One of the most exciting esports on our radar for 2023 is none other than competitive Rocket League. Accordingly, following an incredibly succesful 2022 and a new format for 2023, we can’t wait. Bearing this in mind, everything kicks off with the Winter Open Regionals – read on to learn how to watch the RLCS Europe Winter Open 2022-23 below!
Event Background
The RLCS, short for the Rocket League Championship Series, is hosting its 12th season this year. Indeed, Psyonix has organized the highest level of Rocket League in this constantly changing framework.
Accordingly, this year, the competition is split into Fall, Winter and Spring, maintaining the regional expansions and international events trialled last season.
The first split, Winter, consists of the Winter Open, Winter Cup and Winter Invitational for all regions. Specifically, Europe is part of the 7 regions involved in competitive Rocket League: North America, Oceania, South America, Middle East and North Africa, Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa.
With regards to Europe, we have the Winter Open kicking off in the coming week, running from 27th January to 29th January. Throwing $100,000 on the line for this online competition, the top 16 teams in the continent will be competing as listed:
Point Ranking
- Karmine Corp
- Moist Esports
- Oxygen Esports
- Team Liquid
- Quadrant
- G1
- Evil Geniuses
- Team BDS
Closed Qualifier
- 8 teams TBD (22nd January)
Do note that apart from the prize money, teams are competing for the RLCS Points which will be essential for qualifying for further events down the line in the Winter Split and throughout the season.
Read on as we dive a little deeper into the structure of the event below!
Format
The format trials a trusted formula – a Group Stage followed by Playoffs.
Kicking things off with a Group Stage, we have the 16 teams competing in four groups of four based on seeding once the Closed Qualifier teams are revealed.
Within each group, teams will compete through a round robin with BO5 matches. Considering a number of Tiebreaker rules (such as Match Record, Game Differential and Initial Seed), the following rubric will seed teams into the Playoffs:
- Winner of each group – qualification to the Quarterfinals of the Playoffs
- 2-3rd of each group – qualification to Round 1 of the Playoffs
- 4th place of each group – elimination from the tournament
As the top 3 from each group progress, they’ll have to fight through the Single Elimination Bracket to climb summit. Accordingly, the final 12 teams will have one lifeline – one loss means elimination.
Do note that in the Single Elimination Bracket, Round 1 matches are BO5 while the rest of the bracket is BO7. Just like that, after 3 days of competition, we’d have our first regional European champion of the season.
Schedule for the RLCS Europe Winter Open
Considering that the competition awaits 8 teams from the Closed Qualifier, the schedule is still not clear. Feel free to stay up to date with the official Rocket League esports page for a detailed schedule here.
Watch the RLCS Europe Winter Open on esportsguide
You can also watch the event live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
Even though we don’t have the full list of teams, it’s safe to assume that the teams invited based on Rankings are favoured. Here are the current rankings as a reminder:
- #1 – Karmine Corp (61 points)
- #2 – Moist Esports (55 points)
- #3 – Oxygen Esports (47 points)
We can’t wait to see if anything’s changed since last year’s Fall Split.
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