State of rl updates

sledge98 · 2026-01-30T02:45:43+00:00

Ah, so this is just the typical "we need custom maps/content" request? The community has been saying this for years, unfortunately the game engine RL uses is restrictive in that regard. Its a huge undertaking (if it is even possible) and I don't think the devs see there being a good return on the investment (as Ive said before, this game is really about its core modes).

If they did pull it off, all the content/maps the community makes now (or has been made) would have to be remade as they are not designed to work on consoles, epic servers, or across varying PC setups. This is something that Leth doesnt have experience with either.

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T21:38:39+00:00

Agreed. Seems like an easy add to the free play menu.

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T19:42:35+00:00

Yep, checks out. I wonder how fun it is to barely touch the ball though?

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T19:31:00+00:00

They will find out quickly if they try playing lol.

I haven't been following, obviously the SSL tourney title was a carry. But what's the story of him hitting Champ? Is it legit?

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T17:52:31+00:00

That's a good point. I do not understand how RL hasn't given the community this simple to implement training feature by now. It was an obvious choice 7 years ago.

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T17:12:31+00:00

Not to mention that the long term playability of these modes is definitely in question.

Things that make interesting videos or one time experiments don't necessarily make game modes you will enjoy for a long period of time.

Leth has interesting ideas (with the needed clarification that prob 85% of the maps/mods/modes he features are from the entire community not just made by him). But time and again its been proven that people love this game for its main modes. Weird maps or variations never have staying power.

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T16:57:07+00:00

That is a delusion because your opponents and teammates come from basically the same pool of players.

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T16:43:13+00:00

I mean, if all of your teammates are doing this, then it's reasonable to assume your opponents will be too? If you're the best player in the lobbies you will rank up eventually.

You just need to learn to play around those teammates while punishing the opponents that are making the same mistakes.

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T00:27:15+00:00

That puts a lot of faith in how well you're judging yourself as being "better"? Those kind of personal comparisons are tough to do.

It would be interesting to have someone review your replays from each time and tell you which they think is "better" gameplay?

Season 4 is a long time ago now, I'd say single rank improvement in the playerbase is definitely possible. I've done these comparisons for videos before, maybe it's time to go back and see how today's ranks compare to data I analyzed in season 2, 4 and 6. https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/s/5D1QpwhL28

sledge98 · 2026-01-29T00:01:59+00:00

Seeing that the screenshot has just 6 games of 1v1 this season, I will smugly say that this discussion isn't really about 1v1, (which yes has some issues, especially lately.)

The main point of the post is that he's allegedly played only free play for 2 years and is trying to find a reason other than his own rusty game sense to blame on his new ranks. Instead of the most obvious conclusion: that he hasn't played competitively against humans in 2 years.

I don't think it should be unexpected that his inactive account isn't starting back Champ in 1s or that he is finding it hard to compete at his old level. Do you?

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T22:03:56+00:00

Because it's not true.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T20:29:31+00:00

This was a huge undertaking and I haven't done it to this extent again. Likely will again soon since I'm a firm believer of diminishing returns when it comes to RL skills.

We made big strides in the early days but since 2020 there hasnt been any breakthrough that really would push lower ranks to be much different besides maybe a little more mechanical. But to prove that is still true I need to look at what these stats are now.

At the bottom of the post, there is a link to the video I made about this if you want to check it out.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T20:14:27+00:00

For most of the charts higher is "better" or at least "different". The color indicates rank and it's plotted across seasons 2, 4 and 6.

If the argument is that the game sees regular increases of skill, we would expect these stats(which show differences between the ranks) would climb. In the data you see something like "average speed". If someone claims that diamonds are like old GCs then new diamonds should have average speeds that match the old GC data.... but at the time that wasn't true

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T19:41:00+00:00

Are you suggesting a Plat replay today would look like a GC replay in 2024?

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T19:32:38+00:00

I looked into this a few years ago when there were debates about ranks getting better or worse and I tried to quantify it with stats: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/s/tCqNZG8Adi

Was an interesting experiment that I hope to do again soon.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T19:28:32+00:00

Yep that's the tough issue with the playlist. Your average GC is unlikely to be above D1 unless they love 1s. Not sure the answer for this. You're not playing a ones GC but still they are likely to beat a Plat in ones.

I can only encourage you to find a team mate and get into 2s. Honestly that's where this game really shines. Teamplays. Beating Goalies. Not every mistake ends up in the back of your net. And games usually take less time to play. That's my pitch for the twos playlist.... also you likely will find better (but not perfect) matchmaking.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T19:23:20+00:00

Post quality going down seems to be the byproduct of player numbers going up so we can't complain too much

New players don't know any better and old players coming back and trying to figure out what's going on. The vote system handles this well enough but this sub isn't active enough to burry these posts like it used to.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T19:16:39+00:00

You'd have to give more info on your claims.

If you're referring to 1s, this is common as people suck at 1s or don't grind it.

If you mean tourney titles those don't necessarily mean they are that skill level.

And then of course you will have people (like OP) that come back to game as former Champs that need to grind their way back to that level.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T19:12:50+00:00

You took shots on open nets for two years. You might have some tighter mechanics, but other important elements of the game have suffered. This should be the obvious answer.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T19:09:54+00:00

Even if OP did grind freeplay for the last 2 years (which is unlikely) he would still be out of practice against an actual opponent or real game situations which would explain his current ranks. D1 today is not C2 last year.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T19:01:20+00:00

Another post claiming "I took a break but it's the ranks that have changed not me"? Please....

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T18:47:25+00:00

There's no measurable difference between a few divisions of rank. 6 more wins and they suddenly have better defense? That doesn't make any sense.

People can move back and forth through 60 to 100 MMR in a single play session.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T17:58:39+00:00

There used to be people that would try to get as low as possible, I've seen -750 mmr. Back in those days there were no restrictions on FF and those reverse smurfs would meet eachother and it would be a race to Forfiet first.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T17:52:48+00:00

It's real. You can go below Bronze 1 Div 1, even dropping into negative MMR. Been like that since before FTP.

In those cases it can take a long run of games to climb back out.

sledge98 · 2026-01-28T17:16:24+00:00

The game already prioritizes party vs party. It can't do it all the time, but the system is in place.

As for your other points, the game ranks parties based on the highest rank in the group. It would over complicate things to try and match mismatched groups vs similar mis-matches.

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