2023-06-09 06:00:03
Göttingen. Florian Rahden aka “Zeddo” is Rocket League World Champion: The student at the private university in Göttingen was crowned with the team of Dr. Buhmann-Akademie Hannover at the title fights in Dallas (USA) to the e-sports champion of the university teams. As the second-placed team in their preliminary round group, Rahden and his teammates Fabian “Fabso” Buß and Nicolas “Pzy” Steinhauser eliminated three American teams in the elimination games and thus brought the World Championship title to Europe for the first time.
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When they won the final, the three and their coach Julian “Phoenix” Braun were flabbergasted at first: “We mightn’t really understand it,” says Rahden. What the team has achieved is still “not really received”. It was an “indescribable feeling” when the team from Germany stood on the top podium on the stage.
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Rocket League World Cup: Huge stage and huge backdrop
And the stage was the biggest they had ever experienced: the World Championship was being held in a very large convention center, which was also hosting the Dreamhack gaming fair. “There were thousands of people at the fair itself and we certainly had a thousand live spectators,” says Rahden, “we had never played in front of such a large backdrop”. In Germany, LAN events have “100 spectators when the going gets tough”.
In front of a big backdrop, the team gambles for the world title.
© Source: private/Dr. Buhmann School
The best-of-five format was played in the group phase and the quarter-finals, from the semi-finals the games lasted a maximum of seven games of five minutes each. In Rocket League, a type of digital car soccer, each player controls a car and the game is three-on-three. The cars can also fly and destroy opponents.
Tournament starts badly with defeat
The three-day tournament started tensely for the team, also because of the large crowd, but the nervousness quickly subsided: “On Friday we still felt tension, on day two we were in our own world,” says the newly crowned world champion. The cameramen were also no longer noticed. The key to success: “We then kept telling ourselves to keep calm and relax. We also laughed a lot, that helped.”
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Nevertheless, the tournament started with a defeat once morest West Virginia University: “We actually played very well,” says Rahden. I was particularly annoyed that “we mightn’t play all Friday anymore” – due to the bankruptcy, Dr. Buhmann-Akademie missed the group final and was only allowed to intervene once more on Saturday.
In the final, team play triumphs over individual class
The next games went better: The victory once morest Dorans Boxfish, another team from Europe, brought the team around captain Rahden into the quarter-finals. There she turned off the Akron Zips Blue, then Columbia College in the semifinals. “We never thought that we might become world champions – and then we suddenly found ourselves in the final,” Rahden looks back. And then the team said to themselves: “If we make the long journey and fly ten hours, then we can also get the thing.”
There was no special tactic for the final: “We played the same way as always.” However, it was known that the Fisher College players were individually stronger and played in the American Champions League. “We relied on the team alliance because we knew we might only beat them as a team,” says Rahden. For example, “Psy” played very well individually, while others “did the dirty work”. “We always complemented each other”, in the end the three Germans celebrated the 4:3 victory together with their coach.
The world title also comes with $20,000 in prize money. What is done with the money? Rahden laughs: “First we wait for it to arrive. That can easily take half a year.” After that, the team would like to “see the world together a little bit”, to look at the Northern Lights in Norway “would be my dream”.
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