Rocket League Interview: Haberkamper - South American Professional Player

Psyonix just announced that they are sponsoring Rocketstreet, the organizer of the South American Championship series. The South American scene will undoubtedly be represented in RLCS at some point in the future. With this step toward that change, we got a chance to speak with Bruno “Haberkamper” Haberkamp and get his thoughts on the first championship season in South America and how the region might stack up against those already established in RLCS.

Haberkamper is a 17 year-old professional Rocket League player in the South American Region. After landing on the scene and impressing with Feared E-Sports, he was picked up by team Lotus and they’ve been fighting for the top of the region ever since. The final of the inaugural season of the South American championship is scheduled for July 28th, and he and his team just completed league play in second place and earned a bye through the Regional Qualifiers straight into the championship LAN. 

So Bruno, how long have you been playing Rocket League? And how did you get introduced to the game?

Haberkamper: I've been playing it since the release, got it free on PS4 via PlayStation Plus. I started basically only playing with friends from school. When I was alone playing it I didn’t like playing online very much, so I would do season mode with bots until I found about ranked

Can any of them still keep up with you?

Haberkamper: No, not really. I still play with some of them but they only play for fun. The highest ranked friend that I have in real life is Champ 1.

Have you ever been this competitive with any other games?

Haberkamper: No. Rocket League is actually the first game I've played that had a competitive tier system. I guess that helped me to like even more the game. I did win a Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 tourney in school though.

No kidding. Do you play soccer in real life?

Haberkamper: I used to. I still like watching it, but I don't play it anymore

Can you tell me about how you met Juan and FirefoxD and how you teamed up?

Haberkamper: To put in context, I had a PS4 team before coming to PC and joining Lotus.

Juan and FirefoxD have been high-level players in South America since pretty much the beginning, with Fire being the absolute best for a long time. So I've always looked up to them as players. When I eventually ascended to being a high level player in South America I got to know them, but I still kept my talents with my PS4 team. We were slowly improving as team and eventually we made some strides and we were starting to beat top teams like CaioTG1's team, therefore solidifying ourselves as a top 3 team in SAM.

One beautiful day, I was playing with CaioTG1 and he told me about the League of Rockets World Cup and that he wanted me to join the national team. I guess that helped me a lot with my confidence as a player and helped me to see that I had better opportunities within the scene.

Our team had hit a slump and I got frustrated with the results, and Fire and Juan were not very happy with the results they were having with Duo. So that’s how it happened, I migrated to PC and joined them, a few weeks we were dominating.

So you're in the debut season of the Rocketstreet SAM championship and Team Lotus just finished league play in second place with a 5-2 record. How do you feel about the season?

Haberkamper: To put in context, Fire is not playing the LAN because he had his vacation to Orlando already planned out months ago. But the plan was to play with him in league play. Before the league play started, Fire broke his collarbone/clavicle and couldn’t play. We had already picked up Valt, but we didn’t practice too much with him and he had been teamless for a considerable time. In the first week we did very well against Shoot'em with Valt, but in the next we played horrible and got swept by Chasers.

In the Unknown Team matchup (Week 3), Fire had come back, but he wasn’t 100% and neither were Juan and I. We were also insecure playing with Valt because of the Chasers game. But lately everything came together and we won consistent 3 - 0s against the rest of the competition and secured the spot because of 1 game [because tiebreaker between teams with the same records after league play was win percentage, and Chasers finished with one more loss than Lotus].

 
Lotus team goal from the final week of league play.

The loss to Unknown Team was close. Did you consider changing anything or did you know it was rustiness and that the team just needed to find its rhythm again?

Haberkamper: It was basically rustiness to be honest. I played pretty poorly as well, it was probably one of my worst series. Nonetheless, props to them for beating us even though they had to sub out Tander.

I saw that substitution in game 3. Do you think it changed the dynamic of the series at all?

Haberkamper: It did. Tander and C4 have different playstyles, and C4 is actually playing very well. Not going to be surprised if he later starts or leaves for his own team.

So the regional qualifier is approaching but Lotus has qualified straight to the LAN. Will you be watching the qualifier with your team?

Haberkamper: Definitely. Me and Juan will be rooting for Chasers and Shoot'em because we've known each other for a long time. I guess the Chasers - Synergy game isn’t much of a contest but the Shoot'em - Quality is definitely going to be interesting.

So Bruno, who do you think will win the championship?

Haberkamper: Either us or Chasers. Unknown is known for not performing when the stakes are high, and Chasers are known for performing against the top and underperforming against the lower levels. If we grind hard with Valt we have a pretty good shot.

Some Reddit users have speculated that the lack of involvement in RLCS negatively impacts the growth of the SAM competitive scene. Do you think the scene is stagnating or still growing and do you think the RocketStreet championship will draw more SAM players to the competitive scene?

Haberkamper: If definitely does. I wouldn't say the scene is stagnated, but we have seen some better days. We had a lot of players quitting the competitive scene, especially the older-aged players like Freedom. But we’ve seen some newer players rise to the top recently like Renan and Tander. The South American championship is bringing the need to grind hard again and that’s definitely something to look up to.

The point is that we have a very, very young base and that’s what brings me hope in our scene.

That's good to hear that you're optimistic. Do you think it's time to add SAM to RLCS?

Haberkamper: Yes, OCE showed the world that other regions can hang with the best and I personally think we are better than OCE as a whole.

When SAM is included, are there any current teams that you'd be excited to play? Or worried about?

Haberkamper: I would be excited to play against the fast-paced teams, like Cloud 9, Team Dignitas and such mostly, and worried as well.

You mentioned your involvement with the League of Rockets World Cup last year. While this is obviously a different environment from traditional pro play due to best of 1, team makeup, etc., was there anything that surprised you about the play of your opponents?

Haberkamper: Since we played only against EU because of the ping, it was very nice to see them in action, they're super coordinated and make good decisions, so we had to work for our goals and not wait for them to make a mistake I guess.

Wait hold up. Do you get better ping on EU servers than US servers?

Haberkamper: No. We played on US servers, so the ping was even. EU would get a little bit less ping, but it was fair.

Oh, okay. I have seen that you queue into US servers on your YouTube for ranked. Have you ever scrimmed with NA teams?

Haberkamper: We have scrimmed against some tier 3 - 4 in the past and did well. It gets harder and harder everyday cause the game is getting faster and faster.

I guess the highlight was when we scrimmed SetToDestroyX and we played pretty close.

That is cool to hear, especially with the ping disadvantage. Couple more questions. If you had Psyonix's esports team in a room and it was your job to pitch them to open RLCS to SAM teams, what would your main argument be?

Haberkamper: I guess my main argument would be that we have a very young high-level base with a lot of potential. We have also a larger player base than OCE and we've shown we can hang with the best not only in the World Cup.
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Perfect. Last question: If there was one question that you were hoping I would ask and I didn't. What's that question and what's that answer?

Haberkamper: Question, who do you think is going to win Season 6 of RLCS. Answer, Lotus.

Bravo, my man.

Haberkamper: Just to spice it up!

If you want to see more of Haberkamper and Team Lotus, tune in to https://www.twitch.tv/rocketstreetlive/ on July 28th to watch the thrilling conclusion to the South American championship as the final four teams, including Lotus, battle for the first ever South American championship title. The commentary will be in Española, but the gameplay will be universal.

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