Rocket League Season 5 and Season 6
Season 6 has just come to a close. I didn’t realize that I could get a silver badge for my efforts in Season 4’s competitive matches. In online play, there are bronze, silver and gold levels, with levels within each. Win a game, and you’re likely to advance a tier. Lose a game, and you’re likely to be relegated a single tier. (And cry a single tear.) I didn’t take Season 4 seriously, but I did gain a bronze badge. In Season 5, I won enough games at the silver tiers to get that reward at the end of the season.
Season 6 introduced Haunted Hallows, a time-limited event where players are awarded candy corn which they can redeem for Hallowe’en-themed items. I got all the items save for a 3rd crate, so I’m pretty happy. At the beginning of the event, my opponents would forfeit as soon as they got a certain amount of in-game points (a goal is 100 points, and points would help determine whether you were the MVP of that game, assuming it was more than 2-on-2 or higher). They would even forfeit right when they themselves scored first, which wasn’t fun at all. A few days later, forfeits ceased. The best I could tell is that someone gamed the candy corn system and Psyonix caught on (or responded to complaints) and adjusted the rewards so that it incentivized complete games.
At the end of the year, the game introduced Frosty Fest. I left my apartment for 3 weeks, and very seriously considered taking my PS4™with me across the country to get all the items. I settled for the thing I wanted the most, which was the sweater banner, which shows to the other player after I score a goal in any mode.
I lost interest in trying to grind for to get a gold-level season. It was frustrating, during one-on-one competitive play, to have players say “easy” to me if they started winning, or “No problem” if the score was slightly in my favour. I ignored it for the most part, but I don’t consider it very friendly to tell me you’re going to wipe the floor with me. Let me lose with some dignity!
My favourite altercation is when an opponent called me a “pussy” during a match when I was down by a significant margin, a game I would go on to win. Always stay till the end, I say.
It also bugs me that players will run up the score even when the game is essentially over. There seem to be few unwritten rules in Rocket League, but this is something I’ll never, ever do. If I’m up by 3 goals and it looks like I’m going to win, I take my foot off the pedal and decide to play defence exclusively. Goalkeeping is a shortcoming of mine, so it’s a chance for me to practice, and, I hope, for my oppponent to gain some experience. This game is fun, OK? Fun goddammit.
