What Is Rule 5 in Rocket League?

As with most unofficial rules, rule 5 in Rocket League is not something you will find inside the official game. Instead, you will need to be active within the Rocket League community, or happen to be told what it is by a teammate in-game. In this article, we will explain what rule 5 is, and how to make sure you don’t piss off your teammates for breaking it.

What Does Rule 5 Mean In Rocket League

Rocket League rule 5 specifically states the following: Never attempt to get involved in a solo air play that your teammate is making. This is fairly similar to rocket league’s rule 3, except it’s in the air.

So if your teammate is going for a flip reset or an air dribble (especially an air dribble), just leave them alone. Back off, grab yourself some boost, probably mid boost because your teammate is probably not air dribbling near your goal, let them do their thing, and get ready for what comes next.

The only exception is if you’re Squishy or Kronovi and it's the grand finals of RLCS or some other epic games, and you are probably not, and it probably isn't. There is literally no use in you going up there for that ball, it’s just going to ruin your teammate’s play, your whole team’s positioning will get bungled, and just like that, one player has managed to bungle the positions of two players. The most likely result is that you are getting scored on.

Why It’s Important To Follow Rocket League Rule 5

Even though this is not an official rule, it's still important to abide by it, and here's why. Try to visualize the following scenario: You are a high rank, more than capable of dribbling the ball competently. It’s a 2 v 2, you have some space and possession of the ball on your half of the pitch, you are at 100 boost, and you decide to go for the air dribble. You bring the ball up to the wall, and you start dribbling towards the goal of the other team.

Everything is going well. Your first touch is perfect, you are high in the air as you fly above the first opponent. The second opponent is waiting on the goal line, but you see you have a double touch ready, and he is extremely unlikely to make a successful save. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, your teammate flies by and booms the ball, wrestling it out of your control and onto the backboard of the opposing team.

The ball bounces hard off of the backboard, and both you and your teammate are taking the precious few seconds to land and get back into position. In the meantime, the opponent who was waiting on their goal simply shoots the ball towards your undefended goal, and scores a completely empty net.

Think about how you would feel. Not only did you get scored on instead of making a good team play and scoring yourself, but you would probably be pretty angry with your teammate, and possibly even get tilted.

At this moment, you are probably thinking that yeah, you’d feel exactly as described above. With that in mind, we hope this motivates you enough to understand why following Rocket League rule 5 is so critical.

Does Rule 5 Apply To Every Rank In Rocket League

Well, if we take into account that rule 5 implies strong air dribbling, which does require a lot of skill and experience, it’s evident that this is not a rule that is very important to be cognizant of in the lower ranks. Simply put, could you imagine a lot of air dribbling going on in silver or gold rocket league ranks? Probably not (no judgment at all, just facts).

There are lots of ranks in Rocket League, and even if platinums and diamonds for example are much better than beginners, they are still not likely to contain a lot of air dribbling, with the exception of extremely mechanical diamond 3s, but even then it’s not something they would rely on a lot. They might just sometimes go for it for the hell of it, but it’s not a reliable weapon in their arsenal.

As such, rule 5 only really applies to the champ ranks and above. Even plenty of champs don’t go for this. The writer of this article bounces between champ 1 and champ 2, and very rarely goes on a solo air dribble, perhaps one attempt per 5 games or so.

So, if you’re a high level player, you would do well to accept this rule and not violate it. If you’re not, you will need to first move up the ranks in order for this rule to become relevant to you.

Does Everyone In The Higher Ranks Follow Unwritten Rules

Not everyone does, but interestingly enough, most players in competitive games and higher ranks indeed do, and whatsmore, virtually all pro players also follow rule 5, along with other unwritten rules, such as rule 1, rule 2, rule 3, rule 4, and of course the meme rules such as rule 34. Even a team captain in a professional Rocket League team doesn't take it upon himself to be more important than the team.

Moreover, even if players aren’t specifically aware of rule 5, they just intuitively know that they shouldn’t be interrupting their teammates’ solo plays, so they’re in fact following rule 5 without consciously being aware that they’re doing it, because they know that double committing should be avoided at all costs.

Can I Sometimes Break Rule 5 If I’m In A Really Good Position

Sure, you could. But our advice is - just don’t. This is just a plain statistical fact. Most of the time it'll cost you the match.

Firstly, you are probably in a worse position than your teammate to judge whether it would be beneficial to go for the ball when your teammate is the one dribbling it in the air. So even if it seems to you that you could snatch the ball from him and make a good play, it’s probably not the case.

Secondly, even on the off chance (and we are talking about 1 in 100 cases) that breaking Rocket League rule 5 turns out beneficial for your team, best case scenario is - you score, but your teammate gets frustrated with you, and doesn’t trust you anymore. And as a rule of thumb, one goal being traded for turning a good teammate into a bad one is not a favorable trade to make.

Why Doesn't Psyonix Turn These Unspoken Rules Into Official Rules

The whole reason that these unofficial rules are, well, unofficial, is that enforcing them would be extremely hard, practically impossible. Furthermore, Psyonix would be forcing players to play the game in a certain way, which seems somewhat oppressive, despite the fact that it's their own game.

The Rocket League game play has evolved through time, and players have discovered that without these unstated rules, far too much is left to chance. All of these decisions, such as who should go for kick off, what quick chats actually mean, and whether or not you should get engaged in your teammate's air play, would be open to interpretation by individual players, which would lead to chaotic games and plenty of randomness.

In our opinion, Psyonix could make their game even better by including some of these unofficial rules in the form of tips in their basic tutorials included in the game, even though they couldn't be officially enforced.

What If My Teammates Break Rule 5

Well isn't it obvious? Go full toxic on them and start insinuating that they are horrible human beings for playing a car soccer game badly!

Just kidding. While we understand that it can be hard to keep your cool in the event that one of your teammates breaks rule 5, it is absolutely the smartest possible move. You can't control other players, the only thing you can control is yourself and how determined you are to not let it ruin the whole match.

If you're keen on letting them know about their mistake, you should be patient and polite about it. For example, you can let them know that you were lining up for a shot but their interference caused you to be unable to take it, and kindly ask them to not do it anymore.

More often than not, in our experience, being polite will result in politeness back from your teammate, regardless of what Rocket League server region you are in.