Fans accuse NRG of disconnecting on purpose during RLCS playoffs

Rocket League players and fans of the esports scene have one big thing in common: they hate losing. That’s why when defending World Champions, The General NRG, won yet another regional event this weekend, followers of the opposing teams did not hesitate to jump at the players’ throats with all their tilt.

During their historic run in the RLCS North American Haunted Hallows Cup, NRG had to notify league admins about a couple of disconnects, calling for a mid-game pause and resetting the live ball -- twice in the same day, once during the semis and the other during the grand finals.

This led to Twitter bashing the decorated roster for the shady use and outright abuse of the “pause” option given to coaches and managers to avoid any disadvantages server-wise.

NRG would come back from a 3-1 deficit against Team Envy and reverse sweep G2 by winning back-to-back series to win the event and clinch their RLCS LAN participation in the Stockholm Fall Major.

Because of the nature of the game, the ball will not reset unless a goal is scored or the clock strikes zero with the score tied, causing a respawn for the kickoff to start the overtime.

Witnesses in Twitch chat went as far as to call the repeated pausing instances a “tactical disconnect” (referencing the tactical timeout option teams have between games to regroup and restrategise) with the added benefit of icing the opponents and killing any and all momentum had by the then winning team.

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Championship Sunday saw two pauses in back-to-back matches, although NRG superstar Justin “jstn” Morales assures they weren’t both for the same reason.

One was due to his internet and power going in and out while the second one -- the one that triggered the whole RLCS scene -- was due to a sound glitch affecting captain Garrett “GarrettG” Gordon.

Former teammate and four-time World Champion Pierre “Turbopolsa” Silfver chimed in after losing a 3-1 lead in the semis. “If I disconnect Game 2 every series I’ll maybe win a regional”, the goat said jokingly.

This isn’t the first time RLCS games had been paused in the past with Spacestation’s own Slater “Retals” Thomas going off at league officials for not taking away a goal that was scored during a disconnect being one of the most important and recent cases to this day.

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The fan outrage for the missed call and the consequences that followed those who were directly affected might be keeping admins on their toes trying not to push back on any pause requests.

Jstn promises to post a TwitLonger in a couple of days about the topic saying that he’s annoyed at people saying he’s doing it on purpose. League organisers, Psyonix, have not commented on the matter at the time of writing.

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Feature image courtesy of Psyonix.