The table of First Touch, Rocket League’s official podcast was fired up on the latest episode. All because of a seemingly simple question: who is going to be on the theoretical RLCS’s Mount Rushmore? It is a common question among competitive sports and now it has laid its hand on the Rocket League Championship Series. The panellists of the podcast have different people in mind as to who deserves a spot on the monumental carving.
What is Mount Rushmore?
Mount Rushmore -or more accurately, Mount Rushmore National Memorial- is a famous landmark among the people of the USA. It is after all a colossal sculpture of figures vital to the development of the country, all carved into a mountain named Mount Rushmore. It features four presidents of the USA: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. They each, respectively, represent the nation’s birth, growth, development and preservation.
Based on the four definitions, we are going to try our best to classify the figures of RLCS based on what they are supposed to represent. Of course, we have to put our disclaimer here. The discussion is a subjective one and we will try to stick true to the definition of Mt Rushmore. Here is RLCS’s Mount Rushmore.
Kronovi – The Birth of RLCS
Kronovi – the poster child of Rocket League definitely deserves a place on the RLCS Mount Rushmore list.
One way or another, we surely have to put Kronovi on the list. Cameron “Kronovi” Bills is the beloved poster child of the Rocket League scene. Everyone knows of him. Everyone has probably watched him at some point. He was an influence, a role model for a lot of pro players earlier in the scene. Kronovi introduced a lot of the earlier mechanics of Rocket League, being a veteran in the prequel of the game called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars (SARPBC). Under iBUYPOWER, he became the winner of the first RLCS.
Coincidentally, Kronovi is known as ‘The Mountain’ to the community, after he had described himself as wanting to be ‘the mountain that everyone else has to climb’ in his Player Spotlight video. Earlier this year, he announced that he will be retiring as a professional player in a Twitlonger, stating that his career so far has been like a ‘roller coaster at Six Flags’.
The community is sad to see him leave the professional scene but he is far from gone. Still creating content under Pioneer, Kronovi is constantly making more Rocket League content and exploring other fun aspects of the Rocket League community. You can either catch him streaming on Twitch on some days or in one of his YouTube channel uploads.
Kaydop – The Growth of RLCS
Alexandre “Kaydop” Courant has won the RLCS three times – one short of beating the record of ex-teammate Turbopolsa. He won the RLCS Regional Championship 5 times in a row and has been in every RLCS Grand Final since Season 3.
He was pretty far ahead of the players mechanically during Season 3 to Season 5. In his Dignitas era, he showed the scene that Rocket League is essentially a team game and conquered the era with fewer fancy plays and more good rotation and team communication.
Kaydop is the Kronovi of the French league, inspiring the European scene to develop more throughout the years. Recently in the Super 16, 31% of the players were French and we can probably owe that to Kaydop’s influence. Additionally, his Twitch channel has the most hours watched and the highest viewership average among other channels that streams Rocket League, if we’re not counting the four official RLCS channels ahead of him.
He is currently still playing for Team Vitality, the team he won the third RLCS with. Apart from the occasional Rocket League tournaments, you can also watch him in action live on his Twitch channel, where he streams regularly.
jstn – The Development of RLCS
Who could forget jstn’s zero-second goal in Season 5 Finals? Or the overtime goal in Season 8 that won him his first World Championship?
Justin “jstn.” Morales was playing with a fairly unknown team before being taken under the wings of his now-teammate GarretG. He immediately rose to stardom, propelling NRG’s success in the RLCS World Championship just months after being signed. Since then, he has consistently been on top in the professional scene. His godlike mechanics and creative plays have greatly influenced the meta of Rocket League, shaping the scene to what it is today.
His ability to perform under great pressure and his smart decision-making make him one of the best Rocket League players. He was even ranked the second-best player of 2021 by Octane.gg, next to M0nkeyM00n.
GarretG – The Preservation of RLCS
Garrett “GarrettG” Gordon’s presence in the scene has long-lived everyone. He has been able to tell the tales of all the LANs. Unfortunately, this Spring Major will be the first LAN without the presence of the GarretG.
Garrett is the first player to reach 1500 career games played and also the first player to score 1500 goals for a singular team. He preserved throughout his entire career, managing to always be at the top of the Rocket League’s scene.
His consistency and his hunger for being the best finally paid off when he won his first RLCS after 8 seasons. GarretG is one of few players to have stayed with an org for more than 1,000 days, on NRG Esports. He still is playing for them to this day, alongside his long-time duo JSTN and SquishyMuffinz.
Honourable Mentions
Gibbs
Everyone who is familiar with the pre-RLCS scene will know who Gibbs is. Randy “Gibbs” Gibbons was a veteran of SARPBC. During the development of the Rocket League, he played the earlier version, giving a few inputs that arguably contributed to the development of the game itself and the rise of the competitive scene.
Gibbs formed a team with Kronovi and Sadjuice under Cosmic Aftershock and dominated the earlier North America Locket League’s scene. He bowed out of the tournament right before the first season of the RCLS started as he mentioned in an interview that he knows it is time for him to do.
Gibbs is now an analyst and mostly works behind the scenes. He also has a YouTube channel where he talks about everything Rocket League.
Kuxir97
Francesco “kuxir97” Cinquemani is one of the OGs of Rocket League. He was a veteran of SARPBC and a professional player in Tekken’s competitive European scene, prior to his present career in Rocket League. He was there in the first season of RLCS, playing against iBUYPOWER in the Grand Finals. Kuxir97 came back stronger the next season with the same team and manages to finally win the championship. This made him the first, and only Italian, to ever win the championship.
Kuxir97 reconstructed the strategy of Rocket League from the earlier gameplay which mimics real-life soccer, to the rotation system that we still see in the game today. His mechanics were way beyond his era. Players tried to imitate his air dribbles, wall shots, and double touches. He created the Kuxir Twist, a freestyle tactic and he had a pinch shot named after him.
He is still here in the scene, playing under E-girl Hunters. The community will still be here, waiting, to see if Kuxir97 decides to make a run for the championship once again.
Turbopolsa
Turbopolsa has won four times deserves a place on the RLCS Mount Rushmore list.
Pierre “Turbopolsa” Silfver is the only player who has won the RLCS four times. He was here since Season 3 and throughout his pro career, he became the first player to get World Championship MVP Award twice. Turbopolsa is the second player to make a cross-region transfer and the only player to win a World Championship representing 2 different regions.
He was always at the right place at the right time, which places him to get that well-positioned goal that everyone started to call the Turbo Goal. He is known for creating space for his team, giving them a chance to serve their best performance while scoring a few tricks of his own.
Some said that the only reason holding him back from a 5th title might be the fact that there hasn’t been a World Championship since he won the last one. He is now with Team Envy, playing as a substitute together with Nick “mist” Costello, Andres “dreaz” Jordan and Braxton “Allushin” Lagarec.
SquishyMuffinz
SquishyMuffinz makes it to the list.
Mariano “SquishyMuffinz” Arruda can’t be excluded from the RLCS Mount Rushmore list. He bridges the gap between the old Rocket League and the new era. With his flashy mechanics, he scored his then-team Cloud9 World Championship in Season 6. Later in his career, he started to develop his decision-making and focus more on team play. His stability and ability to adapt quickly have marked him as a driving force behind his team.
He has over one million YouTube subscribers, one of the biggest content creators in the Rocket League scene. He is now playing for The General NRG, together with JSTN and GarretG.
So this sums up our selection of RLCS Mt Rushmore. What about yours?
Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Rocket League features.
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