Rocket League Reaching Grand Champion Guide
by inthedark72
This post is aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of how to efficiently improve your Rocket League abilities and rank. I always really appreciate posts from higher ranked people that detail different training methods and resources that worked for them, and now I want to do the same.
While I am not nearly as experienced as most GCs, I feel competent at progressing quickly since I went from Bronze to GC in 730 hours on Steam.
Optimize your settings
- Pro controller binds
- Pro camera settings
- Pro deadzone settings
- Video settings
- Ungoliant0’s competitive settings post
Change your settings from default if you haven’t already. The higher your playtime, the longer it will take to adjust, but it will be worth it in the long run. Use the above links as a guideline to find what works best for you. For example, I ended up with a combination of Squishy/Scrub Killa camera settings and Turbopolsa controller binds.
Set goals
Setting clear, attainable goals for yourself is a great way to hold yourself accountable to the exercises in this post. These will be different for everyone since it depends on your current skills and what you want to accomplish. Once you achieve certain goals or milestones, make sure to create new ones.
Learn new concepts
- Sir Timbers
- Kevpert
- SunlessKhan
- Virge (especially his rotation guide)
- Wayton explaining what to focus on at different ranks
Watch YouTube content creators to learn different mechanics, strategies, training approaches, and theory. This can and should be done as early as possible. Something as simple as popping the ball up from rolling on the ground without flipping is a concept I didn’t discover until watching a video on it.
milesAKAkilometers’s spreadsheet provides an expansive list for all the different mechanics categorized by difficulty.
Don’t be overwhelmed and feel like you need to master these right away, and plenty of them are nonessential and more for style anyways. Eventually, these will all be tools for you to utilize in different situations with varying levels of comfortability. The sooner you break out of your comfort zone by studying and practicing them, the faster you will improve. That being said, practice topics appropriate for your rank. You probably shouldn’t be grinding air roll hits as a Gold.
Training/practice
- Freeplay and drills (SunlessKhan and Musty)
- Training packs (these are the best set of packs I’ve found)
- BakkesMod – This mod will expedite your freeplay and training pack practice.
- Workshop maps (PC only)
- Dribbling Challenge #2 or the overhaul – dribbling and flicks
- Obstacle Course #2 – aerial car control
- Speed Jump: Boost – aerial momentum and boost management
While most mechanics can come with time, going outside your comfort zone will help you improve faster. Out of all mechanics, I think power clears and fast aerials (Kevpert and Virge) give you the most bang for your buck based on ease of learning and effectiveness. I recommend learning these as early as Platinum or Gold.
Watch pros play
- Rizzo’s 2v2 Road to GC
- Rizzo’s 3v3 Road to GC
- RLCS on Twitch and YouTube
- JohnnyBoi_i’s 1v1 showmatches and tournaments
I have learned invaluable mechanics and strategy from watching pros play. You can study all the YouTube guides you want, but RLCS is the only place you witness a culmination of mechanics and strategy being executed at the highest level in the world. If you are below Platinum, I would probably focus more on Rizzo’s series than trying to learn from RLCS gameplay.
Play 1v1
Most people do not enjoy this game mode, myself included. However, it is a excellent game mode for discovering certain inadequacies and accelerating your progression. It teaches you consistency, 50/50s, kickoffs, and better decision making. Many of these concepts are executed differently in team game modes, but there is still plenty of crossover. This is the one game mode where you can’t blame your teammates, so with an open mind it will teach you humility and patience. It is normal to be around one full rank lower than your 2s or 3s rank.
Watch your replays
When I was in Platinum/Diamond, I found myself at peak frustration with my teammates. If you ever find yourself in this situation, go back and watch the replay from your teammate’s perspective and then your perspective and see if you still feel the same way. It only took me a couple replays to realize I was usually just as bad as my teammate. Don’t get me wrong, some games are almost impossible to win due your teammate’s blunders, but sometimes we are that person to someone else. The sooner you can accept this, the sooner you can start adapting to your teammates instead of blaming them.
Don’t be toxic, be nice, and never give up
Make an effort to use positive quick chat whenever a teammate does something good. On the other hand, use apology quick chat whenever you make a mistake. Being nice will discourage your teammate from being toxic. However, some people will be toxic no matter how nice and patient you are. Instead of engaging with them, just ignore or mute them.
I’ve had so many games where we go down 3 goals in the first minute. You can either (1) stay positive and encourage your teammate, or even apologize if they start blaming you, or (2) be toxic, argue, and/or forfeit. Being down 3 goals is already difficult to come back from, but (2) makes this nearly impossible. If you care about improving and ranking up under pressure, always follow (1).
Whenever someone starts spamming Wow! or Nice one! if I make any mistake or don’t do what they want, it definitely gets in my head and I play worse. Keep that in mind if you care about winning and this is something you do to your teammates.
Bringing it all together
If you are someone like me who prefers having a guideline for how much time to spend on each of these action items, here is a plan I suggest. Feel free to adjust the session ratios depending on what works for you.
- In your regular Rocket League session:
- 10-25% training/practice/replays
- 75-90% competitive 1s/2s/3s
- During extra free time:
- Learn new concepts
- Watch pros play. Watch current RLCS for the most relevant games.
I apologize for the length of this post, but if it helps at least one of you rank up then it’s worth it.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.
TL;DR
Reference the bulleted links above. Optimize your settings, set goals, learn new concepts, train/practice, watch pros, play 1v1, and never give up.
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