After the disappointing yet understandable news of the cancellation of the Rocket League Championship Series 9 / RLCS9 World Championships next month due to the COVID-19 concerns, Psyonix has given an update on the situation and how they’ll proceed. The world championships are now fully canceled and will not be played at a later date. Instead, the regional championships in all four regions will have their prize pools increased and will be considered the pinnacle of the season. In addition, Psyonix hints at online tournaments coming up in the next few months to fill the void left by Worlds.
RLCS9 first season to not have a world champion
The news marks the first season of RLCS that will not have a world champion. And while the prize pools are increased and will be considered more prestigious, the decision not to simply postpone the LAN is rubbing some the wrong way.
Of course, regardless of what Psyonix does at this point, they will likely receive backlash for it. The coronavirus has thrown a serious wrench into the works across the world, and companies are scrambling as they figure out the best course of action. For now, we’ll just have to accept RLCS9 as a one-off and hope RLCS10 will make up for it, whenever it may happen.
Rocket League prize pool changes
With the increased prize pool, the regional finals will now reward the teams that would have otherwise qualified for the RLCS World Championships with a larger chunk of money to make up for what they could have won. With a total of $100,000 added to the prize pool for Europe and North America, the distribution is as follows:
- First Place: $52,000 additional prizing ($70,000 now)
- Second Place: $27,000 additional prizing ($40,000 now)
- Tied for Third Place: $10,500 additional prizing each ($16,500 now)
Oceania’s and South America’s prize pools are also increased, and with $25,000 each, here’s how it’ll be distributed:
OCE:
- First Place: $15,000 additional prizing ($37,500 now)
- Second Place: $10,000 additional prizing ($24,000 now)
SAM:
- First Place: $15,000 additional prizing ($23,000 now)
- Second Place: $10,000 additional prizing ($17,000 now)
Psyonix teases online replacement tournaments
Though we don’t know much yet, Psyonix doesn’t just want to leave it there. There’s no concrete replacement for RLCS Worlds yet, but they are working on a plan to bring the fans more regional tournaments across all four regions.
