He Wanted to Think Like a Pro
Rocket League's skill ceiling is endless, and professional players competing in the RLCS continue to raise it. Not every player out there wants to play like a pro, but for the most part, this game is extremely competitive at the base level. Even the Casual or Extra Modes playlists can get a little heated. Today's review is an interesting one, as the player submitting their gameplay specifically asked me to put them through a professional lens. For those who don't know, I've been actively coaching in the RLCS for the past five years. Although I'm on the sidelines at the time of writing this (so I lied about the active part), I'm still heavily involved with the scene. I've been the team stream host for G2 Stride this RLCS 2024 season, and I constantly study the highest levels of the game to stay up to date with the meta, as that's the information I pass along to those who submit replays for review. Right now, my main focus has been content and collegiate Rocket League coaching. Anyway, enough of that, but I just wanted to provide some context as to why this player asked specifically for this review style. Essentially, I broke down several moments in their gameplay and answered the question: What would a pro do here? This player has recently ranked up to Grand Champion III, which is the MMR division tier right below Supersonic Legend, the highest rank in the game. The gameplay element I focused heavily on with this player was game pacing, which can be thought of as play timing, awareness, speed of play, and challenge consistency. Now that this player is closing in on the highest rank of the game, the lobbies are quicker, more mechanical, and more chaotic, and the list goes on and on. Priority number one for this player is to simply be able to match the speed of the lobby, the literal car speed, and the speed at which players are making decisions. Priority number 2 for this player was to shift their decision-making process. I told them to be selfish and make decisions that benefit themselves. As players rank up through the game, especially in a 2v2 setting, you'll notice that it's nothing but solo play. There's less team plays and passes (I promise they're still there), but it's more about individual impact on the field, whether that's on the ball through mechanics or off the ball through demos. Lastly, I set the stage for what's to come, which is ball control and dedicated mechanics. Since this player is playing up in rank, they must first be able to make decisions and move their car at the same speed as the other players. I know that sounds trivial, but outpacing is a literal thing in this game. Good Rocket League is being in the right position, but great Rocket League is anticipating the next play and making on-the-fly adjustments. I will eventually work in more game sense and ball control with this player, but first they need to be up to speed! I also want to provide any readers with some miscellaneous notes from the video. I briefly covered ego challenges, which are challenges that are somewhat risky, meaning the player is last-man back or out of position, and then they decide to aggressively play the ball, hence the ego. This type of challenge works hand in hand with the whole game pacing, selfish decisions, and speed of play stuff, as it will push them out of their comfort zone. I also discussed recoveries with the player. A recovery is defined as the time it takes for a player to recover for the next play after taking a challenge. It consists of mechanic types, such as wavedashes, wall dashes, landing wavedashes, etc., but also the player's car speed and speed of decision-making. The player found in the video was initially having a hard time getting into the play and challenging the ball, so I gave the example: It's better to have five subpar challenges, recover quickly, steal boost, demo, and cut to support a teammate, than to have one really good challenge. It's all about wearing down the opponent's mentality and forcing them to make one mistake that you can easily punish and score a goal.
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Timestamps:
Getting Into the Game – 0:00
Let’s Have a Bounce-Back Mentality – 1:13
Rapid-Fire Challenges & Recovery – 1:57
Making Selfish Decisions – 3:31
Ceiling Challenges – 4:27
We Need to Be Able to Pace in Grand Champion III – 5:22
Good Example: Pacing, Speed & Decision-Making – 7:22
Wrapping up the Review – 9:26
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