Grassroots tournament hopes to bridge the gap between North American and Global university play.

Global Rocket League community, the UniRocketeers, announced today their inaugural UniRocketeers World Championships (UR World Championships). According to their press release, university teams from all over the globe will compete for money and bragging rights in the global Collegiate Rocket League community. The competition will be hosted online on the UniRocketeers Twitch Channel from July 20, 21, 28 and August 10, 11.

Collegiate Rocket League (CRL) has held only two world championships. Dreamhack Dallas played host to both the 2022 and 2023 CRL World Championships, which pit the best North American (NA) and European (EU) teams against each other to decide who the best global collegiate team is. Northwood University Blue from Midland, MI won in 2022, while Dr. Buhmann Akademie from Hanover, Germany won in 2023.

With CRL all but silent after wrapping up in the Fall of 2023, the global community is taking matters into their own hands. The UniRocketeers are the European Collegiate partner of Rocket League Esports (RLEsports) and have been running tournaments in Europe for years.

UniRocketeers’ Director, James “Cinereous” Coleman-Evans, says that he wants to give back to the collegiate Rocket League community for their support over the last six years. “We may not have the resources to produce a like-for-like replacement for CRL, so we’ve instead focused on creating an exciting event with our own unique spin. With the addition of 4 new regions, UR Worlds 2024 will be open to institutions from 146 countries – more than any other collegiate esports event in history.”

Four teams directly into the tournament: Dr. Buhmann Akademie, University of Genoa, Boise State University, and Ball State University.

The tournament will feature 16 total teams, with the last 12 slots determined by their regional qualifiers. NA and EU will send their top 4 teams, with MENA (Middle East & North Africa), OCE (Oceania), SAM (South America), and SSA (Sub-Saharan Africa) will each send one team.

The UR World Championships will have an initial prize pool of $600, but a GoFundMe has been set up to help increase the prize pool up to $4000. Registration is now open till July 19 at 5:00 PM Eastern. Interested teams can go the start.gg page to register, and they can find the full tournament ruleset here.

Questions about the tournament should be directed to enquiries@unirocketeers.com