Rocket League Season 3

I still play Rocket League. Despite being an Expert, I still make the same mistakes, unable to time a shot when my teammate centers the ball and unwilling to be as aggressive as everybody else. I have had to hide my level because it incurred criticism (“You’re an Expert and you’re this bad?”) from people who were supposedly trying to help me win games. At least the reporting mechanism seems to have resulted in fewer comments that were truly abusive. I can take the criticism to heart, just not the insults.

I continue to be awed by the amount of software built (like Rocket League Stats, where you can see my ranking) and the community discussions and the training guides people create. I continue to be awed by the updates Pysonix makes to the game, continuously adding improvements while sticking to their original vision of no buying your way to powering up. The mode with randomly-assigned powerups during the course of the game could not have been more ingenious. I even stumbled on a group of guys who wanted me to join their party and play with the microphone on, so they got to hear the sounds I made but also heard how players communicate using more than just the pre-fab in-game texting feature.

The only thing I would change about the game as it stands now is the starting points, which have predictable strategies associated with them. If starting points were themselves randomized and not matched up on the other end (as an option, say, in the non-competitive leagues), it would add another layer of difficulty while staying true to the game.

I continue with my attitude of praising the other team for great shots, reporting abusive players (or muting them if they are being sarcastic towards me), and hope to continue a new approach of being more aggressive when fighting for a ball and communicating more internally with a teammate. During any games where I blow out my opponents, I will still take my pedal off the gas and try to get the other team (or single player on the other side) the chance to improve on their play. I also want to get genuinely good at the game, assuming I can squeeze time out from my other pursuits. Rocket League continues to be fun, and continues to lead the way in making the game incrementally better.