In the first generation of Rocket League esports, when a handful of North American teams were learning what high level three on three play could look like, Cody “Gambit” Dover stood out as one of the most technically gifted players in the scene. A veteran of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars on PlayStation 3, he carried years of car soccer experience into Rocket League in 2015 and quickly became a centerpiece of some of the region’s strongest lineups.
From Kings of Urban to Swarm Gaming and Orange Creamsicle, then into the superteam iBUYPOWER Cosmic and a later return in the Rocket League Rival Series with Premature Superhero Cops and Myth Gaming, Gambit’s active career was short but influential. He helped define what it meant to be a mechanical star in early Rocket League, won major online events including key RLCS Season 1 qualifiers, and then stepped away from the top level as he confronted serious mental health challenges.
Across 2015 to 2017 he earned a modest total in prize money compared to later eras, but his impact on how the game was played and on the story of the first RLCS era far outweighed those numbers.
From SARPBC Veteran To Kings Of Urban
Gambit entered Rocket League with an advantage that few players could match. Years of high level SARPBC play had given him an intuitive feel for aerials, wall control, and passing routes that were still new to most of the community in mid 2015. Contemporary coverage and later profiles consistently describe him as one of the most individually skilled players in North America once Rocket League arrived on PC and PlayStation 4.
By August 2015 he had joined Kings of Urban, a North American team that quickly became one of the region’s first powerhouses. Team history pages on community wikis list him with Kings of Urban from August to October 2015. With Jacob and Fireburner, Kings of Urban won online cups such as early Rocket Royale weeks and Go4RocketLeague events, building the foundation for the aggressive, offense focused style that became a North American trademark.
Those early months also helped define a rivalry that would shape the scene. ESPN’s history of iBUYPOWER Cosmic notes that Kings of Urban were one of the few squads capable of challenging Kronovi’s lineups in 2015 and early 2016, and that Gambit sat at the center of those clashes before his later move to iBUYPOWER.
A Brief European Detour And Orange Creamsicle
Late in 2015 Gambit took a rare path for a North American player by joining a European organization. Liquipedia records him moving from Kings of Urban to Swarm Gaming on 27 October 2015, a short lived stint that lasted only a few weeks before the roster split.
More important for his legacy was the creation of Orange Creamsicle. By November 2015 Gambit had joined forces with Lachinio and others under that banner. Orange Creamsicle became a regular presence in late 2015 European and cross regional online competition, appearing in Gfinity 3v3 cups, Rocket Royale weeks, and community tournaments that helped bridge the gap between regions.
This period cemented Gambit’s reputation as a transatlantic threat. While official prize tracking sites only partially capture those online cups, they show him picking up multiple wins and podium finishes, reinforcing the sense that he was comfortable competing at the highest level in both North America and Europe at a time when the competitive meta was still being invented.
iBUYPOWER Cosmic And The Superteam Gamble
In early 2016, iBUYPOWER Cosmic needed to evolve. The organization had signed Kronovi’s Cosmic Aftershock roster the previous fall, but by March 2016 they were ready for a rebuild ahead of Psyonix’s newly announced Rocket League Championship Series.
ESPN’s feature on the team describes how they did it. To push iBUYPOWER into what it called “the most elite of elite tiers,” the organization brought in two of the most individually skilled players in the world, Cody “Gambit” Dover and Brandon “Lachinio” Lachin. Community records place Gambit’s official arrival on iBUYPOWER in March 2016, with the Kronovi, Gambit, Lachinio trio immediately taking over top placements in early 2016 events.
The new roster quickly validated those expectations. In Rocket Royale weeks and other invitationals they beat European contenders like We Dem Girlz and domestic rivals such as Kings of Urban. In RLCS Season 1 they topped their North American group and won the regional online final, securing the number one seed for the world championship.
During this run Gambit’s playstyle became part of iBUYPOWER’s identity. Analysts and commentators praised his ability to generate solo offense off the ceiling and sidewalls, to dunk defenders at awkward angles, and to link those solo plays into passes for Kronovi and Lachinio. ESPN’s history of the team names him specifically as a player whose individual skill helped transform iBUYPOWER into a true superteam.
Mental Health, RLCS Season 1, And A Missing Star
Just as iBUYPOWER Cosmic reached their peak, Gambit’s personal struggles forced a turning point. In the summer of 2016 he announced that he would not attend the RLCS Season 1 World Championship in Los Angeles and would step away from competition.
In a TwitLonger that was later archived and discussed on Reddit, Gambit explained that he had been struggling for years with severe depression and anxiety, cycling through medications that affected both his day to day life and his performance in competition. After a pair of anxiety attacks and a new diagnosis that focused more on anxiety than depression, he decided that the demands of professional play were too much while he sought treatment and stability.
ESPN’s recap of the Season 1 finals describes iBUYPOWER Cosmic as underdogs coming into LAN after “losing their star player, Cody ‘Gambit’ Dover, due to health issues.” Red Bull later framed his decision as an early example of a player choosing mental health over a world championship opportunity, highlighting the long term importance of that choice.
In Gambit’s absence, iBUYPOWER Cosmic promoted 0ver Zer0 from substitute to starter and went on to win the first RLCS world championship, defeating FlipSid3 Tactics and Northern Gaming on stage in Los Angeles. Official records list the three on stage players as world champions, but interviews and retrospectives regularly point back to Gambit’s role in the qualifying run and the team’s development.
For the community, his departure became one of the first reminders that the excitement of a new esport could not be separated from the mental and emotional realities of the people playing it. It also helped set a precedent for more open conversations about mental health in Rocket League in the years that followed.
G2 Esports And The Attempted Return
In September 2016 G2 Esports entered Rocket League by signing the iBUYPOWER Cosmic roster. ESPN’s announcement made clear that the starting lineup for RLCS Season 2 would be Kronovi, Lachinio, and 0ver Zer0, with Gambit returning in a hybrid role as substitute and coach.
Esports databases confirm that he spent several months under the G2 banner in late 2016, scrimming with the team and appearing in smaller competitions but not reclaiming a central place in major RLCS broadcasts. An ESPN “rostermania” feature framed him as a notable free agent and veteran talent who was still searching for the right path back into full time play.
G2’s struggles in RLCS Season 2 and their failure to qualify for that season’s world championship shifted attention to broader questions about the roster rather than to Gambit’s own story. Yet his presence on the lineup, even as a substitute, showed that top organizations still respected his experience and insight, both as a player and as an analyst of the developing meta.
Premature Superhero Cops, Myth Gaming, And The RLRS Era
Gambit’s last sustained run as a player came a year later in the Rocket League Rival Series. In August 2017 he joined Genocop and PreM to form Premature Superhero Cops, a North American lineup that fought through qualifiers into RLRS Season 4.
Rival Series coverage and wiki archives show Premature Superhero Cops competing under that name for several weeks before being signed by Myth Gaming in September 2017. Under the Myth banner, the team posted a 3–4 record in league play and finished mid table in North America, good enough to prove they belonged in the tier just below RLCS but not enough to secure promotion.
Beyond RLRS, Gambit added smaller achievements, including wins and podium finishes in online cups and regional events that helped maintain his presence in the scene through late 2017. By 2018 his official team history lists Myth Gaming as his final long term organization, with short stints on lesser known lineups before he faded from the highest levels of competition.
Playstyle, Innovation, And Influence
Rocket League has never had formal positional labels in the way traditional sports do, so early players were defined more by their tendencies than by any fixed role. In that vocabulary, Gambit was a pure mechanical forward with the confidence to challenge in the air, improvise off awkward bounces, and carry the ball through traffic when others would simply clear it away.
Analysts and commentators in 2016 often paired his name with Lachinio as examples of raw talent that could change a series in a single play. ESPN’s iBUYPOWER feature emphasizes that the organization recruited them precisely because they were viewed as two of the most individually skilled players of the era.
Footage from RLCS Season 1 qualifiers and early online events, preserved on the Rocket League Esports YouTube channel and in highlight packages, shows how that translated in practice. Gambit repeatedly turned routine defensive touches into wall carries and solo dribbles, forced double commits from defenders who were not used to that level of pressure, and opened up passing lanes for Kronovi and Lachinio that helped define iBUYPOWER’s offense.
For younger players watching at home, especially in North America, his play offered proof that high mechanical skill could be integrated into structured team systems and not just used for freestyle highlights. Discussions on community forums for years afterward continued to bring up his name when fans talked about early era innovators and “what if” careers.
Legacy And Impact
Measured only in trophies and prize money, Cody “Gambit” Dover’s career looks modest beside the multimillion dollar resumes of later RLCS champions. His prime came before the largest prize pools, and his time on the biggest stages was cut short by health concerns that kept him away from the inaugural world championship.
Viewed in context, his legacy is considerably larger. He helped bring SARPBC experience into Rocket League at a moment when the competitive meta was still forming. He pushed Kings of Urban into one of the first great North American teams. He formed part of the core that turned iBUYPOWER Cosmic into a generational roster, shaping their regular season dominance and setting up the world championship run that followed his departure.
His decision to step away from LAN to prioritize mental health left a different kind of mark. At a time when esports culture often treated burnout and anxiety as private problems or weaknesses, Gambit spoke publicly about his struggles, shared a diagnosis, and chose long term well being over a once in a lifetime opportunity. Later coverage by outlets like Red Bull and ESPN treated that choice as an important part of the story of Rocket League’s first era, not just a footnote about a missing starter.
Today, when fans and historians look back at the first years of Rocket League esports, Gambit’s name surfaces less as a matter of totals and more as a symbol of peak potential, early mechanical innovation, and the human costs that can sit just behind a dominant team. His legacy sits in that combination of on field brilliance and hard personal choice, a reminder that the foundations of the esport were laid not just by champions on stage, but also by the players whose struggles changed how the community understood success.