Gentle Mates’ new roster has already made a statement of intent in the Rocket League space, winning the Coupe de France Slash 2026.
The French Rocket League pre-season tournament featured six Rocket League teams with French cores, including Team Vitality, Karmine Corp, and Gentle Mates.
Gentle Mates dominate pre-season Coupe de France Slash 2026
Gentle Mates dropped only one series and eight games across the tournament, winning 35 games and 11 series in total across the double Round-Robin format and the Playoffs.
After topping the Round Robin groups with a 9-1, 27-6 record, Gentle Mates faced Geekay in the Semi-Finals, delivering a dominant 4-1 series victory that saw Gentle Mates outscore Geekay 13-3.
In the Grand Final against Vitality, Gentle Mates pulled off a similarly dominant series win, scoring for fun as they won the series 4-1 with a combined 18-6 scoreline across the five games.
After their Grand Final victory, Vatira imitated lifting invisible silverware, encouraging his teammates to take their turn with the intangible trophy.
With the M8s roster being one of the most ambitious rosters in Rocket League history, and already delivering dominant wins, it seems like it will not be too long until Vatira and his teammates will be collecting real titles.
For Vitality, the Grand Final defeat was not a bad result, as they were missing their new signing João ‘diaz’ Henrique for the tournament, playing with Andrea ‘Radosin’ Radovanović as stand-in.
On the other hand, Gentle Mates could easily argue that the showing wasn’t at their peak either as M8’s victory came despite Gentle Mates not officially having a Head Coach, after the departure of Nicolai ‘Snaski’ Andersen in October.
So M8s and Vitality will be feeling good about their upcoming seasons, but Karmine Corp will be feeling a little worried after a 1-9 exit for Evan ‘M0nkey M00n’ Rogez and his teammates.
For KC, there will be plenty to work on before the teams potentially collide again when the RLCS season starts in December at the RLCS Club Championship 2027 Kick-Off.
Will Gentle Mates dominate 2027? Share your predictions with us on the Insider Gaming Discord.
Meanwhile, see our LoL Worlds 2026 Grand Final preview. And for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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