RLCS 2024: Schedule, format, teams to watch and more

January 25, 2024

by Brian Bencomo

After a long offseason, the Rocket League Championship Series is back for the 2024 season with lots of schedule and format updates as Blast takes over as the circuit’s new tournament operator.

Regional play formats have been adjusted, and the number of Majors have been reduced from three to two. The Middle East and North America (MENA) will get an extra slot at Majors and will now send two teams, while sub-Saharan Africa will now get a slot at Majors in addition to the RLCS World Championship. Typically high-performing regions North America and Europe will no longer have a chance to increase the number of slots they get at Worlds as all regions now have a set number of slots -- four each in the case of NA and EU.

The age at which players can compete has been reduced to 13, which means there will probably be a lot of very young teams competing against the veterans in the scene during open qualifiers. As usual, there has been a lot of roster shuffle, making for some promising new rosters and some new orgs fielding Rocket League teams for the first time. Read on to learn more about which teams to watch and to find out more about the schedule and format for the RLCS 2024 season!

Regional distribution for Majors and RLCS World Championship

Each of the two Majors and the World Championship will consist of 16 teams, with the regional breakdown looking like this:

North America (NA): Four teams
Europe (EU): Four teams
Middle East & North Africa Two teams
South America (SAM): Two teams
Oceania (OCE): Two teams
Asia-Pacific (APAC): One team
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): One team

Photo credit: Psyonix

RLCS Major qualifying format

There will be three open qualifiers in each region that will take place in the weeks before each Major to determine the qualifying teams. Each open qualifier will have three stages to determine the top teams in each region and will look like this:

128-team double-elimination -> 16-team Swiss stage -> 8-team single-elimination

After the second Major, the top performing teams across the various regions will qualify for the World Championship.

RLCS 2024 schedule

Qualifiers for Major 1 will take place from Jan. 26 to March 3 in every region with the exception of Europe where qualifiers will be one week behind. In Europe, qualifiers begin Feb. 2 and continue through March 10.

Major 1 will take place March 28-31 at a location that is yet to be announced.

After a two-week transfer window from April 1 to 14, qualifiers for Major 2 will take place from April 19 through May 26. Major 2 will take place June 27-30 at a location yet to be announced.

The RLCS World Championship will take place Sept. 10-15 at a location yet to be announced.

For more detailed information on the schedule, check out the Rocket League esports 2024 season announcement page and the Start.gg RLCS 2024 registration hub.

10 RLCS teams to watch

Qualifiers will reveal a lot more about which teams to watch at the Majors and World Championship this year, but heading into the 2024 season, here are 10 teams to keep an eye on.

These teams are obvious picks to perform well this year based on solid results last year and/or intriguing offseason roster pickups. However, don’t be surprised if some of these newer rosters fail to gel and the team falls flat, and there are bound to be other teams not mentioned on this list who excel this year.

Team Vitality (EU)

Yanis "Alpha54" Champenois, Andrea "Radosin" Radovanović, Alexis "zen" Bernier

Photo credit: Psyonix

There’s no team with a bigger target on their back this year than Team Vitality. They’re the reigning world champions and winners of the last Major in 2023. Three of their players are among the top five in Shift RLE’s top 20 players for 2023. Vitality were practically unbeatable once zen joined the roster for the Spring Major qualifiers. They’re the best Rocket League team in the world until another team proves otherwise.

Karmine Corp (EU)

Axel "Vatira" Touret, Finlay "rise" Ferguson, Tristan "Atow" Soyez

Photo credit: Psyonix

Vatira is the best Rocket League in the world two years running, according to Shift RLE. He’s a perennial contender at Majors and Worlds whether he’s with Moist Esports or Karmine Corp. Last season with Karmine Corp, he won the Winter Major and finished top four at the Spring Major and World Championship. For 2024, he’s teaming up again with rise with whom he won the 2022 Spring Major when they were with Moist. Joining them is atow, who has spent the past two seasons with Team Liquid, a team that disbanded in the offseason after finishing top four at both the Winter Major and World Championship last year.

Gentle Mates Alpine (EU)

Amine "itachi" Benayachi, Enzo "Seikoo" Grondein, Charles "juicy" Sabiani

Photo credit: Psyonix

You might not have heard of Gentle Mates, but you’re bound to hear about them a lot in 2024. The organization will be in the VALORANT EMEA league this year and made a splash by signing a promising Rocket League squad. Itachi won the Winter Major with Karmine Corp last year, and Seikoo was a world champion with Team BDS in 2022 and was named MVP of the World Championship. Seikoo also was a runner-up at last year’s Worlds and Spring Major with BDS. Juicy doesn’t have as illustrious a resume, but he was part of a very good Moist Esports team last year in the spring and at the World Championship.

Gen.G (NA)

Jack "ApparentlyJack" Benton, Nick "Chronic" Iwanski, Jason "Firstkiller" Corral

Photo credit: Psyonix

This was the best North American team during the 2022-23 season and should again be one of the top teams in the region with only one roster change. ApparentlyJack and Chronic remain with the organization they won the Fall Major with in 2022. Former FaZe Clan player Firstkiller will be teaming up with them. Firstkiller was a top four finisher at the 2022 World Championship, top four at the 2022 Fall Major and runner-up at the 2023 Winter Major.

G2 Esports (NA)

Massimo "Atomic" Franceschi, Daniel "Daniel" Piecenski, Landon "BeastMode" Konerman

Photo credit: Psyonix

It’s a new dawn for G2, as team veterans Jknaps (with G2 since 2017) and Chicago (since 2019) have moved on to other teams. Only atomic remains with the team that won the 2022 Winter Major and was a runner-up at the 2022 World Championship. This team should still be very competitive though as former Version1 players Daniel and BeastMode have joined the team. Version1 missed out on qualifying for the World Championship last year, but the team won Gamers8, a highly lucrative global tournament with a lot of other top teams. Neither player has won a Major, but both have finished as high as third at a Major.

OG Esports (NA)

Jacob "JKnaps" Knapman, Joseph "noly" Kidd, Robert "comm" Kyser

Photo credit: Psyonix

Danish esports organization OG Esports is looking to make a name for itself in North America with an intriguing roster. None of these three players have played together in the RLCS, but all three are highly regarded veteran players. Jknaps has joined a new team for the first time since 2017 when he joined G2. Noly is onto his second North American team after the Englishman joined Gen.G last year. He had previously played in Europe on teams like Guild Esports and Karmine Corp. Comm comes to OG after spending the past few years with Version1. Both Jnaps and noly are Major winners, while comm’s best finish at a Major has been third. He did win the Gamers8 Rocket League tournament with V1 last year.

Complexity (SA)

Victor "Reysbull" Duran Parra, Cristian "crr" Fernandez, ?

Photo credit: Psyonix

Complexity were one of the top North American teams last year, and the Spanish-speaking roster will be playing in South America this year. They should immediately be one of the top teams in the region with two returning players in Reysbull and crr and a new player, likely DORITO. Reysbull and crr were top four finishers at the Winter Major last year with Complexity. The DORITO signing has not been officially announced, but it was indicated by a Shift RLE report. Plus, a tweet from Complexity VP of talent and general manager Sören Vendsahm seemed to hint that the team’s move to South American was to avoid visa issues for their new player. DORITO and crr previously played together in Europe, so chemistry shouldn’t be an issue for this newish roster.

KRÜ (SA)

Lautaro "ajg" Gusinsky, Bernardo "Bemmz" Siqueira Marta, Gabriel "caard" Vieira

Photo credit: Psyonix

KRÜ were one of the best South American teams last year with a top eight finish at the Winter Major and performed best of all the SA teams at the Rocket League World Championship. They have a completely new roster for 2024, but it’s full of talented players from high-performing teams from the region: ajg. from Complexity, Bemmz from Ninjas in Pyjamas and caard from FURIA.

Team Falcons (MENA)

Mohammed "trk511" Alotaibi, Saleh Abdullah "Rw9" Bakhashwin, Yazid Abdullah "Kiileerrz" Bakhashwin

Team Falcons were the best performing team from the Middle East throughout 2022 and most of 2023 with a peak result of second place at the 2022 Spring Major. The RLCS was basically just a competition between North America and Europe until Team Falcons showed up. However, they were passed up by Rule One as the top MENA team last spring and shook up their roster in the offseason by … wait for it … signing two Rule One players, Rw9 and Kiileerrz. Kiileerrz was the only MENA player who made Shift RLE’s top 20 players of 2023 list. Team Falcons might again be the top MENA team with this talented roster.

Rule One (MENA)

Khalid "oKhaliD" Qasim, Ahmad "Ahmad" Abdullah, Hisham "Nwpo" Alqadi

Photo credit: Psyonix

Rule One said goodbye to two of their players in the offseason and is welcoming two former Team Falcons players to the team. It’s an interesting turn of events as Team Falcons rose to prominence with oKhaliD and Ahmad before being overtaken by Rule One … who now has those same players. Nwpo also comes to Rule One via Team Falcons, but he was only briefly with the team for some offseason events after RLCS Worlds last year. Rule One figure to be battling with Team Falcons all year for MENA supremacy.

Lead photo credit: Psyonix