RLCS 2024 World Championship Recap

Image courtesy of Psyonix.

The RLCS 2024 World Championship wrapped up a little over two weeks ago, and it was certainly not an event to forget. We saw some of the greatest games of Rocket League ever played, and potentially the greatest single day the RLCS has ever seen, all topped off with a spectacular Grand Final. Here’s what happened.

Swiss

Unlike previous World Championships, only sixteen teams were attending this event. This meant that all the teams were playing in the first stage of the tournament. Everyone was starting with Swiss. The first round was fairly uneventful aside from a few interesting games. All the top teams made quick work of their weaker opponents. The only exceptions to this being Gen.G, who lost in shocking fashion to OCE’s first seed, PWR, and Spacestation Gaming, who had unfortunately drawn a Karmine Corp team looking to prove that they could still compete with the best in the world.

Round 2 was far more interesting, as the top teams were now forced to play each other, meaning games were much closer. In the end G2 Esports, Team Falcons, FURIA Esports and Gentlemates all advanced to Round 3 Uppers, while their opponents were forced down to the middle round. Meanwhile Gen.G and Oxygen Esports both disposed of their minor region opponents with ease. Spacestation showed OG why they were the higher seeded team from NA. And Team Secret managed to gain the edge over Pioneers in game five.

Things only got better in Round 3, G2 Esports and Team Falcons continued their unbeaten streaks and qualified to playoffs to start the day off. The mid round went pretty much as expected. Karmine Corp and Team BDS made quick work of Team Secret and Gen.G. Meanwhile Oxygen fought hard for their win over PWR, as Spacestation took down Team Vitality. This was a huge upset, the reigning world champions being just a round away from elimination this early was hard to believe. The lower round was uneventful, OG and Pioneers both sent their opponents home with ease.

Round 4 brought us the most insane upset of the tournament. Pioneers eliminated Gen.G from the event in game five, meaning NA’s second best team had won just a single series all event. The rest of the games went fairly normally, Karmine Corp. FURIA Esports and Team BDS all qualified for playoffs while Team Secret and OG joined Gen.G at the airport.

The final round was always going to be the most intense, and it didn’t disappoint. The OCE teams would unfortunately have their tournament lives ended here, with both PWR and Pioneers losing their games to the major region teams. However, the series to watch was Oxygen Esports versus Team Vitality. To everyone’s surprise, Oxygen came out swinging. And they managed to turn this early dominance into a four game victory. Team Vitality had been eliminated in Swiss, an insane turn of events that nobody could have seen coming. With that last series, the Swiss Stage was over and Playoffs were primed and ready to begin.

Image courtesy of Psyonix.

Playoffs

Before we could jump into playoffs, we had some seeding matches to be played. The Swiss Tiebreakers kicked off with Karmine Corp taking on Brazil’s FURIA Esports. While there was certainly a good chance FURIA could take this match, Karmine Corp would be going in as the favourites, and they showed why. The European super team claimed their spot in the Upper Bracket in four games, sending FURIA to play Team BDS for another chance at Uppers. Unfortunately for the South Americans, they received similar treatment from the other European giant in their bracket. A brutal reverse sweep sent them into Lowers, where they would have just one life left in the tournament. Now the real games could begin.

The Playoffs began with two world class matches. The first being Oxygen Esports versus Gentlemates. Despite their dominant victory over Team Vitality in the final round of Swiss, Oxygen were very much seen as the underdogs, when faced with the Major 1 champions. Nevertheless you wouldn’t have been able to tell once the series started. Oxygen took the series in six games, knocking out EU’s first seed and continuing their unbelievable run. The other game was a battle of the Americas, FURIA Esports were looking to get revenge on the two French teams that had sent them to Lowers, but they would have go through NA’s Spacestation Gaming to get their rematches. The Brazilians began the series with three straight games, looking poised to take the match. However, Spacestation weren’t done, taking three games for themselves and sending us to Champions Field. FURIA managed to block the reverse sweep with a 3-2 win in game seven, to take the match and claim their spot amongst the top six teams in the world.

While everyone was eager to continue with the Lower Bracket, we were lacking teams. To find them, a couple Upper Bracket games had to be played. Starting with Team Falcons versus Karmine Corp. While Team Falcons were yet to lose a series in the tournament, Karmine Corp ended up taking the match in just five games. This may seem hard to believe, considering the calibre of team that Team Falcons is. This is until you realise that four of the five games played went to overtime, a truly insane statistic. The next game was set to be an all timer, G2 Esports and Team BDS could both be considered the best teams in the event at this point, but which would prove themselves when it mattered? It turned out to be Team BDS, but not without a fight. G2 took them to game seven before losing in a close overtime. With that, the Upper Bracket games were done and the Lower Bracket was back on.

FURIA and G2 kicked the Lower Quarterfinals off with a bang. Games were traded back and forth, with multiple five minute overtimes being battled out. Eventually we ended up in game seven, where one last overtime was initiated. G2 would be the ones to take it, winning the longest series in the history of the RLCS. But we certainly weren’t done there. Next up was Oxygen Esports versus Team Falcons. Usually the Falcons would be heavily favoured here, but Oxygen’s victories over the other European juggernauts had put a lot of doubt in fans’ heads. Despite this, the Middle Eastern young guns were able to take the series with relative ease, securing their spot in the Semifinals.

The semis were now set, three different regions were looking to lock in a spot, or two, in the Grand Finals. G2 Esports and Karmine Corp would be the first two teams to battle it out for that spot in the final. NA’s last hope started off strong, with three straight wins and match point claimed early. But Karmine weren’t done. Three games were fought back, and Champions Field was called upon. Despite their lack of momentum, G2 managed to take the final game and advance to the playoffs, denying the French organisation their first Worlds final. Team BDS and Team Falcons had a big series to follow up on, but certainly didn’t disappoint. In fact, this match was almost a mirror of the last. Team BDS began with a three game streak, but Falcons fought back with three of their own. All this just for Team BDS to take it in seven anyway. Two unreal Semifinal games could only be topped off with and equally unreal Grand Final, and that’s exactly what we were given.

It had been over two years since the RLCS 21-22 World Championship, where we had seen these same two teams in the Grand Final, now they were back and better than ever. Would this time result in another victory for Team BDS, or would G2 Esports be able to claim the crown that had eluded them for so long? Both teams came out swinging, trading games all the way to game six, with BDS on match point. This was the European team’s chance to solidify a dynasty, and they grabbed it with both hands. Team BDS took the win on Neo Tokyo, and the final win of the RLCS 2024 World Championship. This event was by far one of the greatest we have ever witnessed, we can only hope future tournaments can be just as spectacular. But before that, we wait to see what the offseason has in store for us.

Image courtesy of Psyonix.

Written by @typo_yk