By nurturing the youth, we ensure the future of what we cherish.
That’s presumably what the folks at Rocket League thought when they introduced the Collegiate Rocket League. For starters, college esports isn’t just your average amateur league, rather it’s a well-funded, cohesive, and sustainable playground for college undergraduates and graduate students to further their careers in esports. .
Still, we’ve seen a lot of bad college esports over the past decade, so hats off to Rocket League’s awesome take on college esports.
Psyonix / RL Esports
Rocket League Collegiate Esports Programs in Europe and North America
Collegiate Rocket League
Since its introduction in the fall of 2017, CRL has spent approximately $790,000 in the prize pool. And don’t get us started on the infrastructure and esports programs of American universities that partner colleges have dedicated to maintenance.
Each season has two qualifiers, the North America East and West regions. Then the top twelve teams from both regions come together to play in a final with a prize pool of $50,000 up for grabs. Aside from the awards won, it is evident that many colleges and universities support the program as we often see regular participants over the years.
European College Rocketeers Championship
Psyonix hasn’t missed the European stage either, with its first major prize pool starting in the 2021-22 season. After the concerning state of college esports in 2021, it goes without saying that the EU deserves its own college esports program. Additionally, the EURC has a more diverse and wider participation, so it has resorted to group stages of 8-10 teams per league.
This is probably the biggest W in Rocket League. University esports programs across Europe lag far behind the United States and even China. Rocket League is the first esport next to maybe League of Legends to really tackle esports in academia really well.
Emerging Collegiate Esports Talent
Among the top contenders, the University of Akron stands out as a multiple-time NA Champion, raising over $150,000 since its debut in the spring of 2019. Key players representing the University of Akron are Buzz “buzz” Krager, Isaac “Reluctance” Stecker and Tristan “.sadn” Roberts. If these prodigies continue to show their overwhelming talent, we might see them in the next professional leagues for sure.
Speaking of prodigies, the Collegiate Rocket League has produced several professional players to date. Specifically, Braxton “Allouchine” Lagarec, a 22-year-old student at Northwood University, currently coaches French powerhouse Team Envy. Allushin has a longer career in Esports as he was a Faze Clan player himself and also actively played for Envy much earlier.
Besides him, Alexander “Boyfriend” Che is another noteworthy mention. He currently plays competitively for Litecoin Gaming and is still affiliated with Northwood University. Maik “Tiger” Hoffmann, who currently plays for Natus Vincere, and Berlin Phoenix. Tigreee is a good role model as a participant in the recent RLCS 2021-22 Winter Major.
Besides professional players, others have ventured into alternative careers in esports, such as Liam “Cha0s” By Cuypere. The Belgian pitcher’s most notable debut is when he commentated for the RLCS Season X Spring Europe Regional.
As Psyonix continues to fund the Collegiate Rocket League, we can certainly expect more rising stars to emerge on the professional Rocket League scene.
Alexander “Buddy” Che
Support college sports
Frankly, don’t expect college esports to be as exciting as watching the best players in Rocket League compete. After all, a big part of the adrenaline-fueled fun of Rocket League is pulling off impossible shots.
However, nurturing the potential of the younger generation is crucial. Performance in the game is often synonymous with the age of the players, which affects their reflex and intuition in the game. There is only a certain amount of experience that a veteran player can exploit as an advantage over to prodigies that have a faster reaction time.
Watch the Collegiate Rocket League
Much like the brainchild of Rocket League, the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), CRL and EURC have series every season. The 2022 European College Rocketeers Championship is currently underway, with the group stage set to end on March 17.
As the CRL Spring 2022 Championship takes place at the end of March 2022. Psyonix consistently features both series on its official Twitter page, Rocket League Esports. Interested fans can follow the page for updates on each series. Additionally, the University Rocketeers Twitter page is maintained by the community of Rocket League enthusiasts.
For streaming coverage, we are pleased to inform you that Psonix is also covering the upcoming CRL Spring 2022 and EURC2022 Championship on Twitch Channels, CollegeCarball and European University Rocketeers on Twitch respectively.
Can you join Collegiate Esports?
Does participating in University Esports sound appealing? Well, if you are an undergraduate student in one of the partner universities offering esports programs, you are in luck. We’ve got you covered at University Esports.
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