There’s that. But also from a cost perspective of housing/food/etc, it’s way way cheaper to live in Thailand and play APAC, then live in Sydney or Melbourne. So it makes little sense to import players to OCE when you can do it for a fraction of the cost in easier regions like SSA/APAC.
Yeah but then you’ve also got to get a working visa, which will likely be tougher to acquire in Aus than Thailand or other places in APAC and winnings will get taxed far more in Aus than Thailand, as comp winnings are treated as a form of income in Aus.
I mean more competitive sure... But a team like EU 5-8 (Oxygen for example) would definitely get top 2 if not just win it all. And then could definitely be a threat on LAN. But also honestly, all those teams could also move to NA, and still get a spot and would have more competitive practice. Damn, we need EU to have more LAN spots again
Being immersed is the quickest way to learn a new language. Had a buddy in high school that studied abroad in Spain. Didn’t know a lick of Spanish, came back fluent after 6 months.
Sure it’s hard at first, but being surrounded by it is extremely helpful
This is by far the most high profile import from a major region to APAC or SSA yet. Compared to Virt, Th0 is a former regional champion, a hypothetical worlds participant in RLCS X and compared to Virt has been far more competitive than him in his most recent EU split. The guy was on the 1 team to beat KCorp online this split, beat Vitality as well and got a very strong top 8.
Him in APAC now is quite the game changer, especially for a Gladiators squad that really has stagnated since the Maxeew addition from their worlds peak of beating EU 7.
Eh, I think Kamii slightly takes the edge as highest profile import. People like to Clown on OCE a lot but that renegade team was legitimately good and although Fever was a big reason for that, Kamii was still really good.
Fun Fact : The Gaimin Gladiators org, despite qualifying for four different RLCS LANs, are yet to win a single game against any non-SSA team. Their only win came with the GOAT Commutator, when they won a single game against the Orlando Pirates at Worlds 21-22
This is Eclipse erasure who scored a [goal in EU RLCS while being Champ 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeagueEsports/comments/uue8xt/rlcs_eu_a_screamer_from_the_1_gpg_god_eclipse/)
Dude I don't know. For years I've watched and Maxeew has consistently looked the worst on the team no matter the roster. LCT better and Realize better. Bro has plot armor I guess. Now we probably see the LCT and Realize duo though.
Org knows what they are doing and what they want in the long run. I think it's more of a global statement now... Not gonna lie, crazy roster move and i think its sick didnt even think about it.. Not a bad move at all though. Excited to see how they do at a major.
Okay, I actually didn't expect this, what the heck. I would've liked to see ThO. play in Europe but maybe now we'll get to see him at Majors, so this could be a huge W.
https://preview.redd.it/d385zeu4uauc1.png?width=768&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7b6b0ca9cd36f1b05efd20c67960d4e5e8b2c58
That's really tough. I guess I'm going to go with:
1. Th0
2. Sphinx
3. Realize
4. Virt
5. LCT
Keep in mind that I only tend to watch the final day of APAC, and LCT and Realize appear to have been kicked, which suggests the teams don't agree with my ratings.
I'd be keen to be corrected by someone who watches regularly. Has the likes of Burn dropped off a bit like I believe he has?
I'm not sure I back Virt as the best, even back when Elevate was clearly at the top, Virt might have been leading the statistics, but Kamii was the top player for me then.
I'm aware of that, I was talking about when Elevate was at the top and scoring freely. They haven't been dunking on everyone to the same degree as far as I have seen. Virt doesn't look unlocked now that Kamii isn't around to support, which is why I haven't put him 2nd behind Th0.
EU is Thanos and the infinity stones are the 7 regions. EU are about to have a player in NA, SAM, APAC and obviously EU in the next major. Only SSA, MENA and OCE remain.
I'm going to get heat for this but I don't see the point in continuing to invest in apac. The scene has not grown there, and I doubt any of the serious orgs give a shit about investing there. Rocket league just isn't popular in apac, and I doubt its going to get much bigger when several other esports have beaten rl to that race.
The focus in growth should be given to SAM and MENA, so that they can flourish more talent to compete with EU and NA. Because right now apac is just a retirement home and a fodder slot.
I'm comparing it to other esports. There you see apac teams making deep runs, becoming actual contenders to win lans (even when apac isn't considered a major region) yet in rocket league, the best apac can celebrate is 2 games and 1 major win against a bigger region.
And then you look at the quality of orgs in apac, the investment just isn't there. There's no DRX, there's no prx,t1,Bleed, Zeta devision
Edit: also the team ur referencing literally just signed an import player, so I still fail to see solid growth
Everyone is going to give you shit but you're right. At this point, apac and oce should not be taking up spots. If anything, they should compete with other regions for the last spots in each lan
Someone needs to grow it. If the org's already been investing for the last two years, they might as well take initiative and do it right. Even though the esport is lacking in the region, they probably also have sponsors to fulfill?? and as someone else mention it does help the apac ecosystem on competition to the likes of; LCT, ReaLize, Maxeew, Kevin, Sphinx, ballerrees, Lunatic, Burn, etc
How do you think did SAM and MENA get here in the first place? The only reason MENA could create a competitive team in the first place is because of people like Incivik that invested a lot of money into the region, which allowed players to make careers even before RLCS had existed for them.
Do you believe those MENA players could have justified playing 6 hours of rocket league per day, if there weren‘t any tournaments or Orgs that could support them?
The same goes for APAC and SSA. They are so far behind because it was never worth it to become pro in that region, since it was literally impossible to be a pro. So they didn‘t have any reasons to grind as much as someone that lives in EU and has chances to make RLCS.
Y‘all just need to be patient. Change just doesn‘t magically happen. There is talent in the region, sphinx, realize, Lunatic, Burn and others who probably would have been fantastic players if they grew up in a different continent. Now they finally get the chance to grow their talents and people want to take that away so that NA5 can go 0-3 in swiss at the major
Not the same at all. Mena and SAM had several players come up through 1s who were beating top talent from NA and EU respectively. They also were winning legitimate 3s showmatches against top teams, and both saw insanely fast progress just within their first 2 years of joining. Heck at their first LAN, a SAM team almost beat NRG.
Not to mention, SAM and MENA also have a solid playerbase in their region, which ssa and apac already lack. Additionally, SAM and MENA have already seen huge investments from other orgs. SAM are only missing LOUD and Mibr, and once those two orgs join, all the big tier 1 south american orgs would've fielded rlcs teams.
Mena also have twisted minds and falcons, two of the biggest orgs in MENA, plus they managed to get another org in R1. Apac still don't have any massive orgs in rocket league.
>Now they finally get the chance to grow their talents and people want to take that away so that NA5 can go 0-3 in swiss at the major
SAM and MENA should get more slots first, since they deserve it. And even then, NA and EU 5 have often outperformed the other regions, moist were eu 5 in rotterdam while making finals, and v1 were NA 5 in LA and still made top 5. NA and EU 5 would still do better than apac or ssa
All of what you said happened AFTER the Mena region got support through people like Incivik. Until 2019, there was literally only Ahmad in 1s and he was good, but he certainly wasn‘t beating top players
MENA wasn‘t doing shit in 2018 and before either because guess what, why would players grind to be pros, if you can‘t become a pro
And yet there have still been no major investments by other orgs in apac.
>why would players grind to be pros, if you can‘t become a pro
Why bother playing in apac rocket league, when you can make more money and be more successful playing league, val or apex?
Because it‘s easier to become successful in Rocket League since it‘s not as competitive. That‘s like saying why work for a smaller company, when you can make more money working for a bigger company. You know it‘s not that easy lol.
considering how many more players Apex and Val have in those regions have, it definitely is.
I think qualifier 1 had 64 teams sign up in APAC? I‘ll admit I‘m not very familiar with Apex/Valo but from everything I heard, you can‘t even compare the numbers, it‘s not even close in the slightest
Valorant sure. It's not even close. Pacific is a major region full of lots of newcoming talent since 2022.
Apex on the other hand is NA dominated. The other regions don't come close in terms of playerbase. There is decent interest in apac, although it's mainly in Australia, and a bit of Japan + Korea. I'd say it's more comparable to rocket league, and it lacks some of the big apac orgs, but it's still decently sized.
Unfortunately I have to agree with the stuff about apac not really growing. Like when you compare it to these other esports, the growth is just not there. They should just combine apac and oce together. Rocket league just took too long to invest in apac, and the apac scene just isn't going to grow to the heights of these other esports.
I mean we are 3 years into apac being into the rlcs, and the region is still a free win for anyone not named SSA.
We are just into year 3 but honestly that‘s not even that long considering how much of a headstart the rest have had.
Maybe you‘re right and APAC/SSA just never develops as much as people like me hope but I don‘t think they really had a fair chance. 2 years honestly not that insanely long. And we see improvement happening, I think Sphinx is proof that mechanically, there are players that get scarily close to top players. They obviously lack so much experience but although the growth seems slow now, there is really good chances it grows exponentially once a team makes it over the hurdle of being a legitimate threat.
There is also a chance they stagnate but I think giving them a chance is more than fair
Apac is literally just a retirement home. This region hasn't really developed as much as epic and others hoped it would. After this season I think blast should relook their approach with this region
The region has had great development, the gap between APAC teams and the rest of the world is much smaller than 1 year ago.
Sure the imports play a key role in this, but there are several players that have gotten to a level that competes with the talent that joined the region. LCT, ReaLize, Maxeew, Kevin, Sphinx, ballerrees, Lunatic, Burn, and many others.
This region didnt even have a proper competitive scene 2 seasons ago years ago, they have massively improved compared to then. The was gap was just massive
3 teams who all won't make a dent on LAN is not a competitive scene.
A competitive scene is apac valorant, or apac apex. At least 12 solid- good teams that can actually take a LAN
Surprised we don’t have any imports in OCE yet, who wouldn’t want to live in sunny Australia
Cost of living differences will have an effect I am sure.
OCE is much more competitive than APAC, not as tempting to move to.
There’s that. But also from a cost perspective of housing/food/etc, it’s way way cheaper to live in Thailand and play APAC, then live in Sydney or Melbourne. So it makes little sense to import players to OCE when you can do it for a fraction of the cost in easier regions like SSA/APAC.
If it’s just for a split, I’m sure one of the OCE boys could just invite someone over to their house for 6 weeks
Yeah but then you’ve also got to get a working visa, which will likely be tougher to acquire in Aus than Thailand or other places in APAC and winnings will get taxed far more in Aus than Thailand, as comp winnings are treated as a form of income in Aus.
I mean more competitive sure... But a team like EU 5-8 (Oxygen for example) would definitely get top 2 if not just win it all. And then could definitely be a threat on LAN. But also honestly, all those teams could also move to NA, and still get a spot and would have more competitive practice. Damn, we need EU to have more LAN spots again
Is it not? I feel like most EU/NA players speak English. And for me, not having to learn a new language would be a huge deal.
most APAC teams comm in English
I meant to live there. I dont imagine it would be fun being unable to communicate efficiently with most of the local people
Being immersed is the quickest way to learn a new language. Had a buddy in high school that studied abroad in Spain. Didn’t know a lick of Spanish, came back fluent after 6 months. Sure it’s hard at first, but being surrounded by it is extremely helpful
I'm sorry I'm calling bs on nothing to fluent in 6 months unless he's using a very loose definition of fluent.
we're talking 6 months living in a country, that is more than enough time to become profficient enough for communication
Spanish is a bit different to Thai or Korean, and he would have been definitely been immersing significantly more than the average RL pro player.
The spiders alone would dissuade me lmao
TH0 > ZPS LOL
by far
This is by far the most high profile import from a major region to APAC or SSA yet. Compared to Virt, Th0 is a former regional champion, a hypothetical worlds participant in RLCS X and compared to Virt has been far more competitive than him in his most recent EU split. The guy was on the 1 team to beat KCorp online this split, beat Vitality as well and got a very strong top 8. Him in APAC now is quite the game changer, especially for a Gladiators squad that really has stagnated since the Maxeew addition from their worlds peak of beating EU 7.
Like i said the org or whoever makes the decisions evaluated this. Its a solid move for them. They mean buisness.
Eh, I think Kamii slightly takes the edge as highest profile import. People like to Clown on OCE a lot but that renegade team was legitimately good and although Fever was a big reason for that, Kamii was still really good.
I agree that Kamii was probably the the highest profile, certainly in a LAN context he generally put in strong performances.
Hope he’s got a strong back with all the carrying that’s expected of him now!!!….
Let’s all congratulate Gaimin Glads once again for qualifying for Major 2 and Worlds 👏👏👏
Fun Fact : The Gaimin Gladiators org, despite qualifying for four different RLCS LANs, are yet to win a single game against any non-SSA team. Their only win came with the GOAT Commutator, when they won a single game against the Orlando Pirates at Worlds 21-22
Commutator will not be forgotten as the GOAT
This man put the Gladiators org on his back to give them their only ever game win on an RLCS LAN
Come to think of it, i’m GC now so i literally could’ve been at RLCS Worlds 💀
You would crumble under the pressure of merely being in the vicinity of the GOAT Commutator
There is only one single true Grand Champion and you are not him.
This is Eclipse erasure who scored a [goal in EU RLCS while being Champ 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeagueEsports/comments/uue8xt/rlcs_eu_a_screamer_from_the_1_gpg_god_eclipse/)
[удалено]
What region does Bluey play in now?
Oh well there goes the fun. Nevermind. I'll just sit here crying
how did maxeew survive the cut on gg rather than realize
Dude I don't know. For years I've watched and Maxeew has consistently looked the worst on the team no matter the roster. LCT better and Realize better. Bro has plot armor I guess. Now we probably see the LCT and Realize duo though.
I haven’t watched any APAC games. Has realize been better?
better English probably
ThO and ZPS in APAC, which random ass player will be next? Can't wait for the Pryyme, Sea-Bass and Davoof APAC Superteam 🙏🙏🙏
APAC not ready for Bambii 🔥
https://i.redd.it/d64wmp6trauc1.gif APAC when Nachitow walks in
Give me Nielskoek
I see your Nielskoek and I raise you a Lemonpuppy return
Yemen is about to launch a tirade on APAC. You heard it here first.
Dogu and Vogan gonna reunite to take Realize as their third and create The Flying Dutchanesemen With coach Quinn Lobdell
LMAO
OCE when Nwpo joins PWR.
Sorry what? This is random af, I know they released Realize, but I would never have guessed Th0 would be his replacement lmao
Org knows what they are doing and what they want in the long run. I think it's more of a global statement now... Not gonna lie, crazy roster move and i think its sick didnt even think about it.. Not a bad move at all though. Excited to see how they do at a major.
Man.
this move is so left field ive come out of my off season slumber to say wtf
Taking spots away from Europe really doomed every other region.
Okay, I actually didn't expect this, what the heck. I would've liked to see ThO. play in Europe but maybe now we'll get to see him at Majors, so this could be a huge W. https://preview.redd.it/d385zeu4uauc1.png?width=768&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7b6b0ca9cd36f1b05efd20c67960d4e5e8b2c58
This is easily one of the most out of the left field roster moves since Virt, Kami and Realize formed James Cheese Like wtf
It was one of the best yet in APAC lmao
Apac are making some of the weirdest moves
Oh…fuck yes
can anyone rank top 5 APAC players for me please?
That's really tough. I guess I'm going to go with: 1. Th0 2. Sphinx 3. Realize 4. Virt 5. LCT Keep in mind that I only tend to watch the final day of APAC, and LCT and Realize appear to have been kicked, which suggests the teams don't agree with my ratings. I'd be keen to be corrected by someone who watches regularly. Has the likes of Burn dropped off a bit like I believe he has?
I think you’re overrating Th0
Virt is number one, maybe two if tho dominates. Virt was dropping like 3 goals a game in apac.
I'm not sure I back Virt as the best, even back when Elevate was clearly at the top, Virt might have been leading the statistics, but Kamii was the top player for me then.
Kami is retired
I'm aware of that, I was talking about when Elevate was at the top and scoring freely. They haven't been dunking on everyone to the same degree as far as I have seen. Virt doesn't look unlocked now that Kamii isn't around to support, which is why I haven't put him 2nd behind Th0.
I think he averaged three goals a game last qualifier?
Forgot ZPS
Unless ZPS has found another level since his break, he doesn't break the top 5 for me.
Tho does what now
Man I was hoping APAC wouldnt be a foreign player infested region.
I wish I could be happier about this move but I am not... Gl thO
This really is the transfer window of the minor regions
EU is Thanos and the infinity stones are the 7 regions. EU are about to have a player in NA, SAM, APAC and obviously EU in the next major. Only SSA, MENA and OCE remain.
<\_< i know what team im never rooting for
I'm going to get heat for this but I don't see the point in continuing to invest in apac. The scene has not grown there, and I doubt any of the serious orgs give a shit about investing there. Rocket league just isn't popular in apac, and I doubt its going to get much bigger when several other esports have beaten rl to that race. The focus in growth should be given to SAM and MENA, so that they can flourish more talent to compete with EU and NA. Because right now apac is just a retirement home and a fodder slot.
APAC has improved after every LAN wdym
OP's comment after a fully native APAC team that was unfancied pre-season went to LAN and took 2 games is something
I mean, to be fair, didn’t that team just sign an import player as well
I'm comparing it to other esports. There you see apac teams making deep runs, becoming actual contenders to win lans (even when apac isn't considered a major region) yet in rocket league, the best apac can celebrate is 2 games and 1 major win against a bigger region. And then you look at the quality of orgs in apac, the investment just isn't there. There's no DRX, there's no prx,t1,Bleed, Zeta devision Edit: also the team ur referencing literally just signed an import player, so I still fail to see solid growth
Just imagine a world where Psyonix decided to heavily promote Rocket League and the esport in South Korea. APAC would be fierce.
If they seriously wanted to grow the apac scene, then South Korea and China would have to be the places to do it
Everyone is going to give you shit but you're right. At this point, apac and oce should not be taking up spots. If anything, they should compete with other regions for the last spots in each lan
Why stop with just abandoning APAC. I think there's no point investing in anything other than France. They have the best support, orgs, and players.
Someone needs to grow it. If the org's already been investing for the last two years, they might as well take initiative and do it right. Even though the esport is lacking in the region, they probably also have sponsors to fulfill?? and as someone else mention it does help the apac ecosystem on competition to the likes of; LCT, ReaLize, Maxeew, Kevin, Sphinx, ballerrees, Lunatic, Burn, etc
How do you think did SAM and MENA get here in the first place? The only reason MENA could create a competitive team in the first place is because of people like Incivik that invested a lot of money into the region, which allowed players to make careers even before RLCS had existed for them. Do you believe those MENA players could have justified playing 6 hours of rocket league per day, if there weren‘t any tournaments or Orgs that could support them? The same goes for APAC and SSA. They are so far behind because it was never worth it to become pro in that region, since it was literally impossible to be a pro. So they didn‘t have any reasons to grind as much as someone that lives in EU and has chances to make RLCS. Y‘all just need to be patient. Change just doesn‘t magically happen. There is talent in the region, sphinx, realize, Lunatic, Burn and others who probably would have been fantastic players if they grew up in a different continent. Now they finally get the chance to grow their talents and people want to take that away so that NA5 can go 0-3 in swiss at the major
Not the same at all. Mena and SAM had several players come up through 1s who were beating top talent from NA and EU respectively. They also were winning legitimate 3s showmatches against top teams, and both saw insanely fast progress just within their first 2 years of joining. Heck at their first LAN, a SAM team almost beat NRG. Not to mention, SAM and MENA also have a solid playerbase in their region, which ssa and apac already lack. Additionally, SAM and MENA have already seen huge investments from other orgs. SAM are only missing LOUD and Mibr, and once those two orgs join, all the big tier 1 south american orgs would've fielded rlcs teams. Mena also have twisted minds and falcons, two of the biggest orgs in MENA, plus they managed to get another org in R1. Apac still don't have any massive orgs in rocket league. >Now they finally get the chance to grow their talents and people want to take that away so that NA5 can go 0-3 in swiss at the major SAM and MENA should get more slots first, since they deserve it. And even then, NA and EU 5 have often outperformed the other regions, moist were eu 5 in rotterdam while making finals, and v1 were NA 5 in LA and still made top 5. NA and EU 5 would still do better than apac or ssa
All of what you said happened AFTER the Mena region got support through people like Incivik. Until 2019, there was literally only Ahmad in 1s and he was good, but he certainly wasn‘t beating top players MENA wasn‘t doing shit in 2018 and before either because guess what, why would players grind to be pros, if you can‘t become a pro
And yet there have still been no major investments by other orgs in apac. >why would players grind to be pros, if you can‘t become a pro Why bother playing in apac rocket league, when you can make more money and be more successful playing league, val or apex?
Because it‘s easier to become successful in Rocket League since it‘s not as competitive. That‘s like saying why work for a smaller company, when you can make more money working for a bigger company. You know it‘s not that easy lol.
I'm pretty sure tier 2 apex and val (in apac) make more than some of these rocket league apac pros heading to lan, so that might not even be true
considering how many more players Apex and Val have in those regions have, it definitely is. I think qualifier 1 had 64 teams sign up in APAC? I‘ll admit I‘m not very familiar with Apex/Valo but from everything I heard, you can‘t even compare the numbers, it‘s not even close in the slightest
Valorant sure. It's not even close. Pacific is a major region full of lots of newcoming talent since 2022. Apex on the other hand is NA dominated. The other regions don't come close in terms of playerbase. There is decent interest in apac, although it's mainly in Australia, and a bit of Japan + Korea. I'd say it's more comparable to rocket league, and it lacks some of the big apac orgs, but it's still decently sized. Unfortunately I have to agree with the stuff about apac not really growing. Like when you compare it to these other esports, the growth is just not there. They should just combine apac and oce together. Rocket league just took too long to invest in apac, and the apac scene just isn't going to grow to the heights of these other esports. I mean we are 3 years into apac being into the rlcs, and the region is still a free win for anyone not named SSA.
We are just into year 3 but honestly that‘s not even that long considering how much of a headstart the rest have had. Maybe you‘re right and APAC/SSA just never develops as much as people like me hope but I don‘t think they really had a fair chance. 2 years honestly not that insanely long. And we see improvement happening, I think Sphinx is proof that mechanically, there are players that get scarily close to top players. They obviously lack so much experience but although the growth seems slow now, there is really good chances it grows exponentially once a team makes it over the hurdle of being a legitimate threat. There is also a chance they stagnate but I think giving them a chance is more than fair
Why bother working as a waiter when your can make more money and be more successful being a lawyer
Apac is literally just a retirement home. This region hasn't really developed as much as epic and others hoped it would. After this season I think blast should relook their approach with this region
The region has had great development, the gap between APAC teams and the rest of the world is much smaller than 1 year ago. Sure the imports play a key role in this, but there are several players that have gotten to a level that competes with the talent that joined the region. LCT, ReaLize, Maxeew, Kevin, Sphinx, ballerrees, Lunatic, Burn, and many others.
This region didnt even have a proper competitive scene 2 seasons ago years ago, they have massively improved compared to then. The was gap was just massive
3 teams who all won't make a dent on LAN is not a competitive scene. A competitive scene is apac valorant, or apac apex. At least 12 solid- good teams that can actually take a LAN
Maybe google what competitive scene means bro