According to the outright esports betting odds, only a handful of Rocket League esports teams have a realistic chance of claiming the Winter Major trophy. Still, there are plenty of outsiders who have the talent to cause a stir, including a group of youngsters who have been flying under the radar for long enough.
The 16 will be split into four round-robin groups of four, where all matches will be played as best-of-five. The group stage will run from April 6-7, with the top three teams proceeding into the playoffs.
The group winners will advance to the quarterfinals, whereas the second- and third-placed teams will enter round one of the playoffs. Fourth-placed teams are eliminated.
The playoffs will commence on Saturday, April 8, featuring 12 RL squads in a single-elimination bracket. All first-round matches are best-of-five, while the rest of the bracket – including the finals – are best-of-seven.
The grand final is scheduled for Sunday, April 9, at 16:00 local time (PDT).
G2 Esports ($10.00) and Team Liquid ($9.00) are priced close to the favourites on the outright RLCS betting markets, and rightly so. These teams have been solid throughout the season and have the talent to make a splash; however, they don’t look quite as good as the top dogs.
G2 Esports are third in the North American Winter rankings, tied with Complexity Gaming ($12.00). Still, they deserve to be ranked higher due to their showing in the most recent regional event, where G2 made the finals. They also reached the semifinals at their first two regionals, while their only defeats over the three events came against Gen.G Mobil1 Racing and FaZe Clan – the twin titans of NA Rocket League.
Team Liquid, too, have enough talent to go all the way. They had a slow start to the year, finishing the first European regional tournament in fifth-eighth, but they’ve since added a silver medal from the Winter Cup and then won the Winter Invitational.
If Liquid had a better showing at the Winter Open, they would’ve received far more attention ahead of their trip to the USA. Regardless of how bad Liquid looked in January, their recent performances tell a completely different story.
The top Rocket League betting sites agree on which three teams should be in the title race. However, we would shuffle the order a bit.
Gen.G Mobil1 Racing ($5.50) are viewed as the strongest team ahead of the San Diego Major, yet that might be a bit of an exaggeration. They’ve had an explosive start to the season, winning the first two regional events, but then slowed down and placed fifth-eighth at the Winter Invitational.
Karmine Corp ($7.00) are by far the most dominant team from Europe – which might not sound significant, considering that the North American league is far more stacked. However, the French squad has not placed worse than second across the last six regional events, winning three titles, and that is nothing to sneeze at.
And it’s not only KC’s results this season that lead us to rate them so highly. They were fourth at the RLCS 2021/22 Spring Split Major and reached the quarterfinals of the RLCS 2021/22 World Championship. That consistency alone makes Karmine Corp a scary team, but they also have the players to go all the way.
Then we have FaZe Clan ($7.00), who had a rough start to the season, finishing the RLCS Winter Open in 9th-12th place. However, they’ve since won the Winter Cup and Winter Invitational without any struggles and have lost just three series since the turn of the year. Those are good arguments for FaZe as NA’s strongest team ahead of the Major.
Most of the best esports betting sites have the most recent Major champions, Gen.G Mobil1 Racing, as outright favourites to win in San Diego, but they’re not a good pick at the offered betting odds. While Gen.G boast a potent LAN team, there are too many good teams left in the field that can stop them.
FaZe Clan, who have shown they can compete against Gen.G, are priced at $7.00, which looks generous due to their strong head-to-head record against Gen.G Mobil1 Racing, but there’s one other team we would keep an eye on.
Team Liquid are in exceptional form ahead of their trip to San Diego, yet they’re priced as $9.00 outsiders. They’ve already beaten Karmine Corp and had a solid run at the RLCS Fall Major, where they suffered a narrow 3-4 loss to the eventual champions, Gen.G.
Even though this is a very young squad (16.3 average age), Liquid have shown that they can perform on LAN, and their improvement over the last couple of months makes them an exciting pick for a deep run.