The European transfer window ahead of the beginning of the Rocket League Championship Series Season X (RLCSX) Spring Split this week has closed. The roster changes are now set in stone. Here are the most significant updates from the roughly two-week window.
The transfer window ahead of the final split of the season was a reasonably quiet one. Of course, many significant transfers happened in the first transfer window of the season, and a team’s second roster change would result in their points being reset back to zero. Still, there were some interesting developments.
Kuxir97 joins Wolves Esports
RLCS legend and Season 2 World Champion Francesco “Kuxir97” Cinquemani makes his return as a signed player after being removed from Team Liquid back in October. He has joined Wolves Esports, the esports division of English football club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, who picked up a Rocket League team in 2020. Founding member Luis “LuiisP” Puente Peña has departed the team to make space for the Italian legend.
The winter split was the first-ever period of the RLCS without Kuxir on a competing roster. He tried to qualify for the winter split regional events, but his team fell short every time. With Wolves Esports, he stands a better chance, though the team will have to play qualifiers for the Spring regionals again.
Bluey joins Galaxy Racer, Triple Trouble rebrands as they are set back to zero points
Daniel “Bluey” Bluett has also returned as a signed player. The Englishman was a long-standing part of the unsigned roster of Triple Trouble, and now he’s signed for Galaxy Racer. This marks the second roster change this season for Triple Trouble. This leaves them with zero points and out of contention for the world championship. It is also the second time that Euan “Tadpole” Ingram has been left in the dust when his teammates decided to look for greener pastures; the first time was in 2019 when Triple Trouble was forced to forfeit its RLCS spot altogether.
Bluey replaces his fellow countryman Dylan “eekso” Pickering as Galaxy Racer focuses all its efforts on reaching top six in order to qualify for the world championships. They are currently sitting in seventh place, but are close behind sixth-place Guild Esports. Bluey is a veteran and former MVP who will bring valuable experience to the team.
Team Liquid stays together
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Team Liquid has announced that the roster is staying together for the RLCSX Spring Split. The organization signed the roster at the start of the season, but the results have been underwhelming. And while the team has already made a roster change this season, a reset back to zero would have made no difference, as they are already out of contention for the world championships.
On paper, the roster of experienced RLCS players and their former world champion coach Remco “Remkoe” den Boer looked promising. However, going into the spring split at 13th place in the rankings puts the world championship out of reach. Coach Remkoe explains why no changes were made on Reddit.
“Both the team and (high-)management decided to not go for a roster change for this split,” Remkoe said. “Probably sounds ironic to many of you, but it wouldn’t even really directly fix the issues we’re running into. I’ve mentioned it months ago but there’s still short bursts of good performance. While practice and tournaments are never the same which I know all too well, there’s too significant of a difference to completely ignore it.”
Remkoe goes on to explain that the organization has put faith in the team and that progress is going well. Of course, he admits that there is no way of telling what it will lead to until the RLCS returns.
North America is still up in the air
The North American transfer window is still open and there are still some questions up in the air. Who, for example, will join eUnited after Michael “WondaMike” Santoriello’s removal? The window closes on March 12, while the first NA regional is happening on March 18.
The European split begins this week, on March 11, and features a new format.
