The following was originally published February 22, 2016, available at http://unwinnable.com. All rights reserved.
Note: This article was written prior to the announcement of the Rocket League Championship Series, the official organization of professional Rocket League. This is the story of the individuals who helped Rocket League gain eSport legitimacy in the year leading up to the establishment of the RLCS.
It was just another day in Ottawa for Kevin Sweeney, and as usual, he was spending it playing Rocket League. He certainly wasn’t expecting to receive a job offer. In fact, it was the furthest thing from his mind. In that moment, he was too busy concentrating on the hypnotic dance of color, speed and explosions projecting from his computer monitor. His eyes darted back and forth as tiny cars chased a giant metallic ball around a domed soccer arena.
He was streaming for an audience, as he often would, providing tips and encouragement to newcomers of the game who were just as enthralled by its competitive soccer-with-cars premise as he was. Like many veterans of the game and its predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars, Sweeney suddenly found himself with an unexpected but welcome following. Rocket League had just released in early July, to surprisingly swift success. Its predecessor had garnered a small but dedicated following since its release in 2008 on PlayStation 3, but never reached the kind of popularity that Rocket League would achieve seemingly overnight.
The Battle Cars user-base had dwindled to about fifty people by the time news of a sequel began to circulate – news which also prompted Sweeney to become a more active member in that community. A self-described “lurker” up to that point, Sweeney joined the Rocket League private alpha in January, 2015 and took the opportunity to become a more out-spoken member. “I spent a ton of time watching streams,” he explained to me in our conversation. “[I was] trying to help anyone and everyone out with tips and general info about the game and the developers.” Sensing a growing excitement for the upcoming game with newcomers, Sweeney and other Battle Cars veterans took on the mantle of role model and liaison. His efforts and professionalism during this lead-up to the game’s release did not go unnoticed.
So come July, with the swift success of Rocket League – the game has sold over 8 million units since launch – he found himself streaming to a much larger audience than he was accustomed to. He sat at his computer, as the ball flailed around the purple and green arena. He watched it bounce high above the pitch, in the sweet spot between the goal box and mid-field. He saw an opening and launched his car through the air. Tapping the ball at just the right angle, he sent it careening into the back of the net. The goal itself exploded in a fiery display of jubilation.
And just then, as his stream really began to heat up, Kevin Sweeney received the message.
“Hi Kevin, if you have a minute, I have something serious I’d like to speak with you about.”
It was from Dave Hagewood, Rocket League’s mastermind and CEO of Psyonix. At first, Sweeney thought he’d done something wrong, or that something was wrong with the game. He abruptly ended his stream and jumped into a skype call with Hagewood. His fears were quickly assuaged. In less time than it would take to complete a match in Rocket League, he had gone from unemployed former line cook to the enviable position of Fan Ambassador for the company behind his favorite video game.
Sweeney and Psyonix now find themselves in a strange position. Rocket League has slowly been building a presence in the eSports scene since launch. Games like Counterstrike and Dota 2 have dominated mindshare in eSports for years, making it a difficult industry to crack into, but a highly lucrative one as well. The industry rakes in around $200 million dollars annually, encompassing sponsorships, broadcasting deals, stadium events and competitive prize money. Some analysts predict that by the year 2020, that number will skyrocket to $1.8 billion and Psyonix hopes Rocket League will take a slice of that pie.
Rocket League’s appeal as an eSport has always been apparent to veteran players of Battle Cars. Ryan “Doomsee” Graham, one of the best players in the world, thinks the game’s depth and ease of play are what will help it ultimately succeed as a spectator sport. “The biggest difference between Rocket League and other eSports is how easy it is to understand. It’s two goals, six cars, and a ball. The moment you see it, you know what the objective is: put the ball in the net.” He explains, “Any eSports fan who has never heard of the game can watch it with a decent level of understanding of what is going on. Which is certainly not the case with MOBAs, where the vast amount of abilities and skills being used in a single battle can be confusing to anyone who isn’t familiar with the game.”
Though, as he explains, anybody who has ever tried Rocket League knows how deceptive that simplicity can be, which makes watching a high-level match so compelling. “The hidden gem within Rocket League is that it isn’t as simple as it looks. Sure, you have to just put the ball in the net, but it’s simply not that easy. As it’s often said: Rocket League is easy to pick up, but difficult to master. With top competitive Rocket League matches, different teams will have different formations and play styles, and when you’re facing top goalkeepers, you have to pull off some seriously amazing shots if you want to score. And as evidenced by the community, people go crazy over a well performed goal. Throw in some aerial plays and freestyle wall hits and you have yourself a seriously entertaining match.”
The Rocket League community have leveraged the game’s meteoric success to help bolster their own competitions and tournaments. Blake Tull, a relative newcomer to the community, inspired by the potential of Rocket League and the passion of its fan base, created Rocket League Central
– a database that tracks stats on the top players. He also organized a weekly community-led tournament called Rocket Royale. “I found out about Battle Cars, the tight-knit community who had been playing almost non-stop for years and the amazing developers who were still working hard to update the game years later. As a fan of eSports and games in general, it's rare to find that combination and everything about it really drew me in. I wanted to help in any way possible.” Says Tull, “I really felt like this game had the potential to be huge and I was determined to do my best to help ensure that happened.”
The Rocket Royale tournaments have been a moderate success, garnering around three thousand viewers on Twitch every week. These tournaments, along with the general popularity of Rocket League videos on YouTube have gone a long way toward proving an audience exists for spectator events.
With the surprise success of Rocket League, Psyonix now has to keep pace with the demand for professional events. Psyonix operates with about thirty employees, only around thirteen of which worked directly on Rocket League. In comparison, Riot Games, makers of League of Legends, currently employs over a thousand people around the world. Psyonix has increased its payroll since Rocket League’s launch, but there’s still only so much the team can do right now, which has frustrated some in the community.
Lead Designer Corey Davis tried to clear up the developer’s stance on Rocket League eSports when faced with some questions from the community in a recent Reddit AMA. “We are actively working on making a bigger investment in Rocket League eSports and supporting various organizations running competitions.” He said, “There have been some delays due to legal or we would have liked to have done more sooner.”
Sweeney elaborated on those comments, stating, “We really want to be involved but we're making a point that this is a marathon, not a sprint. I hope that we can make Rocket League a huge eSport, something like League of Legends or Counter Strike: GO. Whether or not that is possible, I'm not entirely sure, but I do believe that we have something special here and that people want to watch it played in tournaments.” According to Sweeney, Psyonix has plans to expand the scene but couldn't offer specifics. “We really want to make sure that these players are well taken care of because this is very important for the future of Rocket League eSports.”
Some of the players I spoke with have high hopes for Rocket League’s potential as an eSport and likewise, their potential as eSports athletes. Doomsee is among Rocket League’s most recognizable names and his team, Team Rocket already has over ten thousand Twitch followers. “That blows my mind,” he says of his popularity. “The fact that there are people in this world who want to watch us play a game that really, we’ve been playing for a huge part of our lives in our bedrooms, is unbelievable to me. If you told me people wanted to watch me play video games six years ago, I would’ve laughed at you.” He seems giddy when speaking about his hopes for the future. “The idea of me actually traveling to places around the world to participate in professional Rocket League matches isn’t just some fantasy anymore, it’s actually a realistic outcome. This entire scenario has made me question my career choice, and that is a serious life changing predicament.”
Graham isn’t the only player facing that life changing predicament. Chris O’Neill, Known online as simply “ONeill” had been playing Battle Cars for six years before Rocket League’s release last summer. He still plays Rocket League for 3-5 hours per day, along with studying full time. When Battle Cars hit, he was thirteen years old. Now, his life is full of other commitments and responsibilities that didn’t concern him six years ago. “I’ve had to change some things and give up some things. I’ve had to give up studying a bit,” he says somewhat jokingly. “But not really, I just kind of have to keep up with it.” He has high hopes for Rocket League, but is prepared to wait for the game’s eSports potential to fully mature. “Right now the scene is still young so I’m going to complete college and then afterwards I’m going to focus on Rocket League as much as possible… I could see myself being in the eSports scene for three or four years. It wouldn’t get to the level of Counter-Strike: GO or League, but I could see it getting to the level of a Hearthstone. I want to help it get there.”
The success of Rocket League – while certainly impactful to the lives of its creators – has arguably had equal impact on that of its most ardent fans. The future is very uncertain for Rocket League as an eSport, but no matter what, these players will always be able to say they were a part of the game’s history. Through passion and enthusiasm, every one of them has had some hand in its success. As Graham tells me, “There are so many people in the community that I’ve played with for years, and words can’t describe how much I’m looking forward to actually meeting them in person.”
If he does ever get the chance to, it’s going to be one hell of a show.
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