In the first years of Rocket League competition, a teenager from Canada helped set the standard for how North America would play the game. Brandon “Lachinio” Lachin rose from online ladders and weekly cups into Major League Gaming’s early Pro League and the Rocket League Championship Series. By the summer of 2016 he stood on stage at Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles, wearing an iBUYPOWER Cosmic jersey and lifting the first RLCS world championship trophy alongside Cameron “Kronovi” Bills and Ted “0ver Zer0” Keil.
This Esports Legacy Profile traces Lachinio’s competitive history inside Rocket League, from his first organized rosters to that Season 1 world title and the long climb back through Team Iris, Myth Gaming, and Out of Style.
Early Years And Entry Into Competitive Rocket League
Public records describe Brandon “Lachinio” Lachin as a Canadian player who entered Rocket League’s competitive scene as a teenager and later became a former professional player and streamer. Major esports databases such as Liquipedia and Esports Earnings list his birthdate as October 31, 1999, but they agree on the essentials. He came from Canada, climbed rapidly through online ladders, and by mid 2015 his name was appearing in early tournament brackets and team sign up lists across North America.
Those first months of competition took place before the Rocket League Championship Series existed. The main stages were community leagues and ESL weekly cups. In that environment a young, mechanical player who could read aerials and double touches better than most stood out quickly. Under the handle “Lachinio,” he joined the early roster that would become Untethered, teaming with Braden “Pluto” Schenetzki and Shane “Vafele” Heard for their first serious runs at organized play.
Untethered, vQ Untethered, And The First North American Pro Circuits
In August 2015 the core of Untethered signed with Vanquish Gaming as vQ Untethered. The team of Lachinio, Pluto, and Vafele played through early Major League Gaming and Rocket League Central events, including the inaugural MLG Pro League Season 1. There they fought through the group stage and playoffs against other early North American squads such as Kings of Urban, Failure to Launch, and Cosmic Aftershock.
Analysts at the time highlighted Untethered for their “momentum” and aggressive style. Gibbs’s power rankings on community forums placed them near the top of North America, describing how their ability to seize control of a series had made them one of the region’s most feared lineups. In that setting, Lachinio developed a reputation as a high impact attacker who could both generate solo plays and read his teammates’ passes in the air.
When the roster briefly parted ways with Vanquish and bounced between the Untethered and Nexus eSports names in late 2015 and early 2016, the core remained similar. During this period Lachinio’s team finished strongly in the Rocket League Central Pro League’s North American group stage and remained a consistent top four presence in regional events.
Joining iBUYPOWER Cosmic
The turning point in Lachinio’s career came in March and April 2016, when he left Untethered and joined iBUYPOWER Cosmic. Liquipedia and esports earnings records list his transfer into iBUYPOWER at the start of April, completing a roster that centered on Kronovi’s leadership and offensive presence.
iBUYPOWER Cosmic had already been one of the most visible North American teams because of their hardware sponsorship and the earlier Cosmic Aftershock lineup. The addition of Lachinio to the roster raised expectations that they would become not just a popular team, but a dominant one. That group, with Kronovi, Lachinio, and Cody “Gambit” Dover as the primary trio, began to accumulate wins in Rocket Royale and other pre RLCS circuits.
When the Rocket League Championship Series officially launched in 2016, iBUYPOWER Cosmic entered as one of North America’s early favorites. Throughout Season 1’s online league they traded series with rivals such as Kings of Urban and Exodus, but they arrived at the North American online finals as a proven contender. In those online playoffs they secured one of North America’s spots, qualifying for the inaugural RLCS International Finals.
RLCS Season 1: World Champion At Avalon Hollywood
The first RLCS LAN finals took place in August 2016 at Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. Psyonix’s own recap describes how eight teams from Europe and North America met in a sold out venue, with over a million viewers watching across the weekend.
iBUYPOWER Cosmic’s path to the title was not straightforward. They entered LAN as North America’s #3 ranked team and had to adapt at the last minute when Gambit could not attend due to health issues and Ted “0ver Zer0” Keil stepped into the starting lineup. The official RLCS recap refers to Kronovi as team captain and to Lachinio as a “perennial all star,” underscoring the respect he had already earned in the scene.
Across two days in Hollywood, iBUYPOWER Cosmic defeated FlipSid3 Tactics in their opening match, sent The Flying Dutchmen to the lower bracket, and beat Northern Gaming in the upper bracket final. In the grand final they faced FlipSid3 Tactics again and won the best of seven series four games to two, claiming the first RLCS world championship. The same recap notes that Kronovi, Lachinio, and 0ver Zer0 lifted the trophy together and that their victories came against teams which had often been ranked above them during the season.
In an interview conducted immediately after the event, published through ESPN’s gaming section but provided by Psyonix, the team emphasized how much their victory relied on preparation and composure under pressure. 0ver Zer0 described taking a more defensive role and letting Kronovi and Lachinio “take the ball up,” portraying Lachinio as one of the primary offensive engines in the grand final.
The same piece recorded Lachinio’s reaction to the live crowd. While other teams tried to tune out the noise, he told the interviewer, “We handle crowds so easily. We play so well when we have the crowd behind us. Thank you.” Later, thinking back on the winning moment, he said that he “dropped my headset and went to hug them,” capturing the release of a months long chase after a world title.
G2 Esports And The Weight Of A World Title
Within a month of their RLCS championship, iBUYPOWER Cosmic became the first Rocket League roster signed by a major international esports organization. G2 Esports announced on September 7, 2016 that they had acquired the world champion lineup of Kronovi, Lachinio, and 0ver Zer0, with Gambit remaining as a substitute.
That move was historic in several ways. G2’s announcement emphasized that the players would be among the first Rocket League professionals able to live entirely off salary, a signal that the esport was beginning to develop real infrastructure. Mainstream coverage noted that the roster was unchanged from its world championship run and that these players were expected to remain favorites in the upcoming RLCS Season 2.
Results did not match the hype. During Season 2 league play G2 underperformed, finishing near the bottom of the North American table and failing to qualify for the Season 2 World Championship. The disappointment led to roster changes early in 2017. By February 2017, the roster had been rebuilt, with Dillon “Rizzo” Rizzo and Jacob “JKnaps” Knapman stepping into the starting lineup.
For Lachinio, this marked the end of his time as a world champion under a top European organization. His next chapters would be defined instead by building new teams and trying to fight his way back to the RLCS stage.
Team Iris And The Generation To Come
In late 2016 Lachinio joined a new North American lineup that would soon be known as Team Iris. Alongside Mariano “SquishyMuffinz” Arruda and Tyler “Torment” Wood, he spent the winter and early spring of 2017 bootcamping and playing in online tournaments.
Liquipedia’s records show Iris winning and placing highly in several mid tier events, including PRL 3v3 Rivals Cup #22 and Take The Shot Monthly #3, and reaching the upper end of community brackets. Scrim reports and interviews from the time described them as a team favored to qualify for RLCS Season 3.
The official Season 3 open qualifier tells a harsher story. Iris fell in the North American RLCS open bracket and finished outside the places that would have sent them into league play. That failure helped trigger the roster changes which eventually put SquishyMuffinz and Torment on Cloud9, where they would win the RLCS Season 6 World Championship. Lachinio moved on instead, beginning a new sequence of short stints as he tried to reclaim a spot among North America’s elite.
Myth Gaming, Out Of Style, And The RLRS Climb
After a brief period around Myth Gaming in mid 2017, sharing lineups with players such as CorruptedG and SadJunior, Lachinio settled into what would become his last major chapter in Rocket League competition: Out of Style.
Out of Style formed in 2017 and fought its way into the Rocket League Rival Series (RLRS), the second tier league below RLCS. Liquipedia’s tournament list for Lachinio shows Out of Style finishing second in the Season 4 NA RLRS and second in the Season 4 promotion tournament, as part of a roster that included rising talent Justin “JSTN” Morales and EPICJonny. They secured promotion into RLCS for Season 5, but the step up proved difficult.
In Season 5 the Out of Style core qualified for RLCS league play at last. The team struggled in the top division and ended the season near the bottom of the table, then failed to defend their spot in the promotion tournament. Results and internal tension culminated in a disband in July 2018, with both EPICJonny and Lachinio departing.
Those promotion and relegation series also generated one of the more discussed controversies of his later career. Teammates publicly criticized him for limited communication during decisive matches, and Lachinio responded on social media with a now archived remark that “comms are overrated anyway.” The episode underlined how far his career had moved from the peak of RLCS Season 1, when every piece of media portrayed him as part of a unified, confident championship trio.
Mechanical Play, Training Packs, And Influence
Throughout these team changes, one through line in Lachinio’s reputation was his mechanical ability. The Rocket League community had first noticed him as a young player who could hit difficult aerial shots and read fast passing plays during a period when much of the scene was still learning the game’s depth. Highlight videos circulated, and G2’s signing announcement pointed fans to a montage showing his offensive flair.
That mechanical skill also translated into one of his more enduring contributions to the community: custom training packs. In 2018, Psyonix’s official “Community Spotlight: Learn from the Pros Part 2” article recommended a “Reverse Aerial Practice” training pack created by Lachinio, describing it as a twist on typical aerial routines. For thousands of players, his name was attached not just to LAN finals, but to a training code they plugged into the game while trying to improve their car control.
Even when he was no longer part of RLCS league play, statistical archives on sites like ballchasing and Rocket League tracking services show his account continuing to log games and replays. In that sense, he continued to serve as a bridge between the first generation of RLCS pros and the broader player base who learned from watching their games and practicing with their drills.
Stepping Away From The Top Tier
After Out of Style’s disband, Lachinio’s appearances in major tournaments became rarer. Records show a brief stint with the team Icy in early 2019, but no sustained presence in RLCS or RLRS beyond that point. Instead he shifted toward content creation, streaming, and casual competition. His YouTube channel and social media bios describe him explicitly as a “former professional Rocket League player” and “RLCS Season 1 World Champion,” a signal that he had accepted his place in Rocket League history rather than continuing to chase a full time pro return.
Despite stepping back, he has remained visible whenever conversations turn to early Rocket League. Anniversary posts from community sites and Liquipedia’s own Rocket League account have celebrated the date when iBUYPOWER Cosmic, with Kronovi, Lachinio, and 0ver Zer0, won that first RLCS title.
Legacy In Rocket League’s Formative Years
Brandon “Lachinio” Lachin’s Rocket League career can be divided into two halves. The first runs from 2015 through 2016, when he emerged from the early online circuits into vQ Untethered, joined iBUYPOWER Cosmic, and helped deliver North America’s first world championship at Avalon Hollywood. In that phase he was one of the faces of the game, a teenager whose mechanics and confidence under pressure made him central to Rocket League’s arrival as an esport.
The second half covers his attempts to climb back to that level after leaving G2. Through Team Iris, Myth Gaming, and Out of Style he remained competitive, gave a platform to rising stars like SquishyMuffinz and JSTN, and pushed against the ceiling of RLRS and promotion tournaments. Those runs did not produce another world title, but they tied his legacy to some of the most influential players of the next generation.
Today, when fans and historians look back at the earliest chapters of Rocket League esports, Lachinio’s name sits alongside Kronovi and a handful of others as one of the first North Americans to lift an RLCS trophy. His path from vQ Untethered to iBUYPOWER Cosmic, from online cups to Avalon Hollywood, and from world champion to training pack creator captures both the promise and volatility of Rocket League’s formative years.