The return of Rocket Royale brought with it the ‘Showdown’ style,  a shorter RR featuring truly only the best teams in the world. The top 8 teams from each region were split into two groups of four, and there they played a round robin of 5 game sets. The top two from each group advanced onto the knockout stage where teams were  reseeded based on performance during group stages. #1 played #4 and #2 played #3. The winners of the knockouts then moved on to a standard four team double elimination bracket, with $600 split between the top three.

In Europe,  the two groups consisted of: [(A) F3, We Dem Girlz, Hard-On Colliders, and Crown and Jewels] and [(B) Supersonic Avengers, Precision Z, The Flying Dutchmen, and Mockit EU].

Coming into this, WDG looked like the strongest team in EU by a fair margin, and again they showed why they deserved that title. Coming into group A as the top seed, WDG easily topped the group including a 5-0 victory over FlipSid3, showing the quality that sets them apart once again. Coming second in the group were Flipside Tactics, who showed that they were not going to lie down despite falling off from their dominance of EU. Despite the sweep at the hands of WDG, F3 showed real quality by ending the group stage 9-6. Both HoC and C&J had a tough time, both ending at 4-11 and tied for 3rd in the group. This is especially disheartening for C&J as they sought to climb back to the lofty peaks of EU Rocket League.

EU Group B was, on paper, a 2 horse race; SA and Mockit EU came into Royale 2nd and 3rd in the power rankings respectively. The first surprise came in the very first round with The Flying Dutchmen taking down Mockit 4-1, an upset worthy of a write-up by itself, but the slide did not stop there. Mockit EU went on to lose 5-0 to both Precision Z and SA ending with a disappointing 1-14 record. SA came out and showed their ability taking the group with a solid 12-3 including the 5-0 over Mockit EU. With Mockit falling apart a spot opened up for second place in the group, a spot that Precision Z grasped eagerly by going 4-1 over the The Flying Dutchmen and sliding into the playoffs with a good 10-5 record.

The NA groups were split into two groups as well: [(A): iBuyPower, Kings of Urban(Now with Sadjunior), recent performers Retrospect, and Lucky Bounce] and [(B) Orbit, Mockit NA, Vexx, Genesis]. This group contained arguably the two strongest teams in North America and was inevitably going to lead to one of the most exciting matchups of the day. In the first matchup KoU got a chance for revenge after their loss to Retrospect in PPL. In the other game Lucky Bounce got their first chance to acquit themselves against this new iBP roster, and with both sets ending 3-2, one in favor of KoU, one in favor of iBP, the group was still wide open after match set 1. As set 2 started iBP were apparently warmed up  and took down Retrospect 5-0, and Lucky Bounce fell to the same fate in losing to KoU. Set 3 cemented the climb of iBP with a 4-1 win over KoU in dominant fashion, securing their spot in the knockout stages. Retrospect got back on form by beating Lucky Bounce 4-1 to end the day. With iBP and KoU advancing to the knockout stages questions must be asked about the PPL dominance of Retrospect and how long that can last.

Group B from NA consisted of 2 of the top 3 NA teams.. Coming into Group B it seemed very cut and dry who would get out, and the group ended that way as well. Mockit and Orbit showed why they are the amongst the crème de la crème of the NA Rocket League scene. Mockit started with a 4-1 win over Orbit and looked to be heading for an easy cruise into the number one seed coming out of Group B. Genesis also managed to take out their 6th place compatriot with a 3-2 victory over a solid Vexx side. Match set 2 saw Orbit return to their ability with a strong 4-1 over Vexx, while Mockit pulled out a 3-2 result against the Genesis side featuring Moses. The 3rd set ended mostly as expected with a 5-0 win over Genesis for Orbit, securing their spot in the playoffs, and a 4-1 for Mockit earned them the number one seed from Group B going into the playoffs.

The Knockout stages featured 8 of the best teams in the world and promised some of the highest quality Rocket League we have seen in a long while. With WDG set for a duel with F3 and SA butting heads with Precision Z, the knockouts looked ready for some amazing Rocket League in EU. On the NA side of things iBP were ready to rip the crown from the heads of KoU and return to the lofty perch that was once theirs. Orbit played Mockit NA in what is easily the tightest matchup of the entire knockout stage. Unfortunately for us viewers WDG and SA decided to show us what it means to be the #1 and #2 teams in EU easily dispatching their opponents 3-0 and 3-1, respectively. On the other side of the pond iBP looked to crown themselves after taking down KoU 3-0 and then Mockit vs Orbit showed us why these two teams were so close to each other in every metric anyone can think of to rank them. Mockit finally won 3-2 to advance, but it was an incredibly close match-up.

Last up was the stage everyone had been waiting for, NA vs EU, the international finals, and it started as close as humanly possible with iBP just edging out SA 3-2 and looking like they're ready once again to put the NA scene on their backs. Mockit got taken out by an extremely powerful WDG team who went into the match versus iBP looking like they were ready for a strong EU vs NA showdown. Yet again iBP showed that they came to fight and took down the #1 team from EU and currently the most dominant team in the world 3-2. Mockit NA fought valiantly against  SA and took them to 5 games showing that they can be internationally competitive, but ultimately the Supersonic Avengers moved on. SA went on to play WDG in the lower bracket finals, , a #1 vs #2 EU showdown with the winner getting the chance to face iBP Cosmic in the final. Supersonic Avengers slipped past We Dem Girlz to move on to the final, which was incredibly close despite the 80% of the audience predicting an iBP victory. After five intense games iBUYPOWER Cosmic were finally crowned champions, but Supersonic Avengers were worthy opponents and helped to create one of the best finals we’ve seen in awhile.

iBP came in as the 5th seeded team from NA but we all knew this new roster had the potential to beat the very best teams, something they proved last night. One event might not be enough to say iBP is the best team in the world, but they are certainly pulling the hype train into the station, and personally, I'm fully  onboard.