Rocket League's tournament guidelines have been updated, bringing a number of changes including the removal of the $50,000 USD prize cap.
Rocket League has become a juggernaut in the esports space, yielding a huge and devoted community over the six years since it released. Community Tournaments are a keystone to this growth, and something that allows Rocket League fans to compete amongst themselves for impressive prize pools and the ultimate reward: becoming a Rocket League god. Now, if you really want to become a Rocket League god, you should really read our article on how to get better at Rocket League, and you should check out our tips and tricks page, but that does stop Community Tournaments from being a great way to evaluate your level of awesomeness.
So, now that this article's long introduction has finished, we'd like to introduce you to today's news: Psyonix have introduced a number of changes to Rocket League's Community Tournament Guidelines. These changes are significant because they increase the prizing and appearance fee cap, change a number of the requirements, and make tournaments like last year's hugely impressive WePlay Esports Invitational (featuring Rocket League) require a selection of additional qualifications.
Additional to these changes, Psyonix have further clarified their stance on in-person Rocket League events, and the company's ongoing Covid-19 related policy. We'll address all of this in a minute, but we want to make it clear that Rocket League's community will need to make sure that they fit subtly different criteria now, if they want to run a larger-scale tournament.
How Have Rocket League's Community Tournament Guidelines Changed?
As announced by Psyonix on Twitter, Rocket League's Community Tournament Guidelines are changing to remove the $50,000 USD prizing cap, and even more. Psyonix have increased the appearance fee cap from $5,000 to $15,000 per event, and crowdfunding is also no longer restricted. There is a brand-new age limit, and a number of changes to permitted formats, sponsorship rules and the use of Rocket League branding.
Now, these changes will have quite a significant effect on the way that Community Tournaments will be run in the future. This more-or-less increases the freedoms of organizers to provide prizing values that are akin to their wants, and makes a number of more complicated rules more simple and easy to understand.
Specific Changes To The Rocket League Tournament Guidelines
Following are the specific changes that have been made to the Rocket League Tournament Guidelines. Consider these "patch notes". They have been taken from Psyonix's official press release.
- Increased the prizing and appearance fee cap from $5,000 to $15,000 per event.
- Removed the annual prizing cap of $50,000.
- Crowdfunding is no longer restricted to only funding the prize pool (however, it still must remain within the compensation cap of $50,000).
- All players must be at least 15 years old (or such other age, if greater, as may be required in such player’s country of residence).
- The full list of restricted sponsors is now publicly available for reference.
- Clarification on the use of Rocket League marks and tournament branding.
- Clarification on permitted formats and length of tournaments.
We've updated our Community Tournament Guidelines!Read the article below to see what's changed : https://t.co/stAMJgNZhp pic.twitter.com/2uK3MndfJZ
— Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) February 7, 2022
What Are The Rocket League Tournament Covid-19 Rules?
As of writing, Psyonix have placed a ban on all in-person Rocket League events. This is, of course, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and is designed to stop the spread of Covid within the Rocket League community. Whilst this won't stop any smaller-scale tournaments from taking place in-person, it does mean that if your tournament is to the scale that it requires Psyonix's approval, it cannot be a LAN Event.