RLCS Season 9 Week 2 Preview: The braindead years

Calm down everyone - the title is just a little joke in reference to Speed’s recent comments in an interview where he said that the current meta promotes “braindead” play. 

It is safe to say his comments got some peoples backs up - who knows what they would have said if they saw the uncensored interview.

But is this not why we love sport? Love Rocket League? The battle of opinions is what makes this game all the more exciting and you better believe there will be extra attention paid to how many times Speed gets bumped.

But the time for talking is over, it’s Week 2 of RLCS Season 9 and here is a look at this weekend’s matches!

Missed Week 1? You can get caught up with our recap of the opening week.

RLCS Season 9 Week 2 - North America

Kicking off the weekend is Spacestation Gaming vs Susquehanna Soniqs. Spacestation come into the game after a 3-1 win against Ghost Gaming and will relish the opportunity of playing RLCS new boys - Soniqs. SSG has one of the strongest attacks in the league with the trio of Alexandre “AxB” Bellemare, Tshaak “Arsenal” Lateef Taylor Jr and Caden “Sypical” Pellegrin all capable of creating and scoring chances. Soniqs played well last weekend, and in Shock, they have a player who can inspire them to victory but they lost to an NRG side who weren’t at the races - expect them to be waiting at least another week for the first RLCS win.

Prediction: SSG 3-1 Soniqs

eUnited go into their game against Ghost Gaming after defeating an abject Cloud9 in Week 1. Ghost Gaming poses a tougher test on current form, but after their performance last week I am not entirely convinced by their new roster. eUnited looked clinical last weekend, they dominated the midfield and Colby “hockser” James proved to be a handful, they will have too much for Ghost.

Prediction: eUnited 3-1 Ghost Gaming

It’s hard to overstate just how poor Cloud9 were last week - slow in attack, static in defence and second to every ball. Their opponents, Rogue - with the fresh-faced Jason “firstkiller” Corral - will sense blood, and you have to worry for one of Rocket League’s traditional powerhouses. A loss here for Cloud9 and the obituaries will be getting written.

Prediction: Rogue 3-1 Cloud9

NRG were slow out of the blocks last weekend but showed everyone why they are the current World Champions - by winning when not at their best. Their opponents this week - Flight - wouldn’t want to be facing this side at any time and you suspect NRG will look to get this over as a contest as quickly as possible. Flights lack of offensive firepower makes it hard to see anything but an NRG win.

Prediction: NRG 3-0 Flight

The last game of the day has all the ingredients to be one of the most exciting. A G2 side who look like they’re over their RLCS Season 8 malaise up against an impressive Pittsburgh Knights team. Pittsburgh made life difficult for themselves in their game against Flight, having to pull off the reverse sweep. New signing, Austin “Ayyjay” Aubin, was at the heart of that comeback, orchestrating attacking moves with quick and efficient passing, and Pittsburgh will look to him to try and unpick a G2 side who like to soak up the pressure and counter. G2's is a risky strategy but in Dillon "Rizzo" Rizzo, Jacob "Jknaps" Knapman and Reed "Chicago" Wilen they have a roster who can execute this game plan perfectly.

Prediction: G2 3-1 Pittsburgh Knights

RLCS Season 9 Week 2 - Europe

FC Barcelona vs Team Endpoint kicks off the matches on Sunday. Barcelona won if not really impressing in their opening game of the season against Veloce Esports, with new signing Hrant “Flakes” Yakoub having a solid debut in his Scarab. Aldin “Ronaky” Hodzic also played well and this roster has the potential to make a big impact this season. Team Endpoint started their season with a loss against Renault Vitality, no shame there, and this roster has a lot going for it - NelSon “Virtuoso” Lasko is a beast, he topped the demolitions last year in the RLRS and puts up good numbers in both goals and assists. If he can get in the face of Barcelona he could cause them problems.

Prediction: FC Barcelona 3-2 Team Endpoint

Both TSM and Veloce Esports lost their opening game of the season and both will fancy their chances of getting the win here. Joonas “Mognus” Salo will be a good signing for TSM, a well-rounded player that can contribute at both ends of the pitch. Veloce have an unfair reputation for being a team that doesn’t impress even when they win. However, in Andy “Kassio” Lassia they have a clinical striker with true pop-off potential and when the Frenchman is at his best he can dominate games. A hard one to call.

Prediction: Veloce Esports 3-2 TSM

Team Singularity will have played the two best teams in the league by the end of the weekend and it's highly unlikely they will have beaten either of them. If they are to it’ll come from the goals of Thomas “ThO.” Binkhorst and Joseph “noly” Kidd but both lack experience at the highest level something which can’t be said about their opponents Renault Vitality. The all French-side with the addition of Yanis “Alpha54” Champenois just have too much going for them and they will make Team Singularity wait a little while longer for their first RLCS win.

Prediction: Renault Vitality 3-1 Team Singularity

AS Monaco Esports looked good last week in their loss to Mousesports. In Alex “Extra” Paoli they have an exciting young attacker, that, coupled with the RLCS experience of Jordan “EyeIgnite” Stellon and Maik “Tigree” Hoffman mean AS Monaco look more than capable of staying up this season. It’s a shame then that they have to face Dignitas this weekend. It’ll be a tough match, this Dignitas roster looks better every time you see them, every player is capable of scoring and you just never know where the threat is coming from.

Prediction: AS Monaco 1-3 Dignitas

Rounding out the weekend is Team Reciprocity vs Mouseports, they go into this game with identical records and this is an early “6 pointer” for these sides. You have to wonder if teams will try and target “Speed” for demos after his comments this week regarding the “braindead” meta. It’s clearly a part of the game he’s not comfortable with. Luckily he has someone on his side who is - Kyle “Scrub Killa” Robertson had a great debut for Mouz and when he and Speed started finding each other with passes last week you could see the beginnings of a potent attack. They are coming up against an unbelievable Team Reciprocity side - Victor “Ferra” Francal was Week 1 MVP, Thibault “Chausette45” Grzesiak could have easily of been and they are just a very complete side. This game won’t decide who goes to LAN but it may well decide who finishes 1st in League Play.

Prediction: Team Reciprocity 3-2 Mouseports

How To Watch RLCS Season 9 Week 2

You can watch all the weekend's games on the official Rocket League Twitch and YouTube channels. 

Schedule

• North America League Play - Saturday at 11:30 a.m. PST (7:30 p.m. UTC)
• Europe League Play - Sunday at 8:30 a.m. PST (4:30 p.m. UTC)

Feature image courtesy of Psyonix.