Event Chronicles – RLCS Season 6 North America Regional Championship
When the Rocket League Championship Series returned for Season 6 in the fall of 2018, North America arrived with unfinished business. Two years of regional dominance, bitter world championship losses, and roster experiments all converged on a five week league and a single day playoff bracket that would decide who carried the region’s banner to Las Vegas.
Cloud9 and G2 Esports spent the regular season fighting for the top of the table. NRG Esports, rebuilt around prodigy Justin “jstn” Morales, stumbled early and looked more human than they had in past seasons. Newcomers Allegiance and FlyQuest tried to prove that the promotion system really could shake up the old order. Out of that crowded field, the RLCS Season 6 North American league and regional championship produced a familiar result. On October 13, 2018, NRG claimed their third North American regional title and the region’s first seed at the world finals, winning a night of best of seven series that turned doubts into another trophy.
This Event Chronicle follows only that journey: the North American leg of RLCS Season 6, from the start of league play in September through the regional championship bracket that decided the seeds for Las Vegas.
Format, Prize Pool, and the Field
RLCS Season 6 kept the two stage structure that had defined the early years of the league. Eight North American teams contested an online round robin from September 8 to October 6, 2018. Each team played every other team once in a best of five series. The standings at the end of those five weeks determined three different fates. The top two finishers locked in both a place at the Season 6 World Championship and a bye into the regional semifinals. The teams in third through sixth advanced to the North American Regional Championship, where they would play a single elimination bracket for remaining world championship spots and for regional prize money. The bottom two teams were dropped into the promotion tournament alongside the top two squads from the Rival Series, with their place in next season’s RLCS on the line.
Behind that structure sat a prize pool of 214,250 dollars for the North American season. EsportsEarnings records NRG’s share as 38,531 dollars for first place, G2’s as 33,531 dollars for second, Cloud9’s as 28,531 dollars for third, and Evil Geniuses’ as 25,531 dollars for fourth, with FlyQuest and Ghost Gaming each earning 23,531 dollars and Rogue and Allegiance taking home 20,531 dollars apiece.
The eight teams that entered league play were a mix of established RLCS names and newcomers. Cloud9, G2 Esports, Evil Geniuses, Ghost Gaming, NRG Esports, and Rogue all returned from Season 5. Allegiance and FlyQuest joined from the Rival Series promotion tournament, giving the region two fresh rosters with something to prove.
Cloud9 and G2 at the Front
The league portion of Season 6 North America belonged, on paper, to Cloud9 and G2. Across five weeks of matches, both finished at 6 wins and 1 loss and secured the top two seeds with room to spare. Cloud9’s trio of Mariano “SquishyMuffinz” Arruda, Jesus “Gimmick” Parra, and Kyle “Torment” Storer opened with a sweep of Rogue in Week 1 and never really slowed, sweeping Allegiance and Evil Geniuses and grinding out tight series against Ghost Gaming. Their only slip came in Week 4, when FlyQuest caught them in a 3–1 upset that reminded the league that even top seeds could be dragged into a brawl.
G2 Esports, still built around Cameron “Kronovi” Bills, Dillon “Rizzo” Rizzo, and Jacob “JKnaps” Knapman, tracked them almost stride for stride. G2 swept Allegiance, Ghost, and FlyQuest and handled Rogue in Week 3. Their own loss also came against Cloud9, a 3–1 defeat late in the season that helped give C9 the statistical edge in game differential and the nominal league title. When the dust settled, Cloud9 stood first at 6–1 with a 19–6 game record, G2 second at 6–1 with a 19–11 game record, and both safely locked into world championship berths and regional semifinal byes.
Behind them, the middle of the table was far more turbulent. Evil Geniuses, with Gabriel “Klassux” Klass, Reed “Chicago” Wilen, and Jesus “CorruptedG” Navarro, fought their way to a 4–3 record and third place. Along the way they took a pivotal 3–1 win over NRG in Week 3 and edged Ghost, FlyQuest, and Allegiance in close series that turned on a handful of individual plays.
NRG’s league run looked unremarkable at first glance. Fireburner, Garrett “GarrettG” Gordon, and jstn finished 4–3 in series and dead even in games at 15–15. They opened with wins over FlyQuest and Allegiance but lost to Evil Geniuses and Cloud9 and had to scrape past Rogue and Ghost to stay safe in the top six. The numbers hid a more important truth. For the first time since Season 3, NRG came into the regional bracket without the weight of a perfect or near perfect league record and had to reclaim their reputation in a single day playoff.
FlyQuest and Ghost Gaming rounded out the regional field in fifth and sixth. FlyQuest, featuring Jason “AyyJayy” AyyJayy, Gabriel “PrimeThunder” Samayoa, and Braxton “Allusion/Wonder” Durr, upset Cloud9 and Rogue and went the distance in several series, but finished at 3–4 with a negative game differential. Ghost, with Braxton “Allushin” Lagarec, Daniel “Zanejackey” Hepfer, and Nick “Memory” Costa alongside Treyven “Lethamyr” Robitaille, also ended at 2–5, but their game differential kept them above the relegation line.
Rogue and Allegiance were the casualties of that schedule. Rogue’s mix of Matt “Sizz” Sieg, Jake “Jacob” McDonald, and Joro “Joro” Kanne struggled to string wins together and finished 2–5, while Allegiance limped to a 1–6 record and only eight game wins. Both were pushed into the promotion tournament and stripped of any say in the Season 6 regional bracket.
Six Teams, One Night
The North American Regional Championship unfolded on October 13, 2018, as a compact single elimination bracket. The top two league teams, Cloud9 and G2, started in the semifinals with world championship berths already secured. Third through sixth place entered a “round of six” quarterfinal stage. Every match was a best of seven series, and the stakes were simple. Win in the round of six and you clinched a ticket to Las Vegas. Win in the semifinals and you played for the regional title and the top seeds at worlds. Lose early and the season ended on a Saturday night stream.
EG and NRG Secure Their Tickets
The first series of the day paired third seed Evil Geniuses against sixth seed Ghost Gaming. It looked, at first glance, like a matchup between a rising organization and a squad that had underperformed during league play. On the field, it was closer than that. Games swung back and forth, Ghost finding counters and capitalizing on mistakes, EG answering with their own pressure. In the end, Evil Geniuses closed the series 4–2 and became the third North American team to qualify for the Season 6 World Championship. Ghost’s campaign ended there, their season defined by narrow series rather than deep runs.
The second quarterfinal brought together NRG and FlyQuest, fourth and fifth after league play. On paper FlyQuest had reasons for optimism. They owned a league win over Cloud9, had taken G2 to a fifth game, and had spent the season upsetting expectations. Instead they ran directly into the most complete NRG performance of the split. Upcomer’s recap describes the series as a domination, with NRG “like their old selves again” and FlyQuest “standing no chance.” NRG swept the best of seven 4–0, claimed the fourth and final North American ticket to Las Vegas, and set up a semifinal date with Cloud9 that felt like a referendum on the region.
G2 Holds Serve, NRG Topples Cloud9
In the semifinals, the bracket followed seeding on one side and broke it on the other.
G2 Esports met Evil Geniuses in the first match. EG came in with momentum from their win over Ghost and a full season of punching above their perceived weight. G2, however, were still the defending North American regional champions and had spent the league stage locking in one of the best records in RLCS history. Over seven games G2 found just enough control to keep EG at arm’s length. The final result, 4–2, put G2 back into the regional grand final and reasserted their claim to a top seed for the world championship.
The second semifinal, between Cloud9 and NRG, was the real turning point of Season 6 North America. Cloud9 arrived as the consensus best team in the region after their 6–1 league record and months of high level results. NRG, by contrast, had been only fourth in league play and had just enough regular season missteps to raise questions about whether they could still dominate when everything was on the line.
Those questions lasted about three games. NRG opened the series by sprinting to a 3–0 lead and pushed Cloud9 into the same kind of reverse sweep scenario that had once haunted NRG themselves. Cloud9 refused to collapse. They rallied for two straight wins and dragged the series to a sixth game. There, NRG finally closed the door. The series ended 4–2, sending Cloud9 to a third place match and sending NRG to yet another North American grand final, this time as the team that had overturned the league table rather than defended it.
Cloud9’s Sweep and Final Seeding
Before the grand final, Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses met in a third place match that also mattered for world championship seeding. Both teams had already qualified for Las Vegas. The winner would claim the third seed from North America, likely drawing Europe’s second seed in the quarterfinals. The loser would take fourth and face the Oceania champion one round earlier.
Cloud9 removed remaining doubt about their status with a 4–0 sweep. Upcomer notes that they won each game by several goals, overpowering an Evil Geniuses roster that had already proved it belonged at the top of the region.
With that result, Cloud9 finished Season 6 as North America’s third seed, replicating their placement from Season 5, and Evil Geniuses slotted into the fourth seed and a Round of 10 series against the Oceania representative at the world championship.
NRG’s Third North American Title
The grand final between NRG and G2 Esports was a meeting of two organizations that had defined North American Rocket League since the RLCS began. NRG had already won the regional championship in Seasons 2 and 3 and built a reputation as the league’s regular season kings. G2 were the defending Season 5 North American champions and a favorite in almost any bracket they entered.
For much of the series, the match followed the pattern of the night. Wins swung back and forth, each side trading momentum and adjusting in real time. According to Upcomer’s account, G2 took the opening game, NRG answered, G2 pulled ahead again, and NRG dragged the scoreline back to 2–2. In the final stretch the series turned sharply. Over the last two games NRG outscored G2 by twelve goals to two and closed the series 4–2, taking the regional crown, the No. 1 North American seed, and a direct quarterfinal berth at the Season 6 World Championship.
Reuters’ report for ESPN summed up the official stakes cleanly. NRG’s 4–2 win “claimed the No. 1 seed out of the North American leg of the Rocket League Championship Series Season 6 Regional Championship,” while G2 settled for the second seed. Cloud9’s earlier sweep of Evil Geniuses locked them into the third seed, with EG taking the fourth and final North American berth for Las Vegas.
For NRG, the victory also marked a return to a familiar place in the organization’s own history. Their championships table, later compiled on their Wikipedia entry, lists October 13, 2018, as a Rocket League title: RLCS Season 6 NA Regionals, added alongside earlier regional wins in Seasons 2 and 3.
Legacy of Season 6 North America
Looked at in isolation, RLCS Season 6 North America reads like a straightforward story. Cloud9 and G2 dominated league play. Evil Geniuses cemented themselves as a serious contender. FlyQuest and Ghost fought their way into the bracket. Rogue and Allegiance fell into relegation. On regional championship day, NRG flipped the script. They solved FlyQuest in four games, toppled the league champions Cloud9, and then broke G2’s hold on the regional title in a final that became more lopsided with every passing minute.
In the broader history of Rocket League esports, Season 6 North America stands at the end of a particular era. It was one of the last RLCS seasons that relied on a single online league and a compact regional playoff weekend to decide world championship seeds, and one of the final times that a dominant regular season record did not translate into a regional trophy. It solidified NRG’s reputation as a team that could reinvent itself after setbacks. It confirmed G2’s place as a perennial threat in North America. It pushed Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses into another world championship cycle and showed that newly promoted organizations could punch above their weight when the system gave them a chance.
For spectators who watched the September league matches roll across the RLCS Twitch channel and the October bracket unfold in six and seven game sets, Season 6 North America offered something simple and satisfying. It was proof that in Rocket League, as in any long running sport, form and history only carry a team so far. On one autumn weekend in 2018, with a world championship on the horizon and the region’s legacy at stake, NRG played like champions again and took back the title that had defined them from the start.