In this piece, Dyversion explores the roster changes at the conclusion of Rocket League Championship Series Season 7, looking at who’s coming in and who’s going out ahead of a new campaign, ready for Season 8.
It’s that time again: the RLCS is over and the teams whose previous season didn’t go quite to plan are wanting to make changes to their roster.
Today we will be discussing all the juicy roster moves that have happened so far as RLCS Season 8 draws closer.
The Bricks
With a win at WSOE 4 and a 5th-8th place finish in one of the most stacked Rocket League tournaments to that date, Flipsid3 Tactics (now the Bricks) were looking like a top 4 contender in Europe approaching the beginning of Season 7.
However, Season 7 just didn’t start out how they or their fans expected: quite the opposite. The Bricks hopes and dreams of making it onto the World stage were shattered after a 7th-place finish in the league.
After a Week 1 loss to Triple Trouble and subsequent defeats to Vitality, PSG and FC Barcelona, The Bricks found themselves in a pretty deep hole that they could only escape if they beat TSM and Dignitas in Week 5.
Things started off well with a convincing 3-1 win over TSM but they still had Dignitas to take down. Unfortunately, though, they failed to do so, losing 3-1 in their most important series of League Play.
The Bricks ended the season in 7th, just in front of Mousesports, sending them through to the promotion tournament. Here their luck changed. The placed 2nd, retaining their spot in the RLCS for Season 8.
A change was needed for the WSOE champions: Francesco ‘Kuxir97’ Cinquemani and Speed decided to kick David ‘Miztik’ Lawrie.
The Bricks haven’t confirmed anyone for their roster yet but, after placing top 4 at Dreamhack Valencia and finishing in 1st place at Rival Esports Summer Open 2019 with RLCS Season 4 Grand Finalist Linus ‘al0t’ Möllergren, they’re bound to pick al0t up next Season.
With him on board, this explosive team will hope to do some damage. If they can finish ironing out all the creases, The Bricks could easily be a threat to the likes of NRG, PSG (Now Frontline), Cloud9 and the reigning world champions Vitality.
To find out more, check out how things went at Beyond the Summits – the first Rocket League tournament of the season.
Dignitas
When Alexandre ‘Kaydop’ Courant left Dignitas for Renault Vitality to join his old teammate Victor ‘Fairy Peak!’ Locquet and young star Kyle ‘Scrub Killa’ Robertson, his old team found themselves in a worrying position.
With their star player and primary striker gone, Dignitas decided to pick up Flipsid3 Tactics all-star Maurice ‘Yukeo’ Weihs to stop their dynasty from collapsing.
In the short term, they succeeded, winning Dreamhack Leipzig 2019, but then the issues started flooding in. They just weren’t playing like the championship team they were with Kaydop and, by Week 4 of RLCS Season 7, they found themselves 1-4 in League Play, meaning their hopes of making the play-offs, just like The Bricks before them, came down to Week 5.
Facing TSM and The Bricks, they made short work of the former, taking them down 3-1 before easing past The Bricks 3-1. Dignitas ended the season with figures of 3-4.
To have a chance of making LAN, Dignitas had to play TSM again in the play-offs. They took down the boys in black and white comfortably, beating them 4-2 and bringing themselves one step closer to making the World Championships.
In the deciding match, Dignitas came up against PSG, who had raised questions at the beginning of the season as to their potential. However, PSG comfortably took the series 4-1, leaving the Dignitas dynasty – once feared by many – lying in the ashes.
After a respectable 3rd-4th place finish at Dreamhack Dallas, only losing to the eventual champions Cloud9, Pierre ‘Turbopolsa’ Silfver decided it was time to part ways with his longtime teammate Jos Van ‘Violent Panda’ Meurs.
Dignitas turned to up-and-comer Maello ‘Aztral’ Ernst to fill the hole Turbopolsa left by substituting Aztral in at Dreamhack Valencia. The 16-year-old proved himself to the veterans by leading his team to a respectable 9th-12th finish for his first tournament with them.
Turbopolsa, the three time world champion, was now a free agent. We can only presume that every team in the European RLCS who were making roster moves had him on their radar.
But after Jayson ‘Fireburner’ Nunez retired, NRG were looking for a new player with the experience, finesse and the ability to fit into whatever role was needed on the pitch. Who better than the 3-time world championship winner who denied NRG back in Season 5? NRG pounced on the opportunity and acquired Turbopolsa to complete their Rocket League squad.
As for Aztral, can a player with such high mechanical skill as his benefit them? Or will it all come crashing down in Season 8 of the EU RLCS? After all, Aztral is a player with no RLCS experience and there are still questions to be asked about whether he will be able to overcome the nerves of playing in a team with a two-time world champion?
It’s hard to see this move working out how many expect. But we all know how unpredictable EU RLCS can be. Almost anything is possible.
Dignitas also appeared at Beyond the Summit. Be sure to follow how their story unfolds as, who knows, this could be the beginning of another Dignitas dynasty?
Triple Trouble
Triple Trouble’s season had a shaky start but, as the weeks went by, they seemed to get better and better, even beating the likes of Vitality and Dignitas in week 4 of league play. After ending their season 4-3, they qualified for the World Championship after crushing PSG 4-1 in the play-offs.
But after Ronaky was signed by FC Barcelona, Triple Trouble disbanded, supposedly forfeiting their RLCS spot to 3rd-place promotion play-off team Veloce this upcoming season.
Why did a team who made the World Championships disband? It all started when Aldin ‘Ronaky’ Hodzic – a founding member of Triple Trouble – and Euan ‘Tadpole’ Ingram were looking to try something new by replacing Andy ‘Kassio’ Landais.
Needing a quick substitute to compete in the upcoming Dreamhack Montreal qualifiers, Ronaky and Tadpole decided on playing with TSM’s Jordan ‘EyeIgnite’ Stellon. The tournament didn’t go to plan though: they got reverse swept and then swept in the lower bracket, leaving them in last place.
Even with this poor result, Triple Trouble decided to stick it out with EyeIgnite for the Beyond the Summit event that was next on their schedule. During this period, though, Ronaky – with Tadpole’s knowledge – was trying out with a different team to substitute in for the final Dreamhack in Montreal later this year.
Out of the blue, Ronaky signed with FC Barcelona. This left Tadpole in a tricky situation: in order to retain his RLCS spot, he had to ask Kassio to re-join the team.
As Kassio was technically a free agent, that’s exactly what he did. Kassio left Triple Trouble and is rumoured to be joining Veloce next season to play alongside Jack ‘FlamE’ Pearton and Sandro ‘FreaKii’ Holzwarth. Nothing is confirmed as of yet.
This leaves Tadpole with no RLCS team and, with all the spots seeming to be filled, it looks like he will have to make an RLRS run next season.
FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona’s first season in RLCS went exceptionally well for them, putting up a very respectable 2nd place finish in the European League. On top of this, their star player Yanis ‘Alpha54’ Champenois was crowned regular-season MVP as FC Barcelona made their way to a top 8 finish at the World Championships.
Unfortunately for the team, though, Alpha decided he wanted to try something new so he left to join TSM who had recently announced the departure of EyeIgnite. The 16-year-old superstar now has Season 3 World Champion Remco ‘remkoe’ den Boer and Season 4 Grand Finalist Otto ‘Metsanauris’ Kaipiainen by his side for his second season in the RLCS.
Barcelona had just lost their best player. Dan ‘Bluey’ Bluett and David ‘Deevo’ Morrow have decided to pick up Ronaky and will be hoping they can stay as the offensive powerhouse of team they were with Alpha.
Will this move pay off? Only time will tell. On paper, though, this team looks dangerous.
TSM
TSM’s first 3 series of Season 7 all went in their favour as they took wins off Mousesports, Triple Trouble and FC Barcelona. Not all stories end well, though, and it all went wrong after they lost to Renault Vitality 3-1.
The remaining 2 weeks of the season they ran up figures of 0-3 and ended league play with a 3-4 record, making them the 6th seed in the play-offs where they ultimately fell to Dignitas 4-2.
Despite EyeIgnite saying the team made up of himself, remkoe and Metsnauris weren’t changing next season, his two teammates had a different opinion after they failed to do well in subsequent tournaments (except for a second-place finish in Dreamhack Dallas).
TSM said goodbye to EyeIgnite and hello to Alpha and they will hope he can take this squad to a new level. If this team is half as good as they look, then expect to see them lifting a trophy at a major tournament soon.
