Rocket League is currently in its sixth season of competitive esports. The Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) is a grueling five-week gauntlet where every team plays every other squad in their region. Then, the top six square off in the regional championships. Finally, the best squads from North America, Europe, and Oceania meet up at the World Championship — a LAN tournament that crowns the very best Rocket League players on planet Earth.
It’s very serious stuff, but there used to be a very wacky break in the middle of it all. During Seasons 2 and 3 (Fall 2016 and Spring 2017), RLCS paused for Midseason Mayhem. This was a single-elimination one-weekend tournament that had the pros thrown into game types that were outside their comfort zone. It was glorious.
Twitch viewers were the driving force behind Midseason Mayhem. They got to vote for the modes and the modifiers that the pros would play. Sometimes it was simple stuff, such as alternate game types like Rumble or Dropshot. Other times, it was brutal chaos like a pinball modifier that caused the ball to zip across the map on even the lightest of touches.
Midseason Mayhem was so great because it had a weird way of humanizing these players. Top-level Rocket League has gotten so incredibly consistent. Pros don’t really mess up. When they do, it’s glaringly obvious. They seem more like Rocket League robots to 99 percent of players. There’s something highly relatable about watching them completely botch a read on a pinball shot that’s zooming across the pitch at a million miles per hour.
(But, Midseason Mayhem was also great because it never gets old watching someone like Fireburner use the spikes power-up to juke the entire other team before air-rolling into the goal:)
Source: Destructoid Rocket League needs to bring Midseason Mayhem back