Watch Jalopnik Suck at Rocket League Live on Twitch at 4 p.m.
Here’s what’s happening: At 4 p.m. Eastern over at twitch.tv/jalopnikdotcom, my colleague Steve DaSilva and I will play Rocket League, which, if you don’t know, is soccer with rocket-propelled cars that can fly.
This is a game that has paid out more than $21 million in global tournaments, according to Esports Earnings. Justin Morales, one of the best players in the world if not the best, has earned more than $400,000 from the game in his career. Rocket League is a bona fide sport, capable of producing heart-stopping moments that rival those of any you’d play with your legs. It’s a stage that rewards strategy and technique alike. You will see neither today.
Rocket League is just plain fun though, even if you suck — and suck we most certainly do. So today, Steve and I will mix it up in Rust or whatever designation they give to people who are below Unranked. I have been bumbling about in Rocket League since it released for free on PlayStation 4 in 2015. In that time I have gotten no better at the game and still have zero control or understanding of my craft at the moment it leaves the ground, sometimes before. Regardless, my shit tendencies will require all of my attention, so I may get quiet from time to time.
Fortunately, you’ll have your regular cast of characters to fill up the dead air: Andy Kalmowitz and José Rodríguez Jr., who will have their broadcast commentating skills tested. As will your patience, when you see the atrocities we commit on the pitch. I give us 15 minutes before our eyes glaze over and Andy gives up the Howard Cosell schtick to unironically claim that the Buick Terraza is the coolest car GM ever made. It all goes down at 4 p.m. on our Twitch channel.