Infield Passes in Rocket League - The Most Effective Way of Scoring

The most common issue a Rocket League player has daily is opening up the opposition's defence and scoring goals to win games. I’ve been playing and casting 3v3 games across all levels of Rocket League and I have to say by far the most effective way of splitting open defences and scoring goals is using infield passes. Today I will explain what an Infield Pass is and how to recognize when an Infield Pass can be used.

Infield Passes – What are they?

Infield Passes are seen by many of the top players in Rocket League as the best meta in scoring goals at this present moment. An Infield Pass is a pass to your teammate towards the centre of the field where your teammate is positioned. Also known as a through ball in Football, the Infield Pass is used to cut open the opposition defence and exploit the gaps between players in rotation by passing the ball from one player to another using the directional change of the ball to make it extremely difficult to defend against and ultimately save.

The critical elements of a good passing play are as follows. Firstly, the player with the ball has to have the technique to pass the ball to his teammate correctly and also the vision to spot his teammate in this position. The teammate in position towards the centre must find the space to be able to receive the pass and also must be able to make a productive play with this pass, whether it be a shot on net, or another pass to the 3rd teammate.

In the above screenshot taken during this seasons RLRS play ins, I make a pass to my teammate Leo who is hanging towards the centre of the field as all players who are 2nd in rotation do. Dreeki is about to make a challenge, so here I play a pass through to Leo so he can move towards it. Doing this takes Dreeki out of the game and gives Leo a very strong shot as well as to make Milcocu8, who’s cut nameplate is seen just to the left, attempt a very difficult or impossible save. In this situation, I’m glad to say it worked against much stronger opposition.

When can I use an Infield Pass?

With Infield Passes, the main criteria for you, as the passer of the ball, is the ability to spot your teammates in the centre of the field from where you are. It’s all about the chemistry of the team and how the players are positioned. Generally, the best time to use Infield Passes is when the other team is spread out, or if they are all sitting around the net after a period of pressure.

When the opposition is spread out, it is easy to exploit the gaps in the rotation with Infield Passes to move the ball up to the opposition box at speed. When your opponents are sitting in net, when a demolition isn’t an option, a quick 1-2 or 1-2-3 play can be absolutely devastating, as they will likely be sitting on the goal line with little to no boost and you will have the whole goal at your mercy if you are the player taking the shot off of the pass.

The risk involved when using an Infield Pass in 3v3 is quite low if it’s just between 2 players when your 3rd is back in defence. The reward is greater the more direction changes you can induce via more passes between players, thus we sometimes see incredible goals from teams like Team Dignitas, Flipsid3 Tactics and Cloud9 where all 3 players on each team make one or more passes before putting the ball away.

 

Practicing Infield Passes

I will now link a video to a brilliant tutorial on Infield Passing and Passing in General from Cloud9’s Torment. In this video he explains that it is sometimes a much better idea to pass it infield to a teammate rather than clearing it back down the field or taking a shot on net that will likely be saved.

The training pack which he uses is here. 49B9-BA3F-D797-F770

How I practice Infield Passes are the following ways. When I'm in the corner with the ball, instead of hitting it into the corner to try and center it, I try and play it Infield if I know my teammate can beat the opponent to it. I'd make it light enough for them to react but with enough pace so the opponents cannot read it. I also would heavily suggest sometimes passing sideways when advancing upfield instead of hitting it hard towards the backboard, as this would catch the opposition off guard.

When I'm up for an aerial hit, instead of smacking the ball hard at net, I generally flick my camera or look out of the corner of my eyes to see if my teammates are in advanced positions to receive a pass, as the change in direction, as I mentioned above, is the aspect that is hard to defend against. As Torment also suggests at one stage in the video above, also when I'm on the sidewall, I'll typically try and pass it infield using a sideflip, which generates power so my teammate can redirect it with huge momentum on net. Again, it's all about your situational awareness, your vision to spot your teammates and sometimes almost assuming they will be placed in areas that will cause devastation to the opposition.

 

I really hope this helps you all bring your offensive teamplays to the next level and achieve that chemistry that is desired even at the highest level. As always, make sure to review replays every so often to see if there was a time when you could implement a pass that could have changed the game.