The Rocket League Championship Series World Championship was less than a month ago, but it’s time for challengers to rise. We’re 28 days away from the return of the competitive season, and the RLCS has shared an update on how the end of 2026 and the start of 2027 will launch. The updated Club Championship, announced on October 10th, consists of three Acts: Club Opens & Kick-Off, Club League, and Club Finale.
Act I: Open and Kick-Off
The Club Opens & Kick-Off is the first act, setting the season’s gears in motion. Teams from MENA, NA, EU, and SAM, the four best-performing regions of the 2026 season, will play in regional Last Chance Qualifiers. Registration deadlines run from November 2 to 10th, depending on the region, and the tournaments run from November 5 to 22nd.
According to sources close to Sheep Esports, Club Opens will feature two phases: the first phase features double elimination, and the second will be hybrid. The following is the full schedule breakdown for each region:
Registration deadlines:
- MENA: November 2
- NA & SAM: November 3
- EU: November 10
Competitive schedule:
- MENA: November 5-7, November 12-14
- NA & SAM: November 6-8, November 13-15
- EU: November 13-15, November 20-22
These four qualifier winners will receive
an official partner spot in the Club Championships and a guaranteed spot in the Club League. These teams
will join 20 invited teams at
Kick-Off in
London, running
December 9-13th, with
a
2.5 million dollars prize pool. Kick-Off’s winner will add another RLCS Club Finale slot for their region.
Act II: League Phase
The next act will be regional league play, which will start online on January 8th and run throughout February, sources close to Sheep Esports have disclosed. Across the seven RLCS regions, 64 teams will participate in their respective leagues, and the 24 teams that qualified for Kick-Off will receive an automatic spot in their region’s league. The remaining forty spots will be filled through Club Opens tournaments.
Sources close to Sheep Esports confirm that 1-5 clubs per group advance, and only 1 roster swap before League Play begins is allowed. Each region will have a different number of teams in its Club League:
- North America & Europe: 12 teams
- Middle East & North Africa, South America, Asia-Pacific, Oceania & Sub-Saharan Africa: 8 teams
The RLCS will announce the official dates for these Opens, the length of the Club League, and roster submission deadlines as League Play’s start approaches.
Act III: The Grand Finale
The RLCS Club Championship will conclude with the top sixteen teams from all regional Club Leagues at an interregional LAN Finals: the Finale. The event will happen close to March, and the United States will host, sources close to Sheep Esports disclose.
Deadline invitation
RLCS shared the deadline for teams from MENA, NA, EU, and SAM interested in signing up for the Last Chance Qualifier, but what happens to teams directly invited into the Club Kick-Off and with a guaranteed League Play spot? According to sources close to Sheep Esports, the 20 directly invited teams’ deadline to submit their rosters is October 26th.
These upcoming eighteen days will hurriedly set the offseason gears in motion, especially for
Karmine Corp, Vitality, and Gentle Mates. These French organizations are in ongoing contractual talks with Tristan
"Atow” Soyez, Alexis "
zen" Bernier, and Axel "
Vatira" Touret, who
Sheep Esports reported are in talks to join the latter organization.
