The Rocket League Block Party event pays homage to the game’s most passionate hoops players

Rocket Leagues The new in-game event The Block Party focuses on the Hoops game mode, one of the game’s additional modes that will be combined rocket league‘s high-flying battlecar mechanic with basketball.

Running through October 18th, the event celebrates the new The Block arena, the first new Hoops arena since the game mode’s inception in 2016, bringing Hoops from the stadium to the city streets. In addition to checking out the new arena, players can complete in-game challenges based on the game mode to unlock exclusive basketball-themed cosmetics and even purchase Van Halen’s “Jump” as the player’s anthem.

As you can imagine, scoring from an elevated basketball hoop requires a lot more vertical control than normal rocket league Game modes, making Hoops a favorite for players who love mid-air passing, shooting and of course dunking.

When the Hoops game mode was first released in 2016, these passionate gamers banded together to create Ranked Hoops, a fan-made community that hosts Hoops tournaments (often with cash prizes!) and an independent ranking system specifically for the game mode maintains.

For dedicated fans of Hoops, Snow Day, and Dropshot, it can sometimes seem like re-engineering these additional modes is an afterthought. While traditional Soccar is by far the most popular game mode, all players love it when their favorite modes get new arenas and attention rocket league Developer.

Because of that, this event means a little bit more for members of the Ranked Hoops community. I reached out to MythicPinkMist, longtime Ranked Hoops member and admin, to find out more about how the community was responding to Hoops’ first new arena.

“There’s been a lot of excitement in the community,” he said, “overall, these additional modes haven’t seen many changes since their release. Suddenly getting this kind of attention means that Psyonix is ​​willing to put additional development time into these modes, which is a great sign for both our own community and the other extra mode communities.”

In addition to the in-game content, this event was also the subject of an Under the Hood video (rocket league‘s developer blog series) with rocket league Senior Community Manager Devin Connors, Senior 3D Artist Adam Beckwith and Josh Watson, Senior Game Designer. When asked about upcoming new areas for additional modes in the near future, Watson replied: “We don’t have anything planned at this time, but as long as there’s a community of people interested in these modes, they want to play it and they want the support, we do.” always listening and we always measure the feedback.”

When he finally signs off at the end of the video, Connors points to the camera and shouts, “Shout ranked hoops!” Both Watson’s promise to keep listening to Extra Mode communities and Connor’s direct greeting are encouraging to members of the Ranked Hoops.

MythicPinkMist agrees, stating, “A direct greeting is a validation of all the effort we’ve put into building this community. It was an affair of the heart that began in 2016. The highlight of the last few years was certainly when Psyonix made Hoops a ranked mode for the first time – previously all extra modes were unranked. If it’s not clear from our organization’s name, our original right to exist was to rally support for making Hoops a ranked mode. This new card and accompanying shoutout are close behind the day the original goal was achieved.”

In the future, MythicPinkMist would like to see hoops showcased alongside the mainstream rocket league events: “We’d love to see some Psyonix sponsored Hoops content on the pro circuit in the future. RLCS has had side events that occasionally include additional modes or, more recently, a ‘freestyle’ competition. We’d love to see a side event dedicated to hoops. One of the goals of our community was to take Hoops competition to new heights and show it to the masses. A significant number of pro players and rising stars have competed in our weekly tournaments, so many of them are no strangers to the mode. We’re biased, of course, but we think the vertical nature of the hoops game and the smaller arena size make for a great viewing experience.”

rocket league is home to diverse and engaged subcommunities, and Rated Hoops is one of the most organized groups I’ve come across. For those interested in participating rocket league‘s most passionate hoops player, or just seen some incredible slam dunks, check this out Ranked Hoops Twitteror join their welcoming discord server.