Rocket League Championship Series contestant Team Esper is accused of throwing their last league game in the current season.

7.2.1 Each Player is expected to play to the best of her or his ability at all times during any match. Any form of unfair play is prohibited by these Rules, and may result in disciplinary action. Rocket League Championship Series Ruleset

With everything still on the line for Cameron “Kamii” Ingram, Christopher “Siki” Magee and Cameron “CJCJ” Johns the Renegades squad were hoping for a win of Team Esper against FURY on the last league play day.

Instead they were shown something the whole Rocket League Esports scene has not seen since April 14th 2018 where Splyce was showing no signs of sportsmanship after having no chances of making it into the Top 4: Blatant throws.

It all started at the end of the fourth game of the series. Team Esper needed to win either 3-0 or 3-1 to make it into the Top 4 but they didn’t manage to clutch it out and went into game five. This is where Finlay “Frenzyy” Rockach, Steve “SSteve” Berrospi and Aiden “delusioN” Hendry allegedly decided to end playing serious and destroyed every hope Renegades had.

Only after going down 6-0 with one minute left the team were seen to be trying again – and while stranger things happened in Rocket League there was basically no chance that they’d ever come back from that result.

To the viewer’s eye it was obvious. To the opponent’s eye it probably was as well although FURY were surely happy qualifying – even through these circumstances. DelusioN himself said his “PC was freezing” in game five.

Ggs @FURYAustralia we'll come back stronger in the spring series sorry to everyone we let down PC freezing came back in the last game sucks to see our season go out to issues like that but we'll come back strong in the spring series.💪 — delusioN (@dellfyre) April 5, 2020

One has to wonder why the team did not notify league officials about this happening as they have the full power to stop the match and investigate or let the team fix the issues. No matter the outcome of this whole ordeal it left not only a bad taste in Renegades’ mouths but also fans and viewers of the LPL as well as other professional players in the scene.

Pretty disgraceful to watch @TeamEsper literally throw their last match in league play. Not a great way to represent a developing region who wants to be taken more seriously. — Jalen / Jayski (@1jayski) April 5, 2020

Team Esper Organization response

Promptly after the game was concluded Team Esper announced the swift departure of the Rocket League roster. According to Team Esper owner Focus, the contracts were coming to a close before renegotiation and thus the organization decided to cut ties before their name got dragged down any more.

A huge thanks to our Rocket League players for their hard work this season.



Our time with them has drawn to a close, and we wish them all the best in the future.



Hope to return shortly! pic.twitter.com/7zPIlrZrY1 — Team Esper (@TeamEsper) April 5, 2020

RLAfterShock has reached out to Focus who said they were “disappointed with what [they]‏‏‎ ‎saw” and that they’re “not sure what happened other than what it looked like, or who was involved”. He hopes to get definitive answers from Psyonix’s ongoing investigation into this whole thing.

Focus was seen just a bit prior in Twitch chat to be cheering on FURY to win the game adding more fuel to the accusations. But as in the past Twitch chat has been proven to be a very reliable and serious source of information so this should be taken as a (badly timed) joke.

Impact on the OCE region

The Oceanic region has struggled in the past to gain a lot of traction to be taken seriously by both viewers and Psyonix themselves. Far gone have the days of Chiefs Esports Club during RLCS Season 6 where the team had a magic 4th place finish, surprising everyone by their strong performance. With prize pool and viewership struggles – mostly due to lacking support with promotion and prize pools from higher up the chain – this only hinders the further development of the region.

Psyonix have communicated that they’re investigating this happening with the help of LPL officials. We can expect an official response about the outcome of the investigation within the next days as the publisher always has been pretty fast on handing out punishments when dealing with rule breakers.