Brawl Stars is a multiplayer online battle arena game where players battle against other players or AI opponents in multiple game modes. Players can choose between several brawlers that they have unlocked through "Brawl Boxes", the Brawl Pass, the Trophy Road, or purchased through the shop. As brawlers attack and do damage to enemy brawlers, they build up their special ability, called a "Super". Each brawler has their own "Super" ability, which can, for example, spawn a damage-dealing turret or a complete heal. Each brawler also has two unlockable abilities called "Star Powers", which can be found in Brawl Boxes, or inside the shop once the brawler reaches their maximum power level. Furthermore each brawler also has one unlockable ability called a "Gadget". A brawler's gadget appear in Brawl Boxes and in the shop once that brawler reaches power level 7. These abilities are, once unlocked, usable 2 to 3 times per match and are activated by pressing a certain "Gadget button". In addition, it is possible to purchase "skins" with gems or unlock them through the Brawl Pass, which will alter the appearance, animations, or sounds of brawlers. Brawl Stars has a variety of different game modes that players can choose from, each one having a different objective. Players can invite friends to play with them up to the maximum team size of the game mode.
Trophy Road
The “Trophy Road” is a way for players to track their in-game progress, increase their rank, and earn prizes along the way. Prizes along this journey include: new brawlers, coins, power points, token doublers, new events, and several sized boxes that contain additional contents. To progress along the Trophy Road, players must earn trophies through battles. Once a player claims a reward they can not claim in again.
Development and release
The team wanted to create such a game that was designed with mobile devices in mind first. According to Supercell's Frank Keienburg, "Our focus was on retaining a lot of depth while stripping away all the fluff." Although the game contains some elements of the battle royale genre, these were implemented before the genre as a whole took off and the team did not set out to make a game with those elements. The game is notable for its long soft launch period during which virtually every aspect of the game changed. Supercell officially announced the game via a livestream video on June 14, 2017. It received an iOS soft launch in the Canada the following day. The soft launch would last a total of 522 days, during which internally it was doubted whether or not the game would ever actually see a general release. Initially the game was played in portrait mode and had players tapping on the screen, this was changed eventually to players using analog controls and playing in landscape mode. Other changes include changing the UI, changing the metagame and transitioning the game from 2D to 3D. Frank Keienburg attributes the difficult beta period to the developer working in a new genre where they "weren't sure how to interpret its success". The game soft-launched in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao and Malaysia for iOS on January 19, 2018, and on June 26, 2018, Android received early access to the game as a continuation of the soft launch. Brawl Stars was made globally and officially available on December 12, 2018. It made more than $63 million in its first month.
The Brawl Stars Championship is an open tournament for players across the globe, developed by Supercell. All players age 16 and up may participate. This tournament consists of monthly in-game challenges that would lead to regional online qualifier events. Through the online qualifier events, players can secure a spot in the in-person monthly finals. These events would lead to the World Finals. In 2019, this championship was known as the Brawl Stars World Championship. It was held on November 15 to November 16, 2019 at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center in South Korea. The first place winner was Nova Esports after a 3 – 0 victory. Other participants competing included Animal Chanpuru, Tribe Gaming, 3Bears, Spacestation Gaming, and PSG Esports. With a $250,000 prize pool, it was the first international event for the game and had teams from North America, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea. In 2020, the World Finals will be held in fall with a base $1,000,000 prize pool with an additional $500,000 which can be earned through in-game championship offers.
