RLCS 2024 World Championship: schedule, format, tickets, & more

The season's final and most prestigious event is upon us: the RLCS 2024 World Championship. Over ten thousand fans will gather in Texas this September to watch sixteen teams from across seven different regions fight for the title of best in the world.

Returning to the same venue as the World Championship two years ago gives competitors many iconic moments to live up to. Thankfully, the $1,165,000 USD prize pool and pride of a world title should be plenty of motivation to do so.

After three international RLCS LANs in Europe, it's finally North America's turn once again. The RLCS 2024 World Championship will be held in the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, which also hosted the event in 2021-2022. The event will take place from Tuesday, September 10 through Sunday, September 15, but will only allow a crowd in for the last three days.

After five months of competition and the conclusion of last weekend's London Major, sixteen teams have managed to qualify for the RLCS 2024 World Championship. Below is a list of all of them in seeding order within their respective regions.

The World Championship takes place has two main phases. The tournament begins with the Swiss Stage, which lasts from Tuesday, September 10 through Friday, September 13. The Hybrid Elimination Bracket playoffs will then kick off on Saturday, September 14, and conclude with the crowning of a champion on Sunday, September 15. Exact schedules for each day will be announced at a later date.

The Swiss Stage, also called a Swiss bracket, is commonly used in the RLCS and other high-level esports competitions. This is due to its thoroughness and nearly unrivaled ability to determine the best teams out of any given group. For these reasons, it will be what determines the Top 8 teams at the RLCS 2024 World Championship.

The way it works is simple but can be difficult to picture. There will be a total of five rounds, every series is a best-of-five, and all matches in each round happen simultaneously. The only thing teams need to do to advance is win three matches before they lose three matches.

During the first round, teams face off against each other as chosen by Rocket League Esports. These matchups are yet to be determined for the RLCS 2024 World Championship but will be announced before the event. Following that, every round will pitch teams with the same win record against each other, seeded primarily by game differential.

For example, round two contains two groups: one with all teams who won their first-round matchups, and one with all those who lost. In the 1-0 group, the team with the best game differential (e.g. +3 after a 3-0 sweep) will play the team with the worst game differential (e.g. +1 after a 3-2 victory), and so on. The 0-1 group will do the same.

Following the results of the second round, teams will again face off against those with an identical record in round three. The same logic applies to rounds four and five, and the Top 8 teams at the end of the Swiss Stage will advance to RLCS 2024 World Championship playoffs.

Rocket League Esports frequently uses the excellently-made graphic above during broadcasts to help viewers visualize how the Swiss Stage plays out. Additional details are available in the official RLCS rules.

Finally, the RLCS 2024 World Championship playoffs will be in the form of a new Hybrid Elimination Bracket announced earlier this season. While brand new to the RLCS and a tad confusing to many fans, this format saw success in Salt Mine 3, a 1v1 tournament hosted by well-known caster John "JohnnyBoi_i" MacDonald.

As the RLCS 2024 rules describe, the bracket will sort the top eight teams from the Swiss Stage into two groups based on seeding. Seeds #1-4 are designated as the Upper Group and Seeds #5-8 are designated as the Lower Group. All matches for this Hybrid Elimination Bracket will be best-of-seven.

The Upper Group will then kick things off by playing matches among themselves. Seed #1 will play against Seed #4, and Seed #2 will face off against Seed #3. The teams who win their Upper Group match will advance directly to the RLCS 2024 World Championship Semi-Finals. Those who lose their Upper Group Match will drop down to the Top 6 Quarter-Finals and have a second chance to advance.

The Lower Group begins by playing matches among themselves as well. Seed #5 will play against Seed #8, and Seed #6 will face off against Seed #7. The teams who win their Lower Group match will advance directly to the Top 6 Quarter-Finals of the Bracket. Those who lose their Lower Group Match are eliminated from the tournament and finish 7th-8th.

The RLCS 2024 World Championship boasts a prize pool of $1,165,000 USD, with distribution for the Top 8 adjusting to fit the new Hybrid Elimination Bracket format. Since four teams are no longer simultaneously eliminated in the Quarter-Finals, 7th-8th and 5th-6th have different prizing splits. Previously, all four losers received $75,000 each. Now, the 7th-8th placed teams receive $66,000, and the 5th-6th placed teams receive $84,000 each.

The full RLCS 2024 Worlds prizing split is as follows:

Tickets for the RLCS 2024 World Championship are available for purchase on Ticketmaster. Prices start at $64.50 USD before fees for regular tickets and $465 USD before fees for the Ultimate Rocket League Live Experience Package, whose full list of perks is as follows:

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