RLCSX NA Winter Major: who and where to watch

This weekend, the North American Rocket League Championship Series Season X (RLCSX) teams are dishing it out at the winter major for a $100,000 prize pool and double the amount of points that determine who goes to the world championships later this year.

The top 11 teams, plus one wildcard, have secured their places in a double-elimination bracket that will cap off the winter split. It will be crucial to see whether Team Envy can hold onto their lead heading into the spring split, or whether one of the other contenders can knock them off their pedestal.

Who to watch during this RLCSX Winter Major

The fight for the top of the RLCSX leaderboard is a close one. Four-time RLCS World Champion Pierre “Turbopolsa” Silfver is only leading the charge with Team Envy by only about 100 points. But, with twice as many points on the table for the North American Winter Major, a good result will be the key to remaining on top. After all, the event’s champion will win a whopping 802 points, and only the top six teams in the league advance to the world championships later this year. 

Team Envy has won three out of the last six regional events and came reasonably close in the rest. A first-place finish could see them start putting some serious distance between them and the others.

However, while Team BDS is doing donuts around the teams in Europe, the race is much closer in North America. Teams such as NRG, SpaceStation Gaming, G2 Esports and Rogue — which won the last regional in spectacular fashion —,are breathing down Envy’s neck. 

The top six are separated by about 1000 points, which is less than the difference between Europe’s Team BDS and second-place Team Vitality. The top three (Team Envy, NRG and SpaceStation Gaming) are, however, in slightly more comfortable positions, with 700, 600 and 550 points more than  the fourth-place team, Rogue.

With teams so close in North America, the winter major’s massive points reward could stir up the leaderboard and start showing which teams are setting themselves apart for the coveted world championship spots.

A bonus event

In addition to the regularly scheduled RLCSX NA Winter Major, Psyonix is holding the Ford + Rocket League Freestyle Invitational as a secondary competition as well. This tournament will let “freestylers” show off their highly mechanical and creative plays in front of a jury for the grand prize of a real-life Ford F-150. Freestylers are a separate breed of Rocket League players who are capable of things the developers had no idea were even possible when creating the game.

When is the RLCSX Winter Major?

The RLCSX Winter Major runs from Saturday, Feb. 27 to Sunday, Feb. 28, on both YouTube and Twitch at 10:30 p.m. ET. On day one, the broadcast of the tournament will be split across multiple streams, while the first round of the tournament will not be broadcast at all. The B-streams will be covered by UGC and TheRocketRB.