Why you should play in the Rising Stars – a message to the bubble

Let’s begin with the real talk. What’s in it for you, bubble players? Let me tell it straight: the Rising Stars won’t make you rich. At least not this season. For now, there’s only a 1000€ prize pool in the Superstar League and you can expect a few hundreds of euros here and there in the regional leagues. We’re just community orgs, our resources are our passion and the time we’re able to dedicate to Rocket League esports.

That being said, let me take you through the journey that expects you if you sign-up for the Rising Stars.

You will join one of the 8 regional leagues, according to you and your teammates’ citizenships. You will be seeded in a division with 7 other teams and play one BO5 series per week, for 7 weeks. That’s regular season. You can play these matches whenever you and your opponent are available. If you volunteer for it, you’ll be able to play your match on stream as well. No obligation.

You did well in regular season and made it in the top 3 of your division: it means you’re qualified for your regional league’s playoffs. That’s some additional BO7 series to play in a single-elimination bracket. You’re now facing the best players of your region, excluding RLCS starters, not allowed in the league. Once again, you did well, reaching the finals of the playoffs: this means that you’re qualified for the Superstar League.

24 teams will qualify for our Champions’ League-like cup. There you’ll go again for a 5-week round robin at the rate of one BO5 series per week. 4 pools of 6 teams, top 3 of each pool go in the BO7 single-elimination bracket. Quite a journey, right? There’s a lot of series to play and they’re spread over a 3+ months period so that playing the Rising Stars is not that heavy of a load in your schedules.

This project is both an achievement and a beginning

It is an achievement because the Rising Stars league model is already three seasons old. Over the 1,5 years we have been operating the Rocket Baguette Rising Stars in France, this model has evolved and improved, reaching a state that was satisfactory enough for us to consider expanding it across Europe. Rocket Baguette has built the league with its crew of French casters, a genius graphic designer, two brilliant developers and an army of wonderful admins, who all share a common love for Rocket League and its esports scene. Not to forget the thousands of players who have taken part to this league: altogether, we made RBRS as big as they are today.

The league has been built over one single thing: passion. In its first two seasons, there was no cash-prize in RBRS and it still became the biggest league in France, a competition players just love to play (185 teams completed S3). It was only last season that we brought some prize pool money, entirely funded by the viewers on the Rocket Baguette Twitch. We are decent tournament organizers, but poor sales people: there hasn’t been any sponsor in sight.

Will that change in the future? Well, the Rising Stars are bringing the project into a new dimension. First, because it is entering new territories and it will be covering a large portion of Europe and second because Rocket Baguette now has partners that might be a better sales force than we are. Also, Rocket League is slowly but certainly marching towards Tier 1 esports. We still believe in its bright future. This is just the beginning.

In the meantime, we need your help in building the Rising Stars. How? By playing, of course. Without players, a tournament is just an empty shell. And why would you play as there’s nothing to reward the best players? After all, you reached some high level at the cost of a lot of time and efforts. You should be rewarded. Patience, you’re getting there, you’re almost there and so are we. We also want to become professional RL broadcasters and tournament organizers. But we’re not there yet. The Rising Stars have been helping us and they will be helping you.

The Rising Stars are giving European players an opportunity to play in a competitive league. The benefits of a round-robin format over a single-elimination bracket are numerous. You know them already: raising your team-play awareness, being able to bounce back after a loss, learning from mistakes… In other words: fundamentally improve your gameplay.

The Rising Stars are also a lot of fun to play. League formats bring greater storylines and they’re also very appropriate for some additional features such as individual stats (top scorers, assist makers, goalkeepers, MVPs and more in store for you soon). Expect bragging and banter. Every division, from the highest to the lowest, has this data published.

As most of the Rocket Baguette staff, I will play my 4th season of RBRS. I’m gonna enjoy it very much and I hope you guys do too. Give it a try!