Oxygen Esports Sign Gimmick

Former Rocket League world champion Jesus “gimmick” Parra joined Oxygen Esports ahead of the RLCS Winter Major. The North American Rocket League esports team announced the news on Sunday, January 2.

Gimmick joined Oxygen Esports on Sunday as a replacement for Trentin “Kraziks” Wade, who Oxygen parted ways the same day. The 21-year-old arrives as Oxygen from Version1 and will team up with Logan “Lj.” Wilt and Eli “Toastie” Nichols.

The former Version1 player is Oxygen Esports’ first signing since the team rebuilt its roster in March 2021. Gimmick’s arrival also marks the end of his 1,731-day-long partnership with Kyle “Torment” Storer, with who he has been playing since 2017.

Gimmick’s departure from Version1 comes as a surprise to no one due to the team’s lack of success over the last year. Since joining Version1, gimmick has not won a single tournament, nor has he come close to one.

His best placements in 2021 included top-four finishes at RLCS Season X – Winter: The Grid NA – Week 3 and 4, and a semi-finals appearance at RLCS 2021-22 – Fall: NA Regional Event 1 – North American Open.

In the first Major of the season, Version1 managed a top-six finish but were far less convincing in the RLCS Season X – Spring: North American Major. There Version1 failed to win a single match and crashed out in last place.

Joining Oxygen Esports gives gimmick a chance for a fresh start. Although his tenure with Version1 was largely disappointing, gimmick has achieved plenty in 2017-2020 while under Cloud9.

While at Cloud9, gimmick and co. dominated the North American Rocket League esports scene, winning numerous tournaments. Since joining Cloud9 in August 2017 and by the end of 2018, gimmick hasn’t placed worse than top-four across 23 contests.

That stretch included 12 tournament titles and four silver medals. Most notably, Cloud9 won RLCS Season 4 – North America and the RLCS Season 6 – Finals.

Cloud9 were not as dominant in 2019, yet the team still managed to achieve plenty. In May, C9 made it to RLCS Season 7 – North America finals and placed top-four at the RLCS Season 7 – Finals.

Unfortunately, a streak of iffy showings towards the end of the year and early into 2020 led to C9 cutting ties with gimmick, Toement, and Mariano “SquishyMuffinz” Arruda. SquishyMuffinz joined The General NRG, while Toement and gimmick joined Rat Enterprises before landing in Version1.

Oxygen Esports first entered the Rocket League esports scene in May 2020 with a European roster. And although the team achieved reasonable success early, Oxygen could never reach the status of one of the region’s top teams.

This led to a complete roster overhaul, replacing the entire roster with a North American lineup. Unfortunately, even after switching regions, success was hard to come by.

With a new NA roster featuring Toastie, Lj, and Kraziks, Oxygen got off to a solid start and placed top-four at RLCS Season X – Spring: Lamborghini Open – NA Regional Event 3. But the team couldn’t achieve much more by the end of the year.

Oxygen’s only notable achievement across the next eight months was a title from a B-Tier tournament, Hercules Tires Invitational. Meanwhile, Oxygen struggled at the highest level of play, failing to make it through any of the qualifiers they’ve attended.

But regardless of Oxygen’s disappointing performances in 2021, the team should feel optimistic heading into the 2022 season. The new-look squad is set to debut at the first NA regional event, slated for January 14-16.

It will see 16 NA Rocket League teams vying for the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize pool and RLCS points, leading into the RLCS Winter Major. Attending the tournament is also gimmick’s former team, Version1, who replaced him with Landon “BeastMode” Konerman.