Gameplay & Guides

Are people playing 2s in a wrong way? : r/RocketLeagueSchool

Yes and no. Is applying pressure the meta? yes. Is it more optimal than a defensive passive approach, in 3s definitely it is. In 2s sometimes yes and sometimes no, let me elaborate.

Let's start by defining the 2 playstyles:

• Pressure Playstyle: Applying pressure is a very broad term. Placing the ball in awkward spots for the opponent to save, keeping possession, tactical demos, stealing boost, keeping high momentum while making the opponents not able to keep high momentum. All of this is what makes high pressure playstyle what it is.

• Passive defensive playstyles: popularized by Flakes, the Pacifist method by AirCharged being an extrapolation of it. They theoretically have focus on keeping possession, slowing down the plays, forcing counter attacks and 2v1 and 1v1 situations. Theoretically it sounds good, what happens in reality in lobbies where opponents have a brain and are able to keep momentum up and turn bad situations into good ones is that more often than not you rely too much on defending, on shadow defending, fake challenging, bringing the play to your corner, and play from there.

The two playstyles might seem opposites but they aren't. Air Charged is analysing a pressure playstyle that instead of taking advantage of the pressure built, is rushing attacking plays into not favourable situations, the players are losing possession by driving the play into the opponents corners, doing very predictable centers into midfield, and leaving the attacking 2nd man on a spot where he/she either has to commit to a risky shot or to give away the ball completely and defend a bad 2v1 situation. That's not how Pressure Playstyles work. 1st mans aren't supposed to lose possession putting the ball mid without reaching any tactical advantage previously, you at least need to build boost advantage, you have to build positional advantage, and you have to build space advantage.

Air Charged Pacifist playstyle, and defensive playstyles in general, are popular because they exploit the situation that I just explained. In better words, they exploit the lack of brain and the lack of tactical ability of the opponents. What happens though, it's that you can just counter Pacifist Playstyles with actual good Pressure, keeping the ball close, forcing favorable 50s and building up the position until the opponents are overwhelmed. Also, shadow defending into your own corner gets extremely risky if the opponents first man plays it right, exploits low momentum by demo chasing and rotating fast through middle instead of forcing a rushed center without any previous build up.

Finally, as I said previously, the two systems aren't opposites, so they can be used interchangeably in different situations, you can't keep possession for the whole game, that's just not possible, and in many situations you are forced into defensive situations that only allow for a more passive "drive the play into the corner" approach. Also, you can be a very aggressive pressure focused player, but knowing how to shine in transitions, both defensively and offensively, is the bread and butter or RL. And a mix of the two is most likely going to happen in most games.

AirCharged actually explains perfectly the situation in minute 16:00 of the video. "Why not not go for that? Just go for demo...". What he is implying here is that Pressure Playstyles and Systems don't take this tactical variable into consideration, they do. But most players just play the game in such autopilot, that just using a little bit of the brain against them (which usually means just let them fuck up by themselves) usually results in the right counter. Again in 2s this tactical voids are just way more obvious and exploitable. In 3s, sorry to say, but having a passive playstyle isn't going to ever be meta, because the fast counterattack and 2v1 situations that are created in 2s are easily countered by 2nd man blocks and 3rd man space control. And in 3s boost control is so prevalent that you either try to be positionally aggressive in midfield or you are just going to struggle.

Just a quick football reference. What's better High Press, Tiki Taka, Catenaccio? 433, 442, 4231? It depends, what's better objectively is what works, and you can make any of those work with the right players. Are some systems in theory superior to others? Yes. Can a team using a theoretically inferior system win against a team that plays the more meta system? Yes. Can a tactical system just be overthrown by a single player technical ability? Yes.

I hit GC in twos!! : r/RocketLeagueSchool

Into the system

Standard – Standard RL

Pull/drag back – Forcing opponents to our corner, and initiating the offence either from a reset or from…

Counter – One preventing central pressure, one sat deep in net, waiting to make a counter/ 2v1

2v1 – Once a successful 2v1 has been created (ideally in our own defensive area), go nuts and just smash the ball toward the opponents net and try a heavy collapse, this is because if we score great, if not we blend into pull/drag back or counter and we go again from an even more dominant situation.

Levels – Passive – Making sure that we can get to Level 3 as soon as possible from counter, and overall strategy has respect to levels.

Standard

Standard is the most basic form of rocket league, although I don’t believe it important to start here as many players absorb this style through osmosis. Essentially this is a pressure based (outdated) system whereby players just continue to force the ball forward anyway they can, either via the wing and corners or shots to toward net. After taking a hit or making a play, rotating behind the team mate to let them have a go on the play with outward momentum, whilst the original player gets boost.

Sometimes this is useful to use, however only if we use the most crucial passive system in Rocket league, especially at ranks of GC and under, levels.

Levels

Levels always pays attention to boost zones and levels. The idea being the opponents back boosts are the highest level achievable, getting to level 3 as soon as possible will make all other systems, extremely easy to execute. Lets look at each level and what it means.

Level 1 – This is the base, you need level 1 for basic survival and ability to counter in most cases. Imagine level 1 as putting on your karate outfit (gi) with just a white belt. It’s the very building block that can allow you to reach your potential, and is certainly better than level 0 (never having a lesson).

Level 2 – The infamous saying in rocket league is “the team that controls the mid boost, controls the game”. This is true, as being able to achieve level 2 earlier than the other team, allows you to either blend into standard, or back off with advantage to play the other systems (we will get onto). Or it can even allow you to aggress and take the level 3 boosts. This gives a sizable advantage so its similar to a purple/brown belt.

Level 3 – The crème de la crème. Having the level 3 boost usually means that you can continue pressure, or blend into the drag back system. This, if played correctly can allow total control of the opposing team, and essentially creates a ticking time bomb. Consider this black belt level.

Drag back

In a situation you have either grabbed level 2/3 or level 2, or, the opponents got level 3 (technically their level 1). Then the drag back can be used to help strip the boost and allow a reset. To perform this, have a player shadow close, and the second player shadow far, this creates a double level of protection and can help blend into what drag back is designed for, transitional play.

Whilst performing the drag back, the idea is to pin the opponents to the outside wall, forcing them to push the ball down the wing where the close shadower can take the big boosts from beneath their feet. The far shadower then rotates and sits deep in the net and waits for counter to begin.

If the player has good control they may either go up the wall or try a shot flick. The far shadow player has the job of controlling this to safely, ideally to their opposite corner. This allows the player on the close shadow to take all the boosts and then they can head into deep net position, unless 2v1 has already been achieved.

Counter

The goal of drag back is to have one player preventing the opponent from establishing central threats by positioning in the centre and shadowing relatively close. Whilst the second player waits deep in net ready to punish the over commit. Once an overcommit has happened, the player who was shadowing close immediately pushes to take advantage of the dive/overcommit from the opponent. The player deep in net clears the ball as hard as they can, the goal for these two is to try and push the ball high, or to get a quick offensive play off (power shot/flick). If they are unsuccessful then whilst making this play, they are constantly aware of levels. Once a play is made, both players will assess what boosts they can take, ideally taking both level 3 boosts whilst staying safe. This often means the player defending will use boost at an alarming rate, again, the goal is to consistently put the ball high.

If continually pressuring isn’t getting the job done, but the players are boost starved, or pressing out of fear, blend straight back into drag back to pull them both further toward your net with less boost then start again. There will be a possibility of being able to cut the player and going into 2v1.

2v1

The main goal in 2s, to create 2v1s and not allow 2v1s. We can create 2v1s a multitude of ways based on the other systems, but the main goal here is to have the ball, yourself and your team mate ahead of at least one of the opponent team, this allows a barrage of attacks, from demo players, to passes and even backboard plays.