The fourth and final interview matchup we have for you pits long time NA powerhouse iBP Cosmic against a team that quietly rose to the top of the leaderboards, Kapow. One of the most consistent teams, Kapow never lost a series by more than a game. They managed one clean sweep, of Spectral, but what stands out is that they've taken 3-2 wins over Crown & Jewels, Supersonic Avengers and held Fipsid3 to a 2-3. Kapow’s al0t has taken a break from practicing to answer some questions.

CjLink - Your last 2 weeks in the RLCPL held some big series wins against SA and C&J. At the time these teams held the #2 and #3 spots in the power rankings. These wins bumped you up temporarily into 2nd. What part of your team composition and strategy allowed you to beat teams few others do? Is there a certain strategy you use going into these matchups?

al0t - SA tend to play fast and we don’t struggle to keep up. C&J with their previous roster played very safe but really efficient, most of the time they have one guy always ready for a rebound and they’re all really good strikers which makes them really good on offense.

CjLink - In the downtime since week 7 I've seen your team playing in a number of tournaments, though not always at full roster. How is training and practice going? Have you managed to get a decent scout on the NA talent? Anything you've learned from the other tournaments?

al0t - We haven’t played with full roster recently because of scheduling conflicts but recently we have been trying to scrim everyday against teams such as KoU to kind of get used to the ping. Yeah, we have a decent scout on the NA talent and we feel confident going into playoffs.

CjLink - Your first game against iBP is one of the most debated matchups, with no clear winner emerging from the predictions. iBP has looked to be in a slump recently, but they're still capable of being one of the most powerful teams, as history has shown. Whcih iBP are you expecting to show up? What preparations are you making for them? Of course, I would love to know what you think the set score will be.

al0t - We expect iBP to come out at full force because this is the biggest Rocket League tournament to date. We’ve been scrimming NA teams and we plan to play GFINITY and Mockit-League the day before the playoffs. Like I said before I expect them to put up a fight but I think we’ll win the series 4-2.

CjLink - C&J will be taking on Failure to Launch and Untethered is up against F3. What are your predictions for theae matchups? Any insight on the strengths of the teams?

al0t - Since C&J won't be playing with their full roster they won’t be as strong as usual and I’ve seen Failure to Launch play so it will be a close series but I think C&J will take it. For Untethered vs. F3 I think F3 will play out of their minds because they usually play better when the pressure is on to perform,  so I think they will win the series. As for strengths of the teams, C&J I’m not entirely sure because I haven’t really paid much attention to how they play.

CjLink - The other highly debated matchup is Kings of Urban versus Supersonic Avengers. Your team has played both of these teams recently so I'm hoping you can tell me exactly who will win and why.

al0t - Kings of Urban usually plays slow in the first game of the series because they feel out their enemies, how they play etc and in the second game of the series you’ll usually see a huge difference of their gameplay depending on who they face. Supersonic Avengers usually tries to play as fast as possible and some teams can’t keep up. So the first game or two will be mid to high pace until KoU figure SA out and counter their fast playstyle.

CjLink - A lot...of what? I've always been curious about any meaning behind your name. Does it even have meaning? Why the zero?

al0t - I got this name in the Counter-Strike 1.6 days about 6 years ago because of my favourite player (back then) n0thing. I thought his name looked cool and wanted something similar and thought of s0mething (no pun intended) because it’s the opposite of n0thing but I thought it was too long and I wanted a shorter name, so I went with alot at first but then I figured why not put a 0 in there because n0thing has it.

CjLink - We have seen the rise and fall of many teams throughout the last couple months but you guys have held solid in the top 5, though never reaching the first spot in power rankings. What is it that makes your team so consistent amongst such generally inconsistent teams? What will your team need to do to secure a first place spot, both in the playoffs and future events? Any possible roster changes?

al0t - We take one game at a time, we never think of past games so tilting is not a factor and that helps us a lot. We just have to practice more and more and play as many tournaments as we can. And no, CjLink, you can’t join the team ;)

CjLink - Speaking of the future, we heard the biggest announcement in Rocket League esports to date on Wednesday. Psyonix has partnered with Twitch to bring us a $75000 event spanning 3 months. The Rocket League Championship Series is everything I have hoped for. What was your initial reaction to the announcement? Will I be seeing you at the LAN finals?

al0t - I have 1600 hours in this game and instantly as I played my first 20~ hours I knew I wanted to go pro in this game. Pro-League is soon coming to an end so this news really got me motivated to keep playing more and more. Hopefully this is just the start of Rocket League as an eSport. I strongly believe that my team and I will qualify for the LAN Finals.

CjLink - Thanks again for your time and best of luck in the playoffs!

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We are presented with another opportunity for an experienced outside viewpoint, this time on iBP. Low5ive is here to give us his insight on the series and the playoffs.

CjLink - You have had a quite a bit of experience playing against iBP. They have always been considered one of the strongest and most consistent teams, but they took a bit of a hit recently. Their 1-4 loss to Untethered was particularly uncharacteristic. Did you get a chance to watch this series? Any explanation you can come up with for iBP’s recent decline?

Low - I watched the final match on Underpass, but I was only half-listening to the cast for the rest of it, unfortunately. I wouldn’t say the loss to Untethered was wholly uncharacteristic, nor would I say Cosmic is necessarily on the decline. I’d say it’s more a matter of Cosmic’s competition finally catching up to them. Historically speaking, Untethered is one of the only teams in NA to give Cosmic any trouble. Untethered has always been a bit of a washy team with high highs and low lows, relatively, but I think they’re finally ramping up their consistency and just happened to be in peak form for that series. I will say, though, it seems that Cosmic lacks a certain drive to improve as a team that you see in other teams--Kronovi is the only player I see consistently practicing against high caliber players-- so I don’t know how much longer they will remain in contention for the crown in NA.

CjLink - Their first game will be against Kapow. The predictions are fairly split here, and I haven't quite decided who I think will win either. Who do you think will win this one? Can you identify a key weakness in either of the teams that the other might exploit?

Low - I’m honestly horribly unversed when it comes to the EU scene. Kapow’s full roster hasn’t made an appearance recently that I’m aware of, but with a sub they were knocked out of Mockit in a 2-0 match vs Untethered and then again in a best of one vs NOT (Klassux, Kyle, Huskih). On the other hand, Cosmic’s showing today in Mockit wasn’t stellar--losing 0-2 to a PUG team consisting of Weedwizard, Headshot, and Frezno and then again to up-and-coming EU team RG eSports in the loser’s bracket. If Cosmic can shake off those losses and come back tomorrow with their heads on straight, my money’s on them.

CjLink - Another team you have faced a number of times in the recent months, Kings of Urban, will be taking on Supersonic Avengers. What's your predicted outcome of this match? EU players have tended to favor SA while the NA players have more often sided with KoU. What strength do you believe the winning team has that will allow them to overcome their opponents?

Low - I’m a huge KoU fan, so I’d love to say KoU will seize victory for ‘Merica in a blowout; but I’m really not sure. Speaking from my limited experience against the players from SA:  I’d say SA has the talent, but KoU has the coordination. Still, riding the high from their victory today in Mock-it over C&J, my prediction is that KoU will narrowly come out on top.

CjLink - The remaining 2 matchups have pretty decided underdogs. F3 is overwhelmingly expected to beat Untethered while C&J is the clear favorite over FtL. Every game is still dependent on many factors and upsets are not uncommon in Rocket League. Can you think of scenarios that could favor these NA underdogs enough to allow them to make it to the semifinals?

Low - As much as I’m rooting for Untethered against F3, I’m feeling a game one victory for Untethered, but ending in a 4-2 in F3’s favor. F3 has had a few hiccups recently, but they never fail to bring their A game when there’s money on the line. It seems longer series tend to favor F3, as well. Short of a godly performance from Untethered, I don’t see them toppling the giants from F3 today.

FtL wrote quite the story throughout the Pro League, but I’m afraid this is where it ends for them, too. Historically, it seems like they can overwhelm any A- team with their high-speed offense, but find themselves under too much pressure and making a lot of mistakes against the coordinated superstars like iBP and KoU. They’ve got their work cut out for them tomorrow. To their benefit, C&J is coming off of a loss in Mock-it today--maybe morale will work in their favor.

CjLink - Roster swaps are happening all across both regions, Mockit being one of the firsts to make full changes. Tell me more about your new team and how synergy seems to be forming. Do you have any plans to pick up a 4th for a sub? Any free agents out there catch your eye?

Low - I’m with Rizzo and Insolences now, and it’s feeling pretty damn solid. Rizzo makes some nutty plays; Insolences just lays on the pressure; and then sometimes I do things to help, too. We’ve only got a few days of play together now, but I have sky-high hopes for this lineup after a few immediate solid performances in scrims and tournies. Of course, it’ll be a while before we’re consistently performing well--our defense in particular really struggles at the moment since we haven’t really felt each other out yet.

I’m not sure how the boss man would feel about another player on his payroll, but we don’t have our eyes on anyone anyway. We’ve got too much work to do ourselves to start working on a secondary lineup.

CjLink - This past Wednesday was the biggest Rocket League announcement to date, the RLCS. I'm assuming I'll see you and your team there. How do you think Psyonix and Twitch handled the announcement and do you expect the RLCS to live up to the hype? The format is far different than any event we have had, do you think it will all play out well?

Low -Honestly, I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the prize pool. They came out of nowhere announcing $75,000. You’ll definitely see my team at the LAN, though, or my name isn’t LAN5ive. I know so little about the tournament and format that I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope they pull off something spectacular.

Thanks for the interview, Cj.

LAN5ive out.

CjLink - My pleasure as always, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to do this. Best of luck in future tournaments and I look forward to seeing you in future RLC events.

That wraps up our interview series for the Rocket League Central Pro League Playoffs! I hope everyone enjoyed hearing from the players themselves as well as a couple of outside sources familiar with the teams. If this is the first interview you are seeing, please check out F3 v Unt, KoU v SA and C&J v FTL. Tune in tomorrow/today, Sunday March 6th, at 12PM EST | 5PM GMT to see all of the action live at www.twitch.tv/rocketleaguecentral.

-CjLink