Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) is an annual esports tournament of Rocket League where the best teams around the world clash and compete for the Champions title and a share of the Prize Pool. RLCS 2024 took place in Fort Worth, United States at the Dickens Arena where Team BDS crowned themselves as Champions defeating G2 Stride.
After the conclusion of RLCS 2024, Rocket League unveiled some Format changes for the next RLCS at the Dickens Arena and on their official Twitter profile afterward. The new changes announced by Rocket League include an increased prize pool of $5 million (USD), a new series of 1v1, online last-chance qualifiers, and 20 Teams at the annual tournament stage. Rocket League also added RLCS bundles to earn in-game.
Here are all the Format Changes announced by Rocket League for RLCS 2025.
RLCS 2025 Begins in January
The revealed schedule of RLCS 2025 by Rocket League shows that the Open Qualifier for RLCS 2025 begins in January and RLCS Major 1 takes place at the end of March including the 1v1 Final. With that being said, let’s move on to the Format Changes starting with the new 1v1 Series.
1v1 Series in RLCS 2025
The 1v1 series is now an official format in RLCS 2025 and it goes live alongside the traditional 3v3 season. A 1v1 Series will take place in all regions including EU, NA, MENA, and SAM. All the details for the 1v1 series are as follows.
Split 1
- This will consist of a single Open Qualifier in EU, SAM, and APAC
- Cash prizes will be awarded to the top 128 in EU / 64 in SAM / 32 in APAC
- The winner of the Open Qualifier in EU and SAM will progress to a 1v1 Final at Major 1
Split 2
- A single Open Qualifier in NA, MENA, OCE, and SSA (the regions that weren’t included in Split 1)
- Cash prizes will be awarded to the top 128 in NA, 64 in MENA & OCE, and 32 in SSA
- The winner of the Open Qualifier in NA and MENA will progress to a 1v1 Final at Major 2
RLCS World Championship 2025
- The winner of the Major 1 1v1 Final will face the winner of the Major 2 1v1 Final at the Rocket League World Championship 2025
- Tournament scheduling will allow players to compete in both 3v3 and 1v1 formats
- More than one player from an organization can enter and play against each other
Last Chance Open Qualifiers
After the RLCS Major 2, the Last Chance Open Qualifiers will become available between Major 2 and the Rocket League World Championship Series. It will be the final chance for the teams from the strongest regions to prove themselves worthy of going to the grand stage of RLCS 2025.
- The Last Chance Open Qualifiers will take place in the four strongest regions – based on the average performance of each region’s teams at the in-person RLCS Majors.
- Winner takes all – one team from each of the four regions will qualify for the Rocket League World Championship.
Expanded RLCS World Championship
The next RLCS event will be expanded and include 20 Teams in total instead of 16. Thanks to the new Format, the additional Four Teams who will advance to the RLCS World Championship Stage are the ones who qualify from the Last Chance Open Qualifiers.
- The four teams that qualify from the Last Chance Open Qualifiers, will compete in person against the four lowest-seeded qualified teams from the four lowest-ranked regions – based on the average performance of each region’s teams at the in-person RLCS Majors.
- Four teams will progress from this Play-Ins stage, to play against the other top 12 teams at the RLCS World Championship.
Rankings Qualification in Open Qualifiers
Lastly, there will also be a ranking qualification for the top teams who outperform throughout the RLCS Season. The top eight teams from each event will advance to a later stage of the following Open Qualifier, instead of starting again from the initial stage.
This aims to reduce the amount of times that high-performing teams must re-enter the initial stages of the Open Qualifiers. However, it will not include the Last Chance Qualifier or the first Open Qualifier of each Split.
That is all related to the Format Changes coming in Rocket League Championship Series 2025.