VP Coach MEMORY: "I always wanted to play in front of these crowds; I didn’t get to do it"

For the first time in his long RLCS career, both as a professional player and coach, Michael "MEMORY" Moss stood on a LAN stage in front of a crowd as head coach of Virtus.pro during the Rocket League 2026 World Championship. Under his watch, the North American squad went unbeaten in both the Play-In and Group Stage, enjoying a memorable LAN performance leading North America’s charge at the expense of other regions. While Virtus.pro were unable to tame the very best, falling to losses against Karmine Corp and Spacestation Gaming, the young squad, featuring Dylan "Wahvey" Thanus, Jayden "2Piece" Horton, and Canadian debutant Cohen "Tawk" Hawco finished the season on a serious high.

Sheep Esports interviewed head coach MEMORY after the team exited the tournament with an 0-4 loss to Spacestation Gaming. He reflected on how proud he was of the players, what an opportunity to stand in front of the crowd meant to him and North America’s success at the event.

Michael "MEMORY" Moss “You know I think we played well for the most part at the beginning and then we kind of fell off. It wasn’t the best crowd matches for us, especially the last one but I’m proud of the boys. I think we did what we wanted to do for the vast majority of the tournament.

MEMORY: I think we predicted it going into the tournament, we knew we were still good. There was a lot of noise, especially because we had a poor second Split. We knew that we just had some things to figure out, which we worked on very hard during the breaks and we came out swinging.

MEMORY: A few more results like this. Honestly, the two crowd matches we had are huge for them. It helps people recognize them and will also help them with their confidence. They’ve just got to keep getting those good results. I think all of them are good players and they’ve grown a lot over this season, so I’m looking forward to it.

MEMORY: Tawk is an incredible player. He’s really good outside of the game too, he’s just a nice person to be around. He really wants the team to win. He put a lot of his trust in me this season and in his teammates to get better. I think at this point Tawk is really up there in North America with both of his teammates. I think he grew a lot, so yeah I’m proud of him.

MEMORY: Yeah, it's an interesting question. I think most of the teams just realized at a certain point that there actually is a large gap between North America, Europe and the other regions which started to become very apparent, especially when NRG started getting really good. I think people just got kicked into like ‘oh wow, we really need to work on stuff’ and you're kind of seeing the results of that now. It takes a while to get up to par.

MEMORY: It was great. Going into this season, this was kind of the goal to make as many LANs as we can. We made Boston and did well at Worlds. It just means a lot to me, even making it through the LCQ last year meant a lot to me. I always wanted to play in front of these kinds of crowds; I didn’t get to do it but I’m happy to be able to bring players to these LANs, so they can do it.

MEMORY: I definitely love coaching. I think I like it more than playing honestly. At this point I’m not entirely sure what the future holds for me, but I have loved coaching these past three years and being a part of Rocket League for as long as I have.