The Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) is an annual Rocket League esports tournament series produced by Blast ApS and endorsed by Psyonix, the game's developer. It consists of two online qualification splits in several regions, with teams earning points towards qualifying for midseason tournaments known as Majors and the Rocket League World Championship, both of which are held as LAN events worldwide.
History Psyonix had observed the popularity of Rocket League matches on Twitch and other live streaming platforms like YouTube by early 2016 and were looking to use the game more in Esports. In March 2016, Psyonix announced the first Rocket League Championship Series; the finals took place in June 2016 with a 55,000 prize pool, and was won by iBUYPOWER Cosmic. The second season of the championship series took place in December 2016 with a $125,000 prize pool, and was won by FlipSid3 Tactics. A third series began in March 2017, with the $300,000 prize pool finals taking place three months later. In this season, two teams from the oceanic region were also invited to compete.
A second division, the Rocket League Rival Series (RLRS), was added in Season 4. The two teams finishing at the bottom of the RLCS and the two teams finishing at the top of the RLRS for each region play each other in a promotion tournament at the end of the season to determine if teams are promoted or relegated. At the advent of Season 5 in June 2018, Psyonix organised and managed the event alone. Previous to this, they partnered with Twitch. Season 6 started in September 2018 and featured a $1,000,000 prize pool. For Season 7, Psyonix introduced South America as a new region. Season 8 took place in December 2019. The Season 9 championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with winners of the regional championships being considered the champions. In July 2020, Psyonix announced a new format for the tenth season of RLCS, known as RLCS X. This format did away with league play and the RLRS in favor of teams earning points through three regional splits, all culminating in three seasonal majors.
The 2021–22 season began in October 2021, bringing in four new regions (Middle East and North Africa, Asia Pacific North, Asia Pacific South, and Sub-Saharan Africa), a more reliable circuit similar to Season X, and a $6 million prize pool. The new circuit consisted of 3 splits, containing 3 regionals and 1 international LAN major each, culminating in a World Championship to finish the season. The Majors were won by Team BDS, G2 Esports and Moist Esports. The season was won by Team BDS.
For the 2022–23 season Asia Pacific North and Asia Pacific South were combined into a single region with point totals being lowered and each regional event being called the Open, Cup and invitational. The Majors were won by Gen.G, Karmine Corp and Team Vitality, the latter of which would go on to win the World Championship.
Unlike the past two seasons, there was a considerably longer offseason after 2022–23 accompanying the removal of one of the splits, meaning that the 13th season of the RLCS wouldn't begin until January 26, 2024. The 2024 season saw the removal of the Open, Cup and Invitational system for each region in favor of three new open qualifying stages, those being a double-elimination qualifying bracket, a Swiss-system tournament featuring the top 16 from open qualifying and a knockout stage featuring the top 8 from the Swiss stage. This open qualifying cycle is repeated three times per split, awarding RLCS points after each stage, before the top teams in RLCS points in each region from those stages advance to that split's Major, which features the Swiss and knockout stages from open qualifying and award additional points. The combined standings decides who advances to the World Championship, which was reduced from 24 to 16 teams in the process using the same format as the Majors.
On January 4, 2024, it was announced that Blast ApS, a tournament organizer known for the Blast Premier circuit in Counter-Strike as well as organizing the esports circuit for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, would take over from Psyonix as organizer for the RLCS in 2024, having previously run the Fortnite Championship Series (previously run by Psyonix's parent company Epic Games) since 2022.
The first major of the RLCS 2024 season was won by Gentlemates Alpine, with the second won by G2 Stride. The season was won by Team BDS. Towards the end of the RLCS 2024 World Championship, it was announced that RLCS would return for the 2025 season in January, with a total prize pool of $5,000,000, the addition of a 1v1 tournament, and changes to the 3v3 tournament which include the addition of a last chance open qualifiers tournament between Major 2 and the World Championship, and expanding the World Championship to 20 teams.
The 2025 season uses 2 Swiss groups, 16 teams in each. Top 8 of each group advance to the GSL stage. 2 groups of 8, 4 advance to the hybrid elimination bracket. This format is used for Opens and the World Championship, but Worlds doesn't use the Swiss groups and uses a GSL bracket for the Play-ins. Before the Swiss groups, there is a double elimination bracket and top 32 qualify for the Swiss groups (24 in Open 2, 3, 5 and 6 as top 8 of the last Open automatically qualify for the Swiss groups). Majors use a 16 team Swiss stage, in which top 8 qualify for the hybrid elimination bracket.
The first major of the season was won by Karmine Corp. The major also debuted the RLCS 1v1 event, which was won by France's Axel "Mawkzy" Timone, defeating Brazil's Yan "yanxnz" Xisto Nolasco 4–3. Mawkzy will compete at the RLCS World Championship at Lyon-Décines in September."Rocket League World Championship 2025 Preview" Rocket League Esports. Retrieved April 24, 2025. The second major of the season was won by Team Falcons and marked the Middle East's first RLCS international title since their introduction to the league in 2021. The Middle East is, to date, the only region outside North America or Europe that have won an RLCS international event. The second major's RLCS 1v1 final also saw Saudi Arabia's Hisham "Nwpo" Alqadi defeat Brazil's João "diaz" Henrique 4–1 to qualify for the 1v1 World Championship, where he faced Mawkzy for the title of RLCS's first 1v1 World Champion, and won 4–1 in the Grand Final. Also in the 2025 World Championship was the 3v3 event, where NRG Esports won against Team Falcons in the Grand Final.
The 2026 season started on 14 November 2025 and will end on 20 September 2026. The all new Kickoff Weekend LAN in Copenhagen is happened on 5–7 December and featured the Open 1 top 6 of North America and Europe. 2v2 will also be added to the RLCS.
The Kickoff Weekend LAN happened on 5–7 December with the top 6 North American and European teams of Open 1. Their regions Open 1 continued on 5–6 December (Europe on the 5th and North America on the 6th) and the top 4 of each Open advanced to the 8 team stepladder bracket. The winner, Karmine Corp, qualified for the Boston Major and gave Europe an extra qualification spot for the first and second major and the World Championship.
The first Major of the season took place in Boston at the Agganis Arena from 19 to 22 February 2026. The qualification process took place from 14 November 2025 to 8 February 2026. The Boston Major consisted of 16 teams in a group stage and an 8 team hybrid elimination playoff bracket.
The second Major of the season took place in Paris in the La Défense Arena from 20 to 24 May 2026. The qualification process took place from 13 March to 26 April 2026. The Paris Major consisted of 16 teams in a group stage and a 12 team hybrid elimination playoff bracket.
The Rocket League 2026 World Championship occurred from 15 to 20 September 2026, once again at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The Last Chance Qualification stage took place from 2 to 26 July. It will consist of an 8 team GSL play-in bracket, which then takes the top 4 teams and puts them into a group stage with the auto-qualified top 12. From there, the format was the same as the Paris Major. Team Falcons would win their first world title, defeating NA's Spacestation Gaming in a clean 4-0 sweep.
The RLCS Club Championship was announced on 20 September 2026 as a separate competition away from the Majors and World Championship, unofficially acting as a transition season as Rocket League plans to switch to Unreal Engine 6 as part of a future update. The Club Championship will see 20 partnered organizations compete alongside 4 open qualified sides, first at a Kickoff event at the Copper Box Arena in London before transitioning to online league play, concluding in a 16-team finals tournament in 2027.
Results 3v3 Seasons and World Championships Season Dates Winner Finals Runner-up Location Ref. 1 April – August 2016 Worlds: 6 — 7 August 2016 iBUYPOWER Cosmic FlipSid3 Tactics Los Angeles 2 October – December 2016 Worlds: 3 — 4 December 2016 FlipSid3 Tactics Mock-It eSports EU Amsterdam 3 April – June 2017 Worlds: 2 — 4 June 2017 Northern Gaming Mock-It eSports EU Los Angeles 4 September – November 2017 Worlds: 12 — 14 November 2017 Gale Force eSports Method Washington, D.C. 5 March – June 2018 Worlds: 8 — 10 June 2018 Dignitas NRG Esports London 6 September – November 2018 Worlds: 9 — 11 November 2018 Cloud9 Dignitas Las Vegas 7 April – June 2019 Worlds: 21 — 23 June 2019 Renault Vitality G2 Esports Newark 8 October – December 2019 Worlds: 13 — 15 December 2019 NRG Esports Renault Vitality Madrid 9 February – April 2020 Worlds: 24 — 26 April 2020 X August 2020 – June 2021 Championships: 15 — 20 June 2021 2021–22 October 2021 – August 2022 Worlds: 4 — 7 and 9 — 14 August 2022 G2 Esports Fort Worth 2022–23 October 2022 – August 2023 Worlds: 3 — 6 and 8 — 13 August 2023 Team Vitality Team BDS Düsseldorf 2024 January – September 2024 Worlds: 10 — 15 September 2024 Team BDS G2 Stride Fort Worth 2025January – September 2025 Worlds: 10 — 14 September 2025NRG EsportsTeam Falcons Lyon-Décines2026November 2025 – September 2026 Worlds: 15 — 20 September 2026Team FalconsSpacestation Gaming Fort Worth
3v3 Official RLCS LAN Events Season Major Dates Winner Finals Runner-up Location Ref. 2021–22 Fall Major 8 – 12 December 2021 Team BDS 4–1, 4–3 The General NRG Stockholm Winter Major 24 – 28 March 2022 G2 Esports 3–4, 4–2 Team Queso Los Angeles Spring Major 29 June – 3 July 2022 Moist Esports 4–3, 4–0 Team Falcons London 2022–23 Fall Major 8 – 11 December 2022 Gen.G Esports 4–2 Moist Esports Rotterdam Winter Major 6 – 9 April 2023 Karmine Corp 4–2 FaZe Clan San Diego Spring Major 6 – 9 July 2023 Team Vitality 4–2, 4–1 Team BDS Boston 2024 Major 1 (Copenhagen Major) 28 – 31 March 2024 Gentle Mates 4–2 G2 Stride Copenhagen Major 2 (London Major) 20 – 23 June 2024 G2 Stride 4–1 Team Falcons London 2025 Major 1 (Birmingham Major) 27 – 30 March 2025 Karmine Corp 4–0 The Ultimates Birmingham Major 2 (Raleigh Major) 26 – 29 June 2025 Team Falcons 4–1 Dignitas Raleigh 2026Kickoff Weekend5 – 7 December 2025Karmine Corp4–0Shopify Rebellion Copenhagen Major 1 (Boston Major) 19 – 22 February 2026 Gentle Mates 4-2 Team Vitality Boston Major 2 (Paris Major) 20 – 24 May 2026 Karmine Corp 4-1 Twisted Minds ParisClub Championship (2026–27)Kickoff9 – 13 December 2026 London
1v1 Seasons and World Championships Season Dates Winner Finals Runner-up Location Ref. 2025March — September 2025 Worlds: 13 September 2025 Nwpo4–1 Mawkzy Lyon-Décines2026May — September 2026 Worlds: 16—18 September 2026Nass4-1Nwpo Fort Worth
2v2 Seasons and World Championships SeasonDatesWinnerFinalsRunner-upLocationRef.2026May — September 2026 Worlds: 17—20 September 2026No Miss Just Fake4-3Team Falcons Fort Worth
Statistics Team Titles Team or organization no longer participates in Rocket League esports.