It doesn’t take a genius to realize scoring first means you have a higher chance of winning. But let’s investigate the statistics and how to improve your chances.

A study by NerdWord who pulled matches from Rocket League replays shows the win rate percentage for teams that scored first. The study was taken from 131,366 matches in competitive playlists.

Solo Standard is no longer an available playlist but it was a competitive 3v3 playlist with no parties allowed. It’s not much of a surprise that the more players on the field, the harder it is to make a comeback.

But you get the idea. Getting an early lead greatly influences your chances of winning.

So how can you improve getting an early lead?

• Warming up
• Kick-offs

Warming Up

We’ve all done it. Launch Rocket League, find a game and find yourself 4-0 down in the first minute. At any rank, a 10-minute warm-up will do you plenty of good. Head over to the training arena and complete a few training packs. Some awesome training packs have already been created.

Kick-Offs

Winning the kick-off can put your opponents under early pressure and potentially get an early lead from it. Over your Rocket League career, you’ll hear a lot about “Lucky kick-off goals”. But in fact, the majority of these are how you perform the kick-off.

What key factors influence who wins the Kick-off?

• Car Choice
• Positioning
• Momentum

Car Choice

A kick-off is a 50/50 challenge between you and your opponent. And as previously mentioned, vehicles such as the Octane and Fennec will likely win more 50/50 challenges over cars such as the Dominus and Batmobile. This is because they have a taller hitbox, meaning more car surface is behind each challenge.

Momentum

The more speed going into the 50/50, the more chance you are winning the kick-off.

Look out for a new blog post about how to win kick-offs in Rocket League, coming soon.