The Esports World Cup has released a poster celebrating the start of its Rocket League tournament. Twitter/X users, however, quickly clocked the, let’s say, ‘inspiration’ for the poster. You could say they caught it Lightning fast…
The poster, shared on the Esports World Cup’s secondary Twitter/X account. EWC Extra has a striking similarity to the promotional imagery used for the movie Cars 3 2017, which shows Lightning McQueen upside down with the tagline “from this moment on, everything will change.”
The colour of the upside-down car even matches Lightning McQueen’s iconic red and yellow colour combination, with the Rocket League car having red paint and yellow exhaust.
Spoilers for the 2017 movie Cars 3:
The scene depicted in the poster is early on in the film, where an ageing Lightning McQueen crashes due to pushing himself too hard to try to keep up with his new rival, Jackson Storm.
As a result of Lightning’s lost confidence from the crash, the film explores the existential themes of ageing, the world moving past you, loss of relevance, and leaving a legacy – all through the lens of cars, which can talk like humans.
In the end, Lightning realises that though his best racing years are behind him, he can still make a mark in the world by helping his young protégé, Cruz Ramirez, a yellow sports car resembling a Chevrolet Corvette.
I guess the real Kachow was the friends we made along the way.
Rocket League at EWC 2025
The tournament, stacked with the world’s best teams, runs August 14-17 to fight for a $1,010,000 prize pool.
Team Falcons, as the most recent big-event champions after winning in Raleigh, are favourites with esports betting sites to claim the title, but the tournament won’t be easy. Dignitas, Karmine Corp, and Vitality are all plausible champions and will be hoping they can crush Falcons’ keys on the way to glory.
Twisted Minds may also be a dark horse. They have already shown their ability to upset after eliminating Karmine Corp in Raleigh, coming back from 0-3 in their seven-game series to win 4-3 in what has been called “the biggest upset in RLCS history.” Can Twisted Minds repeat the feat in Riyadh where their organisation is headquartered?
Its double-elimination group stage will lead to a single-elimination playoff with a Third/fourth-place decider. The Playoffs will begin on August 16.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.