Esports favors these types of games- quick and easy competitive games with a low learning curve but a high ceiling for competitive play. Fortnite, Call of Duty MW, and Destiny are all games that are similar, but as far as sport themed Esports communities go, Rocket League seems to outperform other sports games like 2K and Fifa. It can be played cross platform, via Xbox, Playstation, and even PC.

Esports Culture

If you are new to the Esports culture, you should know; it really is its own community. With Esports teams popping up all over the world, in high school and colleges, it is developing a huge following, complete with Esports jargon and community chat threads. Great websites like Reddit and Esreality both provide newbies with tons of knowledge about what games people are playing, what techniques people are using, and what groups people are playing in. It’s incredibly normal in 2020 to actually meet a group and become friends with the people you play games with.

It’s important to remember that each game has its own “discord”; essentially, it's its own culture channel where the players communicate and share information about the game. Many of these channels for games like Skyrim and the Witcher often contain lots of history and lore about the actual game itself; doubling as a fan website, or a wiki. These often come with more fantasy-adventure games, whereas sports games don’t carry that kind of following.

The Basics of Rocket League

Rocket League is unique to other sporting games in that it is a purely physics based game. Game developers worked day and night to develop a fully mathematical physics game, and it really shows. When you hit the ball with your car, it’s very obvious that the ball reacts totally similar to a normal ball in sports; bouncing sideways off the wall and hanging up in the air, or going straight up after a two car collision.

Within Rocket league, you can play a standard game; which is a 5 minute game of 3v3. Each player has the capability to jump and boost; and the goal is to score on the other goal and defend your own. Simple.
Other game modes include a 1v1, and 2v2, which are usually less chaotic games that are better serving for beginner players. Several game modes can be plated adjusting the settings, which makes the ball more or less gravity influenced, allows for different boost speeds, and even allows players to have special abilities. These are all different options for players, but there’s always the standard types which are usually the most popular.

Getting into It

Rocket League is great as an introduction to esports because it’s a simple game that’s relatively easy to learn. While it is it’s own unique type of game, it’s conceptually simple and doesn’t require a lot of understanding to know what the ultimate goal is. Many Esports clubs at schools have what’s called a “casual” team or a B team, where new gamers can come and learn these games and enjoy playing them. Even if you don’t belong to a league, it’s fun to pick up and just play with a few friends!