Psyonix Games, the famed makers of the unexpectedly popular game, Rocket League, were not at all familiar with the world of eSports before their game got popular.
When their other similar multiplayer game, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars (SARPBC), went highly unnoticed on PSN, they were certainly not expecting Rocket League to take off in such a big way. Rocket League, released on July 7, 2015, has been a hit from the start, and managed to reach over 20 million unique players in a little over a year.
While the Rocket League player base is huge and shows no signs of stopping, it also helps fund growing events like the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) both monetarily and through attendance, they are not the entire story behind the game’s success. Luke Thompson, one of the two eSports and event managers at Psyonix, credited the game’s growth to the community and its sense of family, saying the best part of it all is “how strongly the community has embraced the game and shared it with each other on a global scale. The Rocket League scene is essentially a large, extended family and that was really emphasized during the RLCS Live Finals.”
Josh Watson, the second of the eSports and events managers, added,
“The growth of the game has exceeded all of our expectations. We’d hoped that Rocket League would do well, but we never imagined that a year later we’d have almost 20 million players and still growing. It’s really a testament to our players and our community who continue to create a welcoming environment to players new and old.”
The first season of the RLCS in early-mid 2016 had its own problems, especially due it being a new tournament for a new game. A major problem that came up fast was: what kind of tournament website could tolerate 20,000 unique players trying to register and play their matches? The options quickly thinned with Challonge being scrapped in favor of a custom portal for the RLCS from Smash.gg.
Another struggle was that when you have 1,900 teams playing across two days, you need a lot of people willing to help moderate and resolve disputes. Psyonix talked to the community about finding moderators for the tournament, and actually managed to find people worthy of the job, again demonstrating the community’s willingness to work together. Despite its hiccups, and with the community’s help, the first RLCS was a successful event.
One of the reasons why Rocket League is such a great success is because of the game’s balance. Psyonix works closely with both the competitive and casual scene, and are continuously discussing changes to the game in an effort to make it feel better for everyone. The results of Psyonix’s work with both casual and competitive players became especially apparent when both sides managed to agree on the banning of non-standard maps in the RLCS.
The RLCS Season 1 Live Finals peaked at 84,000 concurrent viewers and had over a million unique viewers over the weekend of Aug. 6-7. Although the tournament’s achievements were mainly due to Psyonix’s efforts, they remained humble.
Psyonix may have had trouble focusing on the competitive side in addition to game development initially, but it seems they’ve managed to make their way into eSports. Watson commented on this by saying:
“The growth of the eSports community has been really positive. Since the release of the game, our community has asked us to take Rocket League eSports seriously, and it’s definitely a major focus moving forward.”
“We designed the RLCS so there was room to grow and the reception to Season 1 was even bigger than we’d hoped. We have big goals for the RLCS long-term and we’re very excited to show our fans and our community what we have in store for next season.”
