Role: Sole Editor
Tools: Premiere Pro, After Effects
Project Overview
This project is the official aftermovie for the Rocket League World Championship 2025, created as a cinematic recap of the tournament held in Lyon, France.
The video serves as a high-energy, emotionally driven highlight film designed to allow fans to relive the most iconic moments of the event — from crowd reactions and player triumphs to the defining gameplay sequences that shaped the championship.
Published on the official Rocket League Esports YouTube channel, the aftermovie captures the full progression of the tournament, culminating in NRG's World Championship victory, marking the first North American world title in over 5 years.
Role & Scope
I served as the sole editor on this project, handling the entire edit from start to finish.
My responsibilities included:
• Selecting all gameplay, player reactions, crowd moments, and caster audio
• Structuring the narrative flow of the aftermovie
• Capturing custom in-game cinematic shots using Rocket League replay files and plugins
• Music selection from the Rocket League music library
• Color grading, pacing, sound design, and final polish
Creative Direction
The project was approached with significant creative freedom. Beyond minor revisions near delivery, there were no mandated story beats or required moments.
Rather than simply assembling highlights, I focused on shaping the video around emotion, momentum, and payoff, treating the aftermovie as a short cinematic experience rather than a traditional recap.
One creative addition I proposed — and implemented — was the use of flashbacks and interview audio from the previous year's World Championship. This allowed the aftermovie to frame NRG's 2025 victory as a redemption arc, adding emotional weight in a way that had not been explored in prior RLCS aftermovies.
Editing & Storytelling
The narrative arc progresses naturally through the tournament:
• Establishing context for the highlights and events that are about to be showcased
• Highlighting breakout performances, upsets, and regional storylines
• Building momentum through the playoffs toward the Grand Finals
• Concluding with NRG's championship victory and historical significance
Editing decisions emphasized:
• High-energy pacing synced tightly to music
• Strategic use of speedramps and split screens to accentuate gameplay moments
• Clear gameplay readability alongside cinematic camera movement
• Emotional contrast between triumph and devastation
• Crowd audio and caster calls used as narrative drivers
The goal was to strike a balance between artful presentation and clarity of competition, ensuring the gameplay remained readable while still feeling elevated and cinematic.
Production Scale & Collaboration
The project was completed within a three-week turnaround.
Due to the volume of available footage, I worked with the production team to request specific moments and reactions rather than transferring the entire archive through the cloud — allowing for faster iteration while still maintaining editorial control.
Despite the scale of the event, the edit was handled entirely solo, from first assembly through final delivery.
Reception & Impact
The aftermovie has received strong positive reception from both fans and established figures within the Rocket League community.
• "By far the best aftermovie since BLAST started running the esport."
• Rocket League caster Stax: "Wayton cooked here... now all I want is to go back to France again and again and again."
• Community creator Danger Taco: "This edit gave me goosebumps and made me emotional for this esport."
The video has accumulated 30,000+ views and was shared by Rocket League Esports on social media where I was directly credited for the edit — an uncommon acknowledgement for aftermovie projects of this scale.
