Rocket League is a video game in which a soccer-like game is played using teams of three cars. Photo courtesy of Rocket League.
By Jarmiah Gerges, Staff Reporter
As the world of sports is ever evolving, new sports are given a chance to become recognized on an Olympic level all the time. With this continuous evolution comes an important question; how do we set parameters on what is a sport and what is not? One thing is for sure, sports are not only live players running on a field but also gamers, trying to secure a win for their team digitally.
Esports is labeled as a sport and broadcasted similarly to how a sporting event would be with live play-by-play commentating and a live audience with fans of the team or organization.
Esports are professional gaming competitions with teams that represent organizations, cities, and even colleges that compete at live events in any number of video games such as “League of Legends,” “Apex” and “Rocket League,” which are some of the biggest names on the market.
Three members of the varsity “Rocket League” team at California State University, Dominguez Hills had a lot to say on the subject of classifying what they do.
“Rocket League” is a soccer-like game where teams of three compete to score goals, however, the challenge lies in that you drive a car and the battle can be on land or in the air. “Rocket League” cars have the ability to boost forward and upward and spin on any axis, the cars can be driven up and on walls. Cars in “Rocket League” can even double-jump. The community over time has become more creative and imaginative in the ways you can maneuver to hit, dribble and score the ball.
The level of competition in “Rocket League” is determined by a ranking system that follows the order of bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, champion, grand champion (GC), and supersonic legend (SSL). SSLs are the best players in the world, mostly professionally signed players. These players are signed to organizations such as Team SoloMid (TSM) and Team Energy (NRG). These teams are the promised land for a lot of younger players who could currently be streamers or could be college students.
Speaking with the varsity “Rocket League” team at CSUDH, they said that due to a lack of a coach, the team takes on the responsibility of training on their own, ideally up to 5 hours a week as a team. Alex Jeter (team captain), Alex Cabazaos and Caleb Roman all joined the school’s team out of interest in both esports and Rocket League. All members of the team have played for multiple years and are in the rank GC, which is right below SSL. According to activeplayer.io, there are 87,233,560 active players and less than two percent of players are the grand champions in standard three vs three.
The CSUDH team does not believe they are athletes, they believe what they do is high-level competition. They see the professionals as “eAthletes” that participate in sporting events.
The CSUDH “Rocket League” team has to manage its own events, coordinate with other schools and find a time that works for everyone to play, there is no CCAA-like organization that puts together the events like most college sports. The team’s competitive division in school events depends on rank and CSUDH is in the emergence division and has made it to this year’s playoffs.
The interview with the Rocket League team can be heard in a podcast episode coming soon on csudhbulletin.com.
