title: Mycorrhiza

text: A mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a green plant and a fungus. The plant makes organic molecules such as sugars by photosynthesis and supplies them to the fungus, and the fungus supplies to the plant water and mineral nutrients, such as phosphorus, taken from the soil. Mycorrhizas are located in the roots of vascular plants, but mycorrhiza-like associations also occur in bryophytes and there is fossil evidence that early land plants that lacked roots formed arbuscular mycorrhizal associations. Most plant species form mycorrhizal associations, though some families like Brassicaceae and Chenopodiaceae cannot. Different forms for the association are detailed in the next section. The most common is the arbuscular type that is present in 70% of plant species, including many crop plants such as wheat and rice.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Fossil and genetic evidence indicate that mycorrhizae are ancient, potentially as old as the terrestrialization of plants. Genetic evidence indicates that all land plants share a single common ancestor, which appears to have quickly adopted mycorrhizal symbiosis, and research suggests that proto-mycorrhizal fungi were a key factor enabling plant terrestrialization. The 400 million year old Rhynie chert contains an assemblage of fossil plants preserved in sufficient detail that arbuscular mycorrhizae have been observed in the stems of "Aglaophyton major", giving a lower bound for how late mycorrhizal symbiosis may have developed. Ectomycorrhizae developed substantially later, during the Jurassic period, while most other modern mycorrhizal families, including orchid and erchoid mycorrhizae, date to the period of angiosperm radiation in the Cretaceous period. There is genetic evidence that the symbiosis between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria is an extension of mycorrhizal symbiosis. The modern distribution of mycorrhizal fungi appears to reflect an increasing complexity and competition in root morphology associated with the dominance of angiosperms in the Cenozoic Era, characterized by complex ecological dynamics between species.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Mycorrhizas are commonly divided into "ectomycorrhizas" and "endomycorrhizas". The two types are differentiated by the fact that the hyphae of ectomycorrhizal fungi do not penetrate individual cells within the root, while the hyphae of endomycorrhizal fungi penetrate the cell wall and invaginate the cell membrane. Endomycorrhiza includes "arbuscular", "ericoid", and "orchid mycorrhiza", while "arbutoid mycorrhizas" can be classified as "ectoendomycorrhizas". "Monotropoid" mycorrhizas form a special category.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Ectomycorrhizas, or EcM, are symbiotic associations between the roots of around 10% of plant families, mostly woody plants including the birch, dipterocarp, eucalyptus, oak, pine, and rose families, orchids, and fungi belonging to the Basidiomycota, Ascomycota, and Zygomycota. Some EcM fungi, such as many "Leccinum" and "Suillus", are symbiotic with only one particular genus of plant, while other fungi, such as the "Amanita", are generalists that form mycorrhizas with many different plants. An individual tree may have 15 or more different fungal EcM partners at one time. Thousands of ectomycorrhizal fungal species exist, hosted in over 200 genera. A recent study has conservatively estimated global ectomycorrhizal fungal species richness at approximately 7750 species, although, on the basis of estimates of knowns and unknowns in macromycete diversity, a final estimate of ECM species richness would probably be between 20,000 and 25,000.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Ectomycorrhizas consist of a hyphal sheath, or mantle, covering the root tip and a Hartig net of hyphae surrounding the plant cells within the root cortex. In some cases the hyphae may also penetrate the plant cells, in which case the mycorrhiza is called an ectendomycorrhiza. Outside the root, ectomycorrhizal extramatrical mycelium forms an extensive network within the soil and leaf litter.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Nutrients can be shown to move between different plants through the fungal network. Carbon has been shown to move from paper birch trees into Douglas-fir trees thereby promoting succession in ecosystems. The ectomycorrhizal fungus "Laccaria bicolor" has been found to lure and kill springtails to obtain nitrogen, some of which may then be transferred to the mycorrhizal host plant. In a study by Klironomos and Hart, Eastern White Pine inoculated with "L. bicolor" was able to derive up to 25% of its nitrogen from springtails. When compared with non-mycorrhizal fine roots, ectomycorrhizae may contain very high concentrations of trace elements, including toxic metals (cadmium, silver) or chlorine.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: The first genomic sequence for a representative of symbiotic fungi, the ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete "L. bicolor", was published in 2008. An expansion of several multigene families occurred in this fungus, suggesting that adaptation to symbiosis proceeded by gene duplication. Within lineage-specific genes those coding for symbiosis-regulated secreted proteins showed an up-regulated expression in ectomycorrhizal root tips suggesting a role in the partner communication. "L. bicolor" is lacking enzymes involved in the degradation of plant cell wall components (cellulose, hemicellulose, pectins and pectates), preventing the symbiont from degrading host cells during the root colonisation. By contrast, "L. bicolor" possesses expanded multigene families associated with hydrolysis of bacterial and microfauna polysaccharides and proteins. This genome analysis revealed the dual saprotrophic and biotrophic lifestyle of the mycorrhizal fungus that enables it to grow within both soil and living plant roots.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: This type of mycorrhiza involves plants of the Ericaceae subfamily Arbutoideae. It is however different from ericoid mycorrhiza and resembles ectomycorrhiza, both functionally and in terms of the fungi involved. It differs from ectomycorrhiza in that some hyphae actually penetrate into the root cells, making this type of mycorrhiza an "ectendomycorrhiza".


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Endomycorrhizas are variable and have been further classified as arbuscular, ericoid, arbutoid, monotropoid, and orchid mycorrhizas.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Arbuscular mycorrhizas, or AM (formerly known as vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizas, or VAM), are mycorrhizas whose hyphae penetrate plant cells, producing structures that are either balloon-like (vesicles) or dichotomously branching invaginations (arbuscules) as a means of nutrient exchange. The fungal hyphae do not in fact penetrate the protoplast (i.e. the interior of the cell), but invaginate the cell membrane. The structure of the arbuscules greatly increases the contact surface area between the hypha and the cell cytoplasm to facilitate the transfer of nutrients between them.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Arbuscular mycorrhizas are formed only by fungi in the division Glomeromycota. Fossil evidence and DNA sequence analysis suggest that this mutualism appeared 400–460 million years ago, when the first plants were colonizing land. Arbuscular mycorrhizas are found in 85% of all plant families, and occur in many crop species. The hyphae of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi produce the glycoprotein glomalin, which may be one of the major stores of carbon in the soil. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have (possibly) been asexual for many millions of years and, unusually, individuals can contain many genetically different nuclei (a phenomenon called heterokaryosis).


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Ericoid mycorrhizas are the third of the three more ecologically important types. They have a simple intraradical (growth in cells) phase, consisting of dense coils of hyphae in the outermost layer of root cells. There is no periradical phase and the extraradical phase consists of sparse hyphae that don't extend very far into the surrounding soil. They might form sporocarps (probably in the form of small cups), but their reproductive biology is poorly understood.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Ericoid mycorrhizas have also been shown to have considerable saprotrophic capabilities, which would enable plants to receive nutrients from not-yet-decomposed materials via the decomposing actions of their ericoid partners.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: All orchids are myco-heterotrophic at some stage during their lifecycle and form orchid mycorrhizas with a range of basidiomycete fungi. Their hyphae penetrate into the root cells and form pelotons (coils) for nutrient exchange.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: This type of mycorrhiza occurs in the subfamily Monotropoideae of the Ericaceae, as well as several genera in the Orchidaceae. These plants are heterotrophic or mixotrophic and derive their carbon from the fungus partner. This is thus a non-mutualistic, parasitic type of mycorrhizal symbiosis.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Mycorrhizal fungi form a mutualistic relationship with the roots of most plant species. In such a relationship, both the plants themselves and those parts of the roots that host the fungi, are said to be mycorrhizal. Relatively few of the mycorrhizal relationships between plant species and fungi have been examined to date, but 95% of the plant families investigated are predominantly mycorrhizal either in the sense that most of their species associate beneficially with mycorrhizae, or are absolutely dependent on mycorrhizae. The Orchidaceae are notorious as a family in which the absence of the correct mycorrhizae is fatal even to germinating seeds.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Recent research into ectomycorrhizal plants in boreal forests has indicated that mycorrhizal fungi and plants have a relationship that may be more complex than simply mutualistic. This relationship was noted when mycorrhizal fungi were unexpectedly found to be hoarding nitrogen from plant roots in times of nitrogen scarcity. Researchers argue that some mycorrhizae distribute nutrients based upon the environment with surrounding plants and other mycorrhizae. They go on to explain how this updated model could explain why mycorrhizae do not alleviate plant nitrogen limitation, and why plants can switch abruptly from a mixed strategy with both mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal roots to a purely mycorrhizal strategy as soil nitrogen availability declines. It has also been suggested that evolutionary and phylogenetic relationships can explain much more variation in the strength of mycorrhizal mutualisms than ecological factors.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: The mycorrhizal mutualistic association provides the fungus with relatively constant and direct access to carbohydrates, such as glucose and sucrose. The carbohydrates are translocated from their source (usually leaves) to root tissue and on to the plant's fungal partners. In return, the plant gains the benefits of the mycelium's higher absorptive capacity for water and mineral nutrients, partly because of the large surface area of fungal hyphae, which are much longer and finer than plant root hairs, and partly because some such fungi can mobilize soil minerals unavailable to the plants' roots. The effect is thus to improve the plant's mineral absorption capabilities.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Unaided plant roots may be unable to take up nutrients that are chemically or physically immobilised; examples include phosphate ions and micronutrients such as iron. One form of such immobilization occurs in soil with high clay content, or soils with a strongly basic pH. The mycelium of the mycorrhizal fungus can, however, access many such nutrient sources, and make them available to the plants they colonize. Thus, many plants are able to obtain phosphate, without using soil as a source. Another form of immobilisation is when nutrients are locked up in organic matter that is slow to decay, such as wood, and some mycorrhizal fungi act directly as decay organisms, mobilising the nutrients and passing some onto the host plants; for example, in some dystrophic forests, large amounts of phosphate and other nutrients are taken up by mycorrhizal hyphae acting directly on leaf litter, bypassing the need for soil uptake. "Inga alley cropping", proposed as an alternative to slash and burn rainforest destruction, relies upon mycorrhiza within the root system of species of "Inga" to prevent the rain from washing phosphorus out of the soil.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: In some more complex relationships, mycorrhizal fungi do not just collect immobilised soil nutrients, but connect individual plants together by mycorrhizal networks that transport water, carbon, and other nutrients directly from plant to plant through underground hyphal networks.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: "Suillus tomentosus", a basidiomycete fungus, produces specialized structures known as tuberculate ectomycorrhizae with its plant host lodgepole pine ("Pinus contorta" var. "latifolia"). These structures have been shown to host nitrogen fixing bacteria which contribute a significant amount of nitrogen and allow the pines to colonize nutrient-poor sites.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: The mechanisms by which mycorrhizae increase absorption include some that are physical and some that are chemical. Physically, most mycorrhizal mycelia are much smaller in diameter than the smallest root or root hair, and thus can explore soil material that roots and root hairs cannot reach, and provide a larger surface area for absorption. Chemically, the cell membrane chemistry of fungi differs from that of plants. For example, they may secrete organic acids that dissolve or chelate many ions, or release them from minerals by ion exchange. Mycorrhizae are especially beneficial for the plant partner in nutrient-poor soils.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Mycorrhizal plants are often more resistant to diseases, such as those caused by microbial soil-borne pathogens. These associations have been found to assist in plant defense both above and belowground. Mycorrhizas have been found to excrete enzymes that are toxic to soil borne organisms such as nematodes. More recent studies have shown that mycorrhizal associations result in a priming effect of plants that essentially acts as a primary immune response. When this association is formed a defense response is activated similarly to the response that occurs when the plant is under attack. As a result of this inoculation, defense responses are stronger in plants with mycorrhizal associations.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: AMF was also significantly correlated with soil biological fertility variables such as soil microbial communities and associated disease suppressiveness. Thus, ecosystem services provided by AMF may depend on the soil microbiome. Furthermore, AMF was significantly correlated with soil physical variable, but only with water level and not with aggregate stability. and are also more resistant to the effects of drought.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: The significance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi includes alleviation of salt stress and its beneficial effects on plant growth and productivity. Although salinity can negatively affect arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, many reports show improved growth and performance of mycorrhizal plants under salt stress conditions.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Research has shown that plants connected by mycorrhizal fungi can use these underground connections to produce and receive warning signals. Specifically, when a host plant is attacked by an aphid, the plant signals surrounding connected plants of its condition. The host plant releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that attract the insect's predators. The plants connected by mycorrhizal fungi are also prompted to produce identical VOCs that protect the uninfected plants from being targeted by the insect. Additionally, this assists the mycorrhizal fungi by preventing the plant's carbon relocation which negatively affects the fungi's growth and occurs when the plant is attacked by herbivores.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Plants grown in sterile soils and growth media often perform poorly without the addition of spores or hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi to colonise the plant roots and aid in the uptake of soil mineral nutrients. The absence of mycorrhizal fungi can also slow plant growth in early succession or on degraded landscapes. The introduction of alien mycorrhizal plants to nutrient-deficient ecosystems puts indigenous non-mycorrhizal plants at a competitive disadvantage. This aptitude to colonize barren soil is defined by the category Oligotroph.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Fungi have been found to have a protective role for plants rooted in soils with high metal concentrations, such as acidic and contaminated soils. Pine trees inoculated with "Pisolithus tinctorius" planted in several contaminated sites displayed high tolerance to the prevailing contaminant, survivorship and growth. One study discovered the existence of "Suillus luteus" strains with varying tolerance of zinc. Another study discovered that zinc-tolerant strains of "Suillus bovinus" conferred resistance to plants of "Pinus sylvestris". This was probably due to binding of the metal to the extramatricial mycelium of the fungus, without affecting the exchange of beneficial substances.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Mycorrhizas are present in 92% of plant families studied (80% of species), with arbuscular mycorrhizas being the ancestral and predominant form, and the most prevalent symbiotic association found in the plant kingdom. The structure of arbuscular mycorrhizas has been highly conserved since their first appearance in the fossil record, with both the development of ectomycorrhizas, and the loss of mycorrhizas, evolving convergently on multiple occasions.


title: Mycorrhiza

text: Associations of fungi with the roots of plants have been known since at least the mid-19th century. However early observers simply recorded the fact without investigating the relationships between the two organisms. This symbiosis was studied and described by Franciszek Kamieński in 1879–1882.


title: OVO Sound

text: OVO Sound (also known simply as OVO) is a Toronto-based Canadian record label, founded in 2012 by hip hop artist Drake, producer 40, and Oliver El-Khatib. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Warner Music Group's Warner Records, except for Drake's albums, which are distributed by Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group.


title: OVO Sound

text: The label represents acts including Drake, PartyNextDoor, Majid Jordan, Roy Woods, OB O'Brien, Dvsn, Plaza, Baka Not Nice, Popcaan and Smiley. In-house producers include 40, Boi-1da, DJ Prince , Nineteen85, Mike Zombie, T-Minus, and Future The Prince.


title: OVO Sound

text: The label's roots can be traced back to 2006, when Drake's first official mixtape, "Room for Improvement", was released under the unofficial record label "All Things Fresh" which eventually became "October's Very Own". Drake later raised the profile of the label by prominently featuring OVO throughout his music, regularly mentioning the label in songs and on stage, as well as promoting OVO merchandise.


title: OVO Sound

text: The record label was officially founded in 2012 by Drake and long-time collaborators Noah "40" Shebib and Oliver El-Khatib following the success of Drake's third studio album "Nothing Was the Same". According to "Billboard", Drake signed a partnership deal with Warner Records similar to that of Rick Ross' record company. Though Ross is signed as a solo artist to Epic, the artists on Ross' Maybach Music Group label are signed to Atlantic Records, former partners with Warner.


title: OVO Sound

text: Drake was signed as a solo artist to Republic Records through Young Money and Cash Money for nine years. Drake's 2018 release Scorpion was his last project under Young Money/Cash Money. On the other hand, the artists Drake signs to OVO Sound through Warner have their content distributed through the latter.


title: OVO Sound

text: Upon founding the label in 2012, Drake and 40 signed frequent collaborators Boi-1da, T-Minus, Mike Zombie to the label as in-house producers (the latter two are the only active signees in the label to come outside of Canada). In April 2013, it was reported that Drake was close to signing the label's first recording artist, PartyNextDoor, which he ended up revealing shortly thereafter. In August 2013, Drake announced that he signed Toronto music duo Majid Jordan to OVO Sound. OB O'Brien and iLoveMakonnen would soon sign in 2014, with the latter being the first non-Canadian act and second non-Canadian signee after to Mike Zombie. Makonnen would eventually leave OVO Sound in April 2016, wishing to pursue his interests as a solo artist with Warner. Canadian rap artist Roy Woods and R&B duo Dvsn, composed of singer Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85, soon joined the label in 2015 and 2016, with each act releasing an EP and studio album respectively. In 2021, Canadian rap artist Smiley was signed to the label.


title: OVO Sound

text: OVO Sound Radio was a radio program that aired on Beats 1, fortnightly on Saturdays. The show primarily aired newer material, with at least one song premiering in each broadcast. The show's initial airing was on July 11, 2015, and it was hosted by Drake and Oliver El-Khatib. The show is notable for debuting hit Drake singles, such as platinum-selling "Hotline Bling", and chart-topping "One Dance". The show ended on October 27, 2018. On March 4, 2021, Drake announced that he and Oliver would debut their new 24 hour radio station, "SOUND42" on Sirius XM featuring the return of OVO Sound Radio that same night.


title: OVO Sound

text: OVO Clothing was launched in 2011. The series of clothing began with a series of collaborations between Roots Canada and OVO, which produced several parkas, jackets and other collaborations. In 2013, merchandise for the OVO figurehead included collaborations with the Toronto Raptors, which coincided with Drake becoming the franchise's Global Ambassador. OVO has since morphed into a clothing line in itself, releasing a slew of clothes during every season of the year. T-shirts, sweatshirts, varsity jackets, baseball hats, and knit beanies are seasonal installations. OVO Clothing oversaw the opening of the first OVO store for the brand's clothing in downtown Toronto, opening on December 6, 2014. Exactly a year after the opening in Toronto, OVO stores expanded to the United States, opening a flagship store in Los Angeles, California. Its New York store opened in December 2016 on Bond Street, and its Chicago store in August 2019 on Walton Street in Gold Coast. OVO also opened its first location in Vancouver in December 2018.


title: OVO Sound

text: Its pre-2016 collection was composed of basketball shorts, OVO jerseys, track jackets, and baggy hoodies.


title: OVO Sound

text: On November 9, 2020, it was revealed via the OVO Clothing Instagram account that NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky would be a model for the Fall and Winter 2020 collection. Gretzky and OVO Clothing founder Drake are both proud natives of southern Ontario, Canada. Also featured in the collection was former Canadian Olympian Ross Rebagliati, who won a gold medal in Giant Slalom Snowboarding in the 1998 Nagano Olympics.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the third smallest, but the fifth most populous and the most densely populated of the 23 provinces of the People's Republic of China. Jiangsu has the highest GDP per capita of Chinese provinces and second-highest GDP of Chinese provinces, after Guangdong. Jiangsu borders Shandong in the north, Anhui to the west, and Zhejiang and Shanghai to the south. Jiangsu has a coastline of over along the Yellow Sea, and the Yangtze River passes through the southern part of the province.


title: Jiangsu

text: Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, Jiangsu has been a national economic and commercial center, partly due to the construction of the Grand Canal. Cities such as Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, and Shanghai (separated from Jiangsu in 1927) are all major Chinese economic hubs. Since the initiation of economic reforms in 1990, Jiangsu has become a focal point for economic development. It is widely regarded as one of China's most developed provinces, when measured by its Human Development Index (HDI). Its 2021 nominal GDP per capita reached RMB 137,300 (US$21,287), becoming the first province in China to reach $20,000 mark.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu is home to many of the world's leading exporters of electronic equipment, chemicals and textiles. It has also been China's largest recipient of foreign direct investment since 2006. Its 2021 nominal GDP was more than RMB 11.64 trillion (US$1.80 trillion), which is the fifth-highest of all country subdivisions. If it were a country, it would be the tenth-largest economy as of 2021 as well as the 19th most populous.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu is also one of the leading provinces in research and education in China. As of 2022, Jiangsu hosts 168 institutions of higher education, ranking first of all Chinese provinces. Jiangsu has many highly ranked educational institutions, with 16 number of universities listed in the Double First-Class Universities, ranking second after Beijing. As of 2020, two major cities in Jiangsu ranked in the world's top 50 (Nanjing 8th and Suzhou 45th) cities by scientific research output, as tracked by the Nature Index.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu's name is a compound of the first elements of the names of the two cities of Jiangning (now Nanjing) and Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "" (), the second character of its name.


title: Jiangsu

text: During the earliest Chinese dynasties, the area that is now Jiangsu was far away from the center of Chinese civilization, which was in the northwest Henan; it was home of the Huai Yi (), an ancient ethnic group. During the Zhou dynasty more contact was made, and eventually the state of Wu appeared in southern Jiangsu, one of the many hundreds of states that existed across northern and central China at that time. Near the end of the Spring and Autumn period, Wu became a great power under King Helu of Wu, and defeated in 484 BC the state of Qi, a major power in the north in modern-day Shandong province, and contest for the position of overlord over all states of China. The state of Wu was subjugated in 473 BC by the state of Yue, another state that had emerged to the south in modern-day Zhejiang province. Yue was in turn subjugated by the powerful state of Chu from the west in 333 BC. Eventually the state of Qin swept away all the other states, and unified China in 221 BC.


title: Jiangsu

text: Under the reign of the Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), Jiangsu was removed from the centers of civilization in the North China Plain, and was administered under two "zhou" (provinces): Xu Province in the north, and Yang Province in the south. During the Three Kingdoms period, southern Jiangsu became the base of the Eastern Wu (222 to 280), whose capital, Jianye (later renamed to Jiankang), is modern Nanjing. When nomadic invasions overran northern China in the 4th century, the imperial court of the Jin dynasty moved to Jiankang. Cities in southern and central Jiangsu swelled with the influx of migrants from the north. Jiankang remained as the capital for four successive Southern dynasties and became the largest commercial and cultural center in China.


title: Jiangsu

text: After the Sui dynasty united the country in 581, the political center of the country shifted back to the north, but the Grand Canal was built through Jiangsu to link the Central Plain with the prosperous Yangtze Delta. The Tang dynasty (618–907) relied on southern Jiangsu for annual deliveries of grain. It was during the Song dynasty (960–1279), which saw the development of a wealthy mercantile class and emergent market economy in China, that Jiangnan (southern Jiangsu, Shanghai, and adjacent areas) emerged as a center of trade. From then onwards, major cities like Suzhou or Yangzhou, would be synonymous with opulence and luxury in China. Today the region remains one of the richest parts of China.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Jurchen Jin dynasty gained control of North China in 1127 during the Jin-Song wars, and Huai River, which used to cut through north Jiangsu to reach the Yellow Sea, was the border between the north, under the Jin, and the south, under the Southern Song dynasty. The Mongols took control of China in the thirteenth century. The Ming dynasty, which was established in 1368 after driving out the Mongols who had occupied China, initially put its capital in Nanjing. Regions surrounding Nanjing, corresponding to Jiangsu and Anhui today, were designated as the Nanzhili province (literally "southern directly governed"). Following a coup by Zhu Di (later, the Yongle Emperor), however, the capital was moved to Beijing, far to the north, although Nanjing kept its status as the southern capital. In late Ming, Jiangnan continued to be an important center of trade in China; some historians see in the flourishing textiles industry at the time incipient industrialization and capitalism, a trend that was however aborted.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Qing dynasty converted Nanzhili to "Jiangnan province"; in 1666 Jiangsu and Anhui were split apart as separate provinces. Jiangsu's borders have been for the most part stable since then.


title: Jiangsu

text: With the start of the Western incursion into China in the 1840s, the rich and mercantile Yangtze river delta was increasingly exposed to Western influence; Shanghai, originally an unremarkable little town of Jiangsu, quickly developed into a metropolis of trade, banking, and cosmopolitanism, and was split out later as an independent municipality. Jiangnan also figures strongly in the Taiping Rebellion (18511864), a massive and deadly rebellion that attempted to set up a Christian theocracy in China; it started far to the south, in Guangdong province, swept through much of South China, and by 1853, had established Nanjing as its capital, renamed as Tianjing ( "Heavenly Capital").


title: Jiangsu

text: The Republic of China was established in 1912, and China was soon torn apart by warlords. Jiangsu changed hands several times, but in April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established a government at Nanking; he was soon able to bring most of China under his control. This was however interrupted by the second Sino-Japanese War, which began full-scale in 1937; on December 13, 1937, Nanjing fell, and the combined atrocities of the occupying Japanese for the next three months would come to be known as the Nanjing Massacre. Nanjing was the seat of the collaborationist government of East China under Wang Jingwei, and Jiangsu remained under Japanese occupation until the end of the war in 1945.


title: Jiangsu

text: After the war, Nanking was once again the capital of the Republic of China, though now the Chinese Civil War had broken out between the Kuomintang government and Communist forces, based further north, mostly in Northeast China. The decisive Huaihai Campaign was fought in northern Jiangsu; it resulted in Kuomintang defeat, and the communists were soon able to cross the Yangtze River and take Nanking. The Kuomintang fled southward and eventually ended up in Taipei, from which the Republic of China government continues to administer Taiwan, Pescadores, and its neighboring islands, though it also continues to claim (technically, at least) Nanjing as its rightful "de jure" capital.


title: Jiangsu

text: After the communist takeover, Peking (formerly Peiping, later spelled as Beijing) was made capital of the People's Republic, and Nanjing was demoted to be the provincial capital of Jiangsu. The economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping initially focused on the south coast of China, in Guangdong province, which soon left Jiangsu behind; starting from the 1990s they were applied more evenly to the rest of China. Suzhou and Wuxi, two southern cities of Jiangsu in close proximity to neighboring Shanghai, have since become particularly prosperous, being among the top 10 cities in China in terms of gross domestic product and outstripping the provincial capital of Nanjing. The income disparity between northern and southern Jiangsu however remains large.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu is flat, with plains covering 68 percent of its total area (water covers another 18 percent). Most of the province stands not more than above sea level. Jiangsu also has a well-developed irrigation system, which earned it (especially the southern half) the moniker of ("shuǐxiāng" "land of water"). The southern city of Suzhou has so many canals that it has been dubbed "Venice of the East" or the "Venice of the Orient." The Grand Canal of China cuts through Jiangsu from north to south, crossing all the east–west river systems. Jiangsu also borders the Yellow Sea. The Yangtze River, the longest river of China, cuts through the province in the south and reaches the East China Sea, which divides the region into two parts: more urban, prosperous south and more poorer, rural north, and these two parts has a tense division.


title: Jiangsu

text: Mount Huaguo, near the city of Lianyungang, is the highest point in Jiangsu, at an altitude of above sea level. Large lakes in Jiangsu include Lake Tai (the largest), Lake Hongze, Lake Gaoyou, Lake Luoma, and Lake Yangcheng.


title: Jiangsu

text: Before 1194 A.D., the Huai River cut through north Jiangsu to reach the Yellow Sea. The Huai River is a major river in central China, and it was the traditional border between North China and South China. Since 1194 A.D., the Yellow River further to the north changed its course several times, running into the Huai River in north Jiangsu each time instead of its other usual path northwards into Bohai Bay. The silting caused by the Yellow River was so heavy that after its last episode of "hijacking" the Huai River ended in 1855: the Huai River was no longer able to go through its usual path into the sea. Instead it flooded, pooled up (thereby forming and enlarging Lake Hongze and Lake Gaoyou), and flowed southwards through the Grand Canal into the Yangtze. The old path of the Huai River is now marked by a series of irrigation channels, the most significant of which is the North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal (), which channels a small amount of the water of the Huai River alongside south of its old path into the sea.


title: Jiangsu

text: Most of Jiangsu has a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa" or "Cwa" in the Köppen climate classification), beginning to transition into a humid continental climate (Köppen "Dwa") in the far north. Seasonal changes are clear-cut, with temperatures at an average of in January and in July. Rain falls frequently between spring and summer ("meiyu"), typhoons with rainstorms occur in late summer and early autumn. As with the rest of the coast, tornados are possible. The annual average rainfall is , concentrated mostly in summer during the southeast monsoon.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu is divided into thirteen prefecture-level divisions, all prefecture-level cities (including a sub-provincial city):


title: Jiangsu

text: These prefecture-level cities are in turn subdivided into 98 county-level divisions (55 districts, 21 county-level cities, and 20 counties). Those are in turn divided into 1,488 township-level divisions (1,078 towns, 122 townships, one ethnic township, and 287 subdistricts). At the end of the year 2017, the total population is 80.29 million.


title: Jiangsu

text: The politics of Jiangsu is structured in a one party (Communist) government system like all other governing institutions in mainland China.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Governor of Jiangsu is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Jiangsu. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the Governor has less power than the Jiangsu Chinese Communist Party Provincial Committee Secretary, colloquially termed the "Jiangsu CCP Party Chief."


title: Jiangsu

text: As of 2021, Jiangsu had a gross domestic product (GDP) in nominal of RMB 11.64 trillion (US$1.80 trillion), the second-highest in China after Guangdong. Its GDP is greater than those of South Korea and Russia which are the world's 10th- and 11th-largest economies respectively. Jiangsu's GDP by nominal is greater than the GDPs of all other BRICS states, except India. In 2021, Jiangsu's economy by Purchasing Power Parity reached US$2.83 trillion, making it the 3rd-largest of any country subdivision globally, behind California and Guangdong. Jiangsu's economy in PPP also exceeded that of Italy with a GDP PPP of US$ $2.71 trillion, the 11th largest in the world.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu is very wealthy among the provinces of China. Its 2021 nominal GDP per capita reached RMB 137,300 (US$21,287), becoming the first province in China to reach $20,000 mark. Cities like Nanjing, Suzhou, and Wuxi have GDPs per capita around twice the provincial average, making south Jiangsu one of the most prosperous regions in China.


title: Jiangsu

text: The province has an extensive irrigation system supporting its agriculture, which is based primarily on rice and wheat, followed by maize and sorghum. Main cash crops include cotton, soybeans, peanuts, rapeseed, sesame, ambary hemp, and tea. Other products include peppermint, spearmint, bamboo, medicinal herbs, apples, pears, peaches, loquats, ginkgo. Silkworms form an important part of Jiangsu's agriculture, with the Lake Tai region to the south a major base of silk production in China. Jiangsu is an important producer of freshwater fish and other aquatic products.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu has coal, petroleum, and natural gas deposits, but its most significant mineral products are non-metal minerals such as halite (rock salt), sulfur, phosphorus, and marble. The city of Xuzhou is a coal hub of China. The salt mines of Huaiyin have more than 0.4 trillion tonnes of deposits, one of the greatest collections of deposits in China.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu is historically oriented toward light industries such as textiles and food industry. Since 1949, Jiangsu has developed heavy industries such as chemical industry and construction materials. Jiangsu's important industries include machinery, electronic, chemicals, and automobile. The government has worked hard to promote the solar industry and hoped by 2012 the solar industry would be worth 100 billion RMB. Jiangsu's economy growth has directly benefited from the reform Chinese's policies, and its growth trajectory reflects that of many other coastal provinces, such as Zhejiang and Shandong. The economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping have greatly benefited southern cities, especially Suzhou and Wuxi, which outstrip the provincial capital, Nanjing, in total output. In the eastern outskirts of Suzhou, Singapore has built the Suzhou Industrial Park, a flagship of Sino-Singaporean cooperation and the only industrial park in China that is in its entirety the investment of a single foreign country.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu contains over 100 different economic and technological development zones devoted to different types of investments.


title: Jiangsu

text: The majority of Jiangsu residents are ethnic Han Chinese. Other minorities include the Hui and the Manchus.


title: Jiangsu

text: The predominant religions in Jiangsu are Chinese folk religions, Taoist traditions and Chinese Buddhism. According to surveys conducted in 2007 and 2009, 16.67% of the population believes and is involved in cults of ancestors, while 2.64% of the population identifies as Christian. The reports didn't give figures for other types of religion; 80.69% of the population may be either irreligious or involved in worship of nature deities, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, folk religious sects, and small minorities of Muslims.


title: Jiangsu

text: Nanjing Lukou International Airport serves as the major airport in the province, with flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Seoul-Incheon, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Milan, Vancouver and Los Angeles. Other passenger airports include Sunan Shuofang International Airport, Changzhou Benniu Airport, Yangzhou Taizhou International Airport, and Nantong Xingdong Airport. Air traffic in the populated Suzhou area is often diverted to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, to which Suzhou is conveniently connected to via bus services and by expressway.


title: Jiangsu

text: Xuzhou Guanyin International Airport, Yancheng Nanyang International Airport, and Lianyungang Baitabu Airport serve as hubs in northern Jiangsu.


title: Jiangsu

text: The southern part of the province, namely the Shanghai-Nanjing corridor, has very high-frequency rail services. Jiangsu is in route of the Jinghu railway from Beijing to Shanghai, as well as the high speed line between the two cities: Shanghai–Nanjing intercity railway and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, completed in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Since the completion of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line, travel time between Beijing and Nanjing has been reduced to approximately four hours (from eleven hours previously); travel time between Nanjing and Shanghai on the fastest high-speed trains takes just over an hour.


title: Jiangsu

text: As of 2022, all major cities in Jiangsu have been connected by high-speed lines, including: Shanghai-Nanjing intercity railway since 2010, Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway since 2011, Nanjing–Hangzhou high-speed railway since 2013, Nanjing–Anqing intercity railway since 2015, Lianyungang–Zhenjiang high-speed railway since 2020, Xuzhou–Yancheng high-speed railway since 2019, Yancheng–Nantong high-speed railway since 2020, Shanghai–Suzhou–Nantong railway since 2020, and Lianyungang–Xuzhou high-speed railway since 2021.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu's road network is one of the most developed in the country. The Beijing–Shanghai Expressway (G2) enters the province from the north and passes through Huai'an, Yangzhou, Taizhou, and Wuxi on the way to Shanghai; travelling from Shanghai westbound, G2 forks at Wuxi and continues onto Nanjing separately as G42, the Shanghai–Nanjing Expressway, which serves the widely travelled southern corridor of the province. The Ningchang Expressway links Nanjing with Changzhou. The Suzhou area is extensively networked with expressways, going in all directions. The Yanhai Expressway links the coastal regions of the province, passing through Nantong, Yancheng, and Lianyungang.


title: Jiangsu

text: Historically, the province was divided by the Yangtze River into northern and southern regions. The first bridge across the river in Jiangsu, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, was completed in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution. The second bridge crossing, Jiangyin Bridge, opened 30 years later at Jiangyin. As of October 2014, there were 11 cross-Yangtze bridges in the province, including the five in Nanjing, which also has two cross-river tunnels. The Jiangyin Bridge (), Runyang Bridge (opened in 2005, connecting Yangzhou and Zhenjiang, ), and Fourth Nanjing Bridge (opened in 2012; ) all rank among the ten longest suspension bridges in the world. The Sutong Bridge, opened in 2008, connecting Nantong and Changshu, has one of the longest cable-stayed bridge spans in the world, at .


title: Jiangsu

text: As of December 2022, Jiangsu has six cities that have operational subway systems, together with two extra cities (Nantong and Huai'an) currently under construction. These five cities are Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Xuzhou.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Nanjing Metro was opened in September 2005. It was the sixth city in Mainland China that opened up a metro system. As of December 2019 the city currently has 11 metro lines (Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4, Line 10, Line S1, Line S3, Line S6, Line S7, Line S8 and Line S9), with several extra ones (i.e. Line 5) under construction.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Suzhou Rail Transit, also known as the Suzhou Metro, was opened in April 2012. As of October, 2022, it currently has five operational lines: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4 and Line 5. It also has four other lines under construction (Line 6, Line 7, Line 8, Line S1) and 11 lines under planning (Lines 9, 10, 11 through 16, Line 18, Line 20, Line S4, Line S5). Currently under construction lines are expected to be operational by 2024 and planned lines are expected to be operational by 2035.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Wuxi Metro was opened in July 2014. The system is currently composed of four operational lines by 2022: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3 and Line 4. It also has two other lines under construction: Line S1 and an extension of Line 4.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Changzhou Metro was opened in September 2019. The system currently only has two lines operational, Line 1 and Line 2.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Xuzhou Metro was opened in September 2019, a few days after the Changzhou Metro started operations. The system currently only has three lines operational, Line 1, Line 2 and Line 3.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Nantong Metro started construction in 2017. It has two lines under construction: Line 1 and Line 2. Line 1 starts operating since November 2022.


title: Jiangsu

text: The Huai'an Metro, also known as the Huai'an Rail System, began construction in November 2018. There are seven lines planned: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4, Line 5, Line S1, and Line S2. It is expected to start operations before 2025.


title: Jiangsu

text: The four mass migrations in the 4th, 8th, 12th and 14th centuries had been influential in shaping the regional culture of Jiangsu. According to dialects and the other factors, the province can be roughly segmented four major cultural subdivisions: Wu (), Jinling (), Huaiyang () and Xuhuai (), from southeast to northwest. The belts of transition blurred the boundaries.


title: Jiangsu

text: Jiangsu is rich in cultural traditions. "Kunqu", originating in Kunshan, is one of the most renowned and prestigious forms of Chinese opera. "Pingtan", a form of storytelling accompanied by music, is also popular: it can be subdivided into types by origin: Suzhou Pingtan (of Suzhou), Yangzhou Pingtan (of Yangzhou), and Nanjing Pingtan (of Nanjing). Wuxi opera, a form of traditional Chinese opera, is popular in Wuxi, while Huaiju is popular further north, around Yancheng. Jiangsu cuisine is one of the eight great traditions of the cuisine of China.


title: Jiangsu

text: Suzhou is also well known for its silk, Chinese embroidery, jasmine tea, stone bridges, pagodas, and classical gardens. Nearby Yixing is noted for its teaware while Yangzhou is known for its lacquerware and jadeware. Nanjing's "yunjin" is a noted type of woven silk.


title: Jiangsu

text: Since ancient times, south Jiangsu has been famed for its prosperity and opulence, and simply inserting south Jiangsu place names (Suzhou, Yangzhou, etc.) into poetry gave an effect of dreaminess, as was indeed done by many famous poets. In particular, the fame of Suzhou (as well as Hangzhou in neighbouring Zhejiang) has led to the popular saying: ("above there is heaven; below there are Suzhou and Hangzhou"), a saying that continues to be a source of pride for the people of these two still prosperous cities. Similarly, the prosperity of Yangzhou has led poets to dream of: ("with a hundred thousand strings of coins wrapped around its waist, a crane landed in Yangzhou").


title: Jiangsu

text: As of 2022, Jiangsu hosts 168 institutions of higher education, ranking first of all Chinese provinces. There are two Project 985, 11 Project 211, and 16 Double First Class universities in the province. A combination of 93 members of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering work in Jiangsu. As of 2020, two major cities in Jiangsu ranked in the world's top 50 (Nanjing 8th and Suzhou 45th) cities by scientific research output, as tracked by the Nature Index.


title: Jiangsu

text: Nanjing was the capital of several Chinese dynasties and contains a variety of historic sites, such as the Purple Mountain, Purple Mountain Observatory, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Ming dynasty city wall and gates, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum (the mausoleum of the first Ming Emperor, Hongwu Emperor), Xuanwu Lake, Jiming Temple, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, Nanjing Confucius Temple, Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, and the Nanjing Zoo, along with its circus. Suzhou is renowned for its classical gardens (designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site), as well as the Hanshan Temple, and Huqiu Tower. Nearby is the water-town of Zhouzhuang, an international tourist destination with Venice-like waterways, bridges and dwellings, which have been preserved over centuries. Yangzhou is known for Slender West Lake. Wuxi is known for being the home of the world's tallest Buddha statue. In the north, Xuzhou is designated as one of China's "eminent historical cities." The official travel and tourism website for Jiangsu was set up in 2008.


title: Rocket League

text: Rocket League is a vehicular soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix. The game was first released for Windows and PlayStation 4 in July 2015, with ports for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch being released later on. In June 2016, 505 Games began distributing a physical retail version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment taking over those duties by the end of 2017. Versions for macOS and Linux were also released in 2016, but support for their online services were dropped in 2020. The game went free-to-play in September 2020.


title: Rocket League

text: Described as "soccer, but with rocket-powered cars", "Rocket League" has up to eight players assigned to each of the two teams, using rocket-powered vehicles to hit a ball into their opponent's goal and score points over the course of a match. The game includes single-player and multiplayer modes that can be played both locally and online, including cross-platform play between all versions. Later updates for the game enabled the ability to modify core rules and added new game modes, including ones based on ice hockey and basketball.


title: Rocket League

text: "Rocket League" is a sequel to Psyonix's "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars", a 2008 video game for the PlayStation 3. "Battle-Cars" received mixed reviews and was not a success, but gained a loyal fan base. Psyonix continued to support themselves through contract development work for other studios while looking to develop a sequel. Psyonix began formal development of "Rocket League" around 2013, refining the gameplay from "Battle-Cars" to address criticism and fan input. Psyonix also recognized their lack of marketing from "Battle-Cars" and engaged in both social media and promotions to market the game, including offering the game for free for PlayStation Plus members on release.


title: Rocket League

text: "Rocket League" was praised for its gameplay improvements over "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle-Cars", as well as its graphics and overall presentation, although some criticism was directed towards the game's physics engine. The game earned many industry awards and saw over 10 million sales and 40 million players by the beginning of 2018. "Rocket League" has also been adopted as an esport, with professional players participating through ESL and Major League Gaming along with Psyonix's own Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS).


title: Rocket League

text: "Rocket League" gameplay is largely the same as that of its predecessor, "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars". Players control a rocket-powered car and use it to hit a ball that is much larger than the cars towards the other team's goal area to score goals, in a way that resembles indoor soccer, with elements reminiscent of a demolition derby. Players' cars have the ability to jump to hit the ball while in mid-air. The players can also pick up a speed boost by passing their cars over marked spaces on the field, enabling them to quickly cross the field, use the added momentum to hit the ball, or ram into another player's car to destroy it; in the latter case, the destroyed car respawns moments later on their team's side of the field. A player may also use a boost when in the air to propel themselves forward in flight, allowing players to hit the ball in the air. Players can alter their car's orientation while midair, which combined with midair boosting allows for controlled flight. Players can also perform quick dodges, causing their car to do a short jump and spin in a given direction, which can be used to nudge the ball or gain positioning advantage over the other team.


title: Rocket League

text: Matches are usually five minutes long, with a sudden death overtime if the game is tied at that point. Matches can be played from between one-on-one up to four-on-four players, as well as in casual and ranked playlists. The latter serves as "Rocket League" competitive online mode, where players compete in various tiered ranks within game seasons, with victories or losses raising or lowering a player's rank, respectively. The game includes a single-player "season" mode, with the player competing with computer-controlled players. An update in December 2016 introduced "Custom Training" sequences that can be created by players and shared with others on the same platform; players are able to specify the ball's path and the presence and skill of opponents on the field as to practice specific shots-on-goal over and over.


title: Rocket League

text: A few months after it was released, Psyonix released an update that added game modes known as "mutators", modifying some aspects of gameplay, such as increased or decreased gravity, ball size, ball speed and bounciness. For the 2015 holiday season, another update replaced mutator matches with an ice hockey-inspired mode (called "Snow Day"), played on an ice rink and the ball replaced with a hockey puck with different physics. Positive reception to the ice hockey mode led to it being extended for a few weeks after the holiday season. Snow Day was permanently added to the mutator settings for private matches and exhibition games on February 10, 2016. "Hoops", a game mode based on basketball, was added on April 26, 2016. A separate "Rumble" mode, which incorporates unusual power-ups, such as the ability to freeze the ball in place or cause a single opponent to have difficulty controlling their car, was added on September 8, 2016. An update in December 2016, known as "Starbase ARC" (based on Psyonix' mobile game "ARC Squadron") added support for custom arenas for Windows players supported through Steam Workshop, along with other new content. In celebration of Super Bowl LV in February 2021, Psyonix released a limited time gamemode called Gridiron, which functions similar to gridiron football with the normal soccer ball being replaced by a football.


title: Rocket League

text: A new game mode, Dropshot, was added in a March 2017 update. It takes place in an arena without any goals and a field made of hexagonal tiles, and uses a ball that becomes increasingly electrified after successful strikes or passes. The more the ball is struck by players without touching the ground the more electrified it becomes, and the more tiles it damages once it finally does hit the ground. The goal of the mode is to damage the opponent's floor enough to break a hole into it, allowing the ball to drop through and score. When a team scores, the floor on the opponent's side of the field resets to normal (while the floor on the scoring team's side retains any existing damage).


title: Rocket League

text: As part of a means to monetize the game beyond downloadable content, Psyonix has tried a few different approaches. In September 2016, it introduced a loot box system known as "Crates", where players could purchase them with a random selection of in-game customization items, opened through the purchase of Keys using real-world funds. Due to increasing governmental concern over loot boxes, Psyonix replaced the Crates system with Blueprints in December 2019, which offer a known specific item with potential modifiers as potential end-of-match drops. These Blueprints can then be crafted using the game's new premium currency (Credits), or purchased with real-world funds, if the player so chooses. A new rotating Item Shop was introduced in December 2019 as well, with Featured items available on a 48-hour timer and Daily items on a 24-hour timer. The Item Shop includes all types of in-game items, such as Painted Cars, Exotic Wheels, Goal Explosions, and many more. Each item has a listed Credit value that will show the item's cost, allowing players to purchase the exact item they want, instead of relying on RNG to attain a specific item previously available through loot boxes. Separately, Psyonix added a battle pass feature to the game in September 2018, known as the "Rocket Pass". Each pass, which lasts a few months, has challenges and other opportunities through playing "Rocket League" that allow players to increase the tier of the Pass, from which new unique customization options tied to that pass can be unlocked. While the Rocket Pass is free to all players, a flat-cost premium option can be purchased which accelerates the level up rate and unlocks additional items at certain tier levels.


title: Rocket League

text: Its mobile game version, "Rocket League Sideswipe", plays almost the same, except the game is now in 2D instead of 3D.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix had previously developed "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars" in 2008 for the PlayStation 3. That game itself bore out from previous modifications that Psyonix' founder, Dave Hagewood, had done for "Unreal Tournament 2003" by expanding out vehicle-based gameplay that Epic Games had already set in place in the engine into a new game mode called Onslaught. For this, Hagewood was hired as a contractor by Epic for "Unreal Tournament 2004" specifically for incorporating the Onslaught mode as an official part of the game. Hagewood used his experience at Epic to found Psyonix. Among other contract projects, Psyonix worked to try to find a way to make racing the "Unreal" vehicles in a physics-based engine enjoyable. They had toyed with several options such as race modes or mazes, but found that when they added a ball to the arena to be pushed by the vehicles, they had hit upon the right formula, which would become "Battle-Cars". Further to the success was the addition of the rocket-powered cars; this originally was to be a simple speed boost, but with the physics engine, they were able to have the vehicles fly off and around the arena, furthering the possibilities for gameplay.


title: Rocket League

text: As Psyonix finished development of "Battle-Cars", the studio had tried to gain access to a publisher by selling their game as "soccer, but with rocket-powered cars", but none of the publishers seemed interested. Ultimately, they opted to self-publish the game on the PlayStation Network with almost no marketing. Though it was downloaded more than two million times, it was not considered very successful even after the studio cut the price. The studio continued on to other projects, though kept the idea of building on "Battle-Cars" as an option, recognizing the game had a small but dedicated fan-base that provided them with ideas for expansion. These other projects, which including contract work for AAA games, including "Mass Effect 3" and "Gears of War", helped to fund the development of "Rocket League".


title: Rocket League

text: Full development of "Rocket League" started around 2013 and took around two years and under $2 million to develop, though they had tested various prototypes of a "Battle-Cars" sequel in the years prior, including an unsuccessful attempt at pitching the game's idea to Electronic Arts in 2011. Psyonix used some of the feedback from "Battle-Cars" to fine-tune the gameplay in "Rocket League". A key requirement for Psyonix was to increase the game's frame rate from 30 to 60 frames-per-second, a known criticism from "Battle-Cars" and essential for newer hardware, according to Corey Davis, the design director at Psyonix. Hagewood recognized that "Battle-Cars" was considered "too hardcore" with the game becoming too inaccessible to novice players against skilled ones. They eased up on some aspects to make it more approachable, such as by slowing the pace of the game and allowing players of all skill levels to reasonably compete against each other while promoting team-based gameplay. Though they tried to add elements like power-ups, they found these to be too distracting to gameplay. They also explored other changes such as making the game more gritty, akin to "Monday Night Combat", developing several mini-games related to handling of the car, working on making the graphics give a sense of scale to the players to give the impression they were controlling full-sized vehicles rather than radio-controlled cars, and creating an open world structure where the player would drive between stadium and stadium to participate in matches. Instead, the team opted to strip the game to its core, focusing on more visual elements to enhance the title. From "Battle-Cars", Psyonix recognized very few players actually went online, and developed "Rocket League" single-player season mode to encourage players to try online matches once they completed it.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix's team were aware of past difficulties that they had with "Battle-Cars" and other racing games with online play and client-side prediction, and the issues that would arise from that with "Rocket League" fast-paced play style. To solve this, the physics in the game are based on using the Bullet physics engine within the Unreal Engine 3's PhysX engine, which tracks the movement of all the cars and actors, allowing them to periodically re-synchronize the game state across players based on the stored physics states, which enabled players to have quick reactions from their client. At the time of "Battle-Cars", Psyonix could not afford a dedicated server network and were forced to rely on individual hosts, which could lead to poor performance with slow Internet connections. With "Rocket League", Psyonix was able to put a dedicated server network in place, writing their own service protocols to interface with Sony's and Valve's online services so as to enable cross-platform play, as well as improving matchmaking capabilities. Psyonix's previous experience in contract work for AAA games had exposed them to the larger developers' approach to release and quality control, and they were able to apply those principles and aim for the same level of quality requirements in the final release of "Rocket League".


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix had at one point considered having "Rocket League" as a free-to-play game with microtransactions, inspired by "Team Fortress 2" and "Dota 2" models. Though they had put in efforts to establish a free-to-play model, Psyonix decided instead to switch to a traditional sale method, and offer only cosmetic elements as downloadable content, assuring that no players would have any additional advantage beyond their own skill. The name "Rocket League" was selected in part to reduce the size of the game's title in order to appear fully in digital storefronts, and also served to be an easier to remember name as well as a more mature-sounding title than "Battle-Cars", according to Hagewood; speaking on "Rocket League" development in March 2016, Davis opined that "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars" was "the worst game name of all time".


title: Rocket League

text: "Rocket League" has been one of the leading games in supporting cross-platform play between personal computers and consoles. Jeremy Dunham, Psyonix's vice president of publishing, says cross-platform play helps establish a stable player base and avoid the snowball effect that can cause isolated player bases on individual platforms to wane, particularly in the transition from one console generation to the next. Though the Xbox One version lacked this feature at launch, Microsoft in March 2016 announced that "Rocket League" would be the first game in a new initiative they were taking to enable cross-play between Xbox One and Windows players who have Xbox Live accounts; this cross-platform play feature was added in an update in May 2016. Microsoft has stated that they offer other networks, such as Sony's PlayStation Network, the ability to integrate with Xbox Live to allow full cross-platform compatibility for games like "Rocket League". Dunham noted that this cross-platform idea had been something they asked Microsoft about when "Rocket League" was set for an Xbox One release, but he stated that Microsoft did not seem to be on board with it. Only after they had neared the release date would Microsoft take the initiative to offer it as one for their new cross-play efforts and started working towards this possibility in the game.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix determined the required technical steps needed to enable cross-platform play and have tested it in closed environments, and were only waiting for the legalities of cross-connecting players between different networks before proceeding. this work also includes how they would be able to distribute updated content patches in a unified and more frequent manner to enable them to continue to expand the game for at least another 9 months. In a July 2016 interview with "IGN", Dunham stated they had done all the technical work and could enable cross-platform play between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions "within a few hours" of Sony's approval. As of March 2017, the company is ready to enable this feature, but was still waiting for the console manufacturers to come to the required agreements to allow it.


title: Rocket League

text: With the announcement of the Switch version, Psyonix affirmed that it would support cross-platform play with PC and Xbox users. Sony still opted not to participate in this; PlayStation global marketing head Jim Ryan said that while they are "open to conversations with any developer or publisher who wants to talk about it", their decision was "a commercial discussion between ourselves and other stakeholders". Dunham says that in contrast to Microsoft or Nintendo, who agreed to allow cross-platform play within a month and with the day of Psyonix' request, respectively, Sony has been asked on a nearly daily basis about this support and have yet to receive any definitive answer. The cross-platform party feature is planned for an update in early 2019. This will allow players to create in-game friend lists across platforms and play in matches with them. This is limited by the current cross-platform limitations: while Windows players can add friends from other Windows users and Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Switch users, PlayStation 4 users are limited to Windows and PlayStation 4 users.


title: Rocket League

text: In September 2018, Sony had altered its position on cross-platform play following the release of "Fortnite Battle Royale" for the Nintendo Switch, where the lack of cross-platform play had been a point of significant criticism. Sony allowed "Fortnite" to be cross-platform play compatible with all platforms and stated they would review other games on a case-by-case basis. By January 2019, Psyonix announced that Sony had granted the same for "Rocket League", allowing cross-platform play between the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC versions in February 2019.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix planned to continue to support "Rocket League" with downloadable content (DLC), intending to keep all gameplay updates free and only charging for cosmetic items. In November 2015, a free update added the ability to "Mutate" a match, allowing for a number of different custom presets and match settings, including a low gravity mode and a cubed ball, among other improvements and additions. Through this, Psyonix is able to offer custom game playlists to test out new modes or for holiday-themed events. For example, during the latter part of December 2015, Psyonix introduced an ice hockey-based mutation alongside a special event featuring holiday-themed decorative items, replacing the normal ball with a hockey puck, and changing the floor to ice. This mode proved very popular and was permanently added to the standard playlists on February 24, 2016. In February 2016, a new game playlist called "Rocket Labs" was added to offer new experimental maps to players as a means to gauge feedback and interest in a map before adding it to the game's standard map playlist. In April 2016, the developers added the basketball-based playlist to the standard playlists. A new "Rumble" mode, which adds unique power-ups on various maps, was released in September 2016.


title: Rocket League

text: The game's first DLC pack, titled "Supersonic Fury", was released in August 2015, along with new arena Utopia Coliseum. It contains exclusive cosmetics, including two new cars, rocket boosts, wheels, five paint finishes, and twelve decals for both new cars. The same month, it was announced that "Rocket League" would be ported to macOS and Linux later that year, in order to run natively with SteamOS hardware; "Rocket League" and "Portal 2" were part of incentives for those that pre-ordered a Steam Link, a Steam Controller, or a Steam Machine. The game's second DLC pack, titled "Revenge of the Battle-Cars", was released in October 2015. The DLC adds two more cars from "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars", along with exclusive cosmetics for both. In another event, players had a chance to collect six Halloween-themed items from October 18 to November 2. The game's third DLC pack, titled "Chaos Run", was released in December 2015. The DLC added two more cars, along with more cosmetics. A new arena, called "Wasteland", was released for free alongside the DLC. The map is notable for being the first non-standard arena to be released, having a different size and shape than the others and inspired by the "Mad Max" films, the first of which Psyonix plans to release over time.


title: Rocket League

text: In June 2016, a new arena, Neo Tokyo, based on the Rocket Labs layout Underpass, was added to the game via an update. The update also introduced cosmetic items awarded at the end of matches with various rarity grades, and gave players the ability to trade multiple items of the same type and rarity grade to obtain an item of a better rarity grade. Also included in the patch are a number of painted and certified items, the latter of which are cosmetic items with statistics-recording tags, and eight new achievements. Psyonix added the ability for players to trade items with other players within the "Rumble" update, including item and crate drop systems comparable to "Team Fortress 2" and "", in which players have the chance to gain locked crates from playing in competitive matches. Players are able to purchase keys to open these crates through microtransactions, revealing special decorative items for their cars. Players can opt-out of this feature to disable crate drops. Though items received in crates are tradable within the game, these items cannot be sold on the platform's respective marketplaces so as to prevent issues in the same vein as the "Counter-Strike" skin gambling controversy. The funds from microtransactions would be used to support the esports tournaments organized by Psyonix. In October 2016, a major update titled "Aquadome" launched, featuring a new arena placed under the sea, along with two new premium water-themed cars, and a new crate containing new items and seven new achievements.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix was able to make licensing agreements to include vehicles and decorative items from other franchises within the game. On launch, the PlayStation 4 version included Sweet Tooth's car from the "Twisted Metal" series. As a separate DLC, the DeLorean time machine from the "Back to the Future" film franchise, was released on October 21, 2015, corresponding with Back to the Future Day. The Xbox One release includes platform-exclusive "Gears of War" and "Halo"-themed vehicles. The Batmobile, as seen in the 2016 film "", was offered as a playable vehicle in March 2016, while Dominic Toretto's Dodge Charger from the film "The Fate of the Furious" was added to tie in with the film's release in April 2017. An update released in July 2017 introduced a new arena celebrating the one-year anniversary of the game, along with cosmetic items based on the American animated show "Rick and Morty". Alongside the theatrical release of "", Psyonix released "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World"-themed content, including a "Jurassic Park"-themed Jeep Wrangler car model.


title: Rocket League

text: In September 2015, Psyonix held a cross-promotion with Torn Banner Studios, adding two free new flags themed after Torn Banner's "". At the same time the "Chaos Run" DLC was released, Psyonix added free cosmetics and accessories from the "Portal" series by Valve. Themed content based on "Goat Simulator" and "Euro Truck Simulator" were added to the game in April 2016 as part of cross-promotional deals with those games. Other themed promotional content includes decorative items based on "The Witcher" and "Worms W.M.D". With the release of the basketball game mode in 2016, Psyonix partnered with the National Basketball Association (NBA), offering flags with all 30 NBA team logos as car customization items. In February 2017, two iconic Hot Wheels cars were added to the game, along with other cosmetic items based on the brand.


title: Rocket League

text: For the 2019 "Radical Summer" event, Psyonix released two new car packs; the Ecto-1 from the "Ghostbusters" film franchise in June, and the KITT from the 1980s television series "Knight Rider" in July. Psyonix had hoped to include KITT as early as 2016. For the 2019 Halloween event, cars and other cosmetics based on the television series "Stranger Things" were added. In May 2020, Psyonix introduced the "Modes of May" event, which included a number of limited-time game modes for every weekend of the month. The modes include Dropshot Rumble, Beach Ball, Boomer Ball, and Heatseeker, which features a curving ball that magnetizes toward both ends of the field, drawing comparisons to the 1972 table tennis sports game Pong.


title: Rocket League

text: The original soundtrack for "Rocket League" was released both physically and digitally on July 1, 2015. It contains original compositions by Psyonix sound designer Mike Ault, as well as contributions by Ault's electronic music group, Hollywood Principle. New songs were added to the game with post-release updates, including "Chaos Run Theme" by Kevin Riepl, "Escape from LA (Instrumental)" by Abandoned Carnival and Ault, and a remix of Hollywood Principle's "Breathing Underwater" by Ether. These songs were later compiled in the second volume of the soundtrack, which was released on July 7, 2016. iam8bit published a three-disc vinyl version of the soundtrack, consisting of the above two volumes, in late 2016. The game's 2nd anniversary update included a musical content pack featuring releases from the EDM label Monstercat. The label have also released a series of standalone albums featuring the music, titled "Rocket League x Monstercat".


title: Rocket League

text: "Rocket League Sideswipe" is a free mobile game spin-off by Psyonix released on Android and iOS in late 2021. The game was announced in March 2021 and replicates the gameplay of the original game, but in a two-dimensional space. Players compete in short 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 matches that are played online.


title: Rocket League

text: "Rocket League" was officially announced as the sequel to "Battle-Cars" in February 2014. Building on the effects from the lack of marketing with "Battle-Cars", Psyonix developed a different marketing approach to "Rocket League". This included engaging with YouTube and Twitch video game streamers with early release copies to help spread the word, recognizing that clips from the game would be readily shared through social media. They also opened the game to early alpha and beta testing for several months following the game's announcement. Davis noted that they otherwise did not spend any money on traditional marketing approaches.


title: Rocket League

text: They had originally planned to release the game around November 2014, but had missed this deadline to implement better matchmaking and servers, high frame rates, and removing the free-to-play elements. The game was released publicly on July 7, 2015, for the PlayStation 4 and Windows. Davis considered this serendipitous, as this moved the game out from a busy period of many major releases during the holiday season to the relatively quiet mid-year period, reducing the amount of competition from other titles. Further, the game on release was made part of Instant Game Collection on the PlayStation 4 and free to PlayStation Plus subscribers; within the week, Psyonix had seen more than 183,000 unique players, exceeding their server capacity and requiring them to improve on their network code to handle the influx of players. Davis estimated there were six million downloads of the game from this promotion, and considered this the "best decision" they had ever made.


title: Rocket League

text: At The Game Awards 2015, it was announced that the game would be ported to Xbox One, where it was released on February 17, including most of the previous DLC packs for free. Ports for macOS and Linux were released on September 8, 2016. A retail version of "Rocket League", in form of the game's "Collector's Edition", was announced in February 2016, and was released in Europe on June 24, 2016, and in North America on July 5, 2016. The Collector's Edition is published and distributed by 505 Games, and includes the first three downloadable content packs for free, as well as four additional cars to be available as digital download on July 18: Aftershock and Marauder (both from "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars"), as well as Esper and Masamune. In October 2017, Psyonix announced that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment would begin to publish an updated version of the game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles by the end of that year, which includes additional content for both versions.


title: Rocket League

text: The PlayStation 4 version was patched in February 2017 to offer PlayStation 4 Pro support, allowing for 4K resolution and constant 60 frames-per-second rendering at 1080p for one and two-player split-screen players; three and four-player split screen will render up to 60 frames-per-second when possible. Similar rendering improvements were also made to the standard PlayStation 4 to approach constant 60 frames-per-second for most arenas and modes.


title: Rocket League

text: After reviewing the feasibility of doing so, Psyonix announced that "Rocket League" would also be released for the Nintendo Switch, as revealed during Nintendo's press conference during E3 2017. It was released later that year on November 14, and includes Nintendo property customization options, including Mario, Luigi, and "Metroid"-inspired car designs, and supports cross-platform play with the PC and Xbox One versions. Due to the Switch's lack of natural support for Unreal Engine 3, some compromises had to be made in the porting process, such as by reducing the graphical quality to 720p. Despite having to do custom work to make the game run smoothly on the Switch, Dunham was impressed with the work that had been done before release.


title: Rocket League

text: Austin, Texas-based studio Panic Button assisted Psyonix with the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch ports, and graphical updates to support the PlayStation 4 Pro. In April 2017, Psyonix announced that they had partnered with Tencent to bring a free-to-play version of "Rocket League" to the Chinese gaming market, with users able to purchase cosmetic items through microtransactions. It was successfully licensed through China's approval process in July 2019. Because of the continued growth of the game's player base, Psyonix's Dunham said they do not anticipate creating any sequel to the game, and instead are expecting to continue to add new features to the game over several years' time, calling this an "infinite support window". A small team within Psyonix was set up to explore new features and gameplay ideas to continue to expand "Rocket League".


title: Rocket League

text: In May 2019, Epic Games announced that it had acquired Psyonix for an undisclosed amount. Psyonix has had a long-standing relationship with the studio (its original North Carolina headquarters were only 12 miles (19 km) away from those of Epic), having worked with it on development tools for the Unreal Engine. As a result of the purchase, the game was planned to be added to the Epic Games Store by late-2019, but Psyonix was unclear over whether the game would become exclusive to the store. The game became subject to review bombing on Steam due to this sale, triggering Steam's "off-topic review activity" system, which hides reviews that do not correlate with the game itself.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix announced in January 2020 that as part of a major upgrade to the base game systems, they would be dropping support for macOS and Linux from the game by March 2020. After March 2020, these versions will no longer be able to connect and use the online parts of the game, but can still be played in single player or local multiplayer. Psyonix said in a followup message that macOS and Linux players represented less than 0.3% of the total player base and could not justify keeping these as supported platforms as they advanced the other platforms to newer technology, such as moving the Windows version from DirectX 9 to 11. The developer offered full refunds to the game for macOS and Linux owners regardless of how long they had the game.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix teamed with Internal Drive to provide "Rocket League" as part of the latter's iD Tech summer educational camps for children, using the game for both recreation and for teaching elements of game design. In 2017, the game served as a sponsor of WWE pay-per-view events Backlash, Great Balls of Fire, and SummerSlam. The following year, the companies announced a further partnership, with WWE cosmetic items introduced to the game in April.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix partnered with Zag Toys to produce a series of pullback toy cars based on the "Rocket League" vehicles, which released in June 2017. Some of these included a redeemable code that can be used within the game for unique customization items. The developers also filmed television advertisements for "Rocket League" that started airing the same month. Alongside these ads, Psyonix offered free copies of "Rocket League" alongside purchase of selected Nvidia graphics cards. In December 2018, toy car brand Hot Wheels released a radio-controlled car (RC car) game set based on the game that features two RC cars that are controlled through Bluetooth devices, a play field, a ball containing infrared sensors for scoring purposes, and charging devices.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix transitioned "Rocket League" to a free-to-play model on all platforms on September 23, 2020. Associated with the transition, the game added cross-platform progression that covers the cosmetic items players have earned, new competitive tournaments at each rank to earn rewards, new challenges, and other features. The free-to-play version eliminated the need for players to have console subscription services like PlayStation Plus or Nintendo Switch Online to be able to play. Some changes were also made to the game's tournaments and challenge systems to help with monetization. Players that had purchased the game prior to the transition were given "Legacy" status and some related cosmetic items.


title: Rocket League

text: As part of this transition, the Windows version of the game was moved off Steam onto the Epic Games Store. Players that had already owned the Steam version prior to the change were still able to download, update the game and play it with cross-play with other platforms, and would continue to receive updates.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix had observed the popularity of "Rocket League" matches on Twitch and other live streaming platforms, and in February 2016, were looking to use the game more in esports. In March 2016, Psyonix announced the first Rocket League Championship Series; the finals took place in August 2016 with a $55,000 prize pool. More than $1 million in revenues from the sale of in-game crates and cosmetic items were used to fund additional competitive events throughout the year, including smaller competitions at major gaming conventions and support for community-run competitive events.


title: Rocket League

text: Soon after release, "Rocket League" became an officially sponsored esport, joining ESL. In September 2015, Major League Gaming (MLG) announced the first season of the Pro "Rocket League", which was held in September through early October. A $75,000 "Rocket League" tournament was held outside U.S. Bank Stadium at the Summer X Games in July 2017, with the finals streamed live on ESPN3. NRG Esports claimed their first live "Rocket League" championship by winning the tournament, defeating Gale Force eSports in the final. As NBC's first foray into esports, NBC Sports Group, in conjunction with Faceit, ran its own $100,000-prize pool tournament which was broadcast across its eight worldwide regions in July–August 2017. Starting in September 2017, Psyonix and Tespa, a collegiate esports organizer, held the first collegiate tournament for teams to win a share of $50,000 in scholarships. In December 2017, Turner Sports organized a ELEAGUE Cup event for eight teams was broadcast live on streaming media, with a three-part series of shows detailing some of the teams' path to the Cup and some of the match results, which aired on TBS later in the month. 2020 has brought a large change to Rocket League Esports, the addition of a new competitive format that has 3 splits that include 3 regional events each with one major LAN at the end of the 3 splits. Each team gets points awarded based on how they place in these regional events with the top teams making the world LAN, with the grand prize of $1,000,000.


title: Rocket League

text: "Rocket League", upon release and throughout its lifetime, has been given positive reviews by video game critics. Similar scores were attained by the game's later ports. Positive feedback was aimed towards the game's multiplayer gameplay, and its graphics and visuals, especially in comparison to "Battle-Cars"; later reviews praised the player experience in the game. Criticism was mostly aimed at the game's physics engine, though a consensus on the topic has been mostly unclear, with some defending the engine.


title: Rocket League

text: In a review of "Rocket League" beta preview, Ozzie Mejia of "Shacknews" praised Psyonix's approach to updating "Battle-Cars" using the PlayStation 4's hardware, describing the graphics as "brilliantly detailed" and "crisp" and noting its consistent frame rates throughout. Robert Summa of "Destructoid" shared Mejia's view that the game was "fun option for anyone looking to mix their racing and sports games together", himself describing that the game was "addictive and fun as hell." Reviewers from "Polygon", "PlayStation Universe", and "Videogamer.com" shared positive views towards multiplayer gameplay in "Rocket League". Ben Kuchera of "Polygon" wrote that the game "introduces a well-known concept and then adds a complication." Kuchera disagreed with Pinkerton and asserted that the game's physics were "internally consistent", and summarized his experience with the game as "joyful" and rewarding in its progression. The game's physics engine continued to be a point of contention in later reviews, including Steven Burns' review for "Videogamer.com", in which he shared his opinion that the speed of the ball should have been increased in certain modes to compensate for the "floaty" physics. Neil Bolt of "PlayStation Universe" shared a similar view, writing that the physics "causes frustration in 4v4 bouts where everyone ends up huddling under the slow-descending ball for long periods."


title: Rocket League

text: In a review for "PC Gamer", Matt Elliott defended the physics engine by pointing out the "[nice] contrast" between the fast player-controlled cars and the slower-moving ball, colorfully describing that the ball "gormlessly invites impact like a punchable cousin." Elliott also wrote positively of the multiplayer gameplay, comparing the "destruction" mechanic to the "Burnout" series, and praising the overall player experience. In complimenting the game's points system, Elliott recounted, "the most valuable players I encountered were workmanlike wingers who selflessly chugged along the flanks, crossing the ball for greedy goalhunters like me. It stops players from clustering in the same spots and reinforces the concept that "Rocket League" is a team game." Alec Meer of "Rock Paper Shotgun", in a retrospective review written two years after its release, shared similar feelings about the player experience in "Rocket League". Meer claimed that the game remained "very open, friendly, and accessible to new players across all ages, in contrast to other games with online longevity that tend to be dominated by expert players and difficult to breach by new ones."


title: Rocket League

text: Following the Blueprint update in December 2019, players expressed concern that the costs of completing blueprints was more expensive than the cost to open loot boxes, that players got more items for opening a loot box, and that in general, the loot box system felt more rewarding. Within a week of the update, Psyonix reduced the prices of blueprint by half and refunding credits for those that had spent them already.


title: Rocket League

text: On July 11, 2015, Psyonix announced that there were around 120,000 concurrent players across both Windows and PlayStation 4. By the end of July, the game had been downloaded over 5 million times, and had 179,000 concurrent players. Psyonix stated that "Rocket League"'s quick paced success far exceeded their expectations.


title: Rocket League

text: Psyonix announced that over one million copies of the game had been sold on Steam by August 2015. By the end of 2015, the game had been downloaded over eight million times, and grossed over $50 million. In February 2016, Psyonix stated "Rocket League" has earned $70 million in revenues with at least four million copies sold, not including downloads on the PlayStation system; they have tracked at least 12 million unique players of the game, including both purchases and during free play offers such as its availability on the PlayStation Plus membership program. Within three weeks of its release for the Xbox One, Psyonix observed at least one million unique players for that system. By July 2016, a year after its release, Psyonix reported more than 6.2 million sales of the game across all platforms, including 5.5 million purchases of DLC, with more than $110 million in revenue; 40% of these sales have been for the PlayStation 4 version with the remaining split roughly equally between PC and Xbox One. Psyonix has tracked more than 25 million unique players by January 2017, averaging 1.1 million players a day, and reaching 220,000 concurrent players at one point. Sony stated that "Rocket League" was the most-downloaded title from the PlayStation Store in 2016. By the beginning of 2018, the number of players had risen to over 40 million, and subsequently reached 50 million by September 2018.


title: Rocket League

text: By March 2017, Psyonix reported that "Rocket League" had sold more than 10.5 million copies across all platforms, and had 29 million registered players, with about a fourth of that having played during February 2017. Dunham estimated that 70% of the game's players had purchased some of the DLC offered for the game by March 2017. In April 2017, Psyonix reported that in addition to 9.5 million digital sales, the game had also sold over a million physical copies at retail.


title: Rocket League

text: After the E3 2015 event, "Rocket League" received multiple nominations and won several awards, including PlayStation Universe's "Best Sports Game of E3" and Gaming Trend's "Best Multiplayer Game of E3".


title: Rocket League

text: At The Game Awards 2015 in December, "Rocket League" won the award for Best Independent Game and Best Sports/Racing Game, and was nominated for Best Multiplayer. At the D.I.C.E. Awards in February 2016, "Rocket League" also won the award for Sports Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement for Online Gameplay and the D.I.C.E. Sprite Award. "Rocket League" was awarded the Best Design at the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards. At the 2016 SXSW Gaming Awards, "Rocket League" was awarded the "Excellence in Multiplayer" prize. "Rocket League" won three BAFTA Games Awards for Multiplayer, Sports, and Family, and was nominated for two others, Best Game and Game Design. It also won the following year for the BAFTA's Evolving Game award.


title: Rocket League

text: In 2017, the game was nominated for "e-Sports Game of the Year" and "Still Playing" at the Golden Joystick Awards, and for "Best Spectator Game" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards. It won the award for "Best Post-Launch Support" in "Game Informer" 2017 Sports Game of the Year Awards. In 2018, the game was nominated for "eSports Game of the Year" at the Golden Joystick Awards. The game won the award for "Fan Favorite Sports/Racing Game" at the Gamers' Choice Awards, whereas its other nomination was for "Fan Favorite eSports Game". It was also nominated for "eSports Title of the Year" at the Australian Games Awards. In 2019, the game was nominated for the "Still Playing" award at the Golden Joystick Awards.


title: Human taxonomy

text: Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species (systematic name "Homo sapiens", Latin: "wise man") within zoological taxonomy. The systematic genus, "Homo", is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of archaic humans. Current humans have been designated as subspecies "Homo sapiens sapiens", differentiated, according to some, from the direct ancestor, "Homo sapiens idaltu" (with some other research instead classifying "idaltu" and current humans as belonging to the same subspecies).


title: Human taxonomy

text: Since the introduction of systematic names in the 18th century, knowledge of human evolution has increased drastically, and a number of intermediate taxa have been proposed in the 20th and early 21st centuries. The most widely accepted taxonomy grouping takes the genus "Homo" as originating between two and three million years ago, divided into at least two species, archaic "Homo erectus" and modern "Homo sapiens", with about a dozen further suggestions for species without universal recognition.


title: Human taxonomy

text: The genus "Homo" is placed in the tribe Hominini alongside "Pan" (chimpanzees). The two genera are estimated to have diverged over an extended time of hybridization spanning roughly 10 to 6 million years ago, with possible admixture as late as 4 million years ago. A subtribe of uncertain validity, grouping archaic "pre-human" or "para-human" species younger than the "Homo"-"Pan" split, is "Australopithecina" (proposed in 1939).


title: Human taxonomy

text: A proposal by Wood and Richmond (2000) would introduce Hominina as a subtribe alongside Australopithecina, with "Homo" the only known genus within Hominina. Alternatively, following Cela-Conde and Ayala (2003), the "pre-human" or "proto-human" genera of "Australopithecus", "Ardipithecus", "Praeanthropus", and possibly "Sahelanthropus", may be placed on equal footing alongside the genus "Homo". An even more extreme view rejects the division of "Pan" and "Homo" as separate genera, which based on the Principle of Priority would imply the reclassification of chimpanzees as "Homo paniscus" (or similar).


title: Human taxonomy

text: Categorizing humans based on phenotypes is a socially controversial subject. Biologists originally classified races as subspecies, but contemporary anthropologists reject the concept of race as a useful tool to understanding humanity, and instead view humanity as a complex, interrelated genetic continuum. Taxonomy of the hominins continues to evolve.


title: Human taxonomy

text: Human taxonomy on one hand involves the placement of humans within the taxonomy of the hominids (great apes), and on the other the division of archaic and modern humans into species and, if applicable, subspecies. Modern zoological taxonomy was developed by Carl Linnaeus during the 1730s to 1750s. He named the human species as "Homo sapiens" in 1758, as the only member species of the genus "Homo", divided into several subspecies corresponding to the great races. The Latin noun "homō" (genitive "hominis") means "human being". The systematic name Hominidae for the family of the great apes was introduced by John Edward Gray (1825). Gray also supplied Hominini as the name of the tribe including both chimpanzees (genus "Pan") and humans (genus "Homo").


title: Human taxonomy

text: The discovery of the first extinct archaic human species from the fossil record dates to the mid 19th century: "Homo neanderthalensis", classified in 1864. Since then, a number of other archaic species have been named, but there is no universal consensus as to their exact number. After the discovery of "H. neanderthalensis", which even if "archaic" is recognizable as clearly human, late 19th to early 20th century anthropology for a time was occupied with finding the supposedly "missing link" between "Homo" and "Pan". The "Piltdown Man" hoax of 1912 was the fraudulent presentation of such a transitional species. Since the mid-20th century, knowledge of the development of Hominini has become much more detailed, and taxonomical terminology has been altered a number of times to reflect this.


title: Human taxonomy

text: The introduction of "Australopithecus" as a third genus, alongside "Homo" and "Pan", in the tribe Hominini is due to Raymond Dart (1925). Australopithecina as a subtribe containing "Australopithecus" as well as "Paranthropus" (Broom 1938) is a proposal by Gregory & Hellman (1939). More recently proposed additions to the Australopithecina subtribe include "Ardipithecus" (1995) and "Kenyanthropus" (2001). The position of "Sahelanthropus" (2002) relative to Australopithecina within Hominini is unclear. Cela-Conde and Ayala (2003) propose the recognition of "Australopithecus", "Ardipithecus", "Praeanthropus", and "Sahelanthropus" (the latter "incertae sedis") as separate genera.