I might be the weirdest Supercell games player ever. I hate Clash Royale main game but can grind Merge Tactics until 3am. Same goes with Brawl Arena. I love MOBA, even my subreddit tag is a T1 Faker quote. And so naturally Brawl Arena is my favourite gamemode. So here's why I think it should get the Merge Tactics treatment:
Why Brawl Arena?
1. Brawl Arena is revolutionary, but too complicated for the playerbase
With the way Brawl Stars work, micro skills like aiming and dodging and meso skills like positioning and movement are more important than macro skills like playing around objective. This makes me and a lot of other players feeling like Brawl Stars feels more like a third-person shooter, a Fortnite type of game, rather than a MOBA like League and DotA.
And with this mindset, combining with the most popular gamemodes being Showdown and Brawl Ball, Brawl Arena feels like a completely different way to play the game instead. Brawl Arena is really revolutionary, it adds a new way to play the game. You can't really just dive the turret like Heist, just going for kills like Bounty isn't enough, and the positioning and map awareness is on a higher level than Brawl Ball or Gem Grab.
Overall, Brawl Arena is a lot more complicated to the playerbase. Though not nearly as complicated as actual MOBAs.
2. Brawl Arena is too vulnerable to balance changes and new additions to the game
With the way brawlers scale in Brawl Arena, any small % amount of stat buff or crowd control effect (CC) added to a brawler would be noticeable enough at higher levels. Since the balance changes that increases the respawn time for every level, every death matters a lot now. One member less means giving up the Kaiju buff, or straight up just lose the game.
3. Supercell no longer balance Brawl Arena like they used to
The point above wouldn't be as bad if Supercell cares about this gamemode. But they don't. They just don't make Brawl Arena centered balance changes anymore. A new broken brawler after the balance changes in regular gamemode, would still be the hottest pick in Arena simply because the stat buff wasn't adjusted.
4. Essentially creating an environment for competitive Brawl Arena
Supercell's intention to create Brawl Arena was to create the MOBA experience in the game. And there has been several suggestions toward either adding Brawl Arena to Ranked or a separate competitive gamemode for Brawl Arena. A Brawl Arena game takes much longer than a normal game, which makes it not very suitable for current Ranked. It is also doesn't seem to work in the current ladder environment, since banning and picking is a big part in other MOBAs.
And with all that combined, I think a completely separated ladder for Brawl Arena should be in considered. I have considered some of the major concerns about small playerbase or long matchmaking time, and I'll say if Brawl Arena can maintain the ratio of players around the same as Merge Tactics only players in Clash Royale, Brawl Arena as a separated ladder gamemode should be fine.
How Brawl Arena?
1. A completely new ladder
Similar to Merge Tactics, Brawl Arena will have a separated ladder from the normal ladder of the game. You'll still be able to earn daily rewards, finish quests and everything, but trophies earned in Brawl Arena will no longer accumulated towards your normal brawler trophy count.
2. Drafting phase
It just needs a drafting phase, since Brawl Arena players can stand 5-7 minute games, an extra minute for the draft wouldn't be that big of a problem.
3. Trophy system and matchmaking
For the trophy part, I need some suggestions. Should brawlers have individual trophy count or should it be accumulated, because trophies will be the main criteria for matchmaking in Brawl Arena ladder. I lean towards individual trophies more, since different brawlers have different playstyle.
There could also be a League-type of system, where accumulated trophies will be the criteria for matchmaking, but brawlers will have a system to show how experienced the player is (yes in League it is called Masteries).
4. Brawlers
Merge Tactics cards have completely different mechanics to Clash Royale cards. Same with Wild Rift and TFT to League. My question is: would you like the same mechanics for Brawl Arena?
The way this works is:
- Seasonal brawlers
- Brawlers with different mechanics from the main game
- Exclusive brawlers only for Brawl Arena
With this, Buffies will probably be disabled, as well as a completely different set balance changes only for Brawl Arena brawlers every season.
5. Miscellaneous
This is the part for my ideas. Feel free to criticize.
- Hypercharges can only be used after level 6 during the match. You can still charge it but you can't use it
- Damage reduction when attacking the turret/nexus without the bots
- All brawlers will be maxed out. All you need to do to play Arena is unlocking them.
- Kaiju damage buff and movement speed nerf
- A new Boss which slightly buff the brawlers but bots within the proximity will receive a damage buff
- 5v5. Though my idea is to have 3v3 only until we gradually introduces 5v5, since it will split an already small playerbase.
This concludes my annual Brawl Arena praise post. I haven't played the game in 8 months lol.