the EWC actually matter by awarding teams points that determine them qualifying for the world championship — the same points given out at the regional and major events throughout the year.
Since the EWC happens so close to the world championship, Epic should bump the world championship back a month or so to give players time to rest between events. This new schedule would also shorten the time between the world championship and the start of the next RLCS season.
By embracing the EWC as a part of the scene, Epic Games and BLAST would be solving many fan complaints with the current season structure of the RLCS. They also wouldn’t have to spend more money on a third major, since the EWC is already funded by other sponsors. All they would need to do is set up qualifying regionals for the event, which don’t cost much because they take place fully online.
BLAST and Epic also need to bring back the old wild card round of the world championships. The current last-chance qualifier is a half-baked attempt at spicing up the world championship by putting fourth-seeded teams from some regions at risk of being eliminated before they even reach the world championship.
Instead of pointlessly jeopardizing some team’s chance at qualifying, the old wild card that had 16 teams fight for eight spots in the swiss bracket stage of the tournament should be brought back.
The old wild card made upsets more likely, forms storylines for possible rematches later in the world championship and doesn’t rob any team of the opportunity to play at the world championship — because playing in the wild card still means playing at the world championship.
Since that idea takes effort and money — two things BLAST and Epic Games aren’t known for handing out — it’s unlikely this solution would ever be implemented. Reverting to the old format can also be seen as an admission that the new format was a failure and that both organizations messed up by changing the format, making this solution even more unlikely.
It’s no secret that the RLCS is in need of a change, and that if nothing changes the scene will rapidly fade away. As the scene continues to bleed out, all fans can do is tune in to events and hope it won’t be the last time they watch their favorite team play.
Despite the state of the scene, fans of the RLCS — and fans of any game — need to remember that they have the power to effect change by speaking out. Developers can only ignore loud fanbases for so long. If enough fans of any game unite to demand better from companies, they can only deny their player base what they want for so long before they cave.
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