The 2026 Rocket League World Championship Starts Tomorrow: The Main Event of the 15th Season

Tomorrow, September 15, the final tournament of the 15th Rocket League Championship Series season—the RLCS 2026 World Championship—kicks off in Fort Worth, United States, at the Dickies Arena. Organized by Epic Games and BLAST, this prestigious offline S-Tier event will run until September 20 and gather the world's best teams in the classic 3v3 competitive mode.

This year's season, which started in late 2025, featured a series of innovations, including the inaugural Kick-Off Weekend and the expansion of the league to three competitive game modes through the integration of 2v2 matches. Throughout the year, teams competed across two splits featuring regional opens and international majors. Now, the season's top performers, along with the winners of the Last Chance Qualifiers, will clash for the ultimate trophy.

The tournament will unfold across three intensive stages:

• Play-In (September 15): Eight teams will open the competition in a GSL format. All matches will be played as Best-of-5, and the top four teams will advance to the Group Stage.
• Group Stage (September 16-17): 16 teams (including the four Play-In winners) will be divided into four groups. The stage will feature a Single Round Robin format with Bo5 matches. The winners of each group will advance to the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs, the second and third-place teams will qualify for the Lower Bracket, and the fourth-place teams will be eliminated.
• Playoffs (September 18-20): The decisive stage for 12 teams will feature a Hybrid Elimination Bracket with Best-of-7 matches. The top four teams from the Group Stage will start with two chances before the Final Four, while the remaining participants (ranked 5th-12th) will start with a single chance.

A substantial prize pool of $1,200,000 USD is on the line. The future champions will take home the grand prize of $300,000, the runners-up will receive $153,000, and the teams placing 3rd-4th will earn $99,000 each.

This year's tournament highlights a strong dominance of players from the Americas: the United States has the highest representation among esports athletes (19% or 12 players), followed closely by Brazil (18% or 11 players). The top five countries for player representation also include France (10%), Saudi Arabia (10%), and Spain (8%).

As a reminder, Apple is working on game controllers for iPhone