PARIS — Epic Games is using Unreal Engine across much of the Rocket League Championship Series Paris Major, including broadcast work, arena triggering and the systems that shape what fans see inside the venue. The tournament is the biggest in-person event in Rocket League’s 11-year history, filling a space that can hold up to 25,000 fans while 16 teams compete for a $350,000 prize pot.
Cliff Shoemaker said the “vast majority” of what spectators see in broadcast and in-arena triggering is powered by Unreal Engine, from the light panels on the floor to the in-game and arena cameras. He said the technology also reaches the hype chamber, where real-time rendering gives the production crew more ways to build moments that were not possible in older tools.
The Paris Major matters because Rocket League is no longer a niche side event. The game has grown into a major competitive title more than a decade after launch, and registrations are rising globally at an average of more than 24% a year. It is free to play, and Epic is using a major live event to show how far the game’s competitive and production stack has come.
That push extends beyond the visuals. Epic brought its own server team to Paris to help ensure fair competition, with a system that feeds the production team real-time data every two seconds so each team experiences the exact same ping. The goal is zero lag, a standard that matters when matches can turn on a single touch, a bounce or a split-second read.
Mauricio Longoni said Rocket League is “its own sport,” not a simulation of soccer or volleyball, and said the game’s ceiling is “infinite” because it is built around physics and player ability. He also said the competitiveness of Rocket League remains one of the strongest pillars for the game, which he described as “simple, but not simplistic.”
That identity has helped Rocket League expand through collaborations with WWE, LEGO and Jurassic Park, and a recently announced Star Wars partnership follows that run. The message from Paris is that the franchise is still looking outward even as it keeps investing in the core competition that made the game work in the first place.
For Epic, the Paris Major is both a showcase and a test: a crowded arena, a large prize pool and a live broadcast built around Unreal Engine, all running under the pressure of a game whose competitive audience keeps growing. If the setup works here, it becomes a template for what Rocket League can look like when the sport, the spectacle and the technology are all moving at the same speed.
