Rocket League: How Australians Can Watch The Big New Tournament

While Australians could not register for the newest big-time Rocket League tournament, they won't miss out on being able to watch the action. The Grand Finals of the new tournament will be televised on Syfy in Australia (as well as the UK, Germany, and Latin America), while Americans can watch it on NBC Sports.

The Grand Finals, which features 16 teams competing for the first-ever title and a share of a $100,000 prize pool, can be streamed live on syfy.com.au and through the traditional linear Syfy TV channel. The finals take place in the US on August 26-27, which comes out to Sunday, August 27 and Monday, August 28 in Australia.

It's notable here in Australia because it's the first time Syfy is getting involved with the growing eSports market. Syfy is a subsidiary of NBC Universal, which owns NBC Sports.

The tournament began with regional online qualifying matches organized through the Faceit esports platform. Matches are played in a 2v2 format.

NBC Sports Ventures executive Rob Simmelkjaer said his network decided to make Rocket League its first foray into esports because it believed the game is already close enough to sports to make it easy and entertaining for NBC Sports' current audience.

Josh Watson, the head of eSports for Rocket League developer Psyonix, said Rocket League is an "easy-to-understand game, which makes it the perfect introduction to eSports for fans of all backgrounds and ages."

Rocket League launched in July 2015 and has since become a massive success. By Psyonix's latest count, the game has reached 33 million players. Over the past year, Rocket League saw 1.6 million players per day, 3.3 million per week, and 6.1 million every month.

Rocket League is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, with a Nintendo Switch version to come later this year.