Introduction

This is a long one, but there's a lot to say.

It's been just over a year since Psyonix decided to standardize the hitboxes and handling by reducing the number of options available to just six types: Octane, Dominus, Breakout, Hybrid, Plank, and Batmobile. For those of you unaware, this means that every Dominus type car handles exactly like the Dominus, every Plank type car handles exactly like the other Planks, and so on. (If this is new information to you, you can always compare stats and learn more about which car is which in this spreadsheet here.)

While doing so had a lot of benefits for both Psyonix and the community, it also meant removing a large number of unique hitbox and handling combinations from the game, limiting players to the few cars that were popular at the time. Now to be fair, car stats in Rocket League aren't nearly as diverse as, say, a fighting game, but anyone who's been a part of the competitive Super Smash Brothers community can tell you that tier lists change over time, and previously overlooked options can suddenly become extremely popular once a high level player has proven their viability. Hell, we even saw this in Rocket League with the Batmobile--because let's be honest: If not for players like 0ver Zer0 and Kuxir showing the world what the Batmobile could do, there'd probably be far less of out there with the car in our inventory.

Now before I state my case for the Masamune, I want to get three very important things out of the way.

First off, to give you confidence that I have enough experience to make these claims: I have 5000 hours in game, ended last season as a Grand Champ in 2v2s, and while my 1v1 ranks tend to be inconsistent (usually because I insist on continuing to play the game when I'm far too tired and tilted to play well), I've been as high as Champ 3 in 1v1s and have even managed the occasional 1v1 win against top 100 players. I've played nearly every car in the game at one point or another including back when every car was unique, and as of this moment have over 20 cars in my garage with over a 100 recorded wins, with a handful of those being over 1000. I've studied the physics of this game--going so far as to analyze code stored in uncompiled UPK files and write BakkesMod plugins to analyze turning speeds under various conditions--and I've analyzed the implications those differences make in actual gameplay. tl;dr: While I honestly don't like sounding arrogant, I have a ton of experience, and am probably one of the few players that could legitimately claim to be an expert when it comes to car stats.

Second, I'm not about to claim the Masamune was outright overpowered or that it could replace the Octane as the best car in the game. It has flaws, and I'll address them. I do feel it is better in certain areas, and I do feel that it has a place alongside the game's current offerings, but my goal here is to prove how it offers a unique combination of strengths and weaknesses that could provide something new for players looking for something a bit different--and to prove that said strengths and weaknesses are just as competitively viable as cars like the Batmobile or Dominus.

And finally, I'm going to make some seemingly controversial claims regarding some of the Masamune's strengths. If you can promise to hear me out, I promise in return I'll explain the reasoning behind those claims. However, much more importantly: I ask that you consider what these claims offer to the community as a whole, not just you yourself personally. The simple truth is that the Masamune is not the car for everyone, and it very well might not be the car for you. However, think of just about any RPG you've ever played: there's often a long list of viable classes, many of which are extremely strong in their own right. You might only enjoy one or two classes yourself, but there's plenty of other players that have a blast playing characters that you'd probably be bored to death playing. As such I ask that you don't only imagine yourself in the car, but others as well; after all, it's not like offering the choice to others would prevent you from playing any of the current cars you might personally love.

With all that out of the way, let's get into it.

The Masamune's Release and Initial Failure

The Masamune was originally released as a part of the Neo Tokyo update near exactly one year after the release of Rocket League itself. Its hitbox could be described as the lovechild of the Breakout and Dominus, and it had a turning speed that was rivaled by very few cars in the game. At a glance, this sounds amazing; the Breakout and Dominus were already two very popular cars, and so long as you could handle the car's speed, you could damn near turn on a dime.

Unfortunately, there was more to it than that.

Every car has something often referred to as its "center of mass" or "rotation joint". While I'll try to avoid going too in depth--you can always check out HalfwayDead's channel if you want to know more--the center of mass is the point that determines both how a car rotates in the air and what direction your car hits the ball whenever you go for any sort of touch whatsoever. In short, any time your car touches the ball, the game draws a line from your car's center of mass to the center of the ball, and considers that to be the direction you've hit the ball. Likewise, to get the most power on a shot, you want to keep your center of mass as centered with the ball as possible--in other words, if you imagine yourself playing billiards (i.e. pool), you're always going to find it easier to generate more power on the ball by lining up the cue stick perfectly center with your shot; the same is true when lining up your car's momentum and center of mass with the ball.

The Masamune's center of mass was weird.

Every one of the popular vehicles at the time--Octane, Dominus, Breakout, and Batmobile--had a center of mass that was a fair bit further back from the car's visual center. To put it another way, the distance from the center of mass to the front of those cars was larger than the distance from the center of mass to the back. The Masamune's center of mass on the other hand was nearly dead center in the middle of the car.

This had a subtle yet profound impact on how the car felt, and if you weren't aware of this--and, let's be honest: most of weren't--for anyone coming from a more popular car, it could make the Masamune just feel... off.

For one, it meant that you had to line the car up differently to maximize the power and accuracy of your shots, especially when using the corners or sides of the car. Trying to line it up assuming the center of mass was further back would mean you'd lose some potential power, and would in more extreme cases might even send the ball in a different direction than where you wanted. The ball would just glance off of the car like you were hitting it with a purse--not because the car couldn't generate power, but because most of us just weren't aware of or used to the car's differences.

On top of that, the sweet spot for dribbling the ball was much further forward on the vehicle than anyone was used to. Dribbling is effectively just a series of very small touches on the ball, and what decides how far the ball is pushed in any given direction is how far in front of, behind, or to the sides of the center of mass the ball is sitting on top of your car. With a center of mass that's further forward, that means the ball itself will likewise need to be further forward on the car to keep it from rolling off the back of your vehicle. Most of the popular cars would keep the ball on their windshield, but the Masamune nearly needed to keep it on its nose.

This also meant that most flicks that players had become accustom to were a nightmare. Popping the ball high into the air with a backflip seemed almost impossible to do out of a dribble; keeping the ball so far forward meant that it would simply roll off the nose while barely gaining any momentum at all. Likewise, while not as popular at the Masamune's release, later moves like the tornado flick and 45 degree flick just didn't feel good in the car.

Sure, it had a respectable hitbox, and an absurd turning radius. But its shots felt weak and inaccurate, its dribbles were awkward, and its flicks seemed nonexistent. Most players quickly gave up on it, and when none of the pros made the switch, the car became mostly forgotten and ignored.

Of course, I wouldn't be here making a case for the damn thing if it were really that simple.

The Masamune's Overlooked Potential

The Masamune's center of mass made the car feel incredibly awkward for players familiar with more popular vehicles, which gave it a considerable learning curve for most players looking to pick up the car. Likewise, it's always easier to see what you can't do in a new car than it is to see what you can do; it only takes seconds to realize the former, but it takes time to discover the latter.

First, let's revisit the points made above.

Absolutely every car in the game can generate power if you understand the mechanics behind it: so long as you keep your momentum and center of mass centered with the ball, you'll generate the same amount of power as any other car in the game. Learning to hit the ball with power in the Masamune was simply a matter of learning the location of its center of mass lining up your shots appropriately. No problem there.

Dribbles are mostly a case of taking the time to simply learn the general feel of the car. That said, the smaller nose on the Masamune does give you a bit less room to work with, meaning that you'll genuinely have to be a bit more precise with your touches, though it's by no means unusable. Likewise, the Masamune even offers some interesting advantages with dribbles--such as being able to toss the ball side to side with relative ease, allowing to snake your way around opponents while still maintaining control over the ball.

Flicks are perhaps the most interesting. It's certainly true that the Masamune struggles with the majority of the flicks that use the front end of the vehicle, but the tradeoff it makes is that it absolutely excels at flicks made with the back end. It was possible to generate a lot of sudden power with a properly executed front flip. With practice, you could even take a powerful shot at just about any spot on the net you wanted. Likewise, it was possible to pass the ball in a hurry if you were being rushed by a defender. The Masamune had flicks, and some damn good ones at that--it's just that most of the strength of its flicks came from the back of the car, not the front. If you knew what you were doing with the car, you could send a 100 km/h shot on net in a heartbeat.

However, that's arguably not even the most interesting part of the Masamune's arsenal. And again, I know this claim is going to be controversial, but stick with me, and I promise I'll make my case: It was the Masamune's absurd turning radius that truly gave the car its signature playstyle.

The Masamune turns fast. Really fast. You can dance around opponents and swerve your way around the map in ways that any current car in the game would struggle to keep up with.

Alright, so what's it matter? There's plenty more to Rocket League than just how fast your car can turn, and being able to turn fast isn't going to suddenly make you a god at the game.

However, as Rocket League becomes a game that is played at increasingly higher speeds at the highest levels, there's something to be said for the potential of a car that outpace opponents by allowing you to turn on the ball faster than anyone else. After all, let's face it: nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan, and players are constantly being forced to reposition themselves, be it to rush back to defend, take a shot after a 50/50 pinches the ball near the opponent's net, even just to recover after an unexpected bump or rushed save. A faster turning car will be better equipped to handle those situations, and with Rocket League being a game where the fate of a match can be decided by mere pixels making the difference between a goal and a save, as small of an advantage as it might be, it's one that can sometimes make the difference.

Though even if we ignore that as an outright advantage, it still offered a playstyle that is difficult to pull off in any current car.

The car was all about juking and confusing opponents. It was about the way that you could snake and dance your way down the field with the ball. It was about how you could turn for a shot before most opponents could even hope to react. It's how you could smoothly transition from a dribble into a powerful shots in the blink of an eye.

The Masamune offered a combination of speed and power that simply isn't offered by any other car in the game. It's certainly not overpowered, and it isn't going to turn you into a grand champ overnight, but there was no reason it couldn't have been viable in competitive environments, and there's nothing in the game that currently plays quite like it.

I want you to take an honest moment to imagine what it could be like watching this car in the hands of a pro that had truly mastered the vehicle--be it in a high level tournament in RLCS, or a cash prize 1v1 like those on JohnnyBoi_i's streams. I want you to imagine how fun it would be both to play and to watch a car like this--a car that dances its way around the field as it juggles and jukes the ball in the opponent's net.

As it currently stands, that's something we'll never get to experience.

And that's a damn shame.

The Masamune's Future

It might seem silly to write a short novel about a car that doesn't even exist any more. But the reason for this post is simple:

It doesn't have to be this way.

Psyonix listens. It's why non-standard maps were removed from competitive. It's why the Batmobile was restored to its former glory.

If the support is there, and enough people want this change, the Masamune could return to the game--not the Dominus clone we have now, but the Masamune as it had always been.

I recognize not all of you will want to play the car yourself--and that's perfectly fine. However, even still, I ask you this:

If you want to play this car, make your voice heard. If you want to see others able to play this car, make your voice heard. If you want to see the potential this car has in the hands of pros, make your voice heard.

Even if this is something you support--not because you want it yourself, but you want it for all the players who would enjoy something fresh and exciting--make your voice heard.

Having spoken with a contact with Psyonix, I can confirm that it's something they'd be willing to do if the community were truly behind it, however, the support from the community would have to be momentous.

There is a phenomenon known as diffusion of responsibility, in which the more people are around, the less likely someone is to take responsibility for taking action. In other words, people will assume that they don't have to do anything because others are already doing it for them.

With that in mind, I will say this again: if you, reading this right now, want to see the Masamune return, make your voice heard.

And for anyone who's made it this far, who cares about the game as much as I do to read through everything I've had to say... thank you.