Why I Didn’t Quit Rocket League

Hey, it’s Luke

About two years ago I made a video on my main channel titled something like “why I’m leaving” or “why I’m retiring.” At the time I said I was burnt out, that I didn’t know if I wanted to be in Rocket League anymore, and I was trying to move on to the next thing. Looking back now I can see I was half right.

I made an update video about this six or seven months ago, but I don’t think a lot of people saw it. I still get questions on stream about why I didn’t quit Rocket League, so I wanted to share the update here too.

If you care about personal development, or you’re an adult who still plays Rocket League, I think this matters. Burnout and change are things we all go through at some point. For me, Rocket League just happened to be the place where it played out. If you’ve struggled with this before, I hope it helps.

So to kind of take you back to this whole burnout thing, 2 years ago I made this video about how I thought I was burnt out and tired of Rocket League. I was definitely burnt out, but not in the way I thought. I thought I didn’t like Rocket League anymore. In reality I was burnt out on the content machine.

When I first started making Rocket League videos, there weren’t any real deadlines. I uploaded because I wanted to share what I was learning and because I loved teaching. But once Rocket League became my job, everything shifted. In order to keep our bootcamps running, I had to hit these constant deadlines.

I had built this system where every 6 to 12 weeks I had to fill another bootcamp cohort, which meant videos weren’t about what I was learning or what I found interesting. I was just making videos for the algorithm.

It was just like:
What gets the most views?
What's the least time for me to make?

Basically I would do an air dribble guide, settings guides, speed flip guide, rinse and repeat. It sucked the joy out of creating and I basically turned into a dancing monkey on camera just repeating myself and repeating the tips I knew would get views.

By 2023 I hit a breaking point and I was just like “I’m tired of this.” We had grown to a big team and the content was working, but I wasn’t even playing the game or improving myself, and that killed my excitement for teaching. So I took three steps back. We downsized, I killed the deadlines, and for the first time in years I had space to reflect.

That’s when I started to learn being a good teacher means being a student too. If I’m not exploring Rocket League and learning myself, I have nothing new to share. Once I started playing again, I got excited to make content again. That’s how the 60 minute Air Roll Guide came about. I spent four months on that video because I had time to actually learn from one of our pro coaches (shoutout Shock) and I was inspired to make that video.

I used to think burnout meant you were weak, that you just needed to push harder. But real burnout is when you’re working hard without seeing growth. At first I was growing, my channel was growing, the cohorts were growing, but once it stopped I just kept pushing and ignored the signs. What I should have done was slow down, pull back, and adjust earlier.

The takeaway for me is that it’s okay to change. In the past I had this idea of “I never want to quit anything” so I pushed those feelings down. But in reality, by ignoring that, I made things worse. If I would've just made adjustments and taken one step back earlier on, I could have avoided that burnout.

What I wish I would have known sooner is that it is ok for your priorities to change as you grow.

When I was 17, grinding Rocket League all day made sense.
At 20, running constant cohorts made sense.

But now at 23 what makes sense is slowing down, making fewer but better videos, and actually playing the game consistently so I keep learning.

That's where my head's at right now. And I wanted to share at least kind of how I'm thinking about this stuff now so hopefully it helps if you can relate as well.

The update is: I don’t really have deadlines anymore, but here’s roughly my schedule:

• My goal on the main SpookyLuke Youtube channel is to make higher-quality, higher-effort videos, but upload less often. We have a big 60min Air Dribble roadmap on the way. It will be ready in a few months. You can follow along in my free Discord where we post updates. Mondays I also stream live.

• We also started a 2nd coaching channel so you can watch uncut, educational stuff from me.

• And on the 3rd, Rocket League Bootcamp channel, I post videos with me and my team of pros.

Instead of cramming everything onto one channel, I split things up so it’s easier for you to follow along depending on what you’re interested in. You can find all of these channels linked from the homepage of my SpookyLuke YouTube channel.

This feels like the right next chapter, and I’m excited for what’s ahead. I’ll still be the Rocket League coach guy, but I’ll also be sharing more about self-development, business, and life on my IRL channel. If that’s your thing, check it out here.

Thanks for reading and for supporting me. Hopefully this story helps if you’ve ever gone through something similar.

– Luke

P.S. I originally uploaded this on my IRL channel. If you want to watch the video version, here it is.