Sources: RLCS 2027 to introduce new partner league and revamped format with new organizations set to join

RLCS 2027 will represent a vital transition year for Rocket League Esports. While the 2026 season was a relative continuation of the previous two with only minor adjustments to format, prizing, and rules, Sheep Esports sources familiar with the situation expect the next year to be more transformative. The upcoming release of Unreal Engine 6, which was announced at the Paris Major, will play a central part in the wide-scale changes to this new season as Rocket League migrates to a new platform.

RLCS 2027 is expected to begin with an evolution of the Kick-Off Weekend that was originally added to the schedule for RLCS 2026. The first version of the event got RLCS 2026 started with a LAN featuring eight teams, four from Europe and four from North America. It occurred after the first online Regional Open of the season, which effectively acted as a qualification tournament for the event. Karmine Corp won the event, earning themselves automatic qualification to the Boston Major.

The RLCS 2027 Kick-Off event will be different. The event is expected to take place in familiar territory in London at the Copper Box Arena, a venue that has hosted three RLCS events in the past, including the RLCS Season 5 World Championship. According to sources, this location was a priority for Epic Games and Blast. Like the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, it represents a comfort choice for hosting an RLCS event. Sheep Esports expects the Kick-off LAN in London to take place in December, on similar dates to its RLCS 2026 predecessor.

It is set to host 24 invited teams, 16 more than the total number of teams that appeared last season. The selection of invites will likely be made up of current partnered teams, who were part of the RLCS Shop revenue share scheme during RLCS 2026, and other external organizations who have been briefed on the changes being made to RLCS 2027. These new organizations are expected to join the partnership program.

To be eligible for an invite to the Kick-Off event, teams will need to choose a region to represent and follow the residency rules that were put in place last year. At least two players from the starting roster must be a citizen or resident of the region in which they are competing. Organizations are also expected to finalize their teams by mid-October, only a month after the conclusion of the RLCS 2026 World Championship.

Following the conclusion of the Kick-Off LAN, the partnered teams are expected to transition to online play after the new year. These teams will compete across January and February together in an online league format, ahead of another RLCS LAN that will occur in North America during March. It's still unclear whether this online period will feature Open Qualifiers. According to sources, the March LAN will be the final tournament before a competitive break, put in place to handle major changes to Rocket League. The rest of the year after the break and following the Esports World Cup (EWC) remains uncertain, with decisions to be made at a later date.

Currently, the partnership program contains 21 total teams representing all seven regions in the RLCS. Six of the teams did not qualify for the World Championship, including Dignitas, Geekay Esports, Gen.G, Pioneers, PWR, and M80. Man City Esports was the most recent addition to the RLCS Shop. Sources suggest the new partnership program is expected to expand beyond the current 21 teams, introducing new organizations to the ecosystem.

The original Esports Shop was introduced in 2019 with a revenue share scheme that featured a 70/30 split of the revenue, with 30% going to the organizations. Currently, teams profit from a fixed agreement made with Epic Games rather than a direct revenue share. These fixed agreements have been a source of controversy in the past, notably leading to Karmine Corp to reject an offer from Epic Games to feature the organization's decal in the RLCS Shop during RLCS 2025. The French organization would return to the fold later that year.

For RLCS 2027, sources familiar with the program expect Epic Games to pivot to the original direct revenue share scheme that Psyonix introduced in the past. Organizations are expected to no longer receive fixed payments for their intellectual property license. Instead, they’ll receive a percentage split of the revenue as well as direct sales incentives. New in-game cosmetics and decals with these partners are set to release in December.

For the Paris Major and the 2026 World Championship, Epic Games introduced revenue share bundles where 100% of the net sales were split between both the players and organizations in attendance at these events. While the Paris Major bundle earned $550,000 for the players and organizations, questions were raised about the distribution of these funds. 50% of the revenue went to just three players, who were the statistical leaders from the event. This was a lopsided portion for a tournament that featured 48 total participants. Adjustments were made for the new bundle introduced ahead of the 2026 World Championship, where 70% of sales would now directly go to organizations, while 30% was split between a wider range of individual awards for players.

In RLCS 2027, Epic Games is expected to reduce the allocation of net sales by 50%. If a future tournament matched the $550,000 earned by the Paris Major, only $225,000 would be handed out to players and organizations. Epic Games is also expected to continue to bring the split between players and organizations more in line with the industry standard. In recent years, organizations have pushed developers and tournament organizers to offer a club share of prize pools at Major tournaments, and some esports have even removed direct cash prizes to players altogether.

Epic Games is expected to encourage organizations to push their Support-A-Creator codes with more vigour. On every purchase used with these codes within the Epic Games ecosystem, organizations and content creators receive a 5% cut of the sale.

At the Paris Major this year, Epic Games revealed that Rocket League would be transitioning from Unreal Engine 3 (UE3), which the game has been running on since it was developed and subsequently released by Psyonix in 2015, to Unreal Engine 6 (UE6). In an article written by Epic Games development lead Marcus Wassmer, it was revealed that Epic Games would be targeting an Early Access release at the end of 2027.

With Rocket League likely to take center stage in the advertisement and release of the game engine, sources suggest the game is expected to transition fully to UE6 during Spring 2027. The transition will lead to an expected pause in competition during RLCS 2027, which could stretch over many months. Players will then return in the summer, with the EWC set to be the first LAN tournament to take place on UE6.

Rocket League has now featured in all three editions of the EWC since 2024, and was even a part of its predecessor Games8. The tournament has become the most important third-party event outside of the RLCS circuit, providing players and organizations with further LAN opportunities and prize money. Having been hosted in Riyadh since its inception, the most recent edition was forced to relocate to Paris this year due to the ongoing Iran War in the Middle East. Its sister event, the Esports Nations Cup, which was set to host a Rocket League tournament in November, was postponed entirely.

Add these difficulties to the recent highly-publicised decision made by the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, parent company of the Saudi Esports Foundation which runs the EWC, to end its funding of the professional men’s golf tour LIV Golf, there was speculation that Rocket League could be a victim of the EWC downscaling its operations. However, sources have confirmed that the tournament has a multi-year deal with Epic Games to run Rocket League events, with another three years at least guaranteed.

Furthermore, In 2027, the tournament looks set to host the first Rocket League event on UE6, which will be pivotal for the future of the game. The tournament organizer also recently announced that Counter-Strike will be returning for the next two years and other games are expected to be confirmed for future events.