The RLCS org skins are, without a doubt, the cleanest octane decals in Rocket League! Today I’ll be making a definitive octane eSport decal tier list. That was a mouthful.
Some of the more prominent orgs released more decals than others, and some orgs aren’t even competing in RLCS anymore. I’ll still rate decals removed from circulation. They’re still fun to look at and provide a better baseline.
Let’s keep generic Stocktane photos out of this post. I’ll design presets intended to complement each decal. I mean, let’s be real: These decals look phenomenal. If you want to support your favorite team, you should be able to do it in style!
Anyway, you aren’t here to read a lengthy intro. You’re here to see some slick eSport decals. I’ll take a page from old reality TV shows and start from the bottom of the list. It’ll build suspense. Also, for the sake of entertainment, I’m going to blow minor flaws way out of proportion. Brace yourself.
Q: What qualifies as F-tier?
A: These decals are outright uninspired and leave fans feeling ashamed to sport their favorite teams in online matches.
Using the silhouette of a horse to split colors is elegant and ingenious.
Unfortunately, the colors Team Liquid splits are hideous and impossible to match with in-game items. It looks like Team Liquid should have done a little market research before unveiling this monstrosity to their loyal fans.
It took me a long time to pinpoint why I found this decal so ghastly. There’s an obnoxious red stripe on the nose of the hood that rolls down the fender.
Boxing off random segments of the car doesn’t make the decal any more sporty. It doesn’t add flair. It just shatters any semblance of balance that a decal has going for it.
Another generation, another failure. There’s too much going on in the Guild decal, and none of it makes sense together. I can’t effectively pick apart the flaws if the whole ensemble is a flaw. I even tried rescuing it with my favorite wheels: Sovereign A/T’s.
But you can’t fix ugly.
If Guild wants to release a high-tier eSports decal, they’ll need to wipe the Cheeto dust off their fingers and start from scratch.
Why do these eSports orgs have an awkward fetish for black-on-black camouflage? It doesn’t work here. It doesn’t work anywhere. I’m not going on a midnight hunting trip for boost pads. I’m chasing a ball around the field playing keep away from angst-ridden plats.
The shattered glass effect doesn’t look intimidating or fierce here. It’s sloppy.
The PWR logo doesn’t do any favors here, either. I wouldn’t be surprised if executives from Monster Energy designed this decal. It’s lousy taste.
Go ahead. Name one attribute you like about this decal. You couldn’t give this decal away as a free prize in a cereal box. Not even if the cereal brand topped Rizzo’s tier list.
I like to imagine that Splyce held a secret boardroom meeting where the stubborn manager just repeatedly yelled, “Shut up, Darren! I said I wanted a giant snake on the door panel!”
The Renegades eSport decal was an enormous disappointment. I’d argue that people love cowboys almost as much as they love Mutant Robot Ninja Space Aliens. I mean, Clint Eastwood is still somehow a household name, and he’s old enough to be my grandfather.
I walked in expecting to see Sharknado and walked out feeling like I just watched a three-hour marathon of One Piece filler episodes. Worst of all, I had to scour the four corners of the planet to build a preset that looked halfway presentable.
Even after delving through the entire library of cosmetic items in Rocket League, the Renegades eSport decal falls short. It looks like a jersey you would see wrapped around the waists of an impoverished baseball team.
Q: What qualifies as D-tier?
A: These decals are notably less charming than the majority of the eSport shop. They aren’t complete failures, but they require a facelift to pull together a decent preset.
Dignitas went on a sticker frenzy that could rival the efforts of a four-year-old Owl City fanatic. There’s no cohesive theme aside from filling a black background with everything yellow the designers could get their sweaty little paws on.
I don’t care how many world championships you’ve won. I’m not wearing this decal unless Psyonix announces an in-game clown event.
If the only effort we’re going to see from Faze Clan is a nonsensical copypasta of some random paint splotch, the only effort I’m putting into grading it is a simple, “No thanks.”
This decal is one printed ‘Envy’ shy of a movie trailer for the latest installment of an outdated chick flick destined to air on daytime television. Envy written on the roof would suffice.
Not to mention, this is a blatant rip-off of the NRG refresh decal, which was already a blatant rip-off of the OG Ghost decal. That isn’t exactly the recipe for topping a tier list!
I could go on an entire rant about how we’ll look back on the earliest decades of the 21st century and recognize them as ‘that time we were way too serious about simplifying logos and branding,’ but I’ll save you the gory details.
Long story short: It turns out that adding suffixes like -ly or -ify on every word is borderline cringe. Simplifying letters to basic shapes and sprinkling confetti-like lines around like glitter glue is even more cringe.
The new PK logo looks like it belongs on the wall of a bank or national trust office. I’m not a fan of the random yellow Teepee tent spam, either.
It seems like PK got the memo the night before their new submission was due. I can say with total certainty that this eSports decal is the personification of what procrastination looks like.
Holy wall of text on the door, batman! Is that Open Sans font, I see?
I was a crazy fanboy for MousEsports when they had the all-star roster of Speed, Kuxir, and Al0t. Sure, none of those boys were the best in their league, but they were inspiring and creative. It pains me to see their octane decal lacking that creativity. It’s bland and uninspired.
The design doesn’t come close to fitting the octane.
Envy literally drew an arrow pointing to their team name. Come on, Envy. We know it’s you. That’s implied knowledge.
The gradient on the hood looks painfully out of place. Nothing on this decal meshes. It’s a strictly worse version of the new NRG home team decal.
I wholeheartedly adore the color scheme that Endpoint brought to the table. Unfortunately, they didn’t attempt to shape the design around the body of an octane. Looking at this decal is like watching your best friend tattoo Shakespearean prose inside of his armpit. A body is not a sheet of paper.
Context is key.
I’m surprised CompLexity hasn’t faced a lawsuit for hijacking the Dallas Cowboys uniform design.
Their signature star shows its face one too many times for my liking. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth, almost like CompLexity created the design in MS Paint. I guess we know what that capital ‘L’ in CompLexity stands for. Hint: It’s the opposite of win.
Oh, look, another black and white decal trying to pass itself as clean. Let’s just slap some sharpened lines all over it and call it a day.
Lazy design. Enough said.
Q: What qualifies as C-tier?
A: These are bland decals. They are somewhat well-executed and clean. They typically lack excitement or do a poor job of matching the octane’s contour lines.
Torrent selected the most refulgent shade of aquamarine for their highlight color. Heads up, it doesn’t match anything sky blue or cobalt.
That spoiler is the epitome of perfection, but I can’t boost an eSports decal to the top of the list based on a spoiler alone.
The accent lines are pretty sporadic on the hood of the octane. It leaves the impression that they’re attempting to create another cybernetic theme, but Torrent could have used the space more efficiently.
G2 let me down this time around. The brush effect looks better on the octane design than the fennec and dominus, but it’s still lacking.
The idea could come to life with some more exotic colors and fine detailing, but as it stands, this eSport decal is vastly underwhelming.
I wouldn’t have ranked the old Rogue decal so high if it didn’t wrap a saffron octane so well.
The contour lines are all very exciting to look at. Combined, however, they smother and feel overbearing. Rogue was ahead of its time using a non-black base, but there’s too much going on. It’s hard to recommend this decal to anyone but a hardcore rogue fan.
I think what bothers me the most is the thickness of the word outlines. It feels like a hideous drop shadow that never escaped the ’90s.
This will be a pretty hot take.
The new Queso decal holds praise as the freshest decal to ever hit the eSport shop. I don’t see it.
The Good: Dual shades of blue bring out some delightful texture. Broken symmetry adds flair.
The Bad: The tertiary color doesn’t match a yellow trim and doesn’t match an orange trim. The faint lines on the roof only look good on one side.
The Ugly: Oh, look, another team name on the door and another logo on the hood. Deep down, this decal isn’t taking any risks. Anyone who says this is just tired of seeing black and white decals waving at them.
Look, I’m right there with you. BUT, other decals deliver unique, unapologetic designs with more precision and force. Other decals have better contour lines and are easier to match.
Singularity gave the octane angelic wings on the outer wheel well. Then they slapped some incohesive green lines on the side and clocked out for the day.
It makes for a solid eSport decal, and the lines won’t clash with a lime trim. Unfortunately, the label ‘good enough’ is the epitome of C-tier. Welcome to the herd, Singularity.
Team Liquid stepped up their game with their second decal.
The dark denim blue looks infinitely better than their first monstrosity. More trim customization options are available thanks to the subtle white accent lines near the border.
I’m not a fan of the black lines on the hood resembling some quasi-rising-sun flag, and I think the older design was more creative.
Sacrificing creativity and design flow for better colors isn’t ideal. This Team Liquid decal is the epitome of mediocrity. Maybe the third design will piece together community feedback and deliver something incredible.
Say hello to another decal that dropped all of its eggs into one basket: Hoping to achieve the ‘Clean’ label.
The neon outline on the side of the spoiler is a decent touch. The fenders look pretty good.
The Soniqs emblem, on the other hand, may as well be outlined in cheap Elmer’s glue. Like, the stuff your grade school teacher would rip out of your hands after watching you gobble it down like chocolate milk.
Seriously, that logo is painfully out of place. It’s also abnormally large. The Soniqs team didn’t even place it on a flat surface. Would you call that clean execution?
Too busy, too busy, too busy!
The atomic theme is clever. I’m a colossal fan of how Oxygen eSports made both forest green and lime feasible customization options.
I think the team logo is what makes the decal look so appalling. Placing it at an angle and downsizing it a hair would have worked wonders to tie everything together.
Instead, they shoved that logo in our face like a lawyer blasts a phone number on a billboard. It’s too much.
It’s like equipping that not-so-highly sought-after labyrinth BMD and realizing you have even fewer customization options. The font used to represent their team borderlines illegibility. I’d hardly call that A+ branding.
It is a cool font, though.
Overall, the jagged lines effect is a success. It has a subtle vignette effect that creates highlights. The hood could have used something more exciting.
Since this org opted for bold colors and patterns, it shouldn’t fall flat halfway through the design. I also can’t ignore that it’s a little tacky.
When in doubt, slap a bunch of dots and lines on some art and call it contemporary… Maybe the word I was looking for was lazy. Yeah, that’s it.
But the not-so-subtle forward-facing arrows give a mild impression of speed, which is good for a game that prides itself on rocket-powered battle cars.
Overall, the design flows well. It just leaves me wishing Endpoint spent their design space on more original assets.
Is it just me, or does it seem like the team at Ground Zero was staring over the other artist’s shoulders and trying to copy their designs?
Seriously, this design stretched beyond the realm of ‘safe’ and became a trailblazer for the type of artists who wear pocket protectors to a rave.
The logo overlay across the top view of the octane defines brilliant design. Unfortunately, the colors are too closely related to appreciate the design without squinting.
This decal reminds me that I probably need glasses, and I don’t like it.
This decal takes serious flak for utilizing fluorescent orange in a game where orange is a default color. The shade itself is exciting to look at, but I admit there’s maybe too much of it.
The asymmetric logo hanging from the roof is pretty cool, but only from certain angles. Asymmetric design is only well-executed if you can view it from any angle.
Reciprocity had one of the best logos to grace a Rocket League cosmetic, and I can appreciate seeing it flaunted as unflinching and unafraid as it was. A little more white might’ve rocketed this decal straight up to S-tier.
Q: What qualifies as B-tier?
A: These are adequate decals. The attributes embraced weren’t fully realized. Decals didn’t execute the ideas with the level of precision we see in higher tiers.
So much hype surrounded this decal when it was first released. The Rocket League community was hellbent on creating the most obnoxiously bright white that it could fathom, and the new TSM decal fits the bill quite nicely.
Of course, the decal looks like it could be poached from the savannah and mistaken for a particularly rare striped horse. You know the one.
Still, looking like a wild boost-guzzling zebra comes with its perks. The decal did break barriers.
These days, there are brighter shining stars on the playing field. TSM is nothing more than a relic of the past.
For the longest time, Cloud 9 was our only option for a blue team decal. We’re lucky it didn’t suck.
Of course, back in those days, we were so excited to run blue on orange and vice versa that we never stopped to think whether or not we should…
Anyway, a flower of 9’s on the hood isn’t exactly what I’d call sophisticated decor. It looks great on the side of the design. The top view gets a few extra points for the intricate roof design.
Final verdict: Low B-tier. RIP to one of the best teams to roam the RLCS circuit. At least I met their coach.
Alpine eSports rocked three shades of green, and it looks pretty legit. The top of the vehicle drapes some curved lines down to the rest of the car; I’m guessing they’re supposed to be horns. The spoiler reveals a soft-etched ‘Alpine,’ and the accent lines are well-balanced. The little goat mascot looks like he means business.
But the goat is far from perfect: His body takes the shape of a blob you’d expect to see in a cheaply produced horror film. I also don’t think this decal is quite bold enough to warrant total neglect of neutral colors.
I don’t hate what Alpine has done here, but it comes with some pretty limited design options. Realistically, we can only invite a lime trim to the party.
I love the new EUnited decal. Breaking the colors into a dichotomy was a brilliant design decision. Keeping the design on the top of the car was pretty smart, too.
But the design itself lacks the intricacy needed to break into a higher tier. All of the eSports decals have stripes. Most orgs feature highlights that forge more extravagant patterns.
I consider this decal a lost opportunity.
It’s bad enough that Epic injected the battle bus and ghostbuster station wagon into my car soccer. Now, I’m stuck dealing with a genericized robocop? I’m kidding… Kind of.
I don’t know. This new NRG decal is monochromatic or whatever, but it also makes my octane look like it’s wearing an ugly face mask that I’d see on an ’80s superhero.
Maybe that’s your thing. My opinion? Other teams do neutral colors better. On the bright side, the back half of this car looks stellar.
I like to call this the NRG cash grab decal. The team saw the success of the OG Ghost decal and tried to mimic it… unsuccessfully.
By the time NRG released this decal, it wasn’t innovative. Nor was it cleaner than what Ghost put on the table. It was a cheap knockoff.
I guess breaking up the monotony with matte and gloss black paint finishes keeps the decal from being unsightly boring.
The NRG refresh just doesn’t deliver anything that hasn’t been done better elsewhere.
The new Soniqs decal bears an outstanding glow. It’s almost ethereal how it simulates a neon sign lighting up the night’s sky.
Overall, the decal looks sporty, which should be the number one goal of an eSport decal. The placement of the vibrant contour lines is minimalistic, though. It makes this decal easy to overlook.
The execution of this decal is otherwise superb. I still hate that ugly logo, though.
BDS took a significant leap of faith in their 21-22 home team decal. I think if they’d added more pink accents, they might have struck a home run.
As it stands, the decal is a jumbled mess. It’s messy in a fun kind of way, but I can’t see myself ranking it any higher in this tier list due to the overall execution.
The contour lines on the new Solary home decal ebb with the fluidity of water. There’s literally nothing else to comment upon for this decal, which brings me to my point:
Nothing is inherently wrong with this decal. It just doesn’t draw attention to itself. Solary also used muted colors, and that makes it pleasant on the eyes. Unfortunately, it sits in a shop full of great-looking decals.
‘Pleasant on the eyes’ isn’t as effective as attention-grabbing.
SMPR created a clean octane decal. It’s beautiful. Forgive me for unveiling something you’ll never unsee.
This decal has an ugly blonde combover. If Donald Trump had his own eSports org, I could picture this design as his mascot. Regardless of your political views, I can promise you that an old man isn’t making any cutting-edge fashion statements.
Again, I feel guilty. Maybe I should’ve hidden that paragraph in spoiler tags. Oh well… What’s done is done.
Say hello to my second hot take!
Look, I know everyone on the internet is thrashing the new Dignitas decal as an uninspired hunk of cheese. Honestly, I think it’s pretty cool. It’s still leagues away from breaking into the best decals in the game, but it’s charming and bright. The new Dignitas logo is another step forward for the org, too.
Unfortunately, the black splatter design makes its appearance too far back to capture much attention. I’d qualify this decal as ‘too safe,’ which drops its rank back into mediocrity.
G2 took a fabulous logo and slapped it on every angle of the octane. I just wish the random lines plastered on had more confluence.
As it stands, the accent lines don’t make a whole lot of sense. G2 does provide a color palette that’s easy to match, and the design itself is still outright vicious.
Q: What qualifies as A-tier?
A: These decals are visually stunning and require closer inspection to pick apart any minor flaws.
When I first equipped the Rix decal, I thought it looked spammy and incoherent. I thought I’d be stuck driving an outdated Nickelodean commercial in circles around the field.
I have to say; I apologize for ever thinking that. The decal is a gem. It’s among the most cohesive eSport decals in Rocket League. It picks up the spazzy nature of electricity and harnesses it to its full potential.
I’ll spare you the terrible pun about how shocked I was.
The XSet eSports octane decal is undeniably ruthless.
The multi-shade red brings a substantial amount of depth to this decal. The brush effect beneath the window looks solid. The logo even shows personality.
Unfortunately, the decal is too glossy to fully appreciate any of these highlights. In-game, the XSet decal can sometimes be a walking lens flare… Turns out that adding more polish to an anodized paint finish just depletes the value of a perfectly good decal.
Tone down that reflection, and I would slap this puppy in the highest tier.
EUnited can stand proud for this creation. Here’s an org that noted the common practice of releasing a black-based decal – and completely ignored it. The inverse star at the center of the logo is top-tier branding. Placing that logo on a solid white banner helps that logo pop, too.
The spacing between stripes and other elements keeps the decal feeling active but not busy. Honestly, this decal didn’t hit hard at first, but it really grew on me after a few glances at the spoiler and watching a handful of aerial replays.
Still not a fan of the compressed hood design, though.
The original Spacestation Gaming octane decal slays when it comes to creative design choices. Each line meticulously breaks up the body and keeps every angle looking fresh. The intermittent stars add a noticeable space theme without allowing it to become gaudy or overbearing.
My only gripe is that the SSG emblem on the roof would look a whole lot better centered and angled about 45 degrees to one side or the other. The rest of the design has the freedom to flow off of rigid lines, making the top of the design feel out of place.
The reflective and opaque paint finish looks great on this decal. It adds a silvery sheen that fits the context.
What happens when you find the perfect blend of orange and blue and add a little swirl?
Well, if the result is this Solary decal, it’s a masterpiece. Each color rises from the bottom and slowly tapers out, creating a mildly hypnotic sensation. The glossy black finish feels right at home here. We arrive at a design that so many orgs attempted, but few succeeded in achieving:
Clean, minimalistic, and lustrous.
While Karmine Corp doesn’t deliver the best monochromatic design in the game, this org did plenty to keep it looking great.
Limiting the white stripe to the window helps draw our attention to the top of the vehicle, where Karmine planted the decals’ most compelling traits.
Unfortunately, polka dots in a bracket of lines isn’t the most creative decision. Still, I respect the top-heavy style of the Karmine Corp decal. RL eSports decals rarely explore this idea, and it shines best for Karmine Corp.
Just. Wow.
Rogue delivered the most dynamic inclusion of a hood logo I’ve seen. It doesn’t feel like they slapped a few stickers on. It’s perfectly blended.
The crosshatch effect on the rear end of the car looks solid. The colors have a soft gradient that provides more depth. I think they’re a little too thick and symmetrical on the roof.
An orange outline around the org name on the door would fasten together to produce something special.
Still, Rogue tied rigid lines together with smooth colors, and it paid off.
BDS gave us a decal that could fit both teams without being monochromatic or turning us into tacky traitor look-alikes. This org also hit us with some pleasant vaporwave colors. To top it off, they complimented those colors with a well-executed tech-inspired design – one that breathes the essence of Rocket League at its core.
Unfortunately, the BDS decal looks its worst on the octane. It’s a little overcrowded. If this post were about Dominus decals, I’d rate it in the top 5.
Spacestation Gaming took a bunch of thin lines and forged them into a general framework effect. It suits them well.
The roof is the highlight of this design, but the back-end accent lines create a delicate balance, too. SSG proves to us that clean doesn’t necessarily equal safe or boring. Subtlety can mean exciting and bold.
The original NRG decal was juicy, and I think we took it for granted. It broke symmetry. It broke boundaries. The logo on the hood was distinct and eye-catching. White lines weren’t NRG’s selling point. They left a sly and adventurous accent that helped pull everything together.
Nothing on this decal looks plain. Not even the roof!
Unfortunately, the shade of red they chose doesn’t quite line up with crimson. If it weren’t for limited design options, OG NRG would top this tier list.
I wouldn’t say Ghost executed the best glitch effect on an eSport decal, but the 21-22 Ghost decal does fine-tune it to a sleek and streamlined high-gloss finish. The subtle framework lines add a nice touch, too.
Unfortunately, the design ends too early. The whole front of the car is plain black. Don’t get me wrong; we’re into that sort of thing, but it feels somewhat basic here.
Q: What qualifies as S-tier?
A: I’m looking for attention-grabbing decals that take a holistic design approach. These decals are neither too safe nor too tacky. These decals are the cream of the crop!
Remember the time I tried calling out companies that slapped ‘-ify’ on the end of their names? It really pains me to say this but…
This decal is freakin’ rad.
While the Rebellion decal admittedly plays it safe with its subtle contour lines, they picked the loudest color on the menu. Nothing in Rocket League grabs attention quite like a vibrant lime.
The boisterous outlines from the grill extend to the hood, making the Rebellion decal one of the flashiest front-view decals in-game. Again, we see accents of a muted gray to create an added layer of depth that’s nothing short of stunning.
In the 21-22 decal set, Vitality brought a gun to a knife show. This design defies everything we know about a traditional eSport decal, and it delivers.
This showcase isn’t clean. It isn’t neutral. Instead, Vitality gives us an intrepid array of stripes, taking the eyes on a wild journey along the body of an octane. It’s also good to see that Vitality still rocks that A+ logo.
Out of over 61 eSport decals in Rocket League, only one truly utilizes gold. Sure, there are plenty of yellow decals. Yellow doesn’t quite deliver that gilded vibe. The lie becomes painfully apparent when you equip a set of gold wheels to one of those presets.
The original Vitality decal weaves a beautiful honeycomb pattern to their tidy little honey bee logo. It adds a splash of white to accentuate a TW trim without allowing it to saturate the design. It’s a work of art.
The truth is, once you find the perfect pure matte black decal, you don’t have any use for the others. OG Ghost has the best execution of a clean eSports decal – bar none. It leaves the perfect amount of breathing room.
Ghost meticulously placed each little white sticker to simulate the sensation of sponsorship. The OG Ghost decal feels like the perfect fit for a well-decorated – and massively intimidating – rival athlete. It’s that form of raw human emotion that drives box office sales, and it works here, too.
While I adore the 21-22 set of decals, one thing sticks out to me like a sore thumb: Psyonix placed a strict standardization on logos. Every decal from the 21-22 set slaps its stamp on the center of the hood. I miss creative logo implementation, and PK did it best with their fearsome, regal lion.
The OG PK decal showcased the best full-body logo design of any org decal to date. PK’s original eSport decal is like a well-drawn tattoo: It doesn’t break up the flow of the Octanes curvature.
Black and yellow is a home run here, too. Especially with the contour lines feathering out the wheel wells with an elegance that resonates true royalty. This eSports decal is an untamed lion’s roar.
The True Neutral eSport decal has stolen the crown of ‘best neutral color palette.’ It’s cleaner than a hospital waiting room.
A few years ago, all it took to win our hearts over was a solid black and white car. Now that a handful of orgs are milking our desires for neutral-toned presets, we can afford to be picky with the overall design.
The designers at True Neutral meticulously wrapped each segment of their design to match the contour lines of the octane. The logo is probably the sleekest to appear in Rocket League. Grey elements do a great job of helping smooth out transitions between colors.
The entire decal is a giant chef’s kiss. congrats to True Neutral for taking home the #2 spot on this list!
Of all the eSport orgs to grace this list, I think V-1’s octane decal hits the hardest. It isn’t even a contest!
V-1 is the only team to sport a plum purple, an astronomical win in my book. Setting aside my color preferences, I think the glitch effect breaks up the design nicely without appearing too busy or adding unnecessary shapes and figures.
No random line spam. No recycled ideas.
Version-1 maintains a clean eSports decal without playing too safe with minimalism or looking dull. Here’s to hoping that the other orgs take note in future designs!
I want you to know that creating this tier list was insanely difficult. I know I made some heavy criticisms, but it was mostly to keep you awake. All of these eSport decals are gorgeous, and I spent a lot of time cycling through different designs so that you could get a nice visual of each decals true potential.
By all means, rock your favorite team! I’m still crazy about the old MousEsports roster. I run their decal all the time, despite ranking it in D-tier. I even used their Dominus decal as my headline photo in my post about white Apex.
There’s no shame in supporting your favorites!
Much love and thank you for reading! If you want to keep tabs on my latest posts, links to my social are down below!