On August 6-7 in Hollywood, California, eight elite North American and European Rocket League teams will go head-to-head in the Rocket League Championship Series live finals for a $55,000 prize pool. Going into an offline final on North American soil, you have to consider the home-team advantage for the North American seeds, especially No. 1 seed Kings of Urban.

Kings captain Jayson "Fireburner" Nunez says his team's play will benefit from having a live audience. "When you have a North American LAN, the crowd will be there to hype us up and get us going." Editor's Picks Cease and desists sent out by Valve

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Teammate Jacob "Jacob" McDowell echoes the sentiment. "We feed on the hype. We're an emotional team and the hype will build us up."

Heading into the finals, Fireburner exudes confidence, saying the team has prepared more than ever for this moment. "We are a team that works together very well. We will have the playmaker in Jacob flying high, while I will set him and [teammate Kais "SadJunior" Zehri] up."

The story of Kings had been one of "almost" for a very long time. From its inception in late August of 2015, the Kings lurked in the shadow of a team named Cosmic Aftershock, which was seen as the team to beat. That is, until relatively recently.

Reaching for the stars

When Kings of Urban first formed, Fireburner sought to find the three best players in North America who were not on Cosmic, which was then a dominant force in the scene. The original roster included Fireburner, Cody "Gambit" Dover and Kyle "Kyle Masc" Mascitelli. This new team competed in small weekly ESL tournaments and started pressuring Cosmic, nearly taking a game here and there.

Kings sought to improve its roster and decided to swap Masc for Jacob, a high-flying playmaker. The new Kings of Urban showed its very real potential at Major League Gaming Pro League Season 1 in the quarterfinals against Cosmic, where the unthinkable happened: Kings of Urban eliminated Cosmic and moved on to the semifinals.

After MLG, Kings moved swiftly to pick up a new third as a replacement for departing ace Gambit. The squad decided on Caleb "Moses" Nichols, a very solid up-and-coming player who looked to be a potential superstar (see ESPN Esports' feature on Moses). Within a month of picking up Moses, Kings of Urban began its North American reign, finally eclipsing the now-sponsored iBUYPOWER Cosmic to hold the top spot in North America for more than a month. During that time Kings looked like a dominant performer in weekly and monthly events, but the stage where it really shined was the Rocket League Central Pro League (RLCPL).

The RLCPL was the first large-scale international tournament featuring all of the best teams from North America and Europe competing against each other. This roster from Kings of Urban continued to impress, finishing the regular season with a massive 22-8 record at the top of North America. Kings moved into the playoff bracket as the top seed from North America; unfortunately, losses in the semifinals eliminated it from the Pro League and set its ranking back into the No. 2 spot.

Breaking through

When the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) Season 1 Qualifier 1 came around, Kings brought in SadJunior as a replacement for Moses in a surprise move that clearly stated its intent to zero in on first place. However, Kings of Urban finished in a consistent second place behind iBUYPOWER, both in regular league play and in the playoff bracket at the end. This was in no way a poor showing, as Kings set itself up to be a top contender for a spot at the LAN finals.

In Qualifier 2 for RLCS Season 1, Kings of Urban finished a surprisingly low fourth seed in regular league play, but then showed why it made that roster change. In its first match, it took down the upstart Lucky Bounce, who had emerged from the group stage in first place. Moving into the finals, it faced off against former teammate Moses' new team, Exodus. In an incredibly close, acrobatic series, the Kings of Urban took down Exodus 4-3 to secure the top seed in North America in what all three members called their proudest moment. Now the team is on its way to the Live Finals, where it will have the chance to prove it is the best in the world.

Fireburner says the team had had faith in itself from the beginning of RLCS: "We always believed we could finish first if we put the time in scrims and fixed our small issues that we had at the start of Qualifier 2. We still believe we haven't reached our full potential and we're excited for the future."

In Rocket League's short history, Kings of Urban are one of the longest-standing teams in North America and have consistently had one of the best rosters in the world. Through many roster changes, it has hovered between being the best and second-best team in North America, and now it comes into Rocket League's biggest tournament yet as the top seed from the region. Who knows what the future will hold, but the Kings' reign looks likely to continue.