the womens scene, the bubble scene, oh my!

the womens scene has been a highly contentious topic recently, and who better to give their opinion than a chronic twitter user? we’ll start by giving some background for those that aren’t up to speed. if you’re here for an opinion piece, scroll down a little agree, or disagree? drop me a comment and lets chat!

lets talk – the facts, and some background information

womens carball is rocket league’s premier womens circuit, founded in 2019, with prizepools ranging from $500, to upwards of $5000. the circuit was founded with the intention of providing a safe and competitive environment for women to grow in their rocket league skill.

after seeing great growth in viewership, the league was acquired by a north american organization, the kansas city pioneers (kcp), with promise of greater prizepools, and increased production. all seemed to be running smoothly, kcp launched season 5 seemingly without a hitch. however, shortly after the launch of this season, kcp announced they were suspending the league while they were gathering the necessary sponsors to deliver on their promises.

this obviously, was not received well. suspending a profitable and large league in the midst of league play is unheard of, and it seemed unwarranted. until – staff started coming forward with their testimonies.

wcb staff had initially been told they would be paid at the start of season 5, but as the season continued, they still received no payment. out of good faith and love for the league, staff, production and talent continued working without pay. on january 5th, staff informed kcp they would no longer be working without pay.

this was met with radio silence for six days, until january 11th, where the pioneers announced they would immediately be suspending all league operations until they were able to garner sponsors.

this was met with obvious outrage. multiple notable organizations, such as gen.g,  misfits, and luminosity had picked up womens rosters.

after a few weeks of limbo, an announcement was finally made. gamers first (g1) bought out the league from kcp, and has made good  on its promise to pay talent, staff, and production. the womens car ball league is projected to be resuming league play starting march 17 with na, and march 31 with eu. with the revitalization of wcb, players are looking forward to resuming season 5 as usual.

its now time for some opinions –

with the kcp announcement looming, i believe organizations began to scramble. there was very evident outrage against kcp and the entire situation, which i think actually strengthened the womens scene, and the support for it. this month,  multiple womens tournaments were announced, one sponsored by rocket league themselves, headed by gen. g content creator widow. another announced tournament was that of raidiant’s 40k tournament, also partnered with rocket league and ally.

womens tournaments! great! why the outrage?

the sudden surge of support for the womens tournament was met with excitement, but also backlash. many notable bubble players voiced opinions on the lack of support for the bubble scene in the recent years. which, i personally think is extremely rational. but i would like to go on record to say –

you can support the womens rocket league scene, and want more funding for the bubble players. these are not mutually exclusive.

^ that quote was directly stolen from a @Dangertaco tweet, ill link it here –> (https://twitter.com/TheDangerTaco/status/1631010451113889806?s=20)

i do however, understand the outcry. after the discontinuation of rlrs post- season 9, there has been less and less support for the bubble scene.

an extremely common complaint i saw was this :

“why are womens tournaments just now suddenly popping up? theres been like four of them posted during the last few days?”

a simple answer would be “oh march is womens history month!” – but i dont think thats the only answer.

you have to think about timelines. post wcb / kcp drama, people were scrambling to find any sort of funding or support to make up for the closure of the largest and most prominent womens league. in the next month and a half, organizations, and tournament organizers were trying to quickly push out some sort of alternative, in case we were seeing the end of wcb. i find this explains exactly why so many tournaments came out at around this exact same time. it was the quickest possible turnaround after everything was announced.

that being said, in a post made by ally, as well as displayed on the esports.gg page,  they directly reference future funding for bubble scene tournaments. i hate to just say ‘bubble players, be patient!’ because you have been patient, and i UNDERSTAND your frustration. i believe it is wholeheartedly warranted – but the advancement of the womens scene is not to the detriment of  your scene. By acting out, you are just worsening the situation. the womens scene had no say in the funding for their scene, or the lack of funding for yours.

i think i can speak on behalf of a lot of people when i say we WANT bubble scene funding.

let me tell you an unpopular opinion –

my favorite part of the rocket league community is the bubble scene. let me explain! i joined twitter in 2018 when i was 13/14 years old. when i first got to actually meet and talk to people in the scene, the people i talked to, and made friends with, were some bubble players.

i’d argue that i grew up with a lot of the rocket league community. i joined at 13, and i’m turing 19 in a few weeks. in these 6 years, i’ve seen people i ‘grew up with’ go onto pro careers, pursue full time creation, sign with organizations, and do all of the things we all chatted about late nights on discord all those years ago.

the bubble scene is the future of rocket league, and where the majority of the new wave of creators, pro players, and personalities stem from. i think that subset of people deserves some respect for that. you and i, reader are privileged enough to get to see that growth, and it is one of my favorite things.

as a rocket league community i do genuinely believe that we want the best for each other. but a key thing that gets lost in translation – someone else win is not your loss.

we all want the same thing, we have the same goals, and want success for everyone. thats something that i think that is an extremely attainable goal for our community, we all just need to work together to push for it.

i’m looking forward to continued advances in the womens scene, as well as in the bubble scene. together, we are strengthening the esports community as a whole, and showing that rocket league is infact, a crucial esport to the industry.

thanks for reading – drop me a comment below on some of your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree, things to add, etc.

looking forward to hearing from you all.

love always ❤