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While Daniel is Rocket League’s Hottest Prospect, he is not Rookie of the Year

Where does the hype come from with Rocket League Championship Series rookie Daniel? Daniel Piecenski entered the professional Esports world in 2020 when he was just 13 years old. He reached Rank S in Rocket League 6 Mans, putting him at RLCS level. The minimum age to play in RLCS events is 15, so Daniel wouldn’t join the league until this year. He signed with Spacestation Gaming and is already competing at what many would say is at a “Rookie-of-the-year” level.

Despite his fanfare, Daniel has stiff competition for Rookie-of-the-Year. Daniel may be a top prospect, but other rookies like Seikoo and Vatira are performing well above what many would say is prospect level. Seikoo led Team Endpoint to wins in two of the three Fall regional events, making his team the top seed in Europe. Meanwhile, Daniel’s stellar play culminated in a peak of second place at the Winter Regional Event 1 – X Games Open.

During the Winter Europe Regional Events, Vatira made his case for Rookie of the Year. Team Queso took first place in two of three regional events, including a win over Team Endpoint in event three’s Grand Final. This matchup saw Vatira come face to face with his Rookie of the Year competition in Seikoo. Although Team Queso walked away with the victory, Vatira did not massively outplay Seikoo. Seikoo’s score across seven games was the highest on his team, with many asserting that Vatira got more production from his teammates.

Where was Daniel in all of this? Spacestation Gaming was bounced out of the playoffs in round one of the third North American Regional Event. The squad finished in 10th place, which is a bit of a regression from their performance in the Fall regional events before Daniel joined. Daniel has put together a great first showing, especially considering how young he is and the improvements he’ll be able to make from playing at RLCS level. But compared to others in the Rookie of the Year race, his team hasn’t accomplished enough to overtake players like Vatira and Seikoo.

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Rocket League

How Will The RLCS League Expansion Affect the 2021-2022 Season?

Psyonix revealed some big changes coming to the The Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) 2021-2022 season in a new announcement trailer. Along with a revamped format, the league has expanded to add three new regions. RLCS will now include the Asia-Pacific North, Asia-Pacific South, Middle East and North Africa regions.

This encompasses an assortment of countries like India, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and many more. Psyonix told press that the new regions have been scouted and possess a “competitive pool of players.” What this means for the upcoming season is that there will be a lot more moving parts and lot of new faces rising the ranks. To make the integration as smooth as possible, there will also be a new format meant to “increase the uniformity” of the league and competitions. RLCS X was admittedly their biggest format change ever, but of course a league expansion requires much needed format amendments.

The Fall, Winter and Spring Splits will return this season, with each Split consisting of three Regional Events capped with a Major. All Regional Events will begin with an Open-Qualifier, but some teams can auto-qualify for Regional Events based on their performance in previous ones. Each Split features a unique format; the Fall Split employs a Swiss format that feeds into an eight-team, single-elimination bracket, the Winter Split will have teams battle through a Group Stage with four groups which then culminates into an elimination bracket, and finally the Spring Split will employ a simple double elimination format. Points from Regional Events and Majors are used to qualify to the Rocket League World Championship; points earned in the Majors will be weighted more. Other than that, things will mostly play out the same way as last season.

The expansion of the league means expansion of competition, with seven regions vying for a spot in the Rocket League World Championship. Eight of the spots will be taken by auto-qualifications awarded to the Regions that perform the best at Majors. There’s a great chance the RLCS Main Event will look a lot different this year. RLCS returns on October 15th broadcasting on the Rocket League Twitch Channel. Signs-ups open soon!