The hottest topic of the current RLCS is not necessarily the performance of the players on the pitch, but Psyonix’ servers who seem to be struggling ever since the last update. This past weekend we actually saw lags visible on stream during the official broadcast of the RLCS.

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A couple of pros addressed this issue via Twitter. Some in a more humble manner like Vitality’s Freakii; others like Squishy from Cloud9…. well, not so much. In a Tweet (which has been deleted) he blamed the servers for “only” winning 3-1 against Evil Geniuses.

To clear up what I meant, no disrespect to EG at all, just had 2 massive lag spikes in the worst situations which lead to goals against us in game 2. Every game counts for win percantage so it’s a little frustrating. — C9 Squishy (@SquishyMuffinz) 7. April 2018

actually cant enjoy that win vs @FNATIC. most of the goals we scored happened because a huge lag prevented them from saving it. just unacceptable. GGs to them, but i hope Rocket League finally fixes their shit — FreaKii (@FreaKiiRL) 8. April 2018

Taking aside the different ways the issue was addressed, all messages still shared the same sentiment: That there’s something wrong with Psyonix’ servers and while that is also a nuisance for casual players, it’s simply unacceptable when it comes to the professional side of Rocket League, where there are tournament lives on the line and a lot at stake: money, jobs, careers.

Days like this make all the bad ones worth it, competing in this game is incredible. That being said 3/4 servers being awful makes it hard to enjoy the wins. GG’s @GFEsports @Team_Vitality — miztik (@miztikRL) 8. April 2018

Tbf the servers were really trash — Yukeo (@YukeoRL) 8. April 2018

A split second makes all the difference

The servers of an esports game are basically what the pitch is for a traditional sport. If the green is damaged beyond recognition even the best players in the world won’t be able to perform to their standards. Same goes for Rocket League pros. In a game that is so heavily focussed on players’ reactions and their meticulous precision, where a split second can mean the difference between winning and losing, every bit of lag has the possibility to compromise an entire match, if not an entire tournament. It sounds dramatic, but it’s the truth.

Servers were really bad, i guess it’s cause there are many players online atm? Flipside didn’t score an open net cause of an server lag, but it didn’t help us at the end ??? — Philip Paschmeyer (@Paschy90) 8. April 2018

For every game developer that wants to approach the esports sphere in a professional manner this means that a perfect server performance is mandatory. And this is where Psyonix comes into play. They have created one of the coolest and most aspiring esports products out there. The RLCS has great production value, fantastic casters and is home to the best teams and players in the world. The server performance must reflect that ambition and quality. But it doesn’t.

According to many pros the situation is currently getting worse with every week. One can only imagine that it took some time for many of them to speak out that publicly about the server problems. The takeaway from many Tweets is that they’re especially frustrated with the way the officials handle the situation as there seems to be a lack of communication which gives the Rocket League players and fans the impression that they’re ignoring the issue or don’t care (both of which are not true, we assume).

I hate how @RocketLeague is just ignoring the server situation now. They really don’t care at this point it seems, even though servers are the most broken they’ve ever been. And all the @RL_Support account does is essentially tell you it’s your internet that’s the issue. — Orion LF1 (@Orion_RL) 10. April 2018

We reached out to Psyonix to get a statement regarding the issue. We wanted to know if they’re aware of the situation, how they’ve experienced the past weekend and what kind of steps they’re taking to prevent lags from happening next week, when the RLCS goes into its final week of League Play.

Statement from Psyonix

We were promised a statement regarding the server issue by a spokesperson of Psyonix. Said statement was now released as part of a blog post in which Corey Davis, Rocket League’s Game Director, announces a hotfix as a follow-up to the Tournaments Update (which caused a some other troubles as well). Here’s the full statement regarding the server issues:

“Our top priority right now (in addition to releasing the hotfix ASAP) is investigating reports of new server issues that cropped up with the release of our Tournaments Update. Because not all players and servers are being affected, we are still researching the root cause. As we learn more, we will update the community with our findings and timeline for a fix. We are also looking into what additional tools we can provide players, like a way to report problem servers while playing as well as real-time network stats in the game client. These tools will compliment the Connection Quality Indicators we included in the Tournaments Update to give you as much information as possible when troubleshooting server or network issues.”

Unfortunately the statement doesn’t address the esports scene specifically and if there’s a plan from Psyonix’ side to prevent further server lags from compromising match results, for example provide dedicated servers for the RLCS. So for now we can just hope that heading into the final week of League Play Psyonix’ servers don’t struggle again, leaving us with lags in official matches of the most prestigious Rocket League esports product .