Setting expectations for Championship Sunday – RLCS Worlds 2022

We’d love to say that the group stages of the Rocket League World Championships were full of massive upsets and shocks, but the reality is most of the big names you’d expect have made it through to Championship Sunday and only a few big hitters have been left behind.

Moist, BDS, G2 and FaZe March On

If any of the names above didn’t make it to Championship Sunday, there might have been riots in Texas this weekend. All 4 had clean runs through the upper brackets in both groups, and with nearly the same score records to boot. All 4 have also looked at the peak of their conditions which is a major morale boost for Team BDS fans, given their shock exit from the Spring Major. It’s going to be hard to separate them on Sunday.

NRG survive and Karmine Corp rise up

The fact that last year’s World Champions had to climb up through the lower bracket was worrying enough, but by all accounts NRG have proven that they are still in the running. That said, they were helped out by the unfortunate SMPR situation, with two of their players testing COVID positive and having to play remotely. This left only one player on stage under the arena pressure, which had to have slowed them down.

On the other hand, Karmine Corp continued their blistering Worlds performance, dominating OpTic and, more surprisingly, Team Falcons on their way to the Sunday spot. Many have them pegged as a dark horse for winning the whole championship, and if they can maintain momentum, it’s not out of the question at all.

SSG drop with the minor regions

SSG, one of the most entertaining teams on the RLCS lineup, have failed to crack the top 8 at worlds, dropping first to the unstoppable Moist and then to a resurgent Version1. The latter match was a 4-2 loss but it doesn’t reflect how close the series was, with most of the games only having a 1-goal difference.

With the loss of The Club and Renegades, FURIA remain the only minor region team in the competition. It’s a particularly heavy blow for Renegades, as their sometimes-talisman player CJCJ has announced retirement following the loss. All eyes are now on FURIA to fly the flag against the EU and NA teams, although opinions are divided on whether they have the power behind them after getting comfortably dropped down by G2.

Who are the favourites on Championship Sunday?

As we said earlier, right now it’s hard to separate out the big 4 that qualified through the upper bracket matches. Moist Esports and G2 remain the teams that are always in with a chance, and BDS and FaZe have been showing exactly why they deserve their final 8 spots. If we had to tip it in one direction, Moist probably still have the highest chances here, simply based off of an incredible season and a playstyle that often trips up the other big teams.

From the rest, Karmine Corp are probably the front runners simply from recent form. NRG, despite holding the crown, still have a lot to prove but are looking promising. Version1 and FURIA are a little more like unknown quantities here: FURIA have already taken a loss to G2, while Version1 weren’t really on many top 8 lists before the competition started. The only thing we know is that based on what we’ve seen so far, there will be fireworks on Champion’s Field on Sunday.