How playing in-person, with a crowd, created a different playing environment at RLCS Winter Major

For the first time in over two years, the Rocket League Championship Series held an in-person tournament in front of an audience this past weekend at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. Right next door to Sofi Stadium, where tens of thousands of fans saw the Los Angeles Rams win the Super Bowl last month, a few thousand watched G2 Esports emerge victorious at the RLCS Winter Split Major.

Longtime Rocket League player and G2 Esports veteran Reed “Chicago” Willen was elated to be competing on a stage in front of thousands of cheering fans again. G2’s last time at an RLCS LAN with spectators was way back in June 2019 for the Season 7 Finals.

“You really have fans screaming your name, screaming for your team, and it’s one of the best feelings you can have in this game,” Chicago said.

Spacestation Gaming’s Slater "retals" Thomas, who played in the last RLCS LAN to host fans in December 2019 for the Season 8 Finals, agreed with Chicago’s sentiment.

“Crowd noise, it’s the best thing in Rocket League. Playing online doesn’t match it at all. It’s a completely different experience,” retals said.

Retals' dad leads the cheers. Photo credit: Eric Corona / ESPAT

Team Queso’s Joe "Joyo" Young, who is only 16 years old, had never experienced an RLCS match in front of fans.

“Surreal. I feel like I’m in a dream when I’m playing on stage,” Joyo said. “You sort of zone out, but when you start thinking about it again it’s just crazy.

Even though players have to block out the noise in order to communicate with each other onstage, they still can feel the crowd.

“You have double noise canceling earbuds and the headphones over it, but you can still feel the rumbling in your chest while you’re playing,” retals said. “You feel the ground shaking. It’s awesome.”

The negative and positive effects of crowd noise

The flip side is all of that crowd noise can rattle some players, especially younger competitors who have never performed in front of large numbers of people before.

Young is, of course, a relative term in the RLCS, where players are overwhelmingly in their late teens or early 20s. Team Queso’s roster, for example, features players all aged 15 to 17.

Team Queso remain poised onstage. Photo credit: Psyonix

Queso certainly didn’t look or sound rattled on their way to the grand final – though their grand final opponent, G2, did have a young player who admitted feeling nervous. Massimo “Atomic” Franceschi said he was feeling some nerves as it was his first time dealing with the mob.

While crowd noise can induce some nerves, it also drowned out the trash talking that took place during the group stage of the Winter Major, which was held at FACEIT’s Los Angeles studio.

“You’re literally sitting across from each other and can hear each other perfectly,” said Chicago about playing in the studio.

FaZe Clan’s Jason "Firstkiller" Corral revealed that he actually preferred it where he couldn’t hear the verbal sniping. It turned out the opponent behind a lot of the trash talk was Version1’s vocal leader Robert "Comm" Kyser.

Version1 take the stage ahead of a match. Photo credit: Version1

“When it’s just you and the other team in the studio like that — especially against those teams, Queso being a really young inexperienced team, FaZe I already know — like, we saw them and they looked super nervous,” Comm said. “So I’m 100 percent gonna try to get inside these guys’ heads.”

While it did seem to rattle a few, for the most part, players seemed to welcome the trash talk.

“Honestly, I think it’s good. I think Rocket League needed this, it adds a little spice to the game, a little excitement, something new,” Chicago said.

“Comm’s chirping, it is what it is, like that’s the game. He’s trying to get in our heads, etc. It’s nothing, there’s no bad blood or anything,” Team Queso’s Finlay "rise." Ferguson said.

Beyond drowning out the trash talk, the crowd seemed to provide fuel for the North American teams, in particular Spacestation Gaming. Spacestation’s Austin "AYYJAYY" Aebi said playing for fans helped the team raise their game. It certainly didn’t seem to bother 15-year-old Daniel "Daniel" Piecenski, either, despite the audience chanting his name and bowing to him every time he scored a goal.

Fans cheer for Daniel aka Laniel. Photo credit: Eric Corona / ESPAT

In the upper bracket final, when Spacestation and G2 faced off -- both North American squads -- the crowd felt as though it was more on Spacestation’s side. But when it came down to G2 vs. Team Queso in the grand final, the building was staunchly in favor of G2.

While fans had to wait over two years to attend another Rocket League LAN tournament, they won’t be waiting too much longer until the next one -- assuming no cancellations due to COVID. Psyonix announced over the weekend that the Spring Major will take place in London beginning at the end of June.

The company also announced the Rocket League 2021-22 World Championship will take place in Dallas in August.

Lead photo credit: Brian Bencomo