The second RLCS qualifier is approaching fast, and the shuffles on both sides of the Atlantic are quickly losing steam as new lineups are settling in alongside the several unchanged ones. With this in mind, I thought that it was an ideal time to not only recap the roster changes of prominent teams but also shoot out some brief predictions and ideas as to what will happen in Saturday's North American qualifiers.

Mock-It NA's small change for big results

Both of the Mock rosters have actually had some shake-ups since qualifying for split 1, and both are roughly equally big talking points. On the NA side of things, Low5ive announced his stepping down from the starting lineup to be replaced by ZaneJackey, formerly of Orbit. While this switch would have normally been a bit controversial, it was announced right after Mock-It had won week nine's Rocket Royale with exactly this new roster. It seemed undeniable that the team as it stood now was a strong contender for best in NA, beating WDG twice and Flipsid3 once, two teams that are surely considered by some as the two best in the world. On paper, it also makes sense that this is a clever switch: What Insolences and Rizzo don't do too often in going up for strong high aerial hits is exactly what was most notable about Zane during his time in Orbit, and he can be relied upon to consistently reach high balls and either win cleanly with an accurate pass or at least strongly contest them. Rizzo and Zane made a brutal combo in the Royale, with one-two plays coming out all over the place, while Insolences often sat farther back, being good last line defense, something he excels at as is attested by his stellar 1v1 career.

I certainly expect the new Mock to reach the group stages of split two, but perhaps not show up as strong as they did in Rocket Royale. A top four finish seems likely however, and I would expect Mock to finish at an overall third or fourth place, but making the LAN with that result would be tough if the top four teams from split one continue to perform well.

Retrospect's roster is mostly gone

Intense news from ex-Onslaught Aka Retrospect as Espeon decides to leave in favour of Genesis, Fl0w moves to Kings' sub spot and Huskih becomes LFT. With this, Klassux and Kyle Masc were the only remaining members of the Onslaught team that took 5th place in split one. While things looked grim for the team in terms of finding a last-minute pickup, Klassux pulled out some magic, recruiting two great players in Chrome and Genocop. Chrome, formerly of No Clue is a consistent all-round player who has managed to gel well with each team I've seen him play on, while Geno is of course the well-known star Orbit player, who bowed out of split one for personal reasons. He is very strong with his ground and low-air game and has a considerable field presence, which is what made him best in NA outside of the iBP roster according to some.

It's a bit of a mystery as to how well these three will manage together, but I imagine that with Klassux' strong offense and Geno's sensible rotations in particular, they'll be able to make the group stage but perhaps not the online finals due to how top-heavy NA Rocket League is today.

Genesis loses Moses, gains Espeon

As I mentioned above, Espeon has moved on to things other than Retrospect, but Moses has also moved on from Genesis, which is what enabled this change to occur. Unless I've missed something, there has been no official announcement of who is subbing for the squad, but if my assumption of it being Kovanel is correct, there is a chance that the styles of the starting three will clash a bit. Pluto and Espeon are both incredibly clever and mechanically able offensive players, while Quinn is a good "enabler" for this, and I'd describe him as the unsung playmaker of the team, but without Moses they lack a real stable defender, kind of how SK was after losing Yemen in my opinion.

While these are four remarkably good players, and I think they're just too talented to be overcome by lower-tier NA teams, I think they will struggle a bit in the group stages with the new roster, perhaps taking 5th or 6th place. With this said, I haven't seen them play together yet, so it's best to lay off speculating too much until they've shown the world what they can do.

Orbit have separated

As should probably be evident at this point in the article, Orbit's Rocket League team has disbanded. After losing Genocop weeks ago, they've been in a downward spiral, taking the bottom spot of the group stages in RLCS split one, and subsequently losing ZaneJackey to Mock-It, then HWSid going LFT and Stev claiming to "done with Rocket League until a team has a spot open and needs [him] to play". Their brief stint with Haku quickly ended and the team that was long on a downturn officially disbanded. While it is sad to see them go, most if not all of the players are still involved with the community in some way, so we can be excited about seeing them around for a while to come at least.

ex-VexX bring in Moses, remove Jayyyrah

The team formerly known as VexX (then briefly Eanix) are actually without a name at time of writing, so I'll just keep referring to them as "ex-VexX". Ex-VexX were a solid team in qualifier one, which should be painfully obvious considering they took home third place and 740 points, but they always looked a bit slow on the field compared to other top teams, even the ones they were beating. Perhaps some stiff rotations were to blame, because GarrettG and Turtle's sizeable offensive skills certainly weren't. While it is sad to see Jayyyrah being removed from his team, Moses is, at least in my mind, going to be beneficial for this squad once they get used to each other. He's a rock-solid defender and can be relied upon to sit back in the field while Garrett and Turtle pull their offensive shenanigans, and when the ball gets cleared to ex-VexX's side, Moses is consistent and clever enough to send it right back.

I expect ex-VexX to take a top four spot in the group stages of split two with this new roster, perhaps even a top two spot depending on how Kings and Mock-It are performing on the day. Again, however, this is largely speculation on my part from past experience of watching these players, so there shouldn't be too much expectation put into the team until we see them play the open qualifiers.

Honorable mentions

While there were other changes since the first split with Cosmic and Kings both bringing on subs, and some lower-level teams shuffling about, nothing was quite momentous enough to warrant a mention in this piece. However, it is worth taking a look at some other competitors besides the teams mentioned, as many of them have been pushing up the power rankings, past some veteran teams, and even past teams who have been in the group stages of split one.

At time of writing, the latest power rankings have Lucky Bounce sitting at 7th place, behind Orbit (who have disbanded, as mentioned). This is a team I have long believed to have a load of potential, particularly with DarkFire's great mechanics and low-aerial work, but also with the recent pick-up of Torment after the blow that was losing Matt to Selfless, and I would actually expect them to make the RLCS group stages, though I don't think they will have much of a shot at the top 4.

Vision have been a consistent fringe team of the power rankings, and have made an upset or two in the last few weeks, including beating Retrospect in Rocket Royale. Though I don't expect Vision to make group stages, I'd say that if they're having a good day on the field they could steal a spot from Selfless or Lucky Bounce, both of whom I would normally predict to make groups.

With all these roster changes, and despite the evident top-heaviness of the NA scene that we see now, post-shuffle, I still don't imagine the top two teams from qualifier two will be anyone but Kings of Urban and iBP Cosmic, the two long-time rulers of North American Rocket League. Though ex-VexX and Mock in particular have stronger rosters to challenge this duo, I still see top three places of the online finals being the same as split 1, but Mock-It probably taking fourth place over Genesis who took it last time around. Here's a tabulated idea of what I would predict for this second split:

1

iBP Cosmic

2 Kings of Urban 3

ex-VexX

4 Mock-It NA 5 Retrospect 6 Genesis 7 Selfless 8 Lucky Bounce

Please leave your thoughts in the comments as to who you think will succeed or fail in the upcoming second qualifier!

Whatever happens, without a doubt there will be a lot to watch in the upcoming open qualifier, and I'm sure there are plenty of you with me who will agree it will be the biggest NA tournament to date.