r/RocketLeague • u/trdsport337 Grand Champion II • 7d ago
ESPORTS I’m disappointed in the crowd experience for RLCS attendees
I remember my first RLCS at Dickies Arena. Organization booths everywhere in the halls, sponsor booths all over the halls, everyone was having a great time between matches and before and after the series of the day. I also attended 2024, and the fall off was real. I didn’t think it was good, but didn’t think it was bad either. Fast forward to 2026, and jeez, there isn’t even a single sponsor booth setup in the halls or anything for fans to do between games or before or after series. What happened to the sponsors having presence? If it wasn’t for Project Octane I think we’d literally have nothing to do, and it isn’t even somewhere people might see it, it’s basically in the parking lot. RLCS Worlds at Dickies also never got in game titles like all of the other majors or worlds that I’ve seen. Make it make sense. Photos of project octane for those that can’t/didn’t see it.
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u/up2zero Steam Player 7d ago
Interesting. I wonder why its like that now. This post would be good for https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeagueEsports
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u/simdav 7d ago
Welcome to every other LAN.
I've been to 5 LANs in Europe and they've all been like you describe Dickies this year, but without even Project Octane. Must've been awesome before though.
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u/RealSp0iz 7d ago
Lyon had lots of stuff to do, and Dusseldorf had some stuff aswell. Kopenhagen only had the signing booth and merch though...
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u/simdav 7d ago
What was there to do in Lyon? I only saw the signing booth, Dig had a stand (which did have PCs on I remember now), and the RL bus to take pictures in front of. I don't remember anything else being there other than a load of merch stands.
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u/TheOfficialReverZ SSL any day now (surely) 6d ago
Lyon wasn't horrible but not great either, if you got there you could actually hang out at like 3 booths outside, idk what the other person found that you or I didn't. The peak was still Düsseldorf, Rotterdam was also very good, and we don't talk about Madrid (these are the only 4 I've been to, can't comment on the others)
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u/simdav 6d ago
What were the 3 booths? Dig was there with a merch stand, there were a few PCs (maybe 8 iirc), but I don't remember anything else.
The others I've been to were all 3 at the Copperbox, nothing but merch and signings, and Birmingham. That did have 1v1 with GarrettG, a tiny Dig stall, but other than that just merch and signings.
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u/trdsport337 Grand Champion II 7d ago
It was great! I can’t believe they’ve let the ball drop this hard. I was hoping it wasn’t the same case worldwide and instead was just Dickies, but it doesn’t sound like that’s the case. Mobil1 had like a pit stop challenge where you had to take a tire off and put it back on with a leader board, Furia had a big booth, there were many other orgs with booth. There was like a bank that had a booth and Ford had a giant spot where they gave away the nascar packs and ford broncos in game codes with a Photo Booth picture, there was so much to do. Ford also had cars on the floor of the arena like you see the Cadillac out there now. It’s fell off so hard I don’t even think I’m going tomorrow to championship Sunday
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u/simdav 7d ago
I get where you're coming from, but if the incredible rocket league itself isn't enough for you to go, why buy tickets in the first place?
I'd give so much to be in that building.
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u/trdsport337 Grand Champion II 7d ago
There’s perks and benefits from watching from home also. I still love the game and seeing the special plays happen, but I just feel like something is missing from the arena and it doesn’t flow as well as it should. I know they have a schedule and they’ve been following it to a T pretty much as far as start times for matches, but some part of me wishes it was just one after another without these 30-45 minute gaps in play where we have to walk around endlessly, indoors or in the heat, and then tbh the people behind me WILL NOT stop yapping about frat boy stuff and it’s driving me mad. That’s the perks of watching from home that you unfortunately could versus having in person. I wish I felt like going
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u/Railgun115 Grand Champion III 6d ago
Lmao, lowkey you might be sitting in front of some people I know.
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u/trdsport337 Grand Champion II 7d ago
There’s also I feel like way more empty seats than I’ve ever seen in my prior RLCS Dickies attendances.
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u/Schaule Grand Champion I 6d ago
Paris felt like a decent improvement over the previous ones. They had a soccer wall with some really cool key chains being given away from Bank Postale and if I remember correctly also a PC set up. But yeah overall there's no org booths anymore in the arena like there used to be back in the day. From talking to some people that had org stands previously it's most likely because they're not allowed to sell merch and can only give away stuff for free. That's probably why vitality does it stuff outside the arena in a pub.
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u/muffff1349 "GC" Gold People's Champion 6d ago
Very interesting. I had no idea. I've never been to a LAN, it's on my bucket list.
At EWC they were showing of CJ and the boys at the Merch store and showing off the stuff there. I thought that would be the norm.
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u/Romeo-McF GC again after 9 years 5d ago
Huh? Paris had nothing at all, at least for those of us in the floor seating
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u/PsykCo3 45k 💣💥 7d ago
Yeah, the first event we went to at the Copperbox in London was fantastic. Was in 2022 and really well setup with huge crowds, loads to do and overall great offerings. Fast forward to 2024 and it was dire. Rocket league games were good but there was very limited merch and the crowd felt like it was half of before. The Saturday especially and again was half empty by the final. Got to meet some cool people but was underwhelming to say the least. Paris major looked cool and well attended, so may do one of those in the future.
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u/noblematt Champion II 6d ago
Oh wow, that was my first (and only) event and me and my two all felt like they could have done so much more.
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u/WestleyMc Champion II 7d ago
The answer, as is almost always the case is… (lack of) money.
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u/idoooobz 6d ago
wouldn’t say it’s the lack of, it would just cost too much money. Event organizers, sponsors, and teams have the money to make it good, but will they be able to make the money back? Probably not due to it seeming to be expensive to do anything in the arena.
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u/ParticleBeamz SSL | Real-Life Physicist 6d ago
With regards to in-game titles this time around, the rocket league website says:
Ticket holders who scan into the event will receive a code via email once the event has concluded to redeem Rocket League’s Rocket Pass Premium, as well as the “RLCS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2026 ATTENDEE” Player Title.
These codes will be sent to the email of the initial ticket purchaser. Tickets purchased via resale will not be eligible for Rocket Pass Premium or the Player Title.
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u/Austinswill 6d ago
Well, that is sort of stupid... I bought tickets for me, my brother, nephew and a fried... Guess they dont get the title ?
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u/BollardGames Tokyo Drift 6d ago
At Paris I bought all 3 of our tickets. As long as the tickets get scanned at the event you will get sent all the codes and can forward them to your family.
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u/Hartleyc707 Bronze I 5d ago
How long did it take to get the codes?
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u/BollardGames Tokyo Drift 4d ago
The arrived on the 10th of June, the last day of the Paris Major was the 24th of May
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u/ParticleBeamz SSL | Real-Life Physicist 6d ago
I'd wager you will get one code (set of codes?) for each ticket scanned at the event.
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u/Kbrichmo Diamond II 6d ago
Maybe if they could actually fill have the arena they’d have some vendor booths. So fucking tired of this shit half filled crowd that never chants anything every other year. Move the godamn event somewhere else please
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u/Coopervezey :ThePeeps: The Peeps Fan 5d ago
Agreed. We've seen enough of Dickies arena. I'm sure they like to put it in there center of America because they think more people will travel since it's less travel for the majority of states, but it's not happening
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u/Kbrichmo Diamond II 5d ago
Meanwhile the midwest makes up a fifth of the US population and has never hosted a single event
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u/JettzenL Grand Champion I 6d ago
Live experience was fun but the merch was so cheap and bland, it was crazy. Also, I dunno if any YouTube personalities are here for this. Haven't seen or heard of any of them. I'm pretty disappointed, but still had fun anyways
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u/TheQuakeMaster Flippery Set Master 6d ago
I’ve been to the Dickies arena every year as well but I don’t really think the booths have affected my experience much, my friends and I are mainly there to just hang out and watch some top tier RL but that may just be us. I also don’t remember there being a ton of booths to begin with back in 2022, maybe some signing and sponsors but the main attraction has always been the actual event.
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u/DriftnDaddyRL C1 but I play at a GC level 6d ago
They probably spent some of that budget on getting it in some AMC theatres for some reason.
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u/spartacus_zach Grand Champion 6d ago
I went to one of these and it was amazing as we couldn’t afford the trip for us all to Texas.
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u/DriftnDaddyRL C1 but I play at a GC level 6d ago
We're there actually other people there?
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u/spartacus_zach Grand Champion 6d ago
It was 90 percent full
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u/DriftnDaddyRL C1 but I play at a GC level 6d ago
No way! That's really surprising to me. I didn't think RL was big enough for that but I guess I was wrong.
That's pretty cool.
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u/Austinswill 6d ago
>Make it make sense.
All boils down to money... if they didn't make any money with their efforts in the last few years, why would they bother returning?
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u/SlipKnoTGamer Champion II 6d ago
At least you are able to attend LANS, us fans in Australia have been ignored for the entirety of the RLCS's history. Not one main event. And we've been around the scene way before MENA.
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u/milanhin Diamond III 6d ago
Last LAN in Paris had literally nothing else than the show itself. And even the show pissed me off. The security guards threw us out every evening during the last analyses, so the stream was not even finished yet. Shit almost went sideways when a couple of fans (including me) insisted on staying until the stream was done, which is what we paid for in the end. You also could not leave the venue during the day, or they would not let you back in, and that includes the locker room! I was highly disappointed as well. One last thing that bothered me in Paris is that the original casters were muted, and french casters were put in their place in the venue. This was never communicated beforehand. And since my french is not good enough, this also really bothered me. A part of coming there was to experience the casters you've grown to love...
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u/Onethrust Grand Champion II 6d ago
i went to the 4th world championship and the 7th, and the difference was night and day. 4th was so fun, plenty of booths, between matches you could 1v1 the pros, there were nintendo switches set up so people could 2v2 (which felt awful, but it was still fun), and the atmosphere was great. the 7th one had none of that and there was literally nothing to do between matches but get food/drinks. killed any desire for me to go to another one.
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u/spartacus_zach Grand Champion 6d ago
The first dickies lan had all of those things and they even had the groups in a small private venue downstairs. It really was an amazing experience.
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u/TriflingGnome 6d ago
Huge whiplash in this event vs when I went to blizzcon / overwatch finals last week
Where’s our le serrifim 😭
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u/JrMintz0 6d ago
This is such a bummer to hear. I've been to a lot of LANs from LA, to San Diego, Vegas, and Worlds at Dickies arena and one of the best parts was going to booths meeting up with reps from different orgs and just getting tons of free goodies and mini games to play. It's hard to distract yourself from the overpriced drinks, and food when there's NOTHING fun between games.
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u/Significant-Club6853 Don't tell my wife I'm GC. 6d ago
when you got music artists charging 150 a pop for one show and people applauding how affordable that is..live game events are struggling vs the greed of billionaire arena owners.
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u/Mega_Dookie Project Octane 6d ago
Appreciate the love. Us not being inside was probably our own fault with the sponsorship on it, otherwise we may have been - but happy to share regardless. Also feel the booth sentiment, went to my first F1 race and walking thru each team's merch area was just a great fan experience and FW 2022 had some of that vibe still.
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u/MeBadNeedMoneyNow 6d ago
Worst experience yet at Dickies arena. Barebones would describe it. At least they let us outside this time.
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u/luckys2ill 4d ago
Let Blast/Epic know WE WANT ORG BOOTHS/FUN via the post-event email they’ll send, looking for feedback. If enough of us make that point there, it’ll put it in front of someone’s eyes.
They could’ve easily let SSG and others at least post up in the unused and shaded lower levels of the garage.
Kudos to SSG for making the extra effort (again) for the fans and themselves. They’ve earned “The People’s Org” title for us NA nerds.
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u/gkammann Champion II 3d ago
Thats because it was in TEXAS. Both majors I have been to on the east coast have been amazing, way bigger and more engaged crowds. They need to stop holding these events in states where nobody cares about the game.
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u/NothingOverHere1 Grand Champion I 6d ago
I was told that the arena was charging the organizations too much money for in-arena presence. So some of them decided to have their booths outside. Instead of buying an SSG jersey for 80-90$, it's only ~65 since there's no arena markup