The Rocket League ranked grind can be brutal, and it may take multiple months to climb out of your current place on the ladder. All too often this struggle is met with a frustrating losing streak of early forfeitures, smurfing opponents, or devastating overtime losses. I fell into a terrible rut while attempting to make it into the upper ranks for the first time over the past month. When I turned to Rocket League’s passionate community on Reddit and YouTube on my quest for the upper echelon of competitive 2v2, one piece of advice was ubiquitous: improve your wall play and wins will follow. Booming clears of your own backboard, passes to your teammate off the opponent’s corner, or double-tap setups above the opposition’s goal are all staples of high level play. One night when a friend asked me to queue Hoops with him for fun, I had an epiphany: to force myself to improve at hits and aerials off the wall, why not play a game mode that forces me to do that? After all, in Hoops the goal itself is high in the air, and the backboard is outlined in neon for players to aim at.

Hoops was added to Rocket League as a 2v2 Casual game mode back in 2016, and when non-standard modes such as Snow Day, Rumble, and Dropshot switched from being Casual to Ranked, Hoops followed suit. Since then, the game mode has amassed a cult-like following for its speed due to a confined pitch, small teams, and the mode’s natural tendency to reward flashy play. In fact, Hoops lends itself perfectly to Rocket League’s community-run tournament scene, with dedicated players forming RankedHoops.gg, a collective solely dedicated to organizing and hosting the highest level Hoops gameplay. I found myself tuning into their Twitch streams to pick up what I could from some of the best Hoops players in the world.

Now, as a ranked 2v2 player, I expected to absorb the pace and strategy of Hoops fairly quickly. I couldn’t have been more wrong; the smaller court lends itself to rapid transitions from defensive standoffs to scoring opportunities, even with the same number of players that I was used to. And, as expected, I soon realized there was no way I could place into a decent rank without incorporating more advanced wall play than I was comfortable with, along with so much more. Despite my early setbacks, I eventually fell into a rhythm with my teammate, a more experienced Hoops player who I tried to emulate. Platinum 2 isn’t an especially impressive rank, but for my first season of Hoops I was thrilled to place that highly.

Throughout my experiment Hoops forced me to exercise 4 main skills that revolutionized my Soccar:

1) Dodge Shots off the Wall – As I expected, Hoops lives and dies by its wall play. Since the net sits several meters off of the ground, players often shoot by sending the ball careening around the corner of the wall like a hockey puck. Although proper rotations can defend these shots, they are still incredibly valuable to have in your arsenal, especially when starting out.

2) Fast Aerials – A quick aerial up to the “jump ball” that kicks off a Hoops match is as instrumental to a good start as proper dodging to the face-off is in Soccar. Mastering this unusual kickoff will not only improve your Hoops rank, but build your confidence for higher, faster aerials in Soccar. Improve this mechanic by holding your jump button while boosting off the ground, and later on try to double jump with your nose pointed up before starting to boost to maximize your height even more.

3) Rotation/Sharing Boost – Since play can transition so quickly from defense to offense, sharing your team’s 100-boost pads as well as the midfield 100-boost pads is crucial to block any incoming shots, which could come from the side walls or above the basket.

4) Stealing Boost – The Dunk House is a pint-sized pitch compared to Mannfield, and with shorter court length comes more encouragement to swipe corner 100-boost pads from the opponent’s side. With such an air-heavy game, this is a key strategy for keeping your opponents grounded. Although it requires more finesse on a standard pitch, Hoops is a great training ground for limiting your opponent’s altitude.

As you can see in the above image, the Dunk House will feel small and confined compared to standard maps like Mannfield at first, but as you get used to the new pace of the game, it will feel natural as a 2v2 venue.

While it seems like simply a fun extra gamemode to freestyle in, ranked Hoops is an incredibly nuanced and complex challenge that rewards not only strong fundamentals, but persistence as well. And when I finally went back to regular 2v2, I easily gained almost 100 MMR in one session. As I get closer to Champion, I find myself consistently relying on what I learned during my excursion in Hoops, and I recommend any competitive player who feels stuck to give it a try.