On kickoff: NO, you don't need that corner boost immediately

[that one really terrible player]

What do you think is going to happen that you race away from the goal to get the corner boost before the ball has even been touched? Stay in place and defend, if necessary. If the ball isn't heading for the goal, you'll have plenty of time to get that boost. And if the ball IS heading for the goal, you already have enough boost to block it.

Drives me crazy how often my team gets scored on this way.

[Persony Person]

How about instead you hit kick off correctly for once?

[Cpt. Flowerpot]

Yeah, it's strange, players of a certain rank should know what they have to do at kick-off.

[JJAttack]

2nd mans job is to gain possession from teammates KO and attack or at least keep the ball out of goal whilst team mate recovers. They start with 30 something boost already and there are plenty of pads to gain a bit extra when attacking that initial ball.
The biggest issue I find is they get the boost, then hit the ball to the opposition leaving me at back post with no corner boost to defend against the incoming attack. Then blame me when I fail to keep it out. The main problem is simply not understanding the pitch flows in a circular motion for maximum speed, returning on the opposite side of the pitch to the back post area is ideal, then across to near post to challenge, yet most players i end up with follow the ball into the near post on an opponents attack and try to fling it across their own net leaving u standing as it flies over you as you're arriving at back post. Baffles me.

[Historicles]

this post screams to me, i feel your pain in a serious way. so frustrating. I may miss the face off, but thankfully my team mate is in postit....oh wait

[Mr Eko]

The best thing to do, which is what I do, is to never go for the kickoff and just go for boost instead and then when the other team scores because I didn't go for kickoff, I like to add 'What A Save!'. This game is just boring now, that the only way to have fun is to see how far you can push people until they break.

[BlueLightning]

No matter how good someone is at kick off, there's a slim chance that the kick off will result in a standstill, or a lobbed up ball (depend on your opponent's kickoff as well).

My rule of thumb is that in 3s, the guy at the furthest back have to stay in goal while the other can go for the boost. In 2s, the guy in the back can only go for the boost after the ball moved sideways.

[that one really terrible player]

Originally posted by BlueLightning:

No matter how good someone is at kick off, there's a slim chance that the kick off will result in a standstill, or a lobbed up ball (depend on your opponent's kickoff as well).

My rule of thumb is that in 3s, the guy at the furthest back have to stay in goal while the other can go for the boost. In 2s, the guy in the back can only go for the boost after the ball moved sideways.

YES!

That's how I play it, too. I mean, all you have to do is wait until the ball is actually touched and see which way it is going BEFORE you scoot away for the corner boost. That's good, smart defense and good team play.

[NefariousFox]

In 2's you should ALWAYS cheat up. ALWAYS!!!!!

If the kicker can't hit the ball that is entirely on them.
By cheating up, statistically, the ball will end up in an opportunity for possession and possible goals often enough to make it a no brainer.
How to cheat up and where to cheat up is a matter or experience and skill.
I tend towards the diamond, and go for diagonals off the kicker. It seems to be most effective, and distancing I can almost always make a save if the other team has opportunity.

In 3's, only one player should go for boost, or hold the goal. The other should cheat up.

[Tyberi]

Let's travel in time couple years back:
Going as a "backup" for a kickoff was bronze-gold way of playing because people did mistakes at kickoffs, simple as that - it was more optimal and safe to be sure team won't lose an easy goal because dude going for kickoff can't hit the ball in proper way, on the other hand people at plat+ were going for corner boosts due two things:
- at this rank -back in a days- players were much more consistent at kick-off than today
- having more boost during a kickoff follow-up was a clear advantage

Now, what changed? Noticable amount of quite fresh players are extremely bad at ground play in comparison to their aerial abilities.

I came back to RL after like 3-4 years break and there is noticable differences in how average match looks at certain rank. Let's say in diamond you got much more very good aerial players who even can already do stuff like flip resets and such, but are extremely bad at ground play, at corners, have no bloody idea what shadow defense is and... no wonder... are very inconsitent at kickoffs.

So something like going as a "backup" at kickoff at diamond 4-5 years ago was just silly, seen as rather noobish behavior and very rarely being necessary, yet today many people have a way of thinking that if they failed at kickoffs it's their teammates fault they didn't back them up - couple years back and the way of thinking was quite opposite: if you failed at kickoff... well... you failed at kickoff, learn how to do kickoffs and start being consistent.

What's worth pointing out, people like me, people who are so used to going for a corner boost at kickoff, yet are not used to having teammates who can't do proper kickoffs at diamond or even champ rank - we might be in wrong here, I mean, way of playing definitely has changed in a way so maybe we should adjust to that, maybe we should. But you know what? As your teammate from dia/champ. The fact you're bad at something is not my problem. Get better. Don't blame me for own mistakes.

There are plenty of situation when you can use exact same analogy, ex. if I see a teammate at our goal, there's a ball going toward him, I can do 2 things: I can assume he got it or double commit. I always, ALWAYS assume you got it. I start to double commit once you prove me you can't be trusted. Trust that at certain rank people got certain set of skills and certain situations don't require any backup is my default set of mindset. Same thing with kickoffs. If I have a teammate who is just awful at kickoffs - I'll back you up after 1st-2nd failed kickoff. But my default behavior is going for corner boost simply because I got used to playing that way as optimal from certain rank up and I believe you can hit ball standing still in the middle of the field, call me crazy but I really do believe you should be consistent about hitting ball standing still playing at... diamond rank for example. If you can't do that, please don't blame me for it. No matter what argument you got and how much you believe the argument is legit, just don't blame me for your inability to hit stationary ball from certain rank up.

I can agree, going for corner boost at kickoffs is riskier now than ever before, but it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks and after all lack of your skill at something is not my problem (well, it kinda is if we're losing match due to that, but you all know what I mean).

Originally posted by JJAttack:

The biggest issue I find is they get the boost, then hit the ball to the opposition leaving me at back post with no corner boost to defend against the incoming attack.

Kickoff dude should always go for a middle left/right boost because it's always closest boost pad for him so corner boost being empty or not once you do the kickoff should be completly irrelevant for you.

[JJAttack]

Its situational, if the result is yr teammate facing an awkward play then there is a big oval of boost pads with dotted lines on most of the maps, you get back on to that, head toward back post (opposite side to where the ball is, which SHOULD be behind yr teammate) for cover, optionally going for the corner boost there if there is time (depending on teammates play) if they fail to hit it you need to be back at goal as quickly as possible - which means no big boosts, as there isnt time, yet you can get 4-5 pads this way which is enough to save.

[SIR POGALOT]

I would rather skip the game than I would willingly stay on goalspot because of the chance that my team8 couldnt figure out how to make proper kickoff. At my experiense all those backfire kickoffs always the fault of the player that was doing kickoff and if you would watch replay you might notice how exactly he f-k-up. Usually I'm going for boost unless I'm feeling like following. Staying only worth when you are on edge of losing 3v3 match and I don't remember when was the last time it pay offs.

[Shiro♌]

I do prefer to take no risks if possible, and so I do barrel rolls during kick-offs to ensure soft bounces and provide my team mates with enough time to grab those corner boosts.
However, that leaves them in quite an awkward position if the opponents are quick enough to react and air dribble straight to the goal..

Dunno.
I have never managed to learn how to do those fast kick-offs, and I have never felt the need to grab the corner boost. Not even once. I can do with the small boost pads just fine, as all I need is a proper positioning and some awareness in regards to the players' positions on the field, including my own positioning and its advantages and disadvantages.

If one manages to score during the kick-off, it's usually the kick-offers' fault, unless the ball stops there and an opponent follows it up to take the early shot.. In which case, the goal would've been my fault due to being late to the party.

[kirkyeehee]

Originally posted by that one really terrible player:

Drives me crazy how often my team gets scored on this way.

Literally every time I play Rocket League I see someone on either team get scored like this at least once per session. Where it's pure gold is when you see it happen once, and then they immediately leave the net and do the exact same thing and get scored on again. They don't learn from their mistakes LMAO!

[Tyberi]

Originally posted by kirkyeehee:

Literally every time I play Rocket League I see someone on either team get scored like this at least once per session.

This sentence feels like something described is commonly occurring thing, but is it actually?

let's say average session of playing is ~2h
let's say average match last 6-7min (it's 5min + replays yet we count in matches with one of the team FFing what can cut average match time significantly)

You can play 8-10 matches per hour, let's say 9 because we aiming for acceptable average.
During 2h session you'll have around 18 matches. How many goals we encounter during one match, on average? I would say... 3? So that's 3 after-goal kickoffs and 1st initial one - 4 kickoffs per match.
18 matches, 4 kickoffs per match, that's ~72 kickoffs per average 2h playing session.

If something happens atleast once per session, let's say it happens twice, on average. [exact the same as we would assume happens once and gaming session would last 1 hour]
That means 2 per 72 kickoffs are the issue we're talking here about like it's something crucial, game-changing. It's 1 per 36 kickoffs, It's ~3%, even a bit less than that.

Following that anecdotal evidence, I think it's obvious it's not as common thing, but it's actually quite rare. The real problem is human mind that remember negative experiences much stronger than positive ones and neutral are ignored like it never happened.
So even if something we seem like a bad-thing happens once per hour and is lasing couple seconds, we remember that as common and significant event in our game session.

math is fun yet brutal, isn't it?

[Shiro♌]

Originally posted by Tyberi:

The real problem is human mind that remember negative experiences much stronger than positive ones and neutral are ignored like it never happened.
So even if something we seem like a bad-thing happens once per hour and is lasting couple seconds, we remember that as common and significant event in our game session.

You know..

This is actually really well said!
The problem is us, our mind, in particular, in most cases instead of those players who do mess up from time to time.. Not that they're not to be blamed if we truly focus on perfection and precision in regards to the competitive gameplay in Rocket League..-
I can't bring myself to disagree with anything you've said within your response, though, I'm only quoting the part I do have a response to.