Boston Major Preview: Three Favourites, Three to Watch & Underdogs
We’re just a few moments awayfrom the 2026 Boston Major. Need help picking a team to root for still?
Here’s a look at the favourites, other teams to watch out for, and the biggest underdogs.
World’s best Rocket League players set to descend on Boston for the first RLCS Major of the year
The Three Big Favourites
Karmine Corp
The Blue Wall will be walking into Agganis Arena as one of the clear favourites, coming off a dominant split in the most successful region in Rocket League, as well as a Kickoff LAN Gauntlet win to boot.
The Vatira and Atow one-two punch has been as effective as ever, but the glue guy for the Francophone favourites has been Juicy, who had been tasked with filling the shoes of the 2024 World Champion (and hypothetical Rookie of the Year) Dralii, coming into this season.
Despite the general consensus that KC would be weaker in a wide-open European circuit in 2026, they won the first two Opens and finished as runner-ups to Gentle Mates in EU Open #3. With a 17-2 series record across split #1, this will be Karmine Corp’s Major to lose.
Team Falcons
While we haven’t seen the Falcons fly on the international stage yet in the 2026 season, they’re definitely in the top 3 heading into the Boston Major.
The previous iteration of Team Falcons strung together a Raleigh Major Championship, a third-place finish at the Esports World Cup, and a Rocket League World Championship Runner-Up to finish out the 2025 calendar year.
It was there that they finally got over the hump against Karmine Corp, snapping a 4-game skid against the French organisation with a 4-2 thriller in the semifinals.
If that wasn’t enough, they then swapped out Trk511 for Karmine Corp star Dralii for the 2026 season.
The new-look Team Falcons stumbled against regional rival Twisted Minds in MENA Open #1, but rattled off two straight regional victories to have some serious momentum coming into Boston.
NRG
Speaking of stumbling in Open #1 and then winning two straight regionals to finish out the split, let’s talk about NRG.
The defending World Champions didn’t even see the Kickoff LAN studio at the end of 2025, as they were knocked out early by Gen.G in the first NA contest of the new RLCS season. After missing the playoffs, however, NRG went on a tear.
Atomic, BeastMode, and Daniel went 10-1 in their next 11 series to take Opens #2 and #3, as well as the top seed in North America.
This is one of the most resilient teams in RLCS history, and it would be unfair to leave them out of the favourites conversation after one bad regional event.
Three Teams to Watch Out For
Twisted Minds
What an insane offseason for Twisted Minds, an org that has seemingly played second fiddle to Team Falcons for ages.
Dropping Rise and AtomiK and replacing them with MENA legend Trk511 and a man that’s a part of the current GOAT conversations in M0nkey M00n.
You cannot make a go at your regional rival any better than that. And those big money moves seemed to pay off at first, with Twisted taking the first MENA Open of the 2026 season.
All that, and they didn’t even need a seventh game to dispatch of the Falcons in the Grand Finals. Unfortunately for them, there are three regionals per split, and Team Falcons came out of the gate swinging in the next two.
Two 2-4 losses, once in the Grand Finals and once in the Semis, meant that Twisted would once again be in the limelight compared to the men in green. All that aside, there’s nothing that says that Nwpo and company can’t make a go of it in Boston.
With an upgraded roster by his side, that thrilling upset over Karmine Corp back in Raleigh might not be a one-time occasion. Be on the lookout to see if MENA’s second seed can run the table this weekend.
Gentle Mates
The Gentle Mates finally have a regional victory under their belt. We’re nearly two years from the Mates’ triumph in Copenhagen, and it took all the way until 2026 for the org to conquer Europe itself, instead of the whole world.
Can they add another Major victory to their Rocket League resume?
The stats seem to back it up. This roster doesn’t fly under the radar nearly as much as that early 2024 Mates squad, with Archie and Oski playing some of the best ball they’ve played in their careers. All three players sat in the top 10 in score per game in Europe, with Oski leading the way in the region at 444.90 (25 games minimum). Oski and Archie also went #1 and #2 in goals per game, netting 0.97 and 0.91 respectively. Their third, Nass, is second in assists per game with one assist in 3 out of every 4 games. Archie and Oski also qualify for the top 10 in this category, and are 3rd and 5th in the region respectively. This team is lighting up stat sheets, and with a regional championship in the trophy case, they might light up Agganis Arena as well.
Virtus.Pro (formerly REDACTED)
Virtus.Pro has been one of the best stories in the RLCS in the 2026 season. With Retals retiring after the 2025 Rocket League World Championship, Wahvey and 2Piece had to look elsewhere for a third to build off the momentum of their first career Worlds Qualifications.
In comes Tawk, a young Canadian who was arguably one of the top 2 North American prospects entering the 2026 season. Tawk elevated a team that snuck into Worlds as a Last Chance Qualifier squad into what seemed to be world beaters.
In Open #1, the upstart free agents downed the defending World Champions in five games and toppled a squad of European imports in their first playoff series, just to fall in seven to the preseason NA #2 team in Shopify Rebellion. They also took down a couple of EU teams in NOVO Esports and NIP.
In the next two regionals, Redacted took down the other big NA prospect in M80’s Mech, got revenge on Shopify Rebellion twice, and defeated NRG in a Saturday matinee game 7 thriller.
It was only at the hands of Championship Sunday NRG that they fell twice in the Grand Finals, but the hype still remains. This upstart squad has the firepower to take on any international competition that the bracket gods throw their way.
Three of the Biggest Underdogs
MIBR
For the first time in two seasons, Sad and Aztromick have returned to the international stage. Both players have been perennial playoff players, but were just unable to break the ceiling holding up FURIA and Team Secret. Finally, joining forces with longtime Chilean star Reysbull has been the combination they needed to dethrone Secret as SAM’s second squad. MIBR’s lone two losses of the first split of 2026 have come against FURIA, both in the Grand Finals.
They’ve won the rest of their matches, including four main event victories over Team Secret. This new run of form for MIBR has secured them the second seed of South America, and puts them on upset bid watch in a group with Gentle Mates and Shopify Rebellion.
PWR
These guys may not have been knighted in front of a giant French crowd, but they can still make OCE proud at the Boston Major.
With only one spot available for OCE this season and Wildcard coming off a top 6 finish at Worlds, they seemed poised to be the lone representative from Down Under. PWR had different plans. In a monster split, each player finished in the top 10 of the score per game, goals per game, assists per game, shots per game, and shooting percentage stat categories in OCE (minimum 25 games).
Gus, the lone LAN rookie of the squad, was second in rating, just behind Wildcard’s Bananahead. He’ll have to be the difference maker if PWR wants any chance at downing either NRG and NIP to make it out of groups.
It’s worth noting that Superlachie has been part of his fair share of upsets on the international stage as well. It was his Pioneers that eliminated Team BDS in the 2021-22 Spring Major, and Gen.G Mobil1 Racing at Worlds in 2024.
Lack of baguette swords aside, PWR have an outside chance of shocking the world and making it to the playoffs.
TSM (Formerly Project Delacruz)
The Sphinx and Catalysm duo continues to just be unstoppable over in APAC. Project Delacruz has resembled speeds of that of an Elly of the same “surname” the way they rushed past teams in every series.
Only dropping 11 games all split is a thing of dominance, especially now in a world where each team is limited to only one import player.
Their issue now lies in their group. Over the past season or two, the only teams that APAC have really managed to get a leg up on consistently were those from OCE, and the lone OCE team is not in Group D.
They also managed to draw three strong squads in Shopify Rebellion, Gentle Mates, and MIBR, which limits their chances of a run to the playoffs.
Looking back to the play-in of the 2025 Rocket League World Championship could clue you in on a potential Cinderella story, however. Their two wins? Over teams representing the orgs Shopify Rebellion and MIBR. Can lightning strike twice? Tune in to the Boston Major on Thursday to find out!
