Moist Esports win RLCS Spring Major: “It was just so overwhelming”

Moist Esports have taken home the RLCS Spring Major in London, England after yet another lower bracket run. They defeated Falcons Esports, the first-ever RLCS team not from North America or Europe to make the grand finals.

RLCS Spring Major gets Moist

They may have spent most of the tournament in the lower bracket, but Moist is still strong in the clutch; according to teammate Joe “Joyo” Young, that’s because of Finlay “rise.” Ferguson.

“I never get nervous,” said rise. “Even today, I wasn’t nervous at all. The first series, I needed to go to the toilet so bad, so I knew I had to win just so I could go to the toilet and come back and play properly. But it just comes naturally; I find chances in the last second, and my teammates give me chances… I just take them.”

Despite a legendary run in the Winter Major, the young Europeans had a gargantuan task ahead of them going through the lowers once again. After a strong lower final against Version1, who they’ve lost to multiple times recently, Moist forced a bracket reset with a game 7 against Falcons, promptly sweeping them in the second series.

JOOOOYOOOO 💙

@Joyokamii #RLCS pic.twitter.com/bGZPm540gV

— Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) July 3, 2022

The crowd, heavily in favor of the European teams, but especially Moist, repeatedly shouted Joe “Joyo” Young’s name, which made him visibly emotional.

“I don’t even know what went through my head in that moment, it was just so overwhelming,” the fresh Spring Major MVP said. “It all came to me at once, I’ve been playing for so long, I have 12,000 hours and all of it came to that one moment.”

LANdon proves its legendary status

Home to the most iconic moment in Rocket League history as well as a crowd known for its legendary chants, LANdon 2.0 was expected to be quite the event. The RLCS Spring Major week began in the studio without a crowd, where sweeps made the days fly by. But, on Saturday, every single best-of-7 went the distance with a live audience, leading to a late night and some of the best Rocket League ever seen.

Sunday was slightly quicker, but no less impressive. Version1, who lost to Falcons in the upper final, faced off against Moist once again with a 2-0 record against the Europeans, but this time Moist made quick work of the Americans. According to Rise, the stage made the difference.

“The thing about V1 was in the studio, before the crowd’s there, they’re very hard to play against because they’ve got Comm, he likes to make fun of the other team,” rise. explained. “Even though it doesn’t seem like much, it actually gets in your head quite a lot. It’s not like you feel bad, but you want to score on them as fast as possible to do it back to him. But with the crowd, you can’t hear Comm and he’s a big asset to their team. But when the crowd’s screaming that loud, it drowns it out so they don’t win the mental game.”

Where the first series led to yet another game 7 for a bracket reset, Moist’s experience is what won out in the end. “Fatigue was one of the big things [at the Winter Major],” Joyo said. “We knew we had to give that bit of extra energy at the end and close it out.” rise. agreed, adding that going into the second series after resetting the bracket, Falcons’ mental dropped.

“I felt like they hadn’t gotten over it and it was still in the back of their mind, because they gave up two cheap goals,” said rise. “We knew, the more they lost, the worse they’d get. Game one was the hardest one, and then it’d get slowly easier after that.”

RLCS Worlds up next

The World Championships, scheduled for Aug. 8 – 14 in Fort Worth, Texas, are the final event this season. Emerging regions such as South America and the Middle East have started making their mark, pushing out some of the guaranteed spots for North America and Europe.

Moist’s victory in London gave them the number one seed in Europe, while Team BDS’s early elimination dropped them to second. Meanwhile, Falcons’ run gave the Middle East an extra spot in the Wildcard.