Early last year I received a late night phone call from Justin and was taken aback by the life altering news he shared. Simultaneously, I hurt for my friend and what he was going through, but was also very touched by the fact that he reached out in his time of need. Fast forward a couple of months and he was the person I first turned to let him know my wife and I would be getting a divorce. Even though our exact situations were different, we shared a lot of similarities and could relate to one another on a level where some of our friends just couldn’t.

I speak for the both of us when I say that Rocket League was released at the exact right moment. Not only did it allow us to channel how we were feeling into competition (which is something both of us have been doing together since middle school), it gave each of us someone to listen on the other end of the headset as we played. While our focus was mostly on each individual match at hand, the fact that we could just talk if we needed to or just sit there silently knowing that someone was on the other end, was tremendously helpful.

Playing Rocket League with Justin and other friends kept me as sane as you can be while playing soccer with rocket-powered cars. If I didn’t have that outlet I’m not sure if I would have gotten through my divorce in the same way.

That’s not to say that other games couldn’t fill the same role for different people. In fact, during our Game of the Year podcast, Witcher 3 was brought up as being an escape for others. Don’t get me wrong, I love Witcher 3 as much as the next guy, but the open world nature of that game provided me with too much time to think about everything going on in my life. I just couldn’t focus on completing missions. It’s the same reason why I haven’t progressed in Metal Gear Solid 5.

Not only did it allow us to channel how we were feeling into competition, it gave each of us someone to listen on the other end of the headset as we played.

Rocket League just did something for me that no other game could during that time. It allowed me to fuel all of my emotions (good and bad) into trying to perform to the best of my ability on the field. It feels really silly to say that previous sentence but that’s how I used it. Sure, I might have an awful game here and there, but I always knew what I was getting myself into with a game of Rockets. If I was feeling upset, a quick game of Rocket League wouldn’t let me down.