Rocket League World Championship: Tournament gets off to blistering start

This Friday marked the start of the Rocket League World Championship live from Washington, DC. Ten teams (4 from North America, 4 from Europe and 2 from Oceania) will compete to be the best in the world.

Rocket League is a PC/Console game that combines soccer with cars. Think of it as FIFA played with matchbox cars. It is a three vs three match-up with no goalie and walls surrounding the field. The players can run over pods and gain boosts to perform aerial jumps to knock the ball into the opposing team's net. The game is contested with one five-minute period and a sudden death overtime with no time limit. The matches in this tournament are contested in a best of five format.

The ten teams are placed in a double elimination bracket, with the 4th-seeded teams from North America and Europe facing the top two teams from Oceania. In this case, G2 eSports faced Chiefs ESC and Paris Saint-Germain faced Pale Horse eSports. G2 came out with the victory over Chiefs 3-2 after being down 1-2 after the first three games.

Paris Saint-Germain provided the only sweep of the night when they went 3-0 against Pale Horse eSports, scoring a combined nine goals against the second-placed Oceania club.

The two winners from the first two matches advanced to the quarterfinals while the losing teams dropped to the losers bracket for another shot at glory. Of course, if they make it to the Grand Finals on Sunday, they would have to beat the winner's bracket champion twice.

The first quarterfinal match saw Europe's Mockit eSports face off against North America's Ghost Gaming. The defensive-minded five-game set only provided one game with a margin of more than one goal. Ghost was able to shut out Mockit in Game 5 and win the series 3-2.

The second quarterfinal match featured two veteran teams, Europe's Method Gaming (the only team in the field that didn't replace any players) and North America's NRG eSports. Another defensive battle between the two teams provided a stoppage-time goal in Game 1 and a 5-and-a-half minute long Overtime period in Game 3. All 5 games were decided by one goal and Method came out on top with a 3-2 series victory.

Gale Force eSports faced off against G2 eSports in the third quarterfinal of the day. The only match in the round that didn't go 5 games. Turbopolsa of Gale Force pulled off a hat trick in Game 1. G2 avoided getting swept with a 2-0 victory in Game 3. Gale Force ended G2's hopes of a reverse sweep, a comeback from elimination by winning the remaining games.

The final series of the night was considered to be the biggest upset when Paris Saint-Germain faced off against the North American Champions Cloud 9. PSG captured the first 2 games before Cloud 9 started their attempt at a reverse sweep of the French side, but a 4 minute overtime period was what PSG needed to secure the win and the series 3-2.

Day 2 of the tournament will start off with the semifinal matches. Gale Force will face off against the only North American team left in the winner's side, Ghost Gaming, and Method take on PSG.

After the winner's side is finished, the loser's side games would be a fight for survival. Chiefs ESC take on NRG, with the winner to face Cloud 9 in the next round. Pale Horse and Mockit will fight it out for a chance to face G2 later in the night.

The remainder of the tournament will be decided on Sunday with the rest of the loser's side matches and the winner's final. The Grand Final will cap off the 4th season of the event. Will a loser's side team avenge North America or will NA's only hope, Ghost, run the table against their European foes?

All games are broadcast live on Rocket League's Twitch channel.