Rocket League Demolition Guide: How To Avoid Car Demos & Bumps?

Although in the Rocket League winning strategy, demolition mechanics are not used in a large proportion because of demoing even less than 0.5 baseline in the game. But once triggered, its lethality is huge, so in this guide we will provide you with three effective demolition avoidance methods from Rocket Sledge.

What is Demolition in Rocket League?

Demolition is referred to the bumps occur when a player runs into another player at supersonic speed. The victim of a demolition will explode and combust, but will respawn near their team's goal after a few seconds. If two players run into each other both at supersonic speed and their fenders collide, they will both be demolished. In higher-level gameplay, demolitions are sometimes used tactically to prevent an opponent from scoring, or to clear the way for a teammate to score.

There is bad news, players in Rocket League are also not very good at demolition avoidance to the point where they have no idea how to handle it and sometimes may even feel like a demo is an easy win mechanic that can't be countered. So in this guide, we sort out the professional methods from Rocket Sledge to help you avoid demolition effectively in Rocket League. 

Top 3 Methods To Avoid Demolitions in Rocket League 

Jumping is the number one avoidance method that will get you out of most basic demo attempts, but this guide is a bit more advanced than that we are going to show you some tricks that even work against more experienced physical players, specifically those that employ the use of target leading. Now the act of leading your target instead of chasing, it is a very simple but powerful technique. As a target, it can be difficult to know you're being hunted, and as an attacker, it's easy to take advantage of players that move in predictable paths. 

So to start out with, we're going to look at how to recognize you're being tracked and a couple ways to avoid those dirty demolition players.

Demo Avoidance Method 1 - Break Check

Unlike a real-life break check (Brake check is when a driver ahead of you delibrately and unnecessarily brakes hard in order to force you to take evasive action or to cause you to run into the back of them), you will not be doing this when the attackers directly behind you, that never goes well. But a quick use of your reverse trigger at the right time is a simple move that will foil most target tracking demo attempts. Now this maneuver is useless, if you don't know how to spot when a player's tracking you or when to apply the brakes. 

It is hard to teach awareness and reaction time, but hopefully using brake checks against a typical demo attempt is pretty straightforward, recognize you're being tracked and time your stop accordingly. The below tips will give you an idea of what to watch for and what to do:

1. Identify the attacker

2. Time your deceleration

3.  Spam "close one!" in chat

Watching people help us leave fly past is almost as satisfying as getting a demo yourself, but there is a more advanced targeting attempt that you do need to watch out for. A follow through demo that comes directly after playing the ball can be hard to predict and react to. Becoming to ball focused is a common issue and can result in plays where the players straight out sacrifices himself to your very obvious attack. Keeping track of the ball, your teammates and your opponents is all classified under the awareness skill. Contrary to some common help views dying to a demo attempt is often due to your lack of skill, no different than someone who loses to a dribble play because of his poor shadow defense or challenging at the wrong time.

Demo Avoidance Method 2 - Baiting

The next avoidance method is one we really don't encounter too often, but it can be useful if you think a simple break check is going to be too dangerous or predictable, and it also can help you maintain your momentum which is very important in Rocket League. 

Baiting is a way to exploit your opponent's focus on leading their attack. If you can follow an unusual path, it will often end up with the player missing the demo as well as putting him out of position on the play, this once again relies on recognizing when you have enough time to move away from the ball for a second or at least make a longer rotation.  

Obviously you can't just leave the player all over the field, your goal is usually to be back in position as quickly as possible but baiting will often allow you to stall and choose the right time to dodge, it also can be very effective when you combine it with a jump or a break check.

Baiting is something that really works well when playing against someone who obviously is chasing for demos, 99% of the time a team that is constantly going for demos should lose, but that's only if the other team has good awareness and avoidance skills. 

Demo Avoidance Method 3 - Classic Jump

Here is another avoidance trick that's useful for making your attacker look like a fool while you still maintain your position in rotation - the sledge lateral is a specific demo avoidance technique which discovered by the gamer - Rocket Sledge in 2017. 

The classic jump can seem pretty foolproof until you realize jumps are actually pretty easy to predict. As an attacker, you're probably going to jump. Not to mention the way a jump can often put your are so far our position that even if you do dodge the demo, you end up getting scored on anyways. You need something that allows you to dodge the demo in an unpredictable fashion while still maintaining good control of your car and in relative position ready to play the ball, the lateral dodge is the answer. Now it's not for all situations but this powerful tool is good at throwing direct demo attacks especially excelling in head-on attempts when you're in net.

Demos are easier to dodge then get and avoidance is a skill. It's true not all demos are avoidable, but not all shots are savable either, by being one of the few to complete this masterclass you are now more prepared than anybody to beat the meta or maybe engage in it a little yourself.