Psyonix explains Rocket League’s jump to free-to-play, new seasons, and ranks

Psyonix is getting ready to launch Rocket League as a free-to-play game. And while the developers are preparing for it, the company released more information today about the revamp coming to tournaments, seasons, and ranked mode. This includes the addition of cross-platform progression for the game, which will allow players to keep their level, gear, and ranks across all of the systems that Rocket League is playable on.

Starting with seasons, Competitive Seasons, Competitive Tournaments, and the Rocket Pass will all follow the same schedule once Rocket League goes free-to-play. This means the Rocket Pass will no longer be its own, numbered entity and will instead be an extension of whatever season is going at the time. So when season one goes live, the corresponding Rocket Pass and Competitive Season will also launch at the same time. 

As for the Competitive Season, Psyonix is adding a new top rank above Grand Champion and splitting the previous top mark into different ranks: Grand Champion 1, Grand Champion 2, and Grand Champion 3. Anyone currently ranked in Grand Champion will be placed in Grand Champion 1 depending on how they do in their new placement matches. 

Supersonic Legend is the newest rank, sitting at the peak of the Rocket League mountain. Both Grand Champion and Supersonic Legend will have their own set of special season rewards at the end of each season, as well as rank-specific titles. MMR will still be displayed in the Playlist menu once you hit Grand Champion 1.

To better serve new players coming in, all ranks will shift closer to the median (somewhere around Gold III), meaning players might be ranked higher than usual because they’ll be better than some of the newer faces joining. Players will also need to hit level 10 to play Ranked. 

Newer players will have access to a new tutorial to teach them the basics, along with a set of New Driver Challenges that will help them unlock items that were included in the base version of the game.

Other notable features for this soft-relaunch of Rocket League include players not needing PlayStation Plus on PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch Online to play the game online. The Rocket ID system will also transition to merge with the Epic Friends list through your Epic Games Account.

Likewise, Heatseeker will be playable in private matches, a new, easier bot difficulty will be added, new remixes will be added to the game, and the Solo Standard Playlist will be removed.

Epic and Psyonix can’t share the exact date for Rocket League’s next update, but players can expect it around mid-September. The free-to-play launch will come “shortly after.”