The Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) 2026 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Open 3 event is the final regional tournament before the Boston Major, as teams compete for one singular spot at the huge international event, fighting tooth and nail for RLCS points. That's why fans definitely shouldn't miss out on the action, and we've got you covered!

First and foremost, the RLCS 2026 SSA Open 3 runs from 24 January to 1 February 2026. If you would like to give competing a shot, you can register via the tournament's official start.gg page. Registration closes on 20 January 2025 at 17:00 SAST.

The tournament starts this weekend, on 24 January 2026, with the Double Elimination stage. On 25 January, the Swiss Stage will take place, and then we have a bit of a break until next weekend. The final stages of competition (days 3 to 5) will run from 30 January to 1 February 2026, so mark those calendars.

There's a huge $32,100 prize pool and RLCS points to compete for. At the current Dollar to Rand exchange rate, that's roughly R525,000! Check out the complete tournament format structure for RLCS 2026 SSA Open 3 outlined below.

• Best-of-Five.
• All participants split into pools*
• Teams losing 2 matches are eliminated
  * Double Elimination pools, advancements, and schedule are all subject to change based on the number of registered teams. Brackets are published 24 hours prior to event start.

• Best-of-Five
• 32 teams that advanced from Day 1 Double Elimination (Opens 1 & 4) / 24 teams that advanced from Day 1 Double Elimination join the Top 8 seeded teams (Opens 2/3/5/6)
• Participants split into 2 pools
• Teams winning 3 matches qualify to Day 3
• Teams losing 3 matches are eliminated
• 16 teams advance to Day 3

• Best-of-Five
• 16 teams that advanced from Day 2 Swiss Stage
• Participants split into 2 pools
• Teams losing 2 matches are eliminated
• 8 teams advance to Day 4

• Best-of-Seven
• 8 teams that advanced from Day 3 GSL Stage
• 4 teams start in the Upper Bracket and 4 teams start in the Lower Bracket based on Day 3 placements
• Winners of the first Upper Group matches advance directly to the Semi-Finals (Day 5)
• Losers of the first Upper Group matches advance to Lower Round 2
• Losing a match in the Lower Bracket eliminates a team
• Lower Round 2, Semi-Finals and Grand Finals played in Day 5

• Best-of-Seven
• 6 teams that advanced from Day 4 Hybrid Elimination
• Teams losing a match are eliminated
• The final team remaining is the tournament winner

What are you waiting for? Join the Rocket League Esports SSA Discord channel for any help you might require, and chat to the community while you are at it. For those who don’t plan on competing, you can still watch some of the action via the upcoming ACGL_Alpha Twitch channel.

Header image via Epic Games.