RLCS Season 7 World Champions and Season 8 runners-up Renault Vitality have finally announced their new third: Yanis “Alpha54” Champenois. This was pretty much an open secret for weeks after their star player (though granted, all of them are star players) Kyle “Scrub Killa” Robertson announced on his stream that he was no longer under contract with Vitality.
The news about Scrub Killa came as a shock at the time. Some were even skeptical, thinking he was pranking his fans just as the Pittsburgh Knights had done a few weeks before. But as more information came out and Scrub’s attitude towards his former team became saltier, more people started to believe that one of the best teams of 2019 had just replaced what some might consider their most valuable player.
Alpha54 rises through the ranks of Rocket League
Alpha54 made his debut into RLCS in Season 7. The season before, he had ravaged through the lower division of the Rival Series with RLCS Season 3 World Champion Dave “Deevo” Morrow and veteran Daniel “Bluey” Bluett. They directly qualified for the World Championships the same season, and many called Alpha the carry of the team. And so, a star was discovered.
Allegedly, Alpha then wanted to make a change in the roster, but their organization, FC Barcelona, would not allow it. So, Alpha decided to take matters into his own hands and join Team SoloMid instead. While the following season saw him in seventh place and, therefore, had him face relegation, he was a single overtime goal away from ending in third place and having a good shot at going to the World Championships again.
Alpha joins two legends
Having joined Renault Vitality, Alpha takes yet another step forward in his career. He will join the legendary duo of Alex “Kaydop” Courant and Victor “Fairy Peak” Locquet, turning Renault Vitality into a fully French team. Rumor has it that this was the exact reason for his signing. Kaydop is said to have wanted a French team to improve voice comms during matches.
Whether the language barrier really was an issue, however, is up for debate. After all, they did quite fine last year by placing first and second. 2020 will tell whether it was the right choice to replace Scrub.
Speaking of Scrub… where will he go?
With roster lock approaching fast for RLCS teams, there are really only two options left for Scrub after Alpha replaced him: FC Barcelona and Mousesports. And while FCB is yet to confirm that Bluey is being replaced, all signs point toward the Englishman joining former-Method roster Triple Trouble in the RLRS. Who will replace him is still up in the air, with Hrant “Flakes” Yakoub being the most common guess.
Mousesports is the only other team with an open spot. Linus “Al0t” Möllergren has signed up for the Rival Series with a new team, and many signs, hints, and on-stream jokes point to Scrub joining the team of Jack “Speed” Packwood-Clarke and the RLCS Season 2 World Champion Francesco “Kuxir97” Cinquemani. Either way, we should expect an announcement soon.
Discombobulators get picked up by Endpoint
Another announcement made today was that of the newly-promoted Discombobulators signing with Endpoint. The trio of Lucas “RelatingWave” Rose, Nelson “Virtuoso” Lasko, and Nacho “Nachitow” Gimenez will each make their debut into the RLCS, for which they managed to qualify by placing second in last season’s Rival Series. With the RLCS expanding to ten teams, they managed to secure their direct spot through the playoffs without having to face the bottom RLCS teams in the promotion/relegation tournament.
Stay tuned to Daily Esports for more Rocket League and RLCS news.
