RLCS8 news roundup: Who is headed to the World Championships?

League play and the regional finals are done for RLCS8, and we can now look back at a season chock-full of upsets and surprises, like Cloud9 and G2 ending in seventh and eighth place. The final week of the league resulted in some insane possibilities, with teams climbing and falling across the ladder throughout the day. But that wasn’t the end of the season, as the regional championships would decide who would be Madrid-bound this December for the World Championships.

RLCS8 League Play Europe: Third or Seventh?

On the last day of EU league play, everything was still wide open. Renault Vitality, for example, could have ended in third place if they defeated TSM in their final match. But if they lost, they would see themselves in the relegation zone in seventh place. The current world champions were one goal away from ending in seventh but pulled out the win to take third place.

Almost every team was equally close to glory and disaster. In the end, it was Reciprocity and newcomers Veloce who secured their guaranteed spots for Madrid by finishing top two. Mousesports, who had been in first place the week before, ended in fourth by losing both of their final two matches on the last day. Dignitas and Barcelona also secured a playoff spot. TSM (one goal away from being safe) and Complexity made up the bottom two. They will have to fight for their lives next weekend.

North American regionals: NRG remains dominant

Without breaking a sweat, NRG claimed first seed during the regionals. They will be joined in Madrid by SpaceStation Gaming, eUnited, and Pittsburgh Knights. The latter two claimed their spots for the world championships by beating Rogue and Ghost Gaming in the previous rounds. Both, though, got promptly destroyed by NRG in the semi-final and final 4-2 and 4-0, respectively.

Regardless of those defeats, the two newly promoted teams have qualified for the RLCS8 world championships, something also accomplished in Europe last season by FC Barcelona and Triple Trouble. It shows how large the competition is becoming, as well as that new players still have a shot at catching up.

European regionals: Reciprocity kills Kaydop’s win streak

Since season three of the RLCS, Alex “Kaydop” Courant has won each European regional championship with his team. With five titles in a row, he stands lonely at the top and even gave himself a shot at making it six consecutive wins by completely dismantling mousesports and then denying Veloce the reverse sweep in the previous rounds. But Reciprocity, and particularly Thibault “Chausette45” Grzesiak, proved just how big of a contender they are by soundly defeating Kaydop’s Renault Vitality in a quick 4-0 sweep in the final. Reciprocity and RV will be joined in Madrid by Veloce and Dignitas.

Who will promote to RLCS and who will relegate?

The RLCS will expand to ten teams next season. As such, this weekend, four RLRS teams will fight for two direct promotions to the RLCS and to decide who will play in the promotion/relegation tournament against the two bottom RLCS teams next weekend. The top two RLRS finishers will first play each other. The winner will promote, while the loser will drop to the lower final, where they will face the winner of the match between the third and fourth place finishers. The winner of that match will also directly promote to the RLCS.

Discombobulators, AS Monaco, Method, and Team Singularity will all fight for a spot, but not all of these are new faces. In AS Monaco, we will see Jordan “EyeIgnite” Stellan fight to return to the RLCS after being dropped from TSM. Meanwhile, Method plays with Euan “Tadpole” Ingram, who was forced to give up his RLCS spot after both his teammates left for greener pastures.

While the largest part of RLCS8 is over, the most important part is only just beginning. Who will claim a spot for season nine, and who will claim the world championship title? Will Pierre “Turbopolsa” Silfver take a step ahead of his former teammate Kaydop again by winning his fourth RLCS? Is Kaydop extending his record of World Championship Grand Finals to six? Will Pittsburgh Knights continue their tournament winning streak after also claiming DreamHack Montreal? Or will we get a completely new winner this time?

You don’t want to miss the conclusion of RLCS Season 8. You can watch it for yourself on Twitch and YouTube, or even in person. And, as always, stay up to date with everything Rocket League and RLCS here at Daily Esports.