Crown and Jewels' colourful history

A quick, low-effort google search will tell you, as it did me, that "History" can be defined as "the study of past events". While it might be an excessively grand term to use for the lifespan of a video game that's been out for under a year, the massive changes that competitive Rocket League has undergone in the last months really makes late 2015 seem like a bygone era, a time where a handful of veterans dominated all other competitors. Now, with the best European team containing none of these veterans, and the playing field visibly leveling out, I want to take the time to summarise the Crown and Jewels team's outstanding resume, even if it is not recognised as much as that of some other veteran teams.

Crown and Jewels (C&J) are a European team, consisting of Stocki, Yeezy, ViolentPanda, Killerno7 and Rocketpower. They are placed fifth on the Power Rankings at time of writing (week of 27/4) and they had just qualified for the second stage of Rocket Royale week 4, along with just seven other teams on their side of the Atlantic, before losing in the knockout rounds. However, their story starts back at the release of Rocket League, beginning with a different team name but very similar line-up: Stocki, Killerno7 and Yeezy (formerly Godlight).

Foxraid Gaming/Supersonic Stars

Foxraid Gaming were a second-tier team during the MLG competition in many people's eyes. Though they had taken second place in the ESL Go4 cup #6 after beating Team Rocket and Swarm, they just didn't have the consistency of the rest of the top level. This was reflected in their performance at the MLG event (where they had already become "Supersonic Stars"): They weren't the bottom of the heap that qualified but they certainly didn't match the level exhibited by Cosmic Aftershock, VQ Untethered, Flipsid3 Tactics or Swarm Gaming. They were placed in a group with Team Shazoo, Cosmic, Perfect Storm and Untethered for MLG, and had a mixed performance, managing to finish the group stage at 12-12 W/L. During this period, they performed somewhat of a player trade with Swarm, with Stocki moving in with de Boer and Paschy, while Sikii came over to Stars, alongside the existing team of Killerno7 and Yeezy. Their decent result in the MLG tournament was enough to land them a playoffs spot where they fell to Swarm Gaming in the first round. Through these weeks, consistent top 4 placement at ESL Go4 continued, landing them #3 in the Power Rankings several times. This iteration of the team was certainly a force to be reckoned with, but simply wasn't at the quality of the top 2 European squads.

EURONICS/Peacehaters

After the MLG tournament had finished, Stars changed their team name briefly to EURONICS, and subsequently to Peacehaters. Surprisingly, they actually stuck to the latter name for a solid few months, but it unfortunately also signalled a significant downturn in their performance. The second week after the MLG had finished they swiftly fell from #3 to #6 on the rankings, slipping past the likes of Complain, Shazoo and Team Rocket after a shocking 3-0 loss in the round of 64 in ESL. They stuck to this sort of position for a few weeks, with considerably less impressive performances coming from Yeezy and Killer in particular, coupled with less tournament play cementing their status as a weaker competitor than Shazoo/Noble and TR. This seemed to be a downfall that would be very difficult to recover from, but then everything changed in Peacehaters' career outlook when Swarm Gaming disbanded.

Early Crown and Jewels: World champions

Once Swarm disbanded, Paschy was left without a team. De Boer was nowhere to be seen in the power rankings squads, and Gambit had retreated back to NA to play with Orange Creamsicle while Stocki, Paschy's former Swarm teammate, had been picked up by the now considerably more successful Noble eSports, once Team Shazoo. He was, however, picked up within two weeks by the Peacehaters trio, and quickly results were back in their favour. Within a couple of weeks of playing with Paschy and Killerno7 being moved onto substitute duties, Peacehaters had clawed their way back into the old #3 spot, behind the two titans of international Rocket League at the time, SK (formerly Complain) and Flipsisd3. Picking up solid wins over myXMG and Noble along with several good ESL results, they were a force to be reckoned with when star striker Paschy was surrounded by the brilliant passing eye of Sikii and consistent stellar defense of Yeezy.

The team was primed to be a top-level qualifier in the RLC Pro League starting in January 2016, especially with the sudden breakdown of SK Gaming, when Yemen left the team and the dynamic of X3MW and JHZER seemingly waning day by day. Indeed, their first week in RPL was a 5-0 win against Supersonic Avengers, the then #5 team, followed by another 5-0 thumping against Spectral, and they thus took the #1 spot on the 17th iteration of the EU Power Rankings. Their talent as a team was slightly inconsistent, but they kept top four spots over the next several weeks leading into the playoffs stage of RPL, seeded 1st in EU. They took out Failure to Launch (now Orbit) 4-1 then iBP Cosmic 4-3 and finally met powerhouse Flipsid3 in the grand final. The intense best of 9 series seemed almost secured for Flipsid3 at 4-2 and leading with only a few seconds left in game seven when Crown and Jewels miraculously tied and then won, taking the series to 4-3, then 4-4, and finally claiming the RPL title with an overtime win in game nine.

Today's Crown and Jewels: Back where they started

After their RPL triumph, C&J quickly took a considerable hit to their roster, with the team splitting into two halves in the great roster shuffle of March '16. Paschy, Sikii and the very recently acquired Scrub Killa went to form Mock-It EU, where they picked up Miztik, while Yeezy and Killerno7 brought their own third player onto the Crown and Jewels roster: Stocki. After several different roster combinations and five different team names, the trio had come full circle. But while the players may be the same as they were in August '15, their abilities certainly weren't. Some fans who saw Paschy as a team "carry" dismissed the new C&J roster from having potential for real success, but one month on it would be hard to say this is the case. Their first week without Paschy and Sikii saw them pick up an ESL monthly finals victory, and they carved out a spot around #5-6 in the Power Rankings to call home for the next several weeks. They subsequently recruited ViolentPanda from the moderately successful Three Musketeers and then a fifth player, though admittedly not a very well known one in Rocketpower. The team as it stands now has been invited to all four "revamped" Rocket Royales at time of writing, and despite never making it past the group stages, they are currently a respectable #5 in the EU Power Rankings.

The Crown and Jewels/Foxraid Gaming reunion tour has probably just started, and as most of these players have known each other for so long in the context of Rocket League's short span, they may yet find an incredible synergy from being so intimately familiar with one anothers' playstyles. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the team in RLCS and beyond.

Crown and Jewels' playstyle

The C&J team today boasts some extroadinary talent, some of whom have been proving themselves in Rocket League for as long as any other player you can name. Their style overall is fairly textbook, decent offensive pressure with a healthy dose of lateral passing makes them a threat to even the top defenses when they have their strokes of brilliant teamwork, but they often lack this and will have many attacks that peter out before a proper shot is attempted. While all this could be describing any of the 5-10 EU teams, what I find more interesting are the individual member of Crown and Jewels and how they interact:

Stocki

Stocki is a veteran of top 5 teams, playing with Swarm and Noble in his time before coming to C&J, and both his aptitude and confidence reflect that. He pushes up in a Maestro-esque style, prematurely, and waits for a clear from his teammates to capitalise on overcommits from the opposition. This works out quite well for the team, with Violent and particularly Yeezy excelling at clutch defensese. On top of this, Stocki has a unique habit of barrel-rolling a quarter-turn or so when he hits low aerials. I can't tell whether it's for his accuracy or just a habit that he's developed but what I suspect is that it's for the additional power given by the hood of the car, as he seems to maneouver the hood under the ball when he can.

When he does get a chance to move forward with the ball his mechanical prowess is probably the best on his team, and he has always had an excellent eye for his teammates which is why I believe the duo of Stocki/Paschy succeeded so well when they made up the bulk of Swarm Gaming's offense. If there is something that Stocki brings to this team in particular it's his good eye for when to go up for an aerial: He rarely jumps for the ball without making contact, meaning he is rarely out of position unintentionally, perhaps part of the reason his RPL saves per game weighed in at 1.3, 13th in the Europe side of the league.

Yeezy

On the other side of Stocki's passes we will frequently see Yeezy, formerly known as Godlight. Yeezy is often hailed for solid defense/midfield work and indeed this would be backed up by the RLC Pro League stats, in which he scored below all of his teammates in goals/game, which sat at a nonetheless respectable 0.73. Despite his tendecy to defensive style he has his "flashes of brilliance" on the offensive side of the pitch, being very effective with a ball, boost and some space. I'd argue that Yeezy can sometimes be caught out a bit easily when against high-pressure teams, struggling when to find a good opportunity to challenge, but has still got the consistency to clear to space most reliably on his team given the chance, which helps them turn around many attacks when they seem to be getting a bit beaten down by offensive pressure.

Killerno7

The other veteran of the original Foxraid team and every iteration between, along with Yeezy, is Killerno7. Killer might often be subbed out of C&J games but he is by no means below the quality of the others. There seems to be a general "striker" role that some players offer to their teams, having the quality and consistency to put away shots and be where they need to be to receive passes. Though these names are usually "Lachinio", "Paschy" or "The Stig" depending on which region you're in, and despite not usually being used to describe any of the C&J players, I'd say Killer is the closest they have to a striker. His offensive tendencies were on display during the one RPL series he played, grabbing 1.0 goals and 1.0 assists per game, alongside a league-topping 4.0 shots per game. Though he isn't talked about all that often, Killer is definitely a high-quality sub for C&J to have around and this can be seen by the consistent performance output no matter which combination of Stocki/Yeezy/Violent/Killer they happen to be fielding.

ViolentPanda

Perhaps the standout player of the now disbanded T3M squad, Violent had never been in an official team with the other members until a few weeks ago. Though they've definitely had a slew of solid results since forming the new roster, its youth may also explain why the team has only managed to go 3-9 in Rocket Royale matches thusfar. However, even if the synergy has yet to take shape Violent's skill certainly doesn't. Being a similar sort of player to Killerno7, he will be seen making consistent and accurate shots, but perhaps is a little more reluctant to go up for the higher aerial shots, potentially with Stocki's tendency to push up prematurely in mind, and not wanting to be caught out of position as a team. Violent changes substitute with Killer mostly, with Yeezy + Stocki being the team "core" in a sense, but he definitely gets plenty of opportunities to show what he can do and doesn't let the team down.

Rocketpower

It's odd how a name I've never heard before can get put on a team with some of the most well-known names in Europe. Perhaps I've just been horribly out of the loop, but regardless, Rocketpower isn't a player I'd even known about, let alone watched games of prior to this move. I don't really feel qualified to comment on Rocketpower's playstyle having not watched any of his games up until a couple of days before writing this, but I'm guessing he will be taking more of a second substitute role on the team considering how much talent C&J have in their other four members alone.

With all this said about some flaws they can have as individuals and a general lack of field presence in their team play compared to a WeDemGirlz or a Flipsid3, I still firmly believe that Crown and Jewels will make the group stages of RLCS in both splits, and cement their place amongst the top 8 teams in their region. Their experience and (for the most part) knowledge of each others' playstyles has been put to the test week after week for many months with perhaps not stellar but consistent results, which I think deserves plenty of respect.