Rocket League was not only a breakout hit once it was released, and then offered for free on PS Plus, it had build a community to support e-sports. With season 3 of their premier league event- RLCS beginning next March, developers Psynonix is sharing more insights on he they plan to keep supporting e-sports.
Interestingly, it does not mean making the prize pool for RLCS even more bigger- this season the pool stands at $300,000 USD. Still a huge amount, but in comparison to other e-sports this may seem a bit too small for the top tier event.
However, Psyonix is not purely investing on the RLCS. In this post, Psyonix expresses how they intend to support it by not just dumping more money. Ever since the introduction of Crates and Keys, a TF2-esque system where you need to buy keys to unlock randomly found crates for cosmetics, the profit from this is actually helping not only e-sports, but the whole community.
So in 2017, Psyonix will be investing in $2.5 million dollars into Rocket League e-sports, which RCLS are a portion of it. Here’s the full breakdown:
- More than $1 Million in total prize pools (including RLCS)
- Bigger, more meaningful appearances at multiple major competitive gaming festivals
- Onsite events at major gaming conventions, including PAX, SXSW, and more
- Extensive funding for community-run tournaments
- Expanded weekly tournament support in multiple regions, including Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, and more
- A true collegiate Rocket League Esports program
- A new series of tournaments for the Xbox community
- An all-new weekly talk show on Twitch that covers all things ‘RLCS’
- A robust new esports hub on the Rocket League website
- Ongoing charity tournaments
- Numerous in-game esports features and enhancements
Sounds like they want to grow Rocket League slowly as an e-sport and bringing in most of the community, not just top pro players, into the scene. More tournaments, bigger presence of Rocket League tournaments in other events as well as community support sounds like a good way to support an e-sports scene.
It’s good to see Psyonix approach of building the e-sports scene with the community before going all-out with big broadcasting deals. Who else should support the e-sports scene first if not the game’s own community?