Collegiate Rocket League battles for a shot at CRL World Championship

Collegiate Esports is where Rocket League fans catch new talents representing their universities in Rocket League Esports.

Last week, the CRL Spring 2022 Championship concluded with Northwood University Blue’s victory, raking $4,000 in prize winnings. Meanwhile, Europe is going through a huge bracket to choose their representatives at CRL WC 2022.

Northwood Blue wins big at CRL Spring 2022

Arguably the most consistent collegiate team in the North American scene, the boys from Northwood Blue delivers once again. This team consists of five players, who take turns to stand-in for one another:

• Alexander “Buddy” Che
• Carter “Pirates” Tschumper
• Stephen “hockE” H.
• Hunter “LionBlaze” Woitas
• Aaron “Noxes” Cadiz

The stack competed in two gruesome best-of-seven matches during the grand finals against Columbia College. Initially, Northwood Blue looked overwhelmed by its opponent after losing 0-4 in the first series.

Fortunately, Northwood Blue made their way into the grand finals via the upper bracket, which gave them one lifeline. In the second series, Northwood Blue narrowly won the series 4-3 to claim the title at CRL Spring 2022 Championship.

CRL Spring 2022 Outcomes

Tickets to the CRL 2022 World

Nevertheless, it’s not all bad news for the six participants at CRL Spring 2022, as they qualified for the upcoming CRL 2022 World Championship. Besides the aforementioned finalists, Stockton University, University of Nevada, University of Texas, and St. Clair College have all made it.

The EURC 2022 rages on for European teams

With the NA region going on a hiatus until May 2022, Collegiate Esports fans can tune into the European University Rocketeers’ Championship 2022 (EURC 2022) for more Rocket League betting action. Thirty-six teams from various universities brawled it out in group stages of 8-10 teams since early March 2022. Thus far, we are down to only sixteen teams that are still in the playoffs.

Unlike the NA bracket, the EURC 2022 hosted a single playoffs bracket for thirty-two teams, each being a best-of-seven series. The top seeds from respective groups will finally play their first playoff round as they earned privileged upper quarter-finals slots.

Honorable mentions in EURC 2022

Considering the UK-based team climbed from the open qualifiers, Keele Krakens has had an impressive run for an underdog. What’s more impressive is that they only lost one series against UEA Bluejays. Of course, this doesn’t put Keele Krakens at any leverage against the other top seeds, who also have a clean winning streak. Hailing from the established NSE Winter Championship last year, Salford Lions and Portsmouth Paladins are the best UK has to offer. Lastly, Berlin Phoenix is also a top candidate from Uniliga Winter Season.

Hence, you do not want to miss the upcoming upper quarterfinals, which will surely showcase these top contestants’ potential.

All Eyes on the Collegiate Rocket League World Championship 2022

Eventually, all these regional leagues boil down to the CRL World 2022, which the EURC 2022 grants the top-four winners with slots. The rest of the competition will be filled by both regions’ Last Chance Qualifiers, where four slots are allocated to NA and two for EU. This totals up to the fine selection of only sixteen teams that have poured in effort to make it this far.

What’s thrilling about the CRL World 2022 is that the winners and other phenomenal candidates can be scouted out by professional teams. While this may sound like the Cinderella Story that we read in our past-times, it certainly isn’t the case. In fact, there are several early collegiate players, such as Braxton “Allushin” Lagarec currently in Team Envy, and Alexander “Buddy” Che in Litecoin Gaming.

Hence, it’s undeniable that collegiate esports is effective at nurturing a new generation of Rocket League enthusiasts and has been picking up popularity among partner alma maters.

What can we expect from CRL World 2022 and Collegiate Esports?

Many collegiate teams have been consistently performing in recent times, which is evident when we saw multiple supposedly seasoned teams get overwhelmed by open qualifier participants.

Perhaps more investments from Esports organizations to scout out these undergraduates would be an enticing motivation to have more talents onboard. As of today, there are still many back-to-back CRL championship-winning teams that still play unsponsored, such as the University of Akron.

Collegiate Rocket League, is certainly not as flashy as G2 Esports’ Massimo “Atomic” Franceschi pulling off game-winning goal shots at the RLCS Winter Split Major. However, the plays that these youngsters can pull off are worthwhile, especially in an adrenaline-rushed seven-round match with overtime. Frankly, Psyonix’s investment in nurturing the new generation of Rocket League players is surely a step in the right direction. After all, they already have their sights set on turning Rocket League into an Esports staple in decades to come. Hence, they would need an army of eager Rocket League players to pull such a feat off.