Yes, yet another basic guide that wants to point out what exactly you’re doing wrong in your matches, just at the point you’d like to believe you have it all figured out. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been at that point in your Rocket League “career” when you think you’ve finally reached some form of a higher level. You’ve got your aerials under control, you can dribble the ball between some opponents, you can hit some pretty tight angles, and maybe you even give assists nobody could miss. However, there seems to be something missing in the middle of all of this. Your online matches still have so many moments in which you just want to slap yourself in the face because of the, in hindsight, obvious mistakes. Believe me. you’re good, but in no way “there” yet. Here are three basic pointers to get you up to that next rank you always just seem to miss.

Rotation

I know, I know, everybody is already clicking away. Nobody wants to hear about the dreaded “R-word” that you’ve probably been hearing about from every salty random teammate. But maybe, just maybe, they do have a point. I pride myself in knowing about proper rotation, applying it to my games, and sometimes even in-game reminding others to do the same. However, when I take an honest look at my gameplay, I still don’t follow the proper rotation all the time. I get overcome with the urge to just ever so slightly touch the ball when it happens to land near me. It’s only natural, after all, when you see how much time we’ve all spent chasing that ball. So, let’s go over this one more time:

Let’s start at defensive rotations, as every good offense starts with a successful defense. In position 1, you’re the goalkeeper. When the opposing team shoots to score, you’re there to make sure the ball doesn’t go in. Simple as that, but you probably did that instinctively already.

When you’ve saved the shot, but the enemies are still in possession and are going to try again, you move towards position 2, where you can gather boost if needed, but your primary objective here is to clear the ball if the enemy attacks from this side.

After the block, assuming your block wasn’t enough and the enemy is still attacking, you move towards position 3. Try and grab some boost pads while you’re at it. Here, you should be near the goal, but not in the same position as number 1. When your teammate in position 2 clears the ball and gets to attacking, you should move from here to offense, to receive the pass. If your teammate on 2 doesn’t clear the ball and the enemy volleys the ball towards the backboard, you should be ready to aerial and clear the ball to one of your corners. The third option here is to move into position 1 when your teammate in goal moves to position 2.

This whole defensive rotation is basically a big loop for as long as the opposing team is attacking. As soon as you clear the ball (in position 2) and keep possession, the teammate in position 2 should attack along the sides and the player in position 3 should be ready to score any passes or centers. The player in position 1 moves up along the field towards the middle line. That’s where we get to offensive rotations, so hold on tight.

Once you have cleared the ball and are attacking, you’re going to aim to get into position 1 with the ball. Here, you have a few options, but you should basically always try to pass the ball to your teammate who should now be in position 2, or just center it in front of the goal so they can put it in.

After passing or centering, assuming there was no goal, you’re going to move to position 2. The teammate who was just there to score your goal will have moved along after missing, getting back to the middle line, to position 3. Once you’re in position 2, you are the striker. Be ready for any centers and passes from the player who will now be in position 1: shoot and try to score.

Did you miss? Don’t worry, keep up the rotations and you and your team will have a new chance in seconds! Move to position 3. Here it is your job to watch out for any clears and blocks from the enemy team. If your teammate in position 1 passes, but the defender blocks, you’re the one who needs to go and make sure there will be a new pass or center.

Reads

Okay, so a different “R-word”. Tying into the rotations; it will happen, either on offense or defense, that the ball is shot on the backboard, the corner wall, or the ceiling. It is crucial that you are able to get to these balls before your opponent, but how do you achieve this? Well, one thing’s for sure, not by waiting around for the ball to come to you. You need to be able to tell where that ball will be bouncing towards. Is it going to come straight at you? Is it going to go over your head? Way to the left? The sooner you predict where it will be going, the sooner you can take off and get there faster than the opposing team.

To get this supernatural sense, this clairvoyance, you will need to spend time playing. These reads can be learned by playing the game, over and over again, until you recognize the way the ball bounces on different pieces of the map. A good way to do this is racing around in free play, passing to yourself via the corners, the backboard, even the ceiling. Get busy creating your own training packs, be creative in the centers and passes you give yourself, and in time you will be able to meet every ball in the air, no matter the pass.

Refueling

I’ll admit, I was scrambling to find a third word starting with an r to complete this list. So this is not actually about how you should refuel your Dominus, Batmobile, or trusty Octane. What I mean by this is how often you’re refueling. If you look back at all the objectives that come with the different positions during offense and defense, there’s hardly any time left for you to stroll leisurely along the field looking for those boost pads. That’s why you need to make sure to get the most out of your boost. Manage that little amount you have left, so you can be ready to make a save or block, instead of putting yourself in a horrible position by unnecessarily going to get boost. The first thing to improve to save boost is your “fast aerial”. Jumping once and then using up all of your boost to get to the ball is no effective way to challenge or shoot. Master the fast aerial (double-jump while gently tilting your car up and only then boost the remainder) to not only get to the ball faster, but save a lot of boost doing it too. Just make sure to not tilt your car backwards and double-jump at the same time, or you’ll backflip and be the victim of some sarcastic quick chats.

Try to flip while racing back to goal, instead of boosting all the way, and you’ll see that you have enough boost left to meet the ball in the air. All the cars in the game have a maximum speed: Know that when you’re going supersonic, no amount of extra boost is going to make you go faster than that max speed. Rather save your boost and use it to power the ball in the top corner and secure that win.

All in all, you'll have to keep in mind that this isn't a guarantee you'll be playing next seasons RLCS LAN with the pros, but just a surefire way to step up your game and maybe even get the next tier of season rewards during this new season of ranked play.

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