Gaming
Esports
How to get into Brawl Stars in 2020
Brawl Stars proved fast paced action can work on a smaller device and now it’s one of the most entertaining mobile esports out there. Here’s how to get involved.
Card games and MOBAs have always dominated the world of mobile esports, with many believing that the smaller nature of the devices makes games that require a lot of quick reaction and precision a lot harder to play and therefore less fun. Or so we thought. But then Supercell, one of the most successful mobile developers ever, blew that school of thought out of the water with the release of Brawl Stars in 2017. They proved that with smart design you can have incredibly fast-paced and frantic shooters on mobile that are possible, not just to play, but to watch; a vital ingredient on the road to becoming a major esport.
The best way to describe Brawl Stars is to almost imagine if Clash Royale and Overwatch were merged together. A colourful cast of characters, each with their own unique abilities, fight it out with a variety of weapons to complete objectives on the map, which almost looks like the Clash Royale map has been taken, stretched and redesigned slightly.
It sounds simple, but with a large roster of brawlers to choose from and multiple game modes to master, even in the competitive scene, there's a lot of depth here and making it to the top is no easy feat. That’s why, with the grand finals of Red Bull MEO Season 2 going down at the end of next month, we’re here to help you start your Brawl Stars journey.
How to download Brawl Stars
Brawl Stars is available for free on both iOS and Android devices. All you have to do is boot up the App Store on an Apple device or the Google Play Store on an Android device, head to the Brawl Stars page and click the download button. The game will then install on your device and you’re almost good to go. Simply boot it up, log into the game and you'll be able to get playing straight away. It really couldn’t be any easier to get started.
How to play Brawl Stars: The basics
Unlike other mobiles titles, such as Hearthstone or Clash Royale that can be pretty complex even at the most basic level, Brawl Stars is pretty simple. You move your character around the screen with a digital joystick on the left of the screen and try to shoot your opponents by aiming with another joystick on the left. Hitting your shots will also charge up your super ability, which can be unleashed with another button next to the fire joystick. Easy.
Of course, it’s never that simple, really. The game modes on offer require you to think a little more than that, with some requiring you to collect and hold gems, others making you break into your opponent’s safe while defending yours and even trying to score a goal with a football in what has to be the most dangerous sport, virtual or not, we’ve ever seen.
How to learn more complex ideas
Brawl Stars is, like many great esports, a game that is very easy to pick up, but incredibly difficult to master. Team play and strategy is key, with some modes requiring you to protect certain members of your team and others requiring a lot of coordination to succeed. So really the best way to learn the more difficult parts of the game is to find a team to play with regularly and get to work on your communication and chemistry in-game.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren't other resources you can use to improve your game. YouTube channels like CWA Mobile Gaming offers some simple but incredibly effective tips to get better almost immediately, while sites such as Brawl Stars UP! have lots of guides and tips to improve your game. The meta – the strategies that work or are popular – is always changing, so it pays to stay on top of them.
The meta right now
The basic meta of Brawl Stars revolves around which brawlers are the best to use and in which situations. One brawler that might be amazing in the Gem Grab game mode might then be terrible at the Brawl Ball game mode, so keeping track on all the shifts in the meta for every game mode is going to take some time to pick up.
However, if you want to instantly be playing with some of the top characters right now, you can’t seem to go wrong with Mr.P, who seems to be dominating pretty much every game mode. Also, there's Darryl, who has his weakness, but is able to control the map pretty well, which is always a great skill to have.
The big events to watch
The Brawl Stars Championship is the biggest Brawl Stars event in the world, with the almost year-long competition starting with in-game qualifiers that players can enter and then progressing into online qualifiers for monthly finals, which will then lead to the all-important world championship. The base prize pool for the 2020 season is a staggering $1 million, but another $500,000 can be added to that through fan support. This is where the best-of-the-best will make their riches and show off skills you thought impossible.
But there's also another massive event coming up. Red Bull M.E.O. is a competition in which anyone over the age of 16 can enter and try to make their way to the grand finals. The completely open nature of the competition and its worldwide reach mean that there are bound to be some totally new players that'll make names for themselves at the finals and it could even give us a first look at a team that will go on to do well at the world championship.
The Red Bull M.E.O. World Finals take place in Madrid, Spain from April 25-26, 2020. Find out more about how to join in here.
