Masuk Free Press

First it was Among Us. Last year, it was chess. And now, the epidemic has hit once more. Everywhere throughout the halls of Masuk, students are playing the mobile game “Brawl Stars”.

Originally released in 2018, Brawl Stars is a multiplayer third person shooter game by Supercell. Its objective is for the player, or the player’s team, to be the last one standing. It is one of Supercell’s most popular games, second only to Clash of Clans. But now, fans are saying Brawl Stars deserves first place. 

“Brawl Stars is love. Brawl Stars is life,” said junior Sawyer Judge. “I believe that Brawl Stars should be the only game you have on your phone.”

Brawl Stars’ fame did not come immediately after the game’s release. For three years Supercell’s earnings were consistently dropping and finally reached an all-time low in early 2023. However, for the past few months, these earnings have risen exponentially. The last time Brawl Stars earned this much profit was back in 2020. This leads to the question — why is Brawl Stars suddenly getting popular again?

“People had it, and then they told their friends to get it,” Brawl Stars player Niti Shah explained. “So then their friends got it, and they told people to get it, and it kind of just spread.”

Supercell has recently made a few drastic changes regarding Brawl Stars. In late 2023, they welcomed a new Community Manager. This could be one of the influences that led to such big changes in the game. Supercell has added new features, such as more characters — “Brawlers” — and new Brawl passes, which are seasons with special rewards and characters. 

Certain die-hard Brawl Star fans have criticized these new additions. One particular aspect that has received much backlash was the removal of randomized loot boxes. This creates a much clearer path to unlocking new characters. Some users, like Wrong-Koala9174 on Reddit, said this makes the game less exciting. Wrong-Koala9174 wrote that the game is “losing purpose” without boxes. Many others have agreed that the game was better before removing this feature.

However, any hate was overwhelmed by a surge of new players and positive reviews. Because of this, the game has quickly gained popularity in schools.

“I downloaded [Brawl Stars] a couple months ago when I was on the bus to one of my Masuk swim meets,” Judge said. “I heard this kid yelling about how his Brawler was winning against Brendan Kirberger, and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I wanna be able to face Brendan Kirberger in a game.’”

Masuk students are playing Brawl Stars in class, often distracting themselves from their school work and learning. Usually, they are not playing alone. Classmates encourage their peers  to play with them, and due to this, the game has spread like wildfire.

“Multiple of my friends have told me to download Brawl Stars. People are playing it everywhere; on the bus, in class, at lunch. It’s crazy,” said junior Gabriella Assignon. 

Assignon has not downloaded the game yet: “I see how there could be pressure for people to get it. They don’t wanna be left out of what their friends are playing.”

Brawl Stars is a game extremely capable of distracting you from real life. It has fairly simple controls, a small learning curve and is an easy concept to understand. This convenient distraction, to many, may seem potentially harmful. But dedicated players enjoy the effect.

“Brawl Stars is fun because you spend hours a day ruining your sleep, losing sleep, playing against Brendan Kirberger until you finally get a Brawl Royale,” Judge said.

Brendan Kirberger, featured above, agreed. “Brawl Stars is my life,” he said.

Besides all this love and positivity, there is also some confusion about why Brawl Stars is popular in the first place. It does not have extremely impressive graphics and is not a very unique or shocking concept.

“It kind of just seems like a kids game to me,” Assignon claimed. “Like something that would have been popular in elementary school.”

Judge held a different opinion: “Brawl Stars had a lot of shade thrown towards it because a lot of people didn’t want to play it. It seemed too little kid-ish, it seemed immature, but the Masuk Swim Team is immature.”

Whether it is to bring people back to their childhood times, or just to give students some entertainment to get them through the day, Supercell’s Brawl Stars has flooded the Masuk halls. And regardless of its harms and haters, dedicated players continue to play this game everywhere and promote it whenever possible.