schedule, format, teams to watch

With the 16 teams locked in, the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) will be heading to Birmingham for the first Major of the 2025 season.

Starting from March 27th, the participants will be fighting for glory and a total prize pool of $351,000 (~£271,721), as well as key RLCS Circuit Ranking points that will be crucial for qualification at the RLCS 2025 World Championship later this year. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the RLCS Birmingham Major.

Organised by Epic Games and BLAST, the RLCS Birmingham Major will take place in Solihull, Birmingham, at the bp pulse LIVE. The venue has a total capacity of over 15,000 people and will have an offline audience for the last two days of the competition.

The RLCS Majors are considered S-tier events in the Rocket League esports ecosystem, as the best teams from seven different regions reunite to compete and earn Circuit Ranking points.

The teams with the most points from each region at the end of the Birmingham and Raleigh Majors will automatically qualify for the RLCS World Championship later this September, with four more teams getting access to a Last Chance Qualifier. These four additional teams have increased the total number of teams in the RLCS World Championship from 16 to 20.

The event is split into two stages, Swiss stage and Playoffs. In the first phase, the 16 teams will play best-of-five matches in a Swiss format (teams will go up against another squad with the same record in every round). The matchups of the Swiss Stage opening round were decided by a draw and are as follows:

The top eight will then advance to playoffs, using an AFL Final Eight format and best-of-seven series. The four lower-seeded teams will compete in the lower bracket while the top four will have double life in the upper bracket.

Additionally, the event will feature a 1v1 showcase tournament between French player Axel ‘Mawkzy‘ Timone and FURIA’s player Yan ‘yanxnz‘ Xisto Nolasco. The winner of the match will win $15,000 (~11.597) of the $20,000 (~15,463) prize pool and qualify for the 1v1 World Championship later this year.

The 16 participating teams have been decided based on the total number of RL Circuit Points earned from the three open qualifiers leading up to the major. Based on the strength of each region, a different number of seeds are distributed.

Below are the teams qualified for the event:

The first team to watch in the upcoming tournament is none other than Karmine Corp. After a strong year in 2024, the team decided to further upgrade its roster by picking up the current world champion and Moroccan player Samy ‘dralii‘ Hajji.

Leading up to the Major, Karmine Corp came first in two out of the three open qualifiers and placed second in the other one. With Europe considered one of the top two regions, the French squad is expected to be a tournament favourite.

Another team worth keeping an eye on is Geekay Esports, which made an exploit in the last open qualifier, defeating 4-0 Karmine Corp in the final. This win allowed the team to become the fourth European seed.

Among the North American representatives, the hopes are likely going to be on NRG. The organisation has put together a roster with the best talents from the region: Landon ‘BeastMode’ Konerman, Daniel ‘Daniel’ Piecenski, and Massimo ‘Atomic’ Franceschi. Just like KC, this squad has dominated two out of three open qualifiers and it will likely be competing for a top spot finish.

The other potential contender for the title is Team Falcons from MENA. Thanks to the presence of the twin brothers Saleh ‘Rw9‘ Bakhashwin and Yazid ‘Kiileerrz‘ Bakhashwin, Team Falcons has been the top team in the region over the past two years—the team even came close to beating world champions Team BDS last year.

Keep an eye on Twisted Minds: this team might be the dark horse of the tournament given that it was matching Team Falcons in the open qualifiers.

FURIA is also on the watch list. The Brazilian squad has collected the most amount of Circuit Points by winning all South American Open Qualifiers and with no roster changes in the offseason, it should be a solid team expected to at least be in the top eight.

The RLCS Birmingham Major will be streamed live on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok. There will be an official broadcast in three languages: English, French and Spanish.