Rocket League Free-To-Play Update Now Live, Official Patch Notes Outlined

Now that Rocket League is free-to-play, developer Psyonix has outlined the official patch notes for the soccar game's latest update. It mirrors last week's patch but adds a few more notes about Competitive and the start of Season 1.

The inaugural season of Rocket League, now that the game is free-to-play, began on September 22. Season 1 introduces three new ranks to Competitive, removes the Solo Standard mode, adds a level 10 requirement for Competitive play, and more. There's also a new Tournament system that Psyonix said feels like Rocket League esports but for all ranks, where players can participate in daily tournaments to rank up and receive rewards.

The most prominent addition to Rocket League thanks to the free-to-play update is cross-progression. This feature lets players carry over their save data from Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One by connecting to an Epic Games account. Furthermore, claiming the game on the EGS comes with a free $10 coupon, which can be applied to the next EGS purchase.

In celebrating Rocket League's transition to a free-to-play model, Psyonix has partnered with Epic Games' Fortnite for the soccar game's first new in-game event. Titled Llama-Rama, it kicks off this Saturday with some crossover items, concepts with Fortnite, and more.

Elsewhere, the update makes Rocket League available through the Epic Games Store and disables the required PlayStation Plus membership to play the game online. It also adds new content (such as additional flags), changes how players acquire Drops in-game, and modifies several achievements, among other things. Check out the full patch notes below.

Full Rocket League Patch Notes

The Headlines

• Rocket League is now available for download through the Epic Games Store
• The new Challenges system is live, including challenges specifically for new players
• PlayStation Plus is no longer required to play Rocket League online
• Season 1 is now live on all platforms

Season 1

Rocket Pass

• Season 1 is Rocket Pass is live, featuring the new Harbinger Car Body.

Competitive (Began on 9/22/2020)

• Rank Additions: We are introducing three new Competitive Ranks at the top of the spectrum to add more distinction between the best of the best Rocket League players:"
  • Grand Champion II & III will sit above the existing Grand Champion Rank and provide additional separation between players in the Grand Champion echelon
  • We’ve also changed the Grand Champion Rank color to Red to better distinguish it from Champion
  • Players who exceed even these two new levels of Grand Champion will reach the Rank of Supersonic Legend
  • Featuring a new white icon, this Rank is tuned to be very exclusive based on historical ranking data. We’ll be keeping an eye on the thresholds for these new Ranks in each playlist throughout the season to ensure they’re difficult, but not impossible, to obtain
  Seasonal Resets: We’re changing how we do seasonal "soft resets” of the Competitive skill curve. Going forward, we will compress the entire skill curve towards the median Rank (Gold III)
  • Players above this Rank will move down an average of one tier, while players below the median will move up an average of one tier
  • On the top end, we will hard cap players at around Grand Champion I rank going into the new season.
  • As part of this change, we’re recalibrating the Skill Tier requirements for multiple playlists, including 1v1 Duel and all Extra Modes.
• Level Restriction: Players must be at least Level 10 before they are permitted to play in Competitive Playlists.
  • Accounts created before our transition to free-to-play are exempt from this rule.
  Solo Standard: We have heard from the community, and we discontinued the Solo Standard playlist in the last update. We want Rocket League’s move to free-to-play to be a fresh start with a single, unified 3v3 Competitive playlist for all players.
  • For the diehard fans of Solo Standard, we have updated our matchmaking system to more consistently place solos against solos, and parties against parties.

Tournaments

• The new Tournaments system is fully live on all platforms and across all supported regions
• Reminder: Players must complete placement matches in one or more Competitive Playlist to participate in Competitive Tournaments
  • No Season 1 Rank yet? We will use your highest Rank from Season 14 to place you into Tournaments until you complete your Season 1 placement matches
• See the Update 32 Patch Notes and our Tournaments blog post for more details

Challenges

• Challenges have been improved and expanded to provide more opportunities for all types of players. Challenges now come in three varieties:
  • Weekly Challenges that must be completed the week they’re active
  • Season Challenges that can be completed any time before the season ends
    • Challenges will be unlocked in stages as the season progresses. Stage 1 Challenges are available with today's update
  • Event Challenges that become available during special events and offer limited time rewards
• We also have New Driver Challenges specifically designed for players new to Rocket League. These will be visible to all new players in the Challenges Menu and Widget
  • If you played Rocket League before the transition to free to play, you won’t see these Challenges
• You’ll receive three Weekly Challenges every week, and a set of Free Season Challenges
• Rocket Pass owners get access to an additional three Weekly Challenges along with Premium Season Challenges
• A new Challenges Widget has been added to the Main Menu that showcases your Weekly Challenge status. You can browse all active Challenges from the new Challenges Menu. You can also access the full Challenges Menu from inside the Widget

Competitive Season 14 Rewards

• Rewards were released on 9/22/2020
• Competitive Season 14 has ended. Titles and Reward Items will be awarded for your highest Rank achieved during the season, and successful completion of the appropriate Season Reward Levels.
• Season 14 Rewards are custom, non-tradeable Player Banners
  • Bronze I or higher – Season 14 Bronze Player Banner and Avatar Border
  • Silver I or higher – Season 14 Silver Player Banner and Avatar Border + lower Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Gold I or higher – Season 14 Gold Player Banner and Avatar Border + lower Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Platinum I or higher – Season 14 Platinum Player Banner and Avatar Border + lower Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Diamond I or higher – Season 14 Diamond Player Banner and Avatar Border + lower Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Champion I or higher – Season 14 Champion Player Banner and Avatar Border + lower Player Banners and Avatar Borders
• Grand Champion Rewards
  • Competitive Grand Champion – ‘Season 14 – Grand Champion’ In-Game Title + Grand Champion Player Banners and Avatar Borders + all Season 14 Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Rumble Grand Champion – ‘Season 14 – RNG Champ’ In-Game Title + Grand Champion Player Banners and Avatar Borders + all Season 14 Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Dropshot Grand Champion – ‘Season 14 – Floor Destroyer’ In-Game Title + Grand Champion Player Banners and Avatar Borders + all Season 14 Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Hoops Grand Champion – ‘Season 14 – Dunk Master’ In-Game Title + Grand Champion Player Banners and Avatar Borders + all Season 14 Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Snow Day Grand Champion – ‘Season 14 – Blizzard Wizard’ In-Game Title + Grand Champion Player Banners and Avatar Borders + all Season 14 Player Banners and Avatar Borders
  • Note: Grand Champion In-Game Titles for Extra Modes are earned by achieving Grand Champion Rank in each individual Extra Mode

New Content

Monstercat Flags (Antenna)

• 'Bad Computer'
• 'Koven'
• 'Duumu'
• 'Muzzy'
• 'Bossfight'
• 'Danyka Nadeau'
• 'Nick Smith'
• 'Conro'
• 'FOOL'
• 'Glacier'
• 'Dexter King'

Changes and Updates

Drops

• You can now receive Drops of different qualities when completing Challenges or earning Rocket Pass tiers. These rewards contain one random item from a wide pool of content that includes:
  • Uncommon and higher free drops from before Free-to-Play (formerly acquired as random, post-game items).
  • Items from every crate released before the Vindicator Crate.
  • Items formerly obtained in Rocket League DLC packs, like Scarab or the Mohawk Topper, at new qualities (e.g. Scarab is "Very Rare").
• These items can be Traded In just like the old "free series" could be, and all existing free drops will be compatible with these items for future trade-ins.

Achievements

• As we move Rocket League to free-to-play, the following achievements/trophies have been modified:
  • TODO: Per-achievement list that changed
  • 'Grease Monkey'
  • 'SARPBC Forever'
  • 'Traveler'
  • 'Tinkerer'
  • 'An Inch and 6.2 Miles'
  • 'Ride or Die'
  • 'Don't Look Back'
  • 'Family, Not Friends'
  • 'Drift King'
  • 'Survival of the Fittest'
  • 'Heartbreaker'
  • 'Natural Progression'
  • 'Hot Shot, Part Two'
  • 'Throwback'
  • 'My World is Fire'
  • 'Spectacular'
  • 'Savage'
  • 'Ruthless'
  • 'Psycho-Master Exploder'
  • 'Infinite Power!'
  • 'Stopped Cold'
  • 'Get Up, Mr. Bubbles!'
  • 'Metaverse'
• 'Battle-Car Collector' has been renamed 'Car Collector.'
• 'Rocket Genocider' has been renamed 'Rocket Repleter.'