Esports

Major Changes Announced for 2025 RLCS: New Format, Bigger Prize Pool

Psyonix, the company that makes the popular car football game Rocket League, has announced some big changes for the 2025 Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS).

The company explained that these adjustments aim to increase the number of opportunities for fans, players, and teams to compete and engage with the game.

What’s New in 2025?

Bigger Prize Pool: The total prize money for the 2025 season is going up to $5 million (about £3.7 million). That’s $700,000 more than the 2024 season! It will be awarded to the top 128 players from Europe, the top 64 from the South American (SAM) region, and the top 32 players from the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
Two Major Events: The 2025 season will feature two big Majors. These are like mid-season championships where the best teams compete.
One-vs-One Matches: For the first time, the RLCS will include one-on-one matches alongside the usual three-vs-three games. This new addition follows the same schedule as the main events. The cool part? Players from the same organization can now compete against each other.
Smarter Qualifying System: A new rankings system is being introduced for the open qualifiers. This clever addition ensures that top-tier teams don’t have to slog through early rounds against less experienced opponents. It’s a win-win: established teams face appropriate challenges, while up-and-coming teams get a fairer shot at making their mark.
Last-Chance Qualifiers: Between the second Major and the World Championship, there will be online open qualifiers. This gives teams one last shot at making it to the big finale. It takes place across the four regions based on their average performance at past Majors. The top team from each of the regions will qualify for the World Championship.
More Teams at the World Championship: Thanks to these last-chance qualifiers, the World Championship will now have 20 teams instead of 16.

While these changes give us a lot to look forward to, Psyonix and Epic Games hint that there’s even more to come.

For now, here’s a quick look at the RLCS 2025 schedule:

January to March: 3 open Qualifiers and 1 Regional 1v1 Window for the RLCS Major 1
March end: Major 1 Finals
April to June: 3 open Qualifiers and 1 Regional 1v1 Window for the RLCS Major 2
June: Major 2 Finals
July-August: Last Chance Qualifiers
September: RL World Championship and 1v1 Finals

These changes for 2025 show that Psyonix is committed to growing Rocket League as an esports.

The latest 2024 RLCS World Championship, where Team BDS triumphed, was peaked at 426,833 viewership per Esports Charts. It’s slightly less than the 2023 event, which had 468,292 viewers at its peak, but still shows how popular the game is, especially in Europe.