“We are Team Vitality and we are World Champions” – Ferra on winning the RLCS 2022-23 World Championship

After a long season of the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), the 2022-23 season has finally put a crown on the new champion. Team Vitality was the favorite for a reason as the team put on an emotional and dominant show in the RLCS World Championship.

The RLCS World Championship is a culmination of the 2022-23 Rocket League esports season where the top teams of the world compete for the World Champions title and a share in the $2,100,000 USD prize pool.

Team Vitality has won the RLCS World Championship with the following roster:

This is the second time the organization wins the RLCS World Championship, the first one being with a different roster during the RLCS World Championship Season 7 in 2019. Team Vitality becomes the first organization to win two World Championships in Rocket League.

The team will return with $600,000 USD together with a beautiful RLCS Swarovski trophy and medals for each player.

Team Vitality started the 2022-23 season with a humble beginning and a slightly different roster. The team had to make some changes after it didn't qualify for the RLCS 2021-22 World Championship. With Alexandre "Kaydop" Courant leaving the team, Alpha54, Radosin, and Ferra took on Thiméo "saizen" Corcuff in their roster.

The team couldn't make it out of the Closed Qualifier at the start of the Fall Season, causing it to miss Fall Open. The players then work harder to place among the teams in the Fall Cup and even managed to be among the top four teams in the Fall Regional. Team Vitality however fell in 9th-11th place in the Fall Invitational after falling against Team Liquid.

Winter Season comes and Team Vitality shows constant improvement. The team ended up in the Grand Final and lost against Karmine Corp and placed second in the Winter Open. Moving forward, Team Vitality placed 5th-8th place in the other two Winter Regionals.

The French team at the time had already housed zen since October 2022. He was banned from all Psyonix-operated tournaments until February 2023 for playing as a substitute in the Closed Qualifier RLCS X EU Fall Regional 1 while he was an underage and unregistered player.

It seems like Team Vitality thought that the Spring Season is the time for a new rookie to bloom. Saizen left Team Vitality and zen joins the official roster. Since then, the new roster had won all the European Spring Regionals, which lead them to win the RLCS Spring Major in Boston, USA.

With Team Vitality's last sprint, they received a direct invitation to the Group Stage of the RLCS 2022-23 World Championship and they were definitely one of the favorites to lift the trophy.

Team Vitality was confident and ready to end the season with a bang. The team took down Moist Esports convincingly in its first match of the tournament. Later on, the squad has to face Spacestation Gaming, which it has defeated with a 4:1 score.

The players arrived in the playoffs with ease, having to go against MENA's hope, Team Falcons. Team Falcons gave a good fight, challenging team Vitality in the overtime but the buzzing hornets were too overwhelming. Team Vitality defeated Team Falcons with a 4:2 score and advanced to the semifinal where the team met up with fellow French superstar, Karmine Corp. The black-and-yellow squad painfully took down the Blue Wall with a 4:2 score. With that, the team marched to the Grand Final to face the previous RLCS World Champion, Team BDS.

Team BDS had fought its hardest to be in the Grand Final of the RLCS World Championship. After its victory in 2022, it went through two splits with no results. The situation forced the players to make a roster change by placing Alexandre "Extra" Paoli as their substitute and bringing in Finlay "rise." Ferguson.

The roster change put Team BDS back on the field and it has been among the top teams in the European Spring Season. Team BDS had also met up with Team Vitality in the Spring Major Grand Finals, where Team Vitality went on to defeat the team convincingly.

It was another face-off between Team BDS and Team Vitality, this time in the Grand Final of the RLCS World Championship. All the players from both teams have so much hope and the trophy was already within their reach.

The Grand Final was a breeze for Team Vitality. The team completely dominated the field and left no room for Team BDS, sweeping all four games. Team Vitality is, without a doubt, one of the most dominant teams in the history of the World Championship.

There were a lot of emotions when one is crowned as the World Champion. Team Vitality's players went on to lift the Swarovski trophy, to which their names will forever be engraved in the dazzling diamonds.

Radosin shared his feelings about having their names among the winners of the RLCS World Championship in the Champions Field. "It's unbelievable. I'm so happy right now, (the names) gonna be forever."

Alpha54 has been together with Team Vitality since 2020 and his dedication to the team has finally paid off. He said in front of the crowd, "I don't know what to say, I'm just speechless. I started to go pro five years ago and I've been waiting so long for this moment. Just amazing. Thank you, everyone."

During the winner interview, Subie_Smash asked zen on how he feels like to exceed expectations despite constant pressure since his debut. Zen said, "Honestly, I don't know how I did it but it is thanks to Ferra and my two incredible teammates as well." He also gave a special shoutout to vatira from Karmine Corp. "Thank you so much for thinking that I am one of the best players. I actually think you are one of the best players as well".

We cannot forget about Ferra, the man behind Team Vitality. He has been a great coach leading the young squad of Team Vitality with his veteran knowledge and experience of the scene. He had gone around the stadium, carrying and showing the trophy to the crowd full of pride.

"Ages ago, I asked my dad (because I didn't have a lot of money) if I could buy this game, which is Rocket League. I didn't expect it to change my life so much. And I played at the highest level for so long and I was close to the top. I played other World Championships multiple times and I felt (last year or two years ago when I retired) it wasn't meant to be. But I guess it was."

That's when he delivered the lines that will forever be among the best moments of Rocket League. "And now I can finally say it. Hi, I'm Ferra and I'm champion of the world. We are Team Vitality and we are World Champions. And I want to thank my players so much because obviously, I would have never done it without them."

With that, the RLCS 2022-23 season is officially over. Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more future RLCS content and esports news.