RLCS: Psyonix announces changes for 2021-2022 season

The RLCS (Rocket League Championship Series) is back for the 2021-2022 season and it’s bigger than ever. On Wednesday, Rocket League developer Psyonix hosted a stream on Twitch to announce all of the changes for the new season.

The 2021-2022 season will include new regions, larger prize pools, LAN events, and an expanded World Championship format. So we are here to break down all of the news from the RLCS announcement stream.

2021-2022 RLCS Format

The 2021-2022 season is expected to run from October of 2021 to July of 2022.

Credit: Rocket League Esports

The season will be divided into a fall, winter and spring split with a LAN major capping off each split.

At the end of the season, the best 24 teams in the RLCS will head to the World Championship to fight for the crown of world champion.

New RLCS Regions

The RLCS is adding three new full regions and an additional minor region for the 2021-2022 season.

The new full regions are:

  • Asia-Pacific North
  • Asia-Pacific South
  • Middle East and North Africa

Alongside the three new regions, the RLCS is creating the Sub-Saharan Africa region for the upcoming season.

RLCS New Regions 2021-2022
Image Credit: Rocket League Esports

According to Rocket League Esports on Twitter, “Sub-Saharan Africa won’t be a full participant in the RLCS, but will have two spots at the World Championship Wildcard”.

RLCS World Championship Format

The 2021-2022 World Championship will be a two-week-long event divided into two separate phases, a wildcard phase and the main event.

The World Championship Wildcard will feature sixteen teams in a swiss format tournament. The eight best teams from the wildcard will advance on to the main event of the world championship alongside the eight teams that auto-qualified.

Rocket League Wildcard Format
Image Credit: Rocket League Esports

The Main Event of the World Championship will feature three brackets. The first two brackets are eight-team, double-elimination groups where the top four teams from each group advance to the final bracket.

The final bracket will feature the eight remaining teams battling it out in a single-elimination bracket for the crown of World Champion.

Rocket League World Championship Format
Image Credit: Rocket League Esports

Although the RLCS is hesitant to commit to a solidified plan for the World Championship, Psyonix is planning to host the event in North America in front of a live audience.

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LANs are back

After several seasons online, the RLCS is finally coming back to LAN for portions of the 2021-2022 season.

The first RLCS LAN will be the Fall Major taking place in Stockholm, Sweden from December 8th to the 12th of 2021.

The Fall Major will have no fans in attendance as Psyonix will use the event to adapt and build future LAN events to maximize the safety of players and fans alike.

RLCS Fall Major Announcement
Image Credit: Rocket League Esports

As previously mentioned, the 2021-2022 World Championship is also expected to take place on LAN somewhere in North America. Unlike the Fall Major, Psyonix is hoping that the World Championship will feature a live in-person audience.

Funding: Prize Pool and Esports Shop

The Esports Shop has been revamped for the new season! The new esports shop will now include items for teams from the South American and Oceanic regions.

As well the shop will feature new home and away decals for each team.

Like in previous seasons, a portion of the revenue from each sale of esports shop items will go directly to the teams and players featured in the esports shop.

On top of the revenue from the esports shop, teams and players will receive additional funding from the RLCS prize pool which has been increased to a grand total of six million dollars for the 2021-2022 season.

All in all, the RLCS is giving teams more ways to acquire revenue from their participation in the esport in an effort to maintain a sustainable ecosystem.

Broadcast Updates Via the Unreal Engine

After Rocket League’s developer, Psyonix was bought by Epic Games in 2019, Psyonix was given access to Epic’s Unreal Engine for their esports productions.

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Now, the production quality is expected to reach another level through the power of the Unreal Engine. On the announcement stream, Psyonix showed off several graphics set to be used in the 2021-2022 season and they look crisper than ever.

The RLCS is back and better than ever. Since Rocket League went free-to-play back in September of 2020, the game has only grown in popularity and the expansion of the RLCS only proves the success of the game.

The upcoming season is set to be a formative year for the future of Rocket League Esports as a whole, and you can catch all the action starting October 15th on the Rocket League Twitch Channel.

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