The RLCS is most definitely back. We saw the top 63 teams fight it out for those lovely league qualification spots. Oh, and Supersonic Avengers. Sorry guys, I just couldn’t resist. Overall, EU is a little more contested than NA. Quite a few people I asked simply refused to do an EU fantasy team. I found that quite amusing and I take their point. EU is more competitive in the top 20 zone with much less clear space between teams. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the bracket and found that I had no clue who would win in most of the Round 1 matches. If you can’t predict the first round, it makes it hard to predict who will make it through in a double elimination tournament. Anyway, to quote Michael Bolton, “Boys, let’s get to it.”

Day Two. We’re back in the groove as viewers, ready to get into some crazy Rocket League. We see our first clash for league entry is already full of drama. Flipsid3 Tactics. Runner up, Season One. They came this close. This close. See how close together my fingers are? The only team to beat them at the LAN was G2 (then known as iBuyPower Cosmic). Twice. F3 consists of Markydooda, Kuxir and Greazymeister. “Where’s Mik3rules?” I hear you ask. Er, on the other team as it happens… Good Mourning face off against Flipsid3 in this titanic contest of not one, not two but six past and present F3 players. Interesting narrative if nothing else. We’ll talk more about Good Mourning later, for now just know that Kuxir driving an Octane is weird. I couldn’t really wrap my head around it. Flipsid3 looked to be proving their place as the number one seed and they take the series 3-1. It was closer than it seems. You put Mik3rules in any team and it’s going to be close! We’ll see Good Mourning later in the Losers bracket.

Next! Ah, MockIt Aces, good to see you. How’s the internet trouble? Seems to have cleared up? Wonderful. There were some worries on Sunday that Paschy90’s internet would be up to the same tricks it was pulling during Friday’s GFinity tournament. Happily, this was not the case, he was able to remain connected for the entirety of the three games. Straight up sweep, 3-0 in the series. Their opponent was Cytons and some would question if they should have been in this match. Let’s just say PENTA Sports and come back to it later. Deevo and ViolentPanda joined Pizza Hut’s biggest customer, Paschy90. Honestly, the match was precisely what I would expect from this team. MockIt Aces are new as a roster but their form is fantastic. Almost unique in their style for this level, they play the game at their pace. Strong utilisation of a great defence and interrupt tactics allow them to create space and stop attacks before they materialise. Time will tell whether the faster teams will adapt to this.

You came to see some Rocket League and if you go back and watch one series from the weekend, please make sure that it’s this one. I mean, I’m speechless. Northern Gaming have had a bit of a shake up since they played at LAN. Greazymeister filled Mike’s spot on F3 and everyone thought, who can you replace Greazy with? Step up to the plate, Miztik. Remkoe and Maestro, this is who has been missing all this time. You thought Greazy was a good fit in this team? Miztik loves the backboard more than both of these two put together and I swear he is given a script before each game. His reads are just impressive. Maestro and Remkoe, what can I say? Remkoe still anchors this team and Maestro is indescribable. Northern Gaming are real favourites this season. Wait, hang on. They went 3-2 against OhMyDog? OhMyDog look to be on real form as well. I look forward to watching them gel further as a team. Dogu, Turururururu (Turbopolsa) and Al0t are looking very strong! More on them later as they drop to the lower bracket. Seriously, Twitch is right there. Finish this article, watch this series and then you may continue your day.

It wouldn’t be RLCS without Supersonic Avengers giving everyone a heart attack. These guys missed out on LAN by five points. Five. Points. I worried a little when I saw Red Eye in their path (they lost to them on Friday) but they made it here comfortably. To find Precision Z. Oh no… Precision Z look great. Sikii, Kaydop and Skyline had a little scramble to get their roster sorted after some drama in the last few hours before lock-in but it all got worked out. Frankly, I think this combination is great. This team is another line-up that control the pace of the game. They rely on accurate passes and space creation over sheer speed. They are comfortable sitting back and turtling when necessary and great at transitioning out into lightning fast breakaways. SA fall down to the lower bracket after four close games. PreZ are the victors of the series and in the league. Watch out for both these teams in the coming weeks.

Wow. I am still so hyped right now and it’s Wednesday. Sadly, I’ll be missing the first day of EU league play when it’s live due to the fact I’ll be doing post analysis on the qualifiers for a UK TV channel (GINX TV, 470 on Sky, 8PM Sunday). The irony is real and so are the shameless plugs… well onto the lower bracket before I get distracted further.

Good Mourning. Did I mention I love that name? Anyone who's seen me cast or heard me speak knows I love a good pun. Good Mourning consists of Mik3rules, Mye Bipod and Spoonie (ツ). Mik3rules as mentioned earlier played for Flipsid3 in Season 1. Mye Bipod was the sub for Flipsid3 in Season 1. Spoonie (ツ) subbed for Flipsid3 in GFinity on Friday. Here though, they play for Good Mourning and they went up against Summit. Summit are another recent roster that consists of Jessie, Sebadam and Flarke, although all three are experienced with Jessie previously playing for The Flying Dutchmen at the LAN. We were treated to close games all the way through the series but Good Mourning couldn’t quite clinch the win in the series. A shame as well because Good Mourning are the first team to come back from 3 goals down in a streamed RLCS game to take a win. We see Summit take this one 3-2 and given how close the Good Mourning-Flipsid3 match was up top, I look forward to seeing what Summit can do in the league. A good result for them after a sketchy start to the day. More on that shortly.

We move on to Red Eye versus Cytons. Now, I said earlier that people might say Cytons shouldn't have been in the match against MockIt Aces. They got there by beating a team called Kden. Kden got into that match by beating PENTA Sports. Now, if this bracket had propagated entirely on the seeding we would have seen PENTA vs MockIt up top. Kden managed to adapt to PENTA and stay one goal ahead in the last three games of that series taking it 3-1. Cytons rolled over them in an odd series that went 2-0 Cytons, 5-3 Cytons, 6-1 Kden, 2-0 Cytons. I'll be interested in both these teams in the future. They can clearly compete at the high level but possibly some consistency issues. Cytons (Godsmilla, Rivalo, Meisterclaus Xmasbunny), great job in getting here but sorry guys. 3-0 to Red Eye. Red Eye are an interesting team with Dadooh Chausette and Tequilaz playing a solid series. The first game was very close with a zero second goal from Cytons not quite enough leaving it 3-2 but Red Eye closed out the series with two clean sheets.

OhMyDog! Would you look at this line-up? Honestly, these guys have a lot of space to develop. In this lower bracket match up, they battled with Luminous for the penultimate league play spot. Gontho, Supraa and Krazack were an interesting team to watch as the Luminous line-up. The score lines were fairly close but the OhMyDog playstyle means there generally aren't huge goal differences in their games. OhMyDog have both Al0t and Dogu as defensive powerhouses. With Al0t being so strong at the back, we actually see a lot more of Dogu up the field than we were used to with The Flying Dutchmen. This was a series that showed how easy it can be to deny your opponents the ability to fulfill their intentions. Bumps, putting the ball in space and huge defensive plays can frustrate your opponent very effectively. 3-1 to OhMyDog and they secure that coveted spot in the EU league.

Sector One are not a team most people have heard of. They have been around the scene for quite a while and to give you some context, they started their day with picking up Summit and throwing them on the ground. Or, you know, into the Losers bracket. Shh. Clearly, Sector One have what it takes to be contenders as Summit secured their league spot in the end. Ermah, Lania and Mout are all great players. A few weeks ago, I saw Mout at the top of the Solo Standard rankings and actually had to ask people who he was. Turns out he was very active before I was involved in the scene and these guys as a team have been around for a while. These guys definitely brought it but we saw Supersonic Avengers playing very well. SA were in their usual place of just being everywhere, in the most annoying way. Doomsee, Snaski and ELMP (Lamp) are still one of the longest standing rosters but Sector One have actually been around for longer. Two very experienced teams and in the end, the series score showed that SA have more experience at the higher level. Supersonic Avengers take the series with a solid 3-0 sweep. You may remember from my last article that Selfless remove my objectivity? SA do that to me for EU. I've actually met Doomsee and somehow, I still love these guys. They were so close to LAN last season and I want to see them there this time.

I told you EU was close. This is even more words than the last Silent’s Summary. Check back weekly here on Rocket League Central as I will continue to put out these out on there in the hope someone will read them.