Earlier this week, Brawl Stars’ biggest eSports event of the year, the World Finals, took place at Disneyland Paris — a fitting venue for a game centered around a theme park.The event, which was eventually won by Japanese organization ZETA DIVISION, not only featured an energetic live audience, but it also broke previous viewership records for the sport, Held at the Disney Events Arena in a giant white tent decorated with Brawl Stars props, the entrance walls were plastered with some of the game’s most notable characters.If you need more information about Brawl Stars has become mobile esports shining light in the west then read carefully and share with your friends.
It was abundantly clear that the World Finals, full of flashy bright colors and a welcoming, friendly, cartoonish aesthetic, served as a showcase for Brawl Stars’ developing eSports ecosystem. But creating a sense of community also seemed central to developer Supercell’s eSports ambitions.Our goal is to develop a sustainable esports model for Brawl Stars that will last us for years and years,” said Frank Kienberg, Supercell’s Game Lead for Brawl Stars.
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“We know that games can be 10 years old and successful. We have the same ambition with Brawl Stars. So what do we need to do to make sure we have an ecosystem that supports our players, community and organizations works to stay relevant 10 years from now.
These are certainly lofty ambitions, especially since mobile esports is relatively new compared to PC and console disciplines. However, as with more and more titles that have stood the test of time – such as League of Legends, Dota 2 and CS:GO – it is not bottomless. However, unlike those three titles, Brawl Stars has recognized that it needs to do things differently.
The game, which launched globally in 2018, is currently navigating a very unpredictable mobile eSports landscape, especially within the Western world. Riot Games has pulled the plug on its western League of Legends Wild Rift ecosystem, shifting its focus to Asia. At the same time, the impending global launch of Honor of Kings is a welcome boost to the Western mobile eSports scene.Due to the unpredictable nature of mobile esports, Brawl Stars decided to take a different approach, focusing less on competing organizations and more on the community.
“From the beginning we didn’t want to have a franchise esports ecosystem for example. I think it’s very abstract, especially in mobile. There’s not a lot of proof of concept of mobile esports being successful in the West. So for us,We’ve always believed that community comes first and we wanted everyone in the community to be able to compete.”
The origins of the game can be traced back to this community-centered approach. Keienburg told Esports Insider that while eSports was discussed before the global launch of Brawl Stars, it was never a priority.“Long ago, before we went global, we already talked about esports and if we should do esports or not. But for us the assumption was always that you can’t make a game saying ‘we do this for eSports’.
“I think sport comes first. Then when you see the community getting attracted to sport and want to see people competing in sport – then, as a company, our job is to empower that.That time has come soon. Sitting at a Starbucks in Disneyland, Keinberg described an internal Brawl Stars tournament prior to the game’s global launch. The staff competed while two community managers cast the game.
“I realized the wait staff stopped waiting and they kept looking at the screen and following the action. I was like, Huh, I guess we have a competitive game.After the game’s worldwide launch in December 2018, Supercell created a competitive system, with each season concluding with the Brawl Stars World Finals. The world finals went online in 2020 before moving to Bucharest, Romania last year, after its first global event in Busan, South Korea.But this year’s event at Disneyland Paris was a great moment for the eSports ecosystem of Brawl Stars.
Not only was it the sport’s first official Supercell-run event with a live audience since the pandemic; Finally it was also a chance to dig into Brawl Star’s in-game themes. “The game world of Brawl Stars takes place in a theme park called Star Park. So what’s closer than actually connecting the game world with the real world and having an actual event at a theme park,” said Keienburg.
According to Brawl Stars’ game lead, tickets for the event sold out within five hours of going live. “I think we may have also underestimated how many people would want to see it live,Keienburg”laughed.Supercell invited over 50 Brawl Stars creators to the event, giving fans the opportunity to not only see the action, but also interact with some of their favorite personalities.
An atmosphere of unity was felt throughout the venue during the telecast by players walking through the audience to enter during the semi-finals and final of the event.
Another sign of its community-focused thesis, Brawl Stars’ e-sports structure starts directly in the game itself. To qualify for the Monthly Finals, which help secure points leading to the Brawl Stars World Finals, teams must enter through in-game challenges.
It opens the door for anyone to compete, and strengthens the sense of community that Keienburg sees as central to Brawl Stars’ eSports. In particular, he highlighted the European free agent team Dogster Lobster, which almost qualified for the World Finals, finishing 9th on EMEA Championship points.As well as its official eSports structure, Supercell collaborates with a range of third-party tournament operators to kick off the scene.
“Our entire eSports program is structured in such a way that we are trying to see how a player goes from being a casual player to an engaged player,” Keinberg said. “You’re not going from zero to participating in official e-sports events. So how do players get there?”To serve this casual group, Brawl Stars works with Mascherino to provide open tournaments every day. In addition, Supercell collaborated with ESL Gaming for the Snapdragon Pro Series, the tournament organizer’s cross-title mobile eSports ecosystem.
In fact, it was recently announced that the Snapdragon Pro Series Mobile Challenge Finals for Brawl Stars and Clash of Clans (two Supercell titles) will take place at the inaugural DreamHack San Diego in April. Each tournament will have a prize pool of $50,000 (£41,000).While the Brawl Stars esports scene has shown progress following the COVID pandemic, Keinberg knows there is still room for improvement. “We have a mild development of structures and systems. It is moving into next year,” he said, without emphasizing that development. “We just want to improve.”
Eastern-focus titles, such as Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, remain at the top of the mobile pyramid, as mobile eSports lags far behind in the West. But Brawl Stars is on a mission to change that. With a large Western audience, Supercell is providing the mobile scene across Europe, LATAM and North America with a growing glimmer of hope.
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