What is Rocket League (RL)?

What is Rocket League (RL)?

Rocket League (sometimes abbreviated RL) is a vehicle based soccer (football) game where the aim is to score more goals that your opponents while controlling a car.

The idea is quite straightforward where players must work with their team to move the giant ball around the arena towards the other team's goal. Stopping the other team from getting the ball into your goal is just as important as controlling the ball and scoring goals in the other team's net.

Developed by Psyonix and released in 2016, Rocket League is now available on a variety of platforms. Rocket League is available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series consoles and Nintendo Switch. Psyonix was purchased by Epic Games in 2019 and Rocket League went free to play in 2020. While it was originally for sale on Steam, Rocket League is no longer available on the Steam platform and is exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

What are Rocket League Game Modes like?

The are several gamemodes for Rocket League but they're all based around controlling cars and trying to score more goals than the opposing team. Snow Day and Hoops are slightly different to the classic “Soccer” mode we associate Rocket League with. 

Replacing the ball with a puck, Snow Day was the second game mode to be added to the game due how much the community loved it after it was introduced as a “mutator”. Hoops replaced the goals with hoops and can only be played on the Dunk House map. Psyonix has added other modes to the game including Rumble to give players special powerups and Dropshot where the aim is to make the ball hit the floor.

What are Rocket League Matches like?

Matches are usually around 5 minutes long and there's a sudden death overtime to ensure there's a winner. Rocket League is usually a team game with up to four player a side however, there in a one-on-one option too. While Rocket League has a great casual community, there's also a dedicated competitive community and ranked mode.

Players can perform boosts to move faster,  jump to hit the ball in mid-air and ram the enemy to damage their cars. It sounds simple and it's easy to understand the controls in Rocket League. However, this is also a skill-based game and it takes time to reach the high ranks.

However, there can be “mutators” in the game too. Mutators modify the gameplay slightly such as decreased gravity or increased gravity, changing the ball size and more. The rest of the gameplay doesn't change but these small adjustments do change the feel of the game. 

Other Rocket League Mechanics

The Rocket Pass is the Rocket League version of a season pass which is a regular event in the game. The base version is free but the premium version gives access to more content. Many of the rewards available are cosmetic and some unique in-game items to the pass.

Cosmetics and blueprints are a big deal to many Rocket League players. Psyonix doesn't recommend or support outside trading but some cosmetics in this game can cost a lot of real world money to buy from other games. The Titanium White Octane is incredibly popular, difficult to obtain and expensive.  Rocket League includes differently ranked cosmetics and a way for free players to obtain the items thanks to the crafting system.

Does Rocket League have an Esport?

Rocket League has a strong competitive community thanks to the in-game ranked mode and the popular esports scene. The Rocket League Championship Series is the most popular annual esport tournament series for the game. It was first held in 2016 with a prize pool of $55,000 USD.

Many other esport tournaments for Rocket League have take place and the popularity for the Rocket League esport scene is not slowing down. Other regular events have included the Intel World Open, DreamHack and Eleague.

Now that you know what Rocket League is, you might want to get into the game and get yourself a couple of in-game skins to pimp out your ride. Luckily, there are many great websites where you can grab cheap skins, including Aoeah, GameFlip, RLExchange, or Tradeit.gg (Lolga not so much) Or if you want to buy a Rocket League account, you can't go wrong with G2G.