Another RLCS transfer window has come and gone and as always the drama and excitement did not fail to disappoint. With some of the best Rocket League players in the World moving teams, let’s break down what happened in what has been one of the most chaotic transfer windows in the history of the esport.
Source: Team BDS
RLCS ’23 Rostermania in Europe
There has been absolute carnage in Europe over the last few months with almost every team besides Team Liquid and Winter Major winners Karmine Corp making changes.
Rise Does it AGAIN! Team BDS will be back?
Firstly let’s talk about Team BDS. We have often discussed their surprisingly terrible run of form this season after winning the World Championship last Summer, and it felt that a roster change was inevitable to give the team some new life. But this is Team BDS, they couldn’t just pick up any new player, they have high expectations and only the best would satisfy them.
This is why they had their eyes on Finlay “Rise” Ferguson.
Rise had caused complete chaos in the last transfer window by deciding at the last minute that he wanted to join Oxygen instead of traveling to NA to compete under V1, and now again the young superstar has created a rostermania domino effect. It was quite unexpected that Rise wanted to leave Oxygen with the amount of talent and potential that roster had, but he too has high expectations and Oxygen’s results were not acceptable for a player of his caliber.
This is a huge risk for Rise, as Team BDS currently sit in 8th place in the RLCS points standings whereas Oxygen sat in 3rd and were almost locked in. With currently only 6 teams making it to Worlds, they will need to get very good results at every event in order to make the move worth it. But if anyone can do it, a roster of M0nkey M00n, Seikoo and Rise has my full faith.
A first in RLCS History…
One of the first notable changes we heard about was that after a very disappointing Winter Split, Moist Esports had chosen to drop AztraL from their roster. Many names were mentioned as his rumoured replacement, but nothing was officially announced for a very long time. Behind the scenes it seemed that Moist were waiting on a lot of other factors before they could lock in their third, as they targeted Quadrant’s Kurtis “Kash” Cannon.
These events put Quadrant in a very unfortunate situation, as Eekso had also chose to leave the organisation to replace Rise on Oxygen (alongside coach Snaski).
RelatingWave was now left without a team, and the organisation was sadly forced to forfeit all of their RLCS points and miss out on Worlds. This is the first time in RLCS history that a team with a very good chance at making worlds disbands and loses all of their points, and it’s especially tough on RelatingWave who’s hard work all season long has resulted in nothing.
Quadrant did however decide to pick up a new team for the Spring Split.
After the Tundra Esports roster also decided to part ways, veteran Kassio has joined young prospects CharlieB and TxMpeR, and this exciting trio will be competing under Quadrant for the foreseeable future.
Introducing our new QUADRANT Rocket League roster with a special message from @LandoNorris and @Max_Fewtrell :
@CharlieB_RL
@itstxmper
@Kassio_RL
@RelatingWave will be moved to the substitute roster for the remainder of the Split. We’re excited to see what we can do during this last split and next.
— Quadrant (@Quadrant) April 24, 2023
History Repeats Itself for MaRc_By_8
Source: Team BDS
Despite upsetting FaZe in the first round of groups, G1 had a disappointing end to the major and were knocked out in last place. As a result of this they decided that a change is needed. MaRc_By_8 was the one to be kicked, and the remaining Spanish duo of Dorito and AtomiK have picked up Oaly as a solid replacement. This is great to see for Oaly, who had to miss out on competing in the last split due to Rise unfairly taking his spot on Oxygen at the last minute and being left with no time to find a new team.
Last year Marc was kicked from Team BDS and forced to sit on the bench for the remainder of the season, and a similar situation has occurred for him here. He has been unable to join another team for the Spring Split and we sadly won’t see him in action until RLCS 22-23.
Zen makes Bees sting looks scary
Despite the whole scene expecting this news, it has been announced that zen will replace Saizen on Team Vitality now that zen is finally able to compete in RLCS after serving his ban. Saizen’s impressive performance at the WInter Major was sadly not enough to keep his spot, although it seemed like it had already been decided prior to the major that he was the one who zen will replace.
Saizen joins a long list of EU talent who will not be competing in the next split, including RelatingWave, AztraL, MaRc_By_8 and Team BDS’ Extra, who will be helping out BDS as assistant coach for the remainder of the season.
Other notable EU transfers include Kassio’s ex-Tundra teammate Rezears joining Mittaen and Smokez on the “Monkeys” roster, hibbs joining Th0 and Mikeboy on “suhhh” and Dying replacing VK-Sailen on Monaco Esports.
Quiet RLCS transfer season in North America
Things were unusually quiet in North America this transfer window, with teams mostly deciding to trust their current players. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t starved of surprising news.
One Superstar in, One SuperGOAT Out
The main storyline in North America was the transfer of Daniel from Spacestation Gaming to Version1. Both teams failed to qualify for the Winter Major, which is the first time we haven’t seen at least one of the orgs at a LAN since the RLCS 21-22 Fall Major. The duo of Daniel and Beastmode has been feared for a while, and now that it has finally come to fruition a new dominant force in NA might arise.
With Daniel joining V1, Torment lost his starting spot and as a result announced his retirement after a long and successful career. Version1 fans will always be grateful for the work he put in to make them a championship contending team. He will forever be regarded as one of the greatest of all time, and his World Championship winning MVP performance in Season 6 will never be forgotten.
Hockser finally gets his chance and KOI trusts in Gyro
Now with a gigantic hole to fill, Spacestation needed to find the right third to keep their World Championship qualification hopes alive. They finally settled on hockser, who has always been regarded as a player with huge potential but had never really been given a chance on a top team. Replacing a superstar like Daniel will always be a near-impossible task, but if hockser and the team can perfect their teamwork it may even take Spacestation to greater heights than before.
When KOI picked up the roster of Gyro, Aqua and night, there was a lot of expectation on these players to perform to the high standard of the org. However two last place finishes did not meet these expectations and as a result the org looked for a new roster to field. As the old roster split, KOI stuck with Gyro and signed his new team, picking up the ex-Knights duo of CHEESE and sosa.
This roster move also allowed KOI to take over ex-Knights’ RLCS points, and as a result they have gone from 14th place up to 12th. Aqua and night were looking for a new third, and they decided on en-Knights’ old third, Zineel. The trio will be competing under the orgless name “G League” for this split.
Other notable NA transfers include Taroco joining Gimmick and Toastie on Team AXLE and ayjacks joining xpurt and money on “sup” (ex-Ghost Gaming).
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