Ahead of Rocket League‘s free-to-play summer release, Psyonix has announced plans to shake up its tournaments, detailing added competitive modes, rewards, and unlimited free entry.
All Tournaments within Rocket League will now be free to join for all players. Solo players will be able to queue up as well. To prevent abuse, quitting a bracket early will suspend the leaver for 15 minutes from matchmaking and three hours from Tournaments. Should the player continue their behavior, harsher punishments will be doled out, up to a one-day matchmaking ban, and one week ban from Tournaments.
A new mode titled Competitive Tournaments will be regularly scheduled throughout the day. Only 3v3, the main competitive mode in Rocket League esports, will be available at launch. Tournaments Rank will at first be influenced by your Competitive Rank, but it’s a separate stat that will change based on your performances in the cup ties.
Teams will be slotted into 32-team, single-elimination brackets according to their skill, and will play best-of-ones up until the semis and finals, which then switch to a best-of-three format.
Players who manage to go past the first round will receive a new in-game currency called Tournament Credits, with rewards scaling based on their performance in the tournament. Participating in higher-ranked brackets, such as entering a Gold tournament as a Silver player, will grant additional prizes as well.
Additional Credits will be provided at the end of each week according to your top three weekly placements.
Credits can be converted into Cups, which provides players with additional cosmetics such as wheels, decals, and goal explosions. With four levels of Cups currently present, participating in higher Tournament ranks will give you access to the better tiers.
Winning Tournaments will grant players titles featuring the rank you won at, while triumphing at three will further color it for additional style points.
Unlike regular modes, all Tournaments will have set endpoints. The max length of any match will be 11 total minutes. In the event of a draw, the tiebreaker will go to the team with the most shots, followed by a random coin flip.
For those involved in custom Tournaments like community competitions or simple fun with friends, organizers will now be able to spectate games happening in their created bracket.
