Season 8 of Rocket Sundays was the third season of the league's "Expansion Era", after the competition bloomed from a 24 team S5 to a 52 team S6, where the Master Tier was also introduced. The third edition of the Master Tier was also its largest, after expanding from 8 to 10 teams between S7 and S8.
The Teams
Glasgow Storm: A returning roster consisting of Purcy and Littlepace after a one season hiatus, a combination that had become league champions in Season 5 by dispatching The Poops in a one-sided Grand Final sweep. Expected to be among the title contenders. Project MK Ultra: Competing in their third straight Master Tier campaign, the only ever-present roster at this level, Quiver, Car and The Driving Trouser were aiming for their maiden title after recording consecutive top 4 finishes. Herbie backed them, as he tends to do.
Car Ball Touchers: The 8th seeded ArchX and Nullaii had impressed in preseason, including an unexpected 3-0 sweep of Noot Noot in a streamed match. Their true potential was unknown, but many believed they could finish in the top six and reach the playoffs.
Old Men Yelling: Recently rebranded from Calculated and newly promoted from the Elite Tier, well-liked Gutbuster and M4ki added Sportsocke to their lineup and geared up for a dogfight with the top barons. Expectations were low at the beginning of the season.
Freelo: A meteoric rise continued as the team brought in Azazel to compliment Jam's playstyle, and secure promotion for the second straight season after winning S6 Challenger Azure. Coming into S8 Master as 4th seeds, they were anticipated to have an outside chance of silverware.
Beansports: The defending league champions after a shock sweep of Bailey's Bar in the S7 Grand Final, Hodge and Calder returned to RS as the #2 seeds with a big target on their backs. Having ended S7 League Play with a 3-3 record, there was a lingering doubt that the team would live up to their newfound billing.
Boats 'N' Hose: After one season apart as Baders played for Glasgow Hoes in the Master Tier, and DarthStanny stayed with BNH at Challenger level, the fan favourites areunited and were surprisingly placed in Master.
Noot Noot: Perennial underdogs Nagisa and Gforcedev participated in their second Master Tier season, and were expected to be in for a rough ride after a S7 that yielded just one series win and saw them finish dead last.
Irrelevant Esports: Another team consisting primarily of new players (Deddi, Druben and KursedWolf), the bottom seeds were a relatively unknown quantity, but the raw MMR numbers suggested they would not be contending for a playoff spot.
Weeks 1-4
Notable Results Car Ball Touchers 3-2 Beansports
Project MK Ultra 3-2 Glasgow Storm
Old Men Yelling 3-2 Beansports
Noot Noot 3-2 Project MK Ultra
Boats 'N' Hose 3-0 Old Men Yelling
Old Men Yelling 3-1 Project MK Ultra Freelo 3-1 Noot Noot
At the Top:
Freelo benefited from a favorable run of fixtures against teams seeded in the bottom half, collecting series wins against BNH, Noot Noot and Irrelevant Esports, topping the table unbeaten - a 10-3 demolition of Noot Noot in Game 1 of their series highlighted the team's impressive attacking power.
2nd placed Project MK Ultra were unlikely to remain there for long, after suffering a shock reverse sweep loss to Noot Noot that left PMKU 2-2 in the formative stages of the season.
The Glasgow Storm shrugged off a Game 5 defeat to PMKU by picking up comfortable sweeps against BNH and ILV, leaving the team just two points off the top.
Car Ball Touchers took down defending champions Beansports in a thrilling Game 5, rallying from 2-1 down in the series to take all four points, and also defeated Boats 'N' Hose 3-0 to remain unbeaten heading into Week 5, but down in 4th due to only playing twice.
Other Teams:
Old Men Yelling also had a strong start to the season, spearheaded by a 3-2 victory of their own against Beansports on stream, a series remembered for Gutbuster's fake goal in a 1v1 situation against Hodge. The title defence started in disastrous fashion for Beansports, collecting just 5 points from their first four fixtures and effectively sitting dead last in the table, only ahead of the inactive Poops.
Weeks 5-7
Notable Results Project MK Ultra 3-2 Car Ball Touchers Car Ball Touchers 3-2 Freelo Glasgow Storm 3-1 Freelo Freelo 3-1 Old Men Yelling Old Men Yelling 3-0 The Poops
At the Top:
Glasgow Storm sat at the summit with a 5-1 record, continuing their good form into the middle stretch of the season. A 3-1 win over Freelo helped GLS leapfrog their opponents in the table, and ended Freelo's unbeaten start to the season.
Car Ball Touchers had jumped out to a 5-0 start, including a victory of their own against Freelo in five games, but suffered a vital defeat to Project MK Ultra that left them narrowly 2nd on Game Win Difference.
Freelo had been taken down a peg by the title contenders ahead of them, but managed to stay in the conversation by seeing off Old Men Yelling in four games, and sat just three points off the top.
Project MK Ultra also recovered from their shaky start with consecutive wins to sit 4-2, tied with Freelo for third.
Other Teams: Old Men Yelling remained fifth, but their two wins in this time period (including racking up an impressive 18 goals in their 3-0 sweep vs The Poops) opened up a ten point chasm to 6th place, as the Big 5 comfortably pulled away from the chasing pack. The scrap for the final three playoff places was on in the bottom half, with the inactive Beansports languishing in 9th spot.
The Run-In
Notable Results
Old Men Yelling 3-0 Car Ball Touchers Car Ball Touchers 3-2 Glasgow Storm Project MK Ultra 3-1 Freelo Glasgow Storm 3-0 Old Men Yelling Glasgow Storm 3-0 Noot Noot
Project MK Ultra 3-0 Boats 'N' Hose The Poops 3-1 Freelo
Beansports 3-1 The Poops Old Men Yelling 3-0 Noot Noot
At the Top:
Glasgow Storm claimed the title by a single point, rallying from 2-0 down in their series to claim two vital points against Car Ball Touchers, before sweeping aside Old Men Yelling and Noot Noot in the same evening to guarantee 1st place on September 1st 2020.
Project MK Ultra completed their remarkable turnaround by extending their winstreak to five matches, briefly topping the table at the end of August - their early-season loss to Old Men Yelling ultimately cost them top spot, but they managed to pass Car Ball Touchers.
Car Ball Touchers lost momentum in the title race with a damaging 0-3 loss to Old Men Yelling that handed the initiative to GLS - after failing to sweep the Storm in their H2H fixture, the outcome was out of their hands.
Old Men Yelling ultimately finished an astonishing 4th place, collecting series wins against Project MK Ultra and Car Ball Touchers - with their inability to replicate the heroics against Glasgow Storm ultimately proving to be the difference in the title dogfight.
Other Teams: Freelo ultimately finished a disappointing fifth, losing 4 of 6 matches after their hot start to the season - in stark contrast, Beansports delivered a dramatic four match winning streak that lifted them to a comfortable sixth place finish. The Poops also rallied late, registering a vital 3-1 victory over Freelo that helped lift them above Noot Noot into the final playoff spot. The final day of the season provided as much drama as the weeks before it - Noot Noot's failure to win a game in their series vs Old Men Yelling, coupled with the Poops mustering a single point against the resurgent Beansports, saw the two fan favourites swap places in the table.
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