There’s no simpler rivalry than a regional one, but after a decade of back-and-forth between North America and Europe – in particular, France – the RLCS Paris Major cemented that Rocket League came home.

Born out of a tiny studio in the US that was workshopping some extra mini games to port into Gears of War, Rocket League was born and raised in Satellite Beach, Florida. 

The deep roots of the ‘Soccar’ game as we know it were all American, from the game’s DNA to the first-ever RLCS World Championships in Los Angeles and the current World Champions, the high-octane game is the Texas Barbecue of American esports.

Or is it?

For nearly a decade, the grasp that the US had over the RLCS has been slipping, and off the back of two dynasties and the current creme de la creme of competitors, France has pulled the Uno reverse card out from the Statue of Liberty, and has stolen Rocket League from under Big Sam’s nose.

As expected, the US dominated Rocket League when it first came out, with the first RLCS World Championships going to the home teams in Los Angeles. But that prose was soon challenged by Europe, which had found a love for the game as it had for most esports, and the fabled, intertwined golden trophy began to be passed around from country to country.

That was, until Alexandre “Kaydop” Courant arrived. Known now as the Maradona or Babe Ruth of Soccar, Kaydop launched a dynasty that would span four years of dominance and six consecutive World Championship Grand Finals appearances, winning three and only having a fourth denied by the global pandemic. 

Fortunately for the US, the last Worlds before the lockdown was snatched from Kaydop’s hand by former teammate Pierre “Turbopolsa” Silfver, who had ported to America to bring the trophy back. 

But Kaydop’s brilliance brought a wave of aspiring young Frenchmen through to the RLCS, and backed by new communities and local tournament organisers (such as Rocket Baguette), the region was soon left waiting for the shackles of the pandemic to be lifted so that it could get back to the international stage. Although the legend himself had now passed the baton to Evan “M0nkey M00n” Rogez.

From there, the dubbed “Open Era” icon carried the French flame into battle against the US time after time again, and often came out on top. The inter-regional rivalry was alive and kicking, and France was on top more often than not. 

For years, North American Rocket League has faced one major issue. In Lehmann’s terms, the country is huge, and uprooting young teenagers, often school-age, to relocate them across the country to boot camps is almost impossible.

It’s a question I posed to Joseph “Noly” Kidd and Jack “ApparentlyJack” Benton three years ago, when the two British stars took the export route to play together in the States for Gen.G and won multiple titles and a Major. 

Back then, the only real competitive roster was G2 Esports, with Landon “BeastMode” Konerman, Daniel “Daniel” Piecenski, and Massimo “Atomic” Franceschi.

Fast forward to 2026, and the reigning World Champions are the exact same roster, albeit now operating under the NRG banner. Consistency combined with quality. Yet that’s almost impossible to replicate.

Noly claimed that for European players, it’s easy to move to a team facility, only a few hours away from home. Using NRG as an example, BeastMode is from Kentucky, a 32-hour drive, hardly a quick trip around the corner. It’s a complete overhaul of the senses.

Since the RLCS Open Era began, the talent pipeline in the US has been hard-stuck in Diamond. Exciting, young players burst onto the scene and immediately face the dilemma of being uprooted mid-11th Grade or putting Rocket League on the back burner. 

Case in point: 16-year-old Zachary “zach” Stone, formerly “Scrzbbles.” Having been slated as the next RLCS prodigy, he ‘retired’ from the game at the end of the 2025 season (then 15), citing schoolwork as the reason. He has since returned to the SpaceStation Gaming camp, but the summer off may have prevented him from becoming the centrepiece of an elite roster.

Across the pond, Team Vitality faced a similar prospect with destiny himself, Alexis “Zen” Bernier, which proved the difference. Having scouted him from the age of 13, Zen was brought into the team before he became eligible to play, with the promise that he had to finish school while under their contract. 

After agreeing and becoming of age, Zen went on to debut with back-to-back-to-back Regional wins, a Major win, and a World Championship. Nothing but success – but whose to say that if he faced a 32-hour commute across the US, Zen would have taken that leap of faith.

It’s a demographic issue that is not familiar with pillarstone American esports, such as Counter-Strike, but it has posed a threat to the home nation of Rocket League for the best part of five years, and it’s no surprise that France has taken the chance to usurp them with both hands.

There’s no easy fix for North America either. They are doomed. 

The Rocket League player base continues to be younger than any other esport, with the game’s entire simplistic nature lending itself to adolescent audiences. There have only been sporadic rising stars who have taken a wild plunge, but the geographical nature means teams simply can’t be formed, and its time NA accepts that they are no longer a force, but rather a pool of talent spread so wide that it’s impossible to be competitive on an international level.

Maybe the only real answer lies in a Collegiate-like circuit, bringing together local high-school stars, but that’s a whole new debate. For now, it will take a miracle for another NRG to be formed, and the entirety of NA’s success rides on their shoulders until the retirement home comes calling.

As to who can stop France, well, the American stalwarts of NRG stand the best chance, while the new pipeline from the Middle East has quickly challenged the status quo. What’s evident, though, is that Rocket League’s predominantly teenage breakthrough talent need to be harnessed in the right environment, surrounded by guidance, and close-knit countries like Saudi Arabia, the UK, and Spain.

The future of Rocket League is blue, white, and red, but with no stars.

There’s no place like home, right? Well, the RLCS Paris Major proved as much, as Rocket League saw a record crowd pack itself inside the La Defense Arena and be treated to a spectacle of homegrown talent. With three powerhouse teams in Vitality, Gentle Mates, and Karmine Corp all featuring, the crowd antics were festival-like. 

Cult followings celebrated Rocket League together with pyro, tifos, flags, and chants as if it were the national soccer team, and they were far from disappointed. If we had any doubts about France’s quality, they were short-lived, as five of the top six teams had French-speaking players or represented a French outfit, including all three finalists.

Dominance.

This was all epitomized by Epic Games’ recognition that Rocket League was home, using the Paris Major to announce its unprecedented first look at Unreal Engine 6. It could have aired in Boston. It could have aired at Worlds in Fort Worth. It could have even snubbed Rocket League altogether and been shown at Fortnite’s upcoming LAN in Germany.

But Epic knew its community and rewarded years of patience and passion with an insight into the future.

The Paris Major was the Coachella of Rocket League. While heavily-co-streamer-influenced viewership stats dipped slightly (still reaching the second-most-watched RLCS event of all time), it was a homecoming bonanza, and deservedly so. It launched off the back of greatness, built roots that secured its own future and prodigies, and provided us with the best fans a game could ask for.

Rocket League est à la maison.

The IEM Cologne Major is set to be one of the biggest Counter-Strike 2 events of the year. Starting on June 2nd, it will take place at the LANXESS Arena in Germany and feature a $1.25 million prize pool.

This puts it in the top 10 Counter-Strike 2 tournaments by prize pool. But there may be a bigger source of income for participating teams.

IEM Cologne is a massive tournament spanning three weeks. Stage 1 runs from June 2nd to June 5th, with the eight qualifying teams advancing to Stage 2. They join eight directly seeded teams in two groups of eight, competing from June 6th to June 9th. Stage 3 turns to best-of-three matches, with the top eight teams advancing to a single-elimination bracket.

These eight teams will join directly seeded teams: Team Vitality, FURIA, Natus Vincere, FURIA, Falcons, MOUZ, Aurora, The MongolZ, and PARIVISION.

The team that places first will get $500,000 of the prize pool. The runner-up team gets $170,000. Third and fourth-place teams get $80,000. Teams that place fifth through eighth get $45,000.

However, that’s not the only way teams make money at IEM Cologne. The event will run Valve’s new sticker revenue-sharing system. Sticker capsules will be sold over the tournament’s three weeks, allowing players to support their favorite teams in-game.

StarLadder Major Berlin saw $11 million in sticker sales revenue in 2019, proving it to be a lucrative endeavor for qualifying teams. PGL Stockholm and Antwerp collected $70 million combined. Last year’s BLAST.tv Paris Major allegedly made $110 million, not even including Vitality’s Champions capsule. Given how sticker sales revenue was split, each Contenders team received $4.5 million plus $250,000 per player, Legends earned $3.5 million per team and $200,000 per player, and Challengers got $2.6 million per team and $200,000 per player.

For the IEM Cologne Major, the sticker revenue model has some big changes. Tournament organizers now retain 5% of the 50% pool, previously reserved for organizations. The remaining 45% is shared among teams, split based on their Valve Regional Standings positions. The highest-ranked team gets 2.85%.

This still allows lower-ranked teams to see a fair amount of money. Why is that important? Because you need these newer and smaller teams to remain active in the esports scene. More often than not, teams that aren’t considered the biggest in the world don’t earn enough prize or sponsorship money to thrive, removing many teams from the ecosystem.

This has been a huge topic of discussion in the esports industry, with FlyQuest even promising to donate to underrepresented teams and esports scenes that need funding earlier this year. Other scenes have felt the pressure, with the high salaries of Dota 2’s best players draining the scene dry.

Counter-Strike has often been respected for its support of smaller teams and Tier 2 tournaments. Having money for participating teams beyond the prize pool encourages teams to invest in their players and inspires those players to push themselves to qualify. You’ll get all-around better tournaments and a lot more talented teams in the mix.

Instead of franchise leagues that cater to teams that paid to participate and leave others out of the tournament and without support, Counter-Strike’s esports scene has the mentality that anyone should be allowed to qualify for a major if they’re good enough.

Said one fan on Reddit: “The longevity of the Tier 2-3 scene is primarily driven by the decentralized tournament circuit and the high volume of liquidity from skin markets. Unlike franchised leagues, this open ecosystem allows smaller orgs to maintain operations through niche sponsorships and regional betting partnerships.”

This is definitely something the esports scene needs right now as the hype starts to die down and the money fizzles out.

The viewership numbers from the RLCS 2026 Paris Major were shockingly low. Like, really low. It’s easy to immediately assume that Rocket League is dying, the old esports mantra. But what’s actually going on?

Well, it’s not dying. But the excuses people have for the reduced viewership actually do point to one thing: it’s not popular. And it’s not retaining interest.

The RLCS 2026 Paris Major is still underway, with the best-of-the-best Rocket League teams from around the world gathering in France to shoot balls around while driving cars. There is really no denying that Rocket League is a fun game. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s simple to understand, but the pros have some crazy tricks up their sleeve that raise the hype.

But does it make a good esport?

So far, the most-viewed match from the Paris Major was a Group Stage clash between Team Vitality and Karmine Corp. It reached a peak concurrent viewership of 179,000. It’s not horrible. Again, not dying. But it’s nowhere near the viewership numbers we saw at the RLCS Boston Major a few months ago, which had over 1.6 million hours watched on the opening day compared to Paris’ 800K.

Esports Charts did a deep dive into these numbers and seems to think there is one key difference: Nicholas “Jynxzi” Stewart. The popular gaming streamer was a commuter caster at the Boston Major, bringing the Rocket League esports action to his 10 million-plus followers on Twitch and 6.3 million on YouTube.

Jynxzi was not a co-streamer this time. At least not yet. We will get Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein for Paris, a French creator who is excited to co-stream the event from his home country. This could boost the viewership, sure. But that’s the thing…

The RLCS Paris Major isn’t cooked. No, the RLCS Boston Major was carried. Now that there is no content creator boosting numbers, we can see what the true viewership is for Rocket League’s biggest event of the year.

And it’s safe to say that Boston’s numbers were inflated.

Esports Charts noted that even the RLCS Twitch channel was dramatically lower this year, going from 64,800 at the last major to 26,000 this time. Nobody was drawing people in, enticing them to check it out.

Rocket League is not alone, of course. Most esports rely heavily on content creators to co-stream events to mainstream gaming audiences.

FlyQuest made some cringe video last month that attacked co-streaming, claiming that it was damaging the esports industry. Well, except their own content creators and stuff, of course! But streamers aren’t taking away from the esports industry. There’s nothing to even take. They are adding to it. They are bringing viewers in. Temporary viewers, but viewers just the same. Tournaments have started to rely on this rather than invest in their own broadcasts or create a structure that actually improves permanent fandom growth.

Without co-streaming, most tournaments would see pretty underwhelming viewership. In 2025, co-streaming surpassed official broadcast for esports tournaments in hours watched. Even larger esports like League of Legends rely on co-streaming, which became a huge topic of debate during the Mid-Season Invitational last year. Without popular streamers, the numbers would suffer. (Even with co-streamers, some LoL events, like the LCS, can’t seem to get any attention at all.)

You can say that co-streaming and content creators are saving esports. But I beg to differ. They aren’t harming it or anything. They’re not taking away views. It’s not like those who tune in to these co-streams would watch the legit broadcast on their own without their favorite streamer encouraging them. Be real.

So no, there is no harm done. It just shows how flimsy the esports scene is. It would fly away in the wind if it weren’t for the streamers holding the strings. Esports is just not large enough to support the kind of money that’s put into it. The numbers are all inflated. The hype is displaced.

Without streamers and their fans begrudgingly tuning in, these esports broadcasts would see a shocking dip in viewership. Like the RLCS. The fans don’t stay after. They don’t become die-hard Rocket League fanatics. They are Jynxzi fans. That’s it.

There is a reason that Evo is desperate to add content creator showmatches this year. It needs the numbers. Of course, the FGC does not want it. They’d rather die than try to appeal to mainstream gamers. But other esports titles know that it’s a necessary evil. It’s the only way to pretend esports is growing. That esports has that many die-hard fans.

But the numbers are not real. And there is only so much time that esports can buy until it has to admit that these viewership numbers are not here to stay.