Event Chronicles – RLCS Season 2 North America Regional Championship
In the fall of 2016, North American Rocket League arrived at a turning point. One year after the game’s breakout success and a first RLCS season that felt like an experiment, Season 2 brought a more mature league, better defined rivalries, and a new wave of organizations entering the scene. For North America, the Season 2 league and its online regional finals formed a complete story of a region still searching for its identity and a new champion eager to claim it.
That story ran from late September through November. Eight teams who survived the open qualifier entered league play. Their results set the seeds for a two week online playoff sprint that would decide the six figure Grand Finals trip to Amsterdam and crown a single North American regional champion. In that setting, NRG Esports, newly arrived in Rocket League, turned a strong league campaign into their first major regional title.
League Play and a Crowded Top Tier
Season 2 North America began with a simple structure. Eight teams qualified through an open bracket and entered a four week league stage that ran from September 24 to October 22, 2016. Every series was a best of five, played online. The format was a single round robin. At the end of those four weeks, the top two teams would qualify directly to the international LAN finals and receive a bye past the first round of regional playoffs, while the teams in third through sixth would fight through a separate online bracket for the last North American places.
The field reflected both continuity and change. Familiar names from Season 1 appeared in new colors. Kings of Urban joined the season but were acquired mid league by NRG Esports, while Exodus were picked up by Orbit partway through the schedule. Vendetta later came under the VindicatorGG banner. Underneath the organizational shuffling, the core of the region consisted of lineups that fans already recognized from community events and the first RLCS year.
By the end of league play, the standings showed a clear but tightly contested top three. Orbit took first place at 6 wins and 1 loss, dropping only a single series across four weeks. NRG and Genesis each finished at 5 wins and 2 losses, separated only by game difference. Take 3 claimed the fourth and final automatic online finals place at 4 wins and 3 losses. VindicatorGG and Revival, both at 2 or 3 wins, slid into the last playoff spots, while G2 Esports and Deception fell short and were eliminated from further Season 2 play.
Orbit’s consistency at the top and NRG’s steady rise defined the league stage narrative. Orbit, the rebranded Exodus core, confirmed their status as one of North America’s strongest units after a Summer filled with online success. NRG, fielding Fireburner, Jacob, and SadJunior, showed that the former Kings of Urban could still compete with the best under a new banner. Genesis, behind the trio of Espeon, Pluto, and Klassux, played spoiler to more than one contender and entered playoffs as one of the most dangerous third seeds the region had seen.
Regional Playoffs: Genesis and Take 3 Survive
With league play over, the emphasis shifted to the Season 2 North America regional playoffs, the first stage of the online finals. This bracket featured the teams that finished third through sixth in league play. It was double elimination and all matches were best of five. Genesis came in as the third seed, followed by Take 3, VindicatorGG, and Revival. Their task was simple but unforgiving. Only two teams could emerge from this weekend with spots in the following week’s regional championship.
Saturday’s playoff broadcast began where the league had started: Genesis versus Revival. The official recap on RocketLeague.com described the series as a repeat of their Week 1 meeting. The outcome matched that memory. Genesis swept Revival three games to zero, claiming the first upper bracket spot in convincing fashion.
The second opening series, Take 3 against Vendetta, set the tone for the rest of the bracket. It went the distance to a fifth game, with Vendetta edging out a narrow 3 to 2 victory and sending Take 3 into the lower bracket. In that lower bracket, Take 3 faced elimination immediately against Revival. With their season on the line, Take 3 stabilized and won the series 3 to 1, ending Revival’s run and keeping their own hopes alive.
The qualification matches that followed decided the last two seats at the regional championship table. In the upper bracket final, Genesis met Vendetta with a trip to the next weekend on the line. Once again the series went to a fifth game, and once again Genesis delivered, closing out a 3 to 2 win and claiming the first playoff finalist position. Vendetta dropped into a decisive lower bracket final against Take 3, and the story repeated itself on the other side. After five games and a string of narrow scorelines, Take 3 claimed a 3 to 2 victory and joined Genesis as the second team to move on, while Vendetta’s season ended one match short.
For fans, the playoffs did two things. They confirmed Genesis as a resilient contender whose league record had been no accident, and they showcased Take 3’s ability to respond under pressure. Both teams walked out with renewed confidence and with momentum behind them as they prepared to face Orbit and NRG one week later.
Regional Championship: NRG’s Breakthrough
One week later, the story of Season 2 North America narrowed to four jerseys and a single elimination bracket. The regional championship brought back the top two league finishers, Orbit and NRG, and matched them against the playoff survivors, Take 3 and Genesis. All matches were best of seven, and the stakes increased. Every team entering the bracket had already earned a share of the fifty thousand dollar regional prize pool and a shot at the RLCS Season 2 Grand Finals in Amsterdam. Now they were playing for better seeding on the world stage and the title of North American regional champion.
In the first semifinal, Orbit met Take 3. Orbit entered as the number one seed, carrying their 6 and 1 league record into what many viewers expected to be a routine step into the grand final. Take 3 resisted, but the series followed the top seed’s script. Orbit won four games to one and claimed the first spot in the regional final, confirming that their league form could translate to a long series under greater pressure.
The second semifinal paired NRG with Genesis. Here, it was NRG who seized control. The series ended with the same 4 to 1 scoreline, but this time in favor of NRG. The result gave North America the grand final many fans had anticipated: the top two league teams facing off in a rematch with real money and seeding on the line. Genesis dropped into the third place match, where they defeated Take 3 four games to one and secured the last podium position in the regional bracket.
The regional final itself turned into NRG’s defining moment of the early RLCS era. NRG and Orbit traded games, but as the series progressed NRG’s attack, centered on Fireburner’s pressure and Jacob’s creativity, began to pull ahead. When the final scoreboard settled, NRG had beaten Orbit four games to two and claimed both the regional title and the ten thousand dollar top prize. Official summaries from Psyonix listed Orbit as second with six thousand five hundred dollars, Genesis third at four thousand, and Take 3 fourth at two thousand, with Vendetta and Revival each earning smaller shares from the previous week.
The regional championship also finalized North America’s four qualifiers to the Season 2 Grand Finals. NRG, Orbit, Genesis, and Take 3 all secured their tickets to Amsterdam, carrying with them the storylines that had built across two months of online play.
Defining Moments and Series
Although the bracket results give a clear structure, the Season 2 North America run is remembered for several defining series and trends.
G2’s struggles during league play surprised many. A roster that included Kronovi, Lachinio, and 0ver Zer0 had been central to the game’s early competitive narrative, but Season 2’s North American league table recorded just two wins and five losses for G2, leaving them outside the playoff cutoff. That absence reshaped expectations and opened room for other teams to take the spotlight.
Vendetta’s near miss in the playoffs left an equally strong imprint. The roster that had entered league play under the VindicatorGG banner, before reverting to Vendetta, came within one series of reaching the regional championship and Grand Finals. The double elimination bracket showed their depth and potential, but two narrow losses, first to Genesis and then to Take 3, ended their season in fifth place. Official recaps still singled them out as a roster that could return in future seasons.
On the other side of the bracket, Genesis and Take 3 used the playoff weekend to rewrite their own trajectories. Genesis’s sweep of Revival, their two winner bracket victories, and their eventual third place finish validated the idea that they were more than a mid table team. Take 3’s run through lower bracket elimination matches and into the regional finals weekend became an early example of a squad that could grow stronger inside a bracket, not weaker.
Above all, the NRG and Orbit rivalry defined the season’s upper tier. Both teams finished league play with similar records, both secured direct qualification to the Grand Finals, and both reached the regional final without dropping a single series in the online finals stage. When NRG won the regional championship match four to two, it marked their first official regional title and a turning point in their organizational history. Later retrospectives on NRG’s rise often cite the Season 2 North America win as the starting point of a long run of regional success.
Legacy and Impact
In retrospect, RLCS Season 2 North America feels like a bridge between eras. The early months of Rocket League esports had been defined by experimental formats, quickly organized community competitions, and shifting rosters. Season 2’s league play and structured online finals gave North America a clearer hierarchy and a repeated weekly broadcast schedule that made it easier for new fans to follow the story.
The presence of organizations like NRG, Orbit, and G2 signaled the degree to which major esports brands saw potential in Rocket League. The success of NRG’s newly signed roster, in particular, connected the grassroots Kings of Urban story to a more stable organizational future. Their Season 2 regional championship placed them alongside the European powers heading into Amsterdam and began a years long narrative in which NRG remained one of the region’s most visible and successful teams.
For the players, Season 2 North America gave a generation of competitors their first prolonged exposure to high stakes, structured league play. Fireburner, Jacob, SadJunior, GarrettG, Moses, Turtle, Espeon, Pluto, Klassux, and many of their peers would go on to define future RLCS seasons, appear on international stages, and anchor some of the game’s most memorable rosters. Their performances in this specific league and regional final were the first major chapter in that larger legacy.