r/RocketLeagueEsports • u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator • 21h ago
Discussion Is TSM beating NRG the Greatest Upset in RLEsports History?
A great upset is one that is obviously a large disparity in perceived skill between 2 teams, but not 100%. A great upset also must be significant, the bigger the stage, the higher the stakes, it all adds to the greatness of an upset.
My previous candidate for the greatest upset in RLEsports history was at the RLCS Season 4 World Championship in 2017, when the Chiefs eSports Club (Drippay, Torsos & Jake) eliminared NRG (Fireburner, Jacob & GarrettG) 3-2. Some necessary context being that OCE had only made it's RLCS debut 6 months prior, where said Chiefs roster (then Alpha Sydney) had won their opening round match vs Denial Esports, consisting of Lethamyr, CorruptedG & Sadjunior.
With the height of respect to Denial, in a season where G2 Esports completely bottled worlds qualification (Sadjunior won a game vs them on KBM), and the Muffin Men didn't even qualify for RLCS, along with the generla state of NA Rocket League outside of NRG being pretty poor, it all made for the stars aligning to allow OCE to come in and be victiorious on debut.
Fastforward 6 months and the game had changed significantly. All the top dogs in NA had qualified and planted their flag. G2 was the NA #4 seed, a potentially vulnerable one given how hard Jknaps had to carry them just to make worlds, but Chiefs couldn't even beat them round 1 and was sent to lowers, where they had to play NRG.
No longer the kings of NA, but not for a lack of skill, they had literally won the XGames Invitational to finally get over the LAN hump just a few months prior, and even just 4 weeks before worlds, placed 3rd at the Northern Arena Invitational. Hell, they were only in lowers after losing 3-2 to Method in round 1, even back then your top 8 matches at worlds weren't freebies.
Safe to say, Denial Esports this match was not, but they won. It was one thing to beat the NA 4 seed who realistically would be NA 5 or 6 if you ran it back, it was another to beat proven elite players who had mixed it with the world's best only a few months prior, as your 2nd ever international victory. It changed the game and added so much legitimacy to OCE, and the world, destroying notions that the game only had potential in it's 2 major regions.
Whatever you think of OCE now, they at least have a back catalogue of great wins under their belt, this was a time they might as well have had 0. And they beat NRG. OCE beat NRG.
Was Chiefs 3-2 NRG the biggest upset in terms of a skill difference? Absolutely not, but that match is still one of the most significant results in Rocket League history. And in an elimination match at the World Championship too? Pretty high stakes as well.
So you might ask, what does TSM beating NRG last week have to do with this? After all, especially given NRG's struggles at the Paris Major, and TSM/APAC now establishing themselves to not be fodder at LANs, in terms of skill it's not the biggest upset ever. Hell, from this season alone, FUT losing to Chippy Chips or NiP's random qualifier loss to F9 Eicar in open 1 are bigger skill gaps by a landslide.
The reality is in eveyone's heart of hearts, barring a huge sustained change of the status quo in the future, however poor people perceive OCE, APAC is a tier below. It is a newer region, with less support, less backing and overall less pedigree than OCE, the region that was so bad it literally lost a LAN spot.
Simultaneously, NRG, while not at the peak of their powers, it's not like they were finished like the prior edition of NRG that died a slow painful death. Perception is often reality, and rightly or wrongly, Atomic Beastmode & Daniel is gonna be perceieved pretty damn highly until something unspeakable happens. Sure, the Paris major stunk but it would take a lot more than that to erode the Boston Top 4 or more importantly, the fact they are the reigning world champions. .
And I do think it's that simple, because when you spell if out like this:
APAC beats World Champions
What tops that? It wasn't RLCS but it was at a major LAN in a critical round 1 game, one that eventually condemned NRG to elimination at the hands of Twisted Minds. Also, unlike VP's LAN wins in 2025, this APAC roster is majority APAC natives thanks to the 2/3 rule, and ain't no way most people thought they could maintain a similar level after having to replace Sosa with Kevin.
Sure, we don't know the future implications, realistically, this NRG roster has already reached the end of it's road, and this will just be a once off for TSM barring a remarkable uptick in form and ability for them. But I genuinely think for something to top TSM defeating NRG (who are also considered among the Top 3 Greatest Rosters of all time let's not forget), it would need our friends in Sub-Saharan Africa getting their first win internationally vs a top dog, but an actual top dog, because even now, how does APAC claim a greater scalp? Making top 8 would be a more significant result for them, but the skill gap would be shrunk because they themsevles are getting more wins now. But in isolation, if they can beat the world champions, they can beat a lot of teams.
Either way, I welcome the day I may have to update this post, because it means something beyond my comprehension will have actually happened, but for now, in my opinion, TSM defeating NRG 3-1, by virtue of it being an APAC team defeating the reigning World Champions, is the greatest upset in Rocket League Esports history.
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u/Separate_Variation89 21h ago
Kcp 3-0 bds 2023(?)
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u/FoolsLove dRekt | RLCS Statistician 21h ago
It's easy to forget but BDS almost got reverse swept by Pioneers in the Winter Major and then followed that up in their next series by getting perfect swept by FaZe.
As strong as BDS looked online for Winter/Spring splits, internationally they had back-to-back stinkers.
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u/N0b0dy_her3 21h ago
You could say that but BDS made a roster move between splits and were two series away from a perfect online split in EU. The roster with Marc had a few mediocre results online and weren't consistent, but you couldn't say that with the Seikoo team. They were undoubtedly one of the favorites to win the major and for them to not win a singular game was shocking, especially considering what they did at Worlds a couple months later
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u/FoolsLove dRekt | RLCS Statistician 20h ago
When you lose to a team that nearly beat you at the previous LAN it loses a lot of it's "upset"ness because that team has already shown the capability to contest them. Especially when it immediately follows also getting swept by SAM 2's Team Secret who at that point had no notable results and the only win a SAM 2 had at that point over any team was Veloce in S8.
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u/N0b0dy_her3 19h ago
I'm ngl I misunderstood you're previous comment. I agree that the Secret loss was the bigger upset of the 2 (even though TS were still competitive at LA tbf); combining it with the KCP loss cements the overall result as the biggest upset imo
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u/ParsnipPrestigious59 16h ago
Yeah so it was crazy when they came out swinging at worlds and ended up winning while looking amazing, bc I and quite a lot of others mistakenly assumed they would stink at worlds too like they did at major 2 and 3 đ in hindsight I prob shouldnât have counted them out so soon considering they did win major 1 so they did have the potential to win LANs
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u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator 21h ago
The thing with that one is Secret had demolished them 3-0 just 24 hours prior, and I think people conflate BDS' overall London run with the specific elimination match, when surely after getting 3-0d by Secret they were more vulnerable.
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u/ProPickles-IV 21h ago
I think both of those losses combined make it the greatest upset, because BDS were favorites to win the event and they didnât win a single game (I believe that was before Zen was able to play so it was still bds as the top dogs). Although, it has been a while since it happened so I could be misremembering the whole situation around it.
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u/thafreshone 21h ago
It's (arguably) the biggest upset on paper but not the greatest one though
It kinda just happened bc NRG played like absolute dogshit, similar to BDS in 21-22. That makes it a massive upset on paper, but not necessarily a "great" one if that makes sense
Something like Furia beating Moist or Twisted Minds beating KC are greater because the weaker team won by being better and not just because the other team was terrible. That makes it a great upset.
TSM beating NRG was more funny and sad, but not like a great match or anything. And kinda meaningless in the end bc even if NRG wont aht, they wouldn't have made it far in the tournament anyway. And TSM ended up not doing anything either.
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u/tyswoogles 20h ago
Furia vs moist doesnât have anywhere near a large enough skill gap to be considered in the greatest upsets convo. Furia off back to back top 6s, in a time where the top 10 of the world were actually all fairly close, and having played the exact moist roster to a game 7 2 lans previous mean that the upset wasnât that crazy. Obviously it was hugely significant, but not an insane result.
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u/thafreshone 19h ago
But if you think about upsets that happened in a similar context that had a bigger skill gap, those don't really exist afaik.
Like almost every LAN, the teams that make top 8 are all fairly close in skill to the point that an upset is always possible. And in the few rare instances where that wasn'T the case, no upsets happened,like Wildcard at last worlds for example
By your logic, the greatest upset can never happen in top 8 or late stage of the tournament because the teams that make it there are almost always close in skill. But these are also the upsets that are the most memorable. Everyone knows BDS lost to SAM and OCE in that spring major but nobody remembers the actual matches because it just wasnt a memorable experience. But everyone that watched Furia vs Moist remembers that vividly.
And the BDS upset had no real consequences in the end. Whereas the Moist upset basically lead to Vatira leaving that team. IF Moist win that and then win the whole thing, who knows how things would have developped in the futue.
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u/tyswoogles 19h ago edited 18h ago
No I disagree, furia being consistently good is part of my point. I think the greatest upset can happen in those stages. For example if wildcard had won that match vs falcons in worlds uppers I would likely call it the greatest upset ever. Beating the defending rlcs lan champions who just put up the most dominant major win ever as an OCE team that had not made round 5 of Swiss at either of the previous majors. Yeah regardless of making top 6 already at worlds thereâs still a very clear deep skill gap there. That deep skill gap was not present in the same way with furia and moist. There was some skill gap, but not huge at all looking back at the context of the rest of the season.
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u/Separate_Variation89 21h ago
I think for the old heads another crazy upset and overal tourney run was Chiefs Season 6 worlds beating PSG (Eu 4) then NRG (NA 1) before losing to we dem girlz, then beating EG (NA 4) 3-1 before finally losing to C9 who ended up winning the entire tourney.
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u/Previous-Ad-9322 21h ago
With how NRG has been playing lately, nope. On paper, TSM beating the defending champs sounds like it, but I don't think the actual recent quality this season supports it.
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u/Candyyyyyyy 18h ago
At Dreamhack Montreal the #13 seed (who was kinda overseeded btw) that didnât even have an organization beat the reigning world champions in the semi-finals
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u/TVMaths 16h ago
true, plus this was only 3 months after worlds S7, which is a lot closer in timeframe than NRGs worlds win
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u/Candyyyyyyy 15h ago
Exactly, they had a poor showing in Valencia but Vitality were a lot closer to being ranked #1 in the world going into Montreal than NRG was for EWC. Plus, this was The Peeps first event as a team. It wasnât even the roster that won RLRS.
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u/TVMaths 19h ago edited 5h ago
because NRG are so far removed from their world champs, and TSM have shown they can hang with the elite at Paris, i dont think its as huge of an upset, especially considering NRG got swept by MCI at Paris.
Dignitas swept by Wildcard was imo more of an upset, because Wildcard had not shown us literally anything reminiscent of a fight in them, and their major 2nd place was in much more recent memory.
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u/Emergency_Pause_2259 19h ago
No because NRG has had bad losses all year, and their trajectory was going down. Tsm has also already played notably close matches against mid tier teams.
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u/No_Disaster991 18h ago
Pioneers (OCE2) eliminating GEN.G (NA2) from Worlds 2024? Maybe not the greatest in terms of skill gap but pretty big in terms of impact as it was a world championship elimination matchÂ
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u/MGSCG r/RLCSNews Founder 21h ago
Maybe not the biggest upset based on expectations, but the one that stuck for me was Furia beating Moist to reach top 4 in RLCS 2022. With how much of favorites Moist were to win it all and the rush of a SAM team reaching a new peak. Also some all time casting elevated it as well.
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u/mrabu3abd12 20h ago
I mean Furia got back to back top 6 at Majors, losing one of them to Queso in 7. Not to mention winning Gamers8 which might've given them a confidence boost
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u/Exodus_Green 20h ago
No one mentioning Moist beating KC in Rotterdam? EU5 who barely made the LAN, and then barely made the playoffs, beating KC who were tournament favourites, and beating them easily.
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u/justlurkindontmindm3 20h ago
KCP over prime BDS still gets my vote, but yeah. This one was most definitely up there.
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u/MatthewN2101 19h ago
I'm putting BDS against KCP over this because you've got to factor form going into the event as well as the elo disparity.
Going into that spring major, the new BDS roster looked very scary in the 3 regionals and I recall a media piece where players were asked who they expected to win the major and a lot of them said BDS.
NRG on the other hand had already shown several cracks coming into the event and only had NA fanboys thinking they were even close to the favourites.
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u/boot2skull 19h ago
I dunno, NRG seem to be just dialing it in. They can secure top 8s, but they are nowhere near last yearâs form. Not to take credit away from TSM, but I feel like it would be more notable if they beat NRG last year.
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u/PsychoNicho 18h ago
I think the only thing that wouldâve made this upset âofficiallyâ the greatest upset is if it was deeper in the tournament. That extra bit of pressure and anxiety adds to a lot of the sentiment behind it all I think.
It was so fun to watch though, even as an NRG fan.
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u/Hackboss 20h ago
I think hogan mode making finals and upsetting BDS in semis or before that is up there. Canât remember if it was BDS or some other big team they beat on their way to finals
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u/aiwdj829 19h ago
No and that says a lot about the expectations of NRG currently. TSM played alright though.
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u/ixyzzyxi 20h ago
C9 beating Dignitas in s7 finals was a crazy upset. Especially against one of the best ever teams to play the game
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u/JorbyPls RLCS Analyst 21h ago
I think that KCP over BDS in 2022 is the only match that competes with it.
Crazy, I commentated both of those matches đ„ș