Rocket League gets its own international Players Association

1 August 2023

The emergence of player associations in the world of international esports is yet another sign that the sector is not only growing fast, but maturing fast as well. Perhaps the best known esports player association at the moment is the LCSPA (League Championship Series Players Association) for League of Legends players around the world, as they were recently in the news due to the strike they organized in response to a host of changes that were unilaterally announced by LoL developer Riot Games. Another popular esports title, Rocket League, now also has its own players association, as several prominent stakeholders have banded together to launch the Rocket League Players Association (RLPA).

Rocket League Players Association

The brand-new Rocket League Players Association was founded by a group of important stakeholders from the game’s ecosystem and will be made up of professional players and coaches. The idea behind the organization is to facilitate and improve communication with the game’s developer, Psyonix, and to advocate on behalf of Rocket League talent around the world. Any issues and questions will be presented to Psyonix by the members, who will be classified according to regions. Every major region elects its own local committee who will defend the interests of the stakeholders in their respective area.

“Super happy and proud to have launched the Rocket League Players' Association (RLPA) yesterday, acting as our inaugural Chief Executive”, wrote Jonny Davies, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the RLPA, on his own LinkedIn account, “Our launch video has over 150,000 views and 900 likes on Twitter so far! We are a democratic non-profit player association focused on helping professional Rocket League players and aiding in the development of the RL esports scene”.

Psyonix not involved (yet)

What can be called surprising is the fact that Psyonix was actually not involved in the creation of the RLPA at any point. Instead, the Davies and his business partner Noah “Noah” Hinder, who made a name for himself as Rocket League coach for Moist Esports, decided to focus on attracting players first in order to establish some legitimacy. It therefore remains to be seen how the developer will officially react to the creation of the Player Association. The founders are not worried about this though, as they believe that the Rocket League player base simply needed and wanted an association to look out for their growing interests. On top of that, many Rocket Players around the world are younger than 18 and the average player age sits at 21 years old at the moment. The RLPA can provide these youngsters with more structure.

“There’s been a call for it [a Rocket League Players Association] within the community,” says Davies, “It made so much sense when me and Noah first started talking about it because there was a huge amount of discord on Twitter [amongst players] saying we need some support, we need someone to push the esport forward from the player point of view”.