Richard's Blogosphere

Let me set the scene. I’m up 4-3 in 1-on-1 mode in Rocket Leauge. This is a casual match, an opportunity for to warm up before hitting the ranked 2-on-2 competition. There’s about a minute left, with the ball in my opponent’s side of the court, so I’m setting up to save a shot from long range. (I’m positioned to the side of my net since it’s easier to move east-west to do a save like this than it is to move north-south.) My opponent dribbles, and, I suspect, lost control of the ball and is not able to get a shot off. As luck would have it, we end up locking the fronts of our cars.

Even before I knew it was unwritten rule number one of Rocket League, every time I ever locked up with an opponent, I always find it funny and keep doing it. In a team setting, I quickly realized it took that opponent out of the play, letting my teammate(s) take over. A 3-on-3 becomes a 2-on-2, a 2-on-2 becomes a 1-on-1. In a 1-on-1 situation, a lockup becomes a 0-on-0, which both makes no sense in terms of strategy, and is hilarious! Unless…

In this case, I was ahead with a minute left, and I think to myself “Great! If my opponent adheres to Rule #1, all I have to do is run out the clock!” So I pursue that strategy. Watch the video below to see it play out:

To my chagrin, Rocket League interprets a lockup between two 1-on-1 opponents as idle time, even though I’m flooring the gas, and moving because I had a very slight edge. Not knowing the timeout time, I thought the clock would run out first, and I would get the win. I don’t know who ended up with the win, either my opponent or myself, and since the stakes were so low, it doesn’t matter. But I found it very funny, and I’m very unlikely to find myself in that situation again.

Adherence to Rule Number One Leads to Loss in Rocket League was originally published in The Gaming Years on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.