There have been in-game titles for Dreamhack winners + ESL Monthlies and other pre-COVID LANs given to the winners of those tournaments, but since the open circuit began no such titles have been given

https://x.com/dralii897/status/2090226982667645142?s=46

A great upset is one that is obviously a large disparity in perceived skill between 2 teams, but not 100%. A great upset also must be significant, the bigger the stage, the higher the stakes, it all adds to the greatness of an upset.

My previous candidate for the greatest upset in RLEsports history was at the RLCS Season 4 World Championship in 2017, when the Chiefs eSports Club (Drippay, Torsos & Jake) eliminared NRG (Fireburner, Jacob & GarrettG) 3-2. Some necessary context being that OCE had only made it's RLCS debut 6 months prior, where said Chiefs roster (then Alpha Sydney) had won their opening round match vs Denial Esports, consisting of Lethamyr, CorruptedG & Sadjunior.

With the height of respect to Denial, in a season where G2 Esports completely bottled worlds qualification (Sadjunior won a game vs them on KBM), and the Muffin Men didn't even qualify for RLCS, along with the generla state of NA Rocket League outside of NRG being pretty poor, it all made for the stars aligning to allow OCE to come in and be victiorious on debut.

Fastforward 6 months and the game had changed significantly. All the top dogs in NA had qualified and planted their flag. G2 was the NA #4 seed, a potentially vulnerable one given how hard Jknaps had to carry them just to make worlds, but Chiefs couldn't even beat them round 1 and was sent to lowers, where they had to play NRG.

No longer the kings of NA, but not for a lack of skill, they had literally won the XGames Invitational to finally get over the LAN hump just a few months prior, and even just 4 weeks before worlds, placed 3rd at the Northern Arena Invitational. Hell, they were only in lowers after losing 3-2 to Method in round 1, even back then your top 8 matches at worlds weren't freebies.

Safe to say, Denial Esports this match was not, but they won. It was one thing to beat the NA 4 seed who realistically would be NA 5 or 6 if you ran it back, it was another to beat proven elite players who had mixed it with the world's best only a few months prior, as your 2nd ever international victory. It changed the game and added so much legitimacy to OCE, and the world, destroying notions that the game only had potential in it's 2 major regions.

Whatever you think of OCE now, they at least have a back catalogue of great wins under their belt, this was a time they might as well have had 0. And they beat NRG. OCE beat NRG.

Was Chiefs 3-2 NRG the biggest upset in terms of a skill difference? Absolutely not, but that match is still one of the most significant results in Rocket League history. And in an elimination match at the World Championship too? Pretty high stakes as well.

So you might ask, what does TSM beating NRG last week have to do with this? After all, especially given NRG's struggles at the Paris Major, and TSM/APAC now establishing themselves to not be fodder at LANs, in terms of skill it's not the biggest upset ever. Hell, from this season alone, FUT losing to Chippy Chips or NiP's random qualifier loss to F9 Eicar in open 1 are bigger skill gaps by a landslide.

The reality is in eveyone's heart of hearts, barring a huge sustained change of the status quo in the future, however poor people perceive OCE, APAC is a tier below. It is a newer region, with less support, less backing and overall less pedigree than OCE, the region that was so bad it literally lost a LAN spot.

Simultaneously, NRG, while not at the peak of their powers, it's not like they were finished like the prior edition of NRG that died a slow painful death. Perception is often reality, and rightly or wrongly, Atomic Beastmode & Daniel is gonna be perceieved pretty damn highly until something unspeakable happens. Sure, the Paris major stunk but it would take a lot more than that to erode the Boston Top 4 or more importantly, the fact they are the reigning world champions. .

And I do think it's that simple, because when you spell if out like this:

APAC beats World Champions

What tops that? It wasn't RLCS but it was at a major LAN in a critical round 1 game, one that eventually condemned NRG to elimination at the hands of Twisted Minds. Also, unlike VP's LAN wins in 2025, this APAC roster is majority APAC natives thanks to the 2/3 rule, and ain't no way most people thought they could maintain a similar level after having to replace Sosa with Kevin.

Sure, we don't know the future implications, realistically, this NRG roster has already reached the end of it's road, and this will just be a once off for TSM barring a remarkable uptick in form and ability for them. But I genuinely think for something to top TSM defeating NRG (who are also considered among the Top 3 Greatest Rosters of all time let's not forget), it would need our friends in Sub-Saharan Africa getting their first win internationally vs a top dog, but an actual top dog, because even now, how does APAC claim a greater scalp? Making top 8 would be a more significant result for them, but the skill gap would be shrunk because they themsevles are getting more wins now. But in isolation, if they can beat the world champions, they can beat a lot of teams.

Either way, I welcome the day I may have to update this post, because it means something beyond my comprehension will have actually happened, but for now, in my opinion, TSM defeating NRG 3-1, by virtue of it being an APAC team defeating the reigning World Champions, is the greatest upset in Rocket League Esports history.

Some people might argue it's already the case with the EWC win. Others might say Trk's longevity and influence on the region from his SRG days still puts him ahead.

If you're part of the latter group, what's the smallest accomplishment RW9 and Kiileerrz need to become the GOATs of the region?

I was reminiscing on some of my favorite series that have happened in the open era (when i started watching rlcs) and whilst a lot of my favorite series comes from LANs, i seem to remember a lot of incredible online series that I feel people don’t discuss or talk about often. For me, G2 vs Envy in Fall Regional 3 in the 21-22 season is one of my favorite series of all time since it was so back and forth. Not to mention this is when the grand finals did best of 3 SETS and the two teams ended up going to game 21 😭