…after 2500 hours
It was the year 2016. I had just begun grad school, and I was unemployed. Software development jobs were generally hard for me to come by; I was in school full-time, and I had more experience than someone just coming out of college, but not enough experience to be considered a senior developer. Over a year passed before I found myself a new job.
With all this spare time on my hands, I remembered from a little while before how there was this cool game called “Rocket League” that was just like soccer, but with flying cars, and it was becoming quite popular. I purchased Rocket League off of Steam, (It was somewhere around $13 at the time, if I recall correctly.) and after playing it for a while, I realized I was getting quite good. The game had a tough learning curve especially when it comes to performing aerials and hitting the ball perfectly, but for someone like me with a tennis background, games that require lots of time perfecting techniques are very much my type. What followed was an addictive and seemingly endless quest to obtain the highest rank possible on the ladder: Grand Champion.
Was it worth it? Not really. I could have done so many other things with my time (like, start a business?). But Rocket League was one of my main interests, so I stuck with it and allowed it to suck away so much of my time.
At least I have the bragging rights. Sometime during the original Season 10 (in early 2019), I managed to achieve the coveted rank of Season 10 Grand Champion! To put things in perspective, my rating was somewhere in the 99th percentile of all Rocket League 2v2/3v3 players. Among all my friends, however, I didn’t have hardly anyone to compete with.
Having achieved the Grand Champion ranking I had put in so many long hours for, I took a step back from Rocket League. I continued to play Rocket League on occasion, and when I did so, I enjoyed not being under the same pressure to achieve the GC rank as before, and that lack of pressure helped me perform better and earn the GC rewards in subsequent seasons.
It was soon after achieving the GC rank for the first time that I met the woman who later became my wife. We have a lot of common interests, but she has never played a game of Rocket League in her life. Even if I wasn’t this good at Rocket League, I’m quite sure she would have married me anyway.
And then, of course, being married and owning a home comes with a lot more responsibilities. I no longer had the time to enjoy countless hours of Rocket League like in times past. When I did find some spare time, I picked up another hobby: speedrunning. I considered myself “retired” from Rocket League.
Now that I’m a dad, I have even less time to play Rocket League.
I did start picking up Rocket League again the other day. But this time it felt different. I no longer felt the desire to be competitive. Nor did I feel an urge to yell at my computer screen, “What were you honestly thinking!?” or “Learn how to hit the ball!” every time my teammates “intentionally” own-goal, whiff the ball, or make other dumb mistakes.
Being a dad with a full-time job and a spouse who also works means I no longer have the time and energy to develop the mechanics and strategies that would propel me back into the GC ranks. I have resorted to playing Rocket League casually as a way to rest from my labors.
By the way, I haven’t yet mentioned the “SSL” rank. Sometime after Epic Games acquired Psyonix, they decided that the rank of Grand Champion was no longer good enough to be considered the highest competitive rank in Rocket League. Thus, they introduced a new rank called “Supersonic Legend” (a reference to the game’s predecessor, “Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars”) and split Grand Champion into Grand Champion 1, 2, and 3. My skill level generally hovered between Champ 3 and GC 1. As I am now unable to put in enough time and dedication to the game, the challenge of achieving Supersonic Legend is insurmountable for me.
Thank you Epic Games for helping me feel like a low-grade “Grand Champion”.