Rocket League teases new 'boost timer' feature, players crash out

Players are butting heads over a feature that's not even out yet

Ahead of Rocket League Season 22, which is set to launch March 11, developer Psyonix has uploaded a short teaser trailer that is driving players up the wall.

The teaser, which is only 20 seconds long, shows a player driving over a Boost Pad (which refills a player's boost meter, allowing them to increase speed) before driving off-screen. The driver then returns and — appearing to know exactly when the boost pad's refresh timer is going to run out — drives over it again, snagging another boost.

At first glance, this doesn't seem like a huge deal. Boost Pads have always been a part of Rocket League. But many players think the short trailer is hinting at the future implementation of a "boost timer," which would allow players to see exactly how much time is left before a given boost pad refreshes.

"If this is anything like a boost timer we don't need it," one player commented on X. "If this is a boost timer it’s such an unnecessary change to comp," another player wrote. "Part of being good at the game is instinctually knowing when the next boost should spawn."

And therein lies the issue. Boost Pads are a huge part of the game as is, but in ranked mode and competitive play, they take on an even bigger role, with players practicing specific routes to snag as many boosts as possible while crossing the field. High-level players can often accurately predict when a Boost Pad will refresh, driving over the Boost Pad right as it refreshes. The addition of a visible timer would give this practiced ability to all players.

"This is a good feature, because it helps new players learn when boost spawns," one player explained in the /r/RocketLeague subreddit. "This is a bad feature, because veterans have spent countless hours perfecting rotations and subconsciously tracking boost timers. I myself am at the point where I can run over an empty big boost, knowing with 80% certainty that it's gonna spawn right this second, because I subconsciously know when and how rotations happened and when that boost was last taken. It feels like that progression/skill is getting taken away from us."

It's a similar situation to the one that erupted back in October when Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment made a relatively niche movement mechanic available to all players at the press of a button. Yes, this made the new-player learning curve a bit less punishing. But for veterans and competitive players, it was frustrating to see a move they'd spent years perfecting suddenly become accessible to the masses.

Players are already frustrated with Rocket League. Epic Games acquired developer Psyonix and assumed oversight of Rocket League in 2019. In December 2023, Epic removed player-to-player cosmetics trading — a longtime feature of the game — to "align with Epic’s overall approach to game cosmetics and item shop policies, where items aren’t tradable, transferrable, or sellable."

Players were furious, and have been largely distrustful of changes Epic has made to the game in the years since.

Regarding the boost timer, aside from the teaser, there's been no official word yet, though it seems likely that the boost timer will be added via the Season 22 update. Some players are hoping it won't be added to all game modes, or will only be accessible to low- to mid-rank players.

"Maybe the boost timer could exist in Bronze/Silver/Gold to help players get a feeling for the spawn times. Then it could still be normal in the above average ranks," one player suggested on Reddit.

Others think veterans and pro players simply need to get over it. "This changes things for low ranks where you are playing a much slower game, but this isn’t going to change much for most players," one player argued. "Old players that learned the skill aren’t losing anything then," agreed another player. "Calling it bad because it’s 'princess treatment' sounds like the 'well I had to work for it so you should too, just pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps' bullshit that the rich tell the poor. I'm not for or against it, just observing the parallels."