In the first years of Rocket League esports, when a new title was trying to prove it belonged beside older competitive games, Braden “Pluto” Schenetzki stood out as one of North America’s steadiest anchors. A veteran of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, he arrived in Rocket League with years of car–ball experience and quickly helped shape the early North American scene through vQ Untethered, Genesis, and a final run with Selfless Gaming. Across three Rocket League Championship Series seasons, two world championship appearances, and dozens of online brackets, Pluto became known for calm back-line defense and a style that let his more aggressive teammates flourish.
SARPBC Roots, A New Game, And The Name “Pluto”
Pluto’s story begins before Rocket League ever launched. He was one of the relatively small group of players who spent years in Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, the PlayStation 3 predecessor that gave the basic blueprint for Rocket League. When Psyonix released the sequel in 2015, he arrived as a seasoned player rather than a newcomer, eager for a second chance at a car–soccer esport that might actually take off this time.
Online he originally played under the handle “PlutoniumFalcon.” Friends and casters shortened it to “Pluto,” and over time he officially adopted the simpler tag. A trivia note preserved on the Rocket League Esports Wiki captures the rest of his personality in small details. He bowled several days a week at around a 195 average, loved baseball, and was open about his Christian faith. During the RLCS Season 3 era he even leaned into a casting joke, temporarily playing as “Plu’oh” after British caster Mega Shogun’s pronunciation turned into a light-hearted challenge on social media.
Those details fit the public image that emerged across interviews and streams. Pluto generally presented himself as modest and grounded, more focused on team improvement than personal celebrity, and that attitude would carry into his role on some of the first successful North American lineups.
Untethered, vQ Untethered, And The First North American Powerhouse
As Rocket League’s competitive scene formed in 2015, Pluto joined up with Lachinio and Vafele to create Untethered, later signed by Vanquish Gaming as vQ Untethered. The trio carved out an identity as one of the earliest North American powerhouses. Tournament records from late 2015 and early 2016 show them winning or placing high in events like the MLG Pro League Season 1 group stage and playoffs, the RGN North America 3v3 Cup, and the first Rocket Royale weeks.
VODs from the period, including MLG’s Pro Rocket League broadcasts and ESL finals against Cosmic Aftershock, capture vQ Untethered’s style. Lachinio often took the starring offensive role, while Pluto sat deeper, cleaning up touches in defense and feeding counterattacks. Community threads from the time remember those matches as some of the best sets early fans ever watched, with vQ Untethered treated as one of the first “favorite” teams for many viewers.
Although that roster never reached a world championship, it set the stage for Pluto’s next chapter. As organizations took a closer interest in Rocket League and Psyonix prepared a proper league structure, he moved on from Untethered and eventually became part of a new project, one that would carry him onto the biggest stage the game had yet seen.
Building Genesis For The First RLCS Era
On March 29, 2016, the North American roster Genesis officially formed, bringing together Pluto, Michael “Quinn Lobdell” Behrouzi, and Sadjunior under a new banner. Early tournament records show them grinding through weekly events such as Rocket Royale and the Psyonix-sponsored PPL leagues, tuning a style built on structured rotations and strong back-line play from Pluto.
Rocket League’s first Championship Series season cast a huge net. More than six thousand teams entered the open qualifiers that eventually funneled into the top sixteen for group stages in each region. Genesis battled through that crowd and emerged as one of North America’s eight league teams, surviving the online stages and qualifying for the inaugural RLCS Live International Final in August 2016.
ESPN’s recap of the Season 1 group stage paints a picture of a defensive squad that relied heavily on Pluto’s presence in net. Genesis finished league play 19–16 with one of the lowest goals-against records and the highest save rate in the region, and Pluto recorded the second most saves of any player with 62 across the stage.
Worlds Debut: RLCS Season 1 With Genesis
At the Season 1 World Championship in Los Angeles, Genesis faced a brutal bracket. In the upper side they ran into eventual champions Northern Gaming and were swept in three games, then fell into the lower bracket for a survival run.
Their first elimination match turned into one of Genesis’s most memorable series. Mock-It EU jumped out to a two game lead, only for Genesis to claw back and complete a reverse sweep. Pluto’s defensive work kept them alive long enough for Quinn and Sadjunior to spark the comeback, and a string of RLCS tweets preserved in Missed Aerials’ day-two recap shows the North American squad being celebrated for refusing to bow out quietly.
The run ended against The Flying Dutchmen, who knocked Genesis out in a five game series, but Pluto had made his mark on the international stage. Highlight clips from that weekend show him both as a steady last man and as a capable shooter when space opened, including a booming opener against the Dutch that RLCS social media used to “wake everyone up” at the start of the day’s broadcast.
Genesis finished the event tied for fifth and sixth, earning a modest but significant share of the prize pool at a time when Rocket League payouts were still small by future standards.
A New Genesis: Espeon, Klassux, And RLCS Season 2
After Season 1 the North American landscape shifted. Rosters reshuffled across the region, and Genesis brought in European player Espeon and North American striker Klassux to form a very different lineup around Pluto.
Tournaments through the summer and autumn of 2016 show the new Genesis taking regular deep runs in events such as Rocket Royale, the PPL, and various online cups, often finishing in the top four or better. By the time RLCS Season 2 league play rolled around, they were a known quantity rather than an upstart.
In Season 2 North America, Genesis again qualified for league play and finished among the top seeds. Esports earnings records list Pluto’s single largest cash prize as coming from this period, with the team earning 3rd place in the regional playoff bracket in November 2016. The official Rocket League season coverage described Genesis as a balanced squad where Klassux appeared fully settled and Pluto remained “a powerhouse across the field,” a recognition of his continued importance on both defense and transition plays.
That showing secured Genesis a second straight trip to the RLCS World Championship. At the Season 2 finals they fell short of a deep run, finishing 7th–8th after a loss to NRG Esports, but Pluto had now played at two consecutive world championships and established himself as one of the region’s most experienced veterans.
Selfless Gaming, Splyce, And A Third World Championship
Early in 2017 Pluto’s career entered a final high-level chapter. He joined Selfless Gaming, teaming up with Dappur, Mijo, and later Timi for RLCS Season 3. The roster took some time to settle, but results show them steadily improving through league play and mid-season events.
In the Season 3 North American league, Selfless finished fifth, sent to the regional playoffs where they secured third place. That result, combined with a runner-up finish in the North American Midseason Mayhem, earned Pluto his third straight RLCS World Championship appearance, this time under a different banner.
At the Season 3 World Championship, Selfless exited in the 9th–10th range, falling to Denial Esports in a three to one series. While it was not the storybook run some hoped for, the tournament marked the end of an era. After three seasons of the early RLCS format, organizations and players were beginning to cycle out, and new names were rising to the top. Pluto remained one of the few constants, a player who had been present at every world championship to that point.
Later in 2017 he briefly joined Splyce, competing in the Universal Open and a slate of online events, and also played under various smaller banners in two-versus-two and weekly tournaments. These runs rounded out his professional résumé without changing its core shape. He had already done the most important work of his career in those first three RLCS seasons.
Return Appearances, Streaming, And A Different Role In Esports
After the main RLCS years, Pluto’s career shifted from full-time competition to a mix of short returns and content work. Liquipedia’s history tab shows a brief reunion with Genesis in 2018, a stint as a substitute and later streamer for FlyQuest, and streaming roles for Warriors International and Pioneers.
EsportsEarnings lists his total prize money at just under thirteen thousand dollars across thirty-six tournaments, with most of that coming from the RLCS seasons that defined his peak. By modern standards that number seems small, but in the context of 2015 through 2017 Rocket League it represents a career spent consistently near the top of the scene, when players were still balancing school, work, and the risk that the esport might not last.
Through it all Pluto remained present in the community through streams, interviews, and podcasts. Shows such as Live From Mannfield and other early Rocket League talk programs brought him on to discuss roster moves, the Amsterdam world championship, and the growth of the game. That willingness to talk about the scene, rather than simply play in it, contributed to the sense of him as an ambassador for the game’s formative years.
A Guardian Of Early North American Rocket League
When fans look back on the first era of Rocket League esports, Pluto often appears in a particular kind of memory. Reddit threads that celebrate “players the streets will not forget” frequently name him as part of the vQ Untethered squad that battled Cosmic Aftershock in ESL finals or as the backbone of Genesis during its first RLCS runs.
Statistically he was never the flashiest scorer on his teams, but contemporary coverage shows how valuable his defensive work was. During the Season 1 group stage he helped Genesis lead the league in save rate, personally recording the second most saves among all players in the region. In Season 2 he remained a “powerhouse” presence according to official league articles, contributing across the field in a more balanced roster.
Perhaps most importantly, Pluto represents continuity between different stages of Rocket League. He bridged the gap from SARPBC to Rocket League, from community weeklies to the first world championships, and from early organizations to the more stable structures that would follow. His story is not one of towering prize pools or long dynasties. Instead it is the story of a player who helped prove that Rocket League could sustain real professional careers at all.
For an Esports Legacy Profile, Pluto’s legacy sits at the intersection of results and memory. Three straight RLCS world championship appearances with Genesis and Selfless, a string of strong regional finishes, and nearly thirteen thousand dollars in earnings provide the measurable side. The intangible side lives in those early VODs and fan threads, where vQ Untethered matches are still described as some of the best series ever played and where Genesis’s reverse sweep against Mock-It EU remains a favorite piece of RLCS history.
Taken together, they mark Braden “Pluto” Schenetzki as one of the guardians of Rocket League’s first RLCS era, a player whose steady car in the back line helped build the foundation on which later champions would stand.