YMMV / Brawl Stars

• Abandon Shipping: For the already small portion of the fanbase that shipped Leon/Nita, it inevitably got smaller after the two were revealed to be siblings.
• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Mandy's voice lines, depending on how you listen to them, can sound rather... odd. Notable ones include "Ugh, don't touch my candies, Chester!" and "Try my special candy!" ^note Not helped by the fact that she laughs after saying it. .
  • The noise Janet makes in her Phew pin sounded a bit too much like a sexual moan, leading to a ton of players making fun of it.
    • As did Willow's Big "NO!" voiceline, and more recently some of Melodie's have also raised eyebrows.
  • The Starr Toon loading screen◊ stirred up lots of controversy thanks to the lower part of Pawlette's maid dress appearing to fly up.
  • And then there's Melodie's extremely controversial voice line, "See you when you grow up." It's obviously an insult in context, but when it's also the voiceline that plays alongside her heart pin...
  • It is worth mentioning that Tick's Mythic Gear is literally named THICC Head".
• And You Thought It Would Fail: By mid-to-late 2018, interest in the game had slowly faded away, due to a lack of updates or general news and information. It seemed like this game was gonna be just another cancelled Supercell game. Then, come November 2018, the game's global release is suddenly announced for December 12, and the game has continued to grow in popularity since.
• Awesome Music: See here.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • Bull, Shelly, Leon, and El Primo are very common picks for Showdown, so much that it is becoming tradition to bemoan when the last enemy Brawler is a 14 Power Cube Bull (though Leon takes a bit of luck to get one's mitts on.) The 3 can smash Power Crates easily, and the power ups often ramp up their health and damage so much that they can engage opponents from any range, despite being short ranged Brawlers. El Primo gets it less than the others, since Shelly's Super Shell can rip apart Brawlers without powers and is available from the start, Bull already has powerful attacks and very high health, and Leon can go completely invisible with Smoke Bomb in a game where keeping your eye on an opponent can mean the difference between life or death. Naturally, they will begin to steamroll through the rest of the competition until what remains is a severely overtuned Brawler. Near the 800 range, teaming becomes so rampant the meta just boils down to just these 3 brawlers.
  • Bounty itself also suffers from this. Unlike other gamemodes where a variety of Brawlers can be used, Bounty really only favours a few. Snipers like Piper, Bea and Brock are able to deal much damage from afar without being too dangerously close, not to mention Piper and Brock are able to break essential walls, while throwers like Tick and Sprout can push enemies back and constantly hit them. Lastly, you can't forget Nani and Bo, the Duo in Bounty that will drive everyone insane with the cheese! Thankfully Bo and Nani got a series of nerfs that have solved this issue.
  • With people understanding Nani and Bo's mechanics, a "Nani - Bo" cheese has started appearing in Duo Showdown and Bounty games, where Nani sits behind a wall with Bo Totem, allowing her to infinitely cycle through supers and be able to secure kills, while being near unreachable! However, with the recent balance changes, this strat is now balanced and no longer as effective.
  • Map Making has essentially turned into this. Just about every week a new trend starts and it just infects the entire competition map like a plague. Some of the more memorable trends include the Heist "Boat Battle" maps where the map is shaped like two boats near each other, the Showdown "90%-10%" maps, which take place on a tiny island in the center, and the Brawl Ball "1v1;1v1;1v1" maps, where the map is divided in three parts by rope fences.
  • Arguably, Stu and Belle suffer from this in competitive-related modes because of how much they've stayed in the top 3 for so damn long despite getting nerfs. The two personify the best competitive stats: mobility and range. Stu has a faster than average movement speed and a short-ranged dash super that recharges nearly instantly, so a good Stu can escape from nearly any engagement. Belle has a ludicrous amount of range, the highest in the game in fact. She can comfortably trade shots with other sharpshooters, and even though Belle has much worse damage compared to Piper and Bea, her super (A permanent debuff that increases damage from Belle by 35%) can easily change that.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Each assassin has a huge fanbase, maybe due to the fact that they are of high rarities and are seen as "better". Subverted with Edgar who is free (as long as you manage to collect the daily login rewards for two weeks straight) and an Epic Brawler, and Stu, who was a trophy road brawler until the December 2022 update which changed Stu's rarity to Epic.
  • Mortis in fact is one of the most popular brawlers in the game. Sure, he isn't the best or the strongest, but the way he is portrayed by the pros is just glorious. Multiple trickshots, super chain after super chain......all displayed in video after video of compilations. It goes on. Though this isn't necessarily a good thing. Just look at his pick rates above 600 trophies in Brawl Ball.
  • Colette is a very popular brawler among fans, amassing a large amount of Fan-Art and Followers, before she was even released. Her Loony Fan and Adorkable nature certainly helps endearing the fanbase.
  • Edgar proved to be so popular (partially by virtue of him being a free Epic brawler) that the servers crashed several times upon his debut from so many people trying to get in. They weren't lying when they said Edgar would break the game. Both meta, AND server wise. However, this was subverted quickly as soon as he arrived because of how broken he was, to the point people started hating him! And people still didn't forget! Look at the Brawl Stars subreddit and you will still see people who are still sour over Edgar, even if it all happened in December 2020...
• Fan Nickname: "Colgate" (the name of a toothpaste brand) for Colette.
• Funny Moments: Now has its own page!
• Game-Breaker: Now with its own page...
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Extremely popular in Russia among zoomers. In this country, Brawl Stars has the same memetic reputation as Fortnite, and Russians love to make fun of the stupid kids who are playing this game. Many Brawl Stars memes, for example, are very popular in Russian segment of YouTube.
• Heartwarming Moments: A lot of Eve's voice lines can be considered humorous, but there's actually something pretty wholesome about the one where she says "I gave you life, but really, you gave me mine.". She's likely saying this to the baby fleas, showing that while she birthed them, they helped to make her what she is today and she really loves and cares about them.
  • Of course she cares about them.
• Memetic Badass: Hank was absolutely busted on his initial release, completely dominating the meta game. Add to that his hammy voice lines and ridiculous concept of a shrimp soldier on a tank and you get the perfect memetic character. Even after receiving harsh nerfs, the fandom loves to joke about how badass and strong Hank is and that he deserves even more nerfs. If you ever see a post on social media complaining about Hank, prepare to see comments like "You just weren't prawn ready" or "You shrimply can't handle the crust".
• Memetic Molester: One of Melodie's voice lines (mentioned in Accidental Innuendo above) has caused some to consider her this for... a certain group of people.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "[inordinate number of Power Cubes] [Brawler, usually Bull] would like to have a word with you."^ExplanationA common joke about how certain Brawlers can match the power of gods when fed enough Power Cubes. Mainly used in response to someone saying that a certain Brawler is incredibly strong.
  • "That's right!" ^ExplanationRyan's catchphrase during Brawl Talk, which is bound to be mentioned whenever Ryan is brought up. Eventually lampshaded at the end of the June 2021 Brawl Talk, when Ryan tells Paula to say "That's right" every time Dani talks.
  • "Egg Bo"^ExplanationSince February 2020 the community jokingly requested an "Egg Bo" skin for the game. It's become an inside joke and was even recognized by the team, who showed an in-game mockup for Egg Bo on April Fools day it turned out to be Egg Pam
  • "Rosa is sans"^ExplanationThe players frequently joked about Rosa being the only Brawler without an alternative skin. However, this changed after the October 2020 Brawl Talk revealed that she'll be getting a Calacas inspired skin that gives her blue hair and has a red heart pictured in her shirt. This prompted many people to compare her with Sans due to the blue skeleton thing. The heart also brings to mind a human SOUL from Undertale.
  • "Colt and Mr.P are BROTHERS"^Explanation An ironic meme poking fun at the many downright insane crack theories that the community manages to spit out. The theory in question takes into consideration the fact that Colt's hair and Mr.P's bowtie are both Red (two different shades at that), a very superficial connection.
  • "Dani Piper" ^EplanationDani, one of the developers from Brawl Stars, is fond of the character Piper, and he has even done a cosplay of her. To add some humour, for April Fools 2021, Brawl Stars released a video teasing developer themed skins. What was one of them? Dani Piper.
  • "What does the P even stand for? Piece of sh-" ^ExplanationIn "Brawl-O-Ween Stories", Mortis says this but gets cut off by Frank right before saying "shit". The sheer audacity of the line and how in-character it actually would be for Mortis have quickly turned it memetic.
  • 140 Mega Boxes ^Explanation A bug in the game's shop caused an 1.99 USD offer to give 300 coins and 140 mega boxes. This was fixed in a couple of minutes but not before hundreds of people managed to purchase it and post about it online.
  • Clown Edgar ^Explanation In "Train To Nowhere", there is a still of Edgar dressed as a traditional circus clown, which may or may not have been a Take That! against those who mained Edgar. This fact caused the still to go viral
  • Legendary Starr Drops will always give you the In Line gadget ^Explanation Legendary Star Drops have a chance to give you various items. As the rarest type of Starr Drop, Legendary Starr Drops should be expected to give good items, but are notorious for often giving subpar loot. The In Line gadget, widely considered the worst in the game, is poster child for this crappy output.
• Moe:
  • Lou has the cutest design of the roster so far.
  • Spike's Toon skin takes the already cute spike and turns him into an adorable expressive chibi version of himself.
  • Most of the fighters fit, at least in appearance, due to the art-style.
• Nightmare Fuel: Now has its own page.
• Scrappy Weapon: Some of the star powers or gadgets that have been released are mocked by the community for being extremely weak or just outright useless.
  • Surge's first star power, To The Max! would have not been here if not for the nerf. Originally, this star power allowed Surge to split his attack wherever he aimed, compared to where he had to hit a target or a wall. This proved to be so overpowered that when nerfing time came, they nerfed it HARD, rendering it only splitting when it hits a wall. To most, it may as well be nothing, since most of the time you will have to hit a target to split it, which naturally comes with the attack. As a result, this star power has sadly fallen off. It is best used in Solo Showdown^note It is also the better gadget when you are the big brawler in Big Game but since that is a 1 in 6 chance its not really worth it to take the risk, though the only reason WHY it should be used is that Serve Ice Cold just doesn't work.
  • Squeak's second star power, Super Sticky. Slowing down your opponents for four seconds is a really good ability. The real problem with this star power is that it relies on Squeak's Super, which is really easy to avoid, so this star power is not going to do for you, most of the time. Fortunately, following the Season 8 balance changes, Squeak's Super no longer has a delay after landing.
  • Shelly's second gadget, Clay Pigeons. Of course a bad brawler has a bad gadget. Clay Pigeons simply compresses and extends the range of Shelly akin to Piper. This seems fine at first, until you realize you only get THREE charges, which means that after using all three, you're stuck with the same old range of her. Moreover, the shells in her attack still split, meaning that unlike Piper, its even harder to hit a target correctly. The season 8 balance changes have saved the gadget, as it was reworked, now affecting every attack for the next 5 seconds.
  • Dynamike's first gadget, Fidget Spinner. Even with a slightly stupid name, it's completely useless. When using this gadget, Dynamike gains a speed boost while spinning around and throwing dynamites. As funny as it may seem, it is entirely useless as most of the time, the dynamites won't even hit a single target. Just use Satchel Charge, you get more worth out of it.
  • Even after its attack damage got buffed, Gene's second gadget, Vengeful Spirits, is still among the worst in the game, and after the aforementioned Clay Pigeons got a much needed rework, it took the title for the worst. It deals hardly any damage up-close, and even from a far distance you can pretty much ignore the damage. Plus, you can dodge those projectiles by hiding in a bush or behind the walls. For consolation points, it does fire multiple projectiles for multiple targets.
  • R-T's former Gadget In Line makes Vengeful Spirits look like a good gadget until its removal. What it would do is a projectile that goes from R-T's head to his legs in his split form. What made this gadget so bad is that not only is lining up the two halves of R-T for the small projectile to hit someone difficult, but even if it did hit someone it would deal negligible damage. Simply using R-T's super normally would do far better than wasting your time with this gadget, and all of this is disregarding how good his other gadget is. No wonder fans rejoiced when it was changed to Out Of Line.
• Skill Gate Characters: Barley and Dynamike can seem insurmountable at lower trophy levels. They are the only Brawlers whose normal attacks ignore walls (Tick and Sprout also count, but his meager health will cause him the crumple if he leaves himself open to counter sniping and Sprout, thankfully, won't be encountered much in low level play), and combined with their terrifying attacks, can easily be the cause of lost matches. However, anyone with good movement skills can easily bait out the attacks, which have a very poor reload and can be easily dodged. Barley also has terrible health, meaning that if he gets caught in another Brawler's range, he's as good as dead, and Undiluted and Last Call can be cancelled out by another Barley. Dynamike tends to get it worse, since his Short Fuse and Big Barrel O' Boom moves take a while to go off. Also, both Brawlers tend to do poorly in Showdown if they can't catch up quickly.
• Squick: Squeak seems to be a cute Blob Monster. And then you realize that he's made of Ruffs' drool.
  • Poop Spike can easily be described as the most disgusting skin in the entire game, due to being a literal walking pile of feces in a diaper. His effects don't help matters, with them being changed to him throwing crap that explodes into poop-covered plungers and his Super weapon now being a toilet (the rainbow trails really don't help soothe the squicky blow). And that's not even mentioning his losing animation, in which he is shown having what looks to be a Potty Emergency. We get this is for April Fools' Day, but still!
• Tear Jerker: While many losing animations are Played for Laughs, there are some that can make you feel sorry for the brawlers:
  • Meg's default losing animation has her hold her hat above her face, sobbing as tears gently roll down her cheeks.
  • Oni Otis's losing animation. The way he drops to his knees to sob as Cil comforts him just feels gut-wrenching and will make you feel sorry for the poor little guy.
  • The losing animation for Harajuku EMZ can count. The poor girl slumping to her knees to cry Ocular Gushers is upsetting.
  • Lawless Lola's one has her angrily kick away her hat, and then drop to the floor dismally. What does she do next? She pulls her coyote scarf into a very sad hug.
  • Sultan Carl. It's just how sad his (apparently alive) Magic Carpet seems to feel, and how sympathetic he feels for it.
  • Zeus Brock just looks so dismal in his final pose. Not at all helped by the Personal Raincloud above him.
• That One Attack:
  • Colt's second Gadget, Silver Bullet. A silent killer, it plows through walls and enemies alike! Until the nerf...
  • Bea's supercharged shot. It is scary and you definitely don't want to touch it. Doing so might just kill you instantly or render you near death.
  • To just about anyone, Colette's main attacks are horrifying. They take off a percentage of your health rather than a raw number. Meaning that if you play as a tank, you should be prepared. In fact, just about ANYONE should be prepared! With 2 attacks and a super, she will take down anyone!
  • In fact, there are just about many things that are waiting to be added! Things like Frank's Super, Brock's Rocket Fuel and the infamous Shelly Super are just about the attacks that will leave you screaming in what might have been supposed to be a normal session of Brawl Stars. Well, life isn't always fair, is it?
• That One Boss:
  • The boss in Boss Fight at later levels. At higher difficulties it can power up to become angry, furious, and enraged. It can also significantly power up his laser attack after becoming furious, turning a slow and narrow six-shot attack that deals 1200 damage into a rapid-fire sweeping laser shot each dealing about 2000 HP, that basically turns every brawler within a 180 degree radius of him into Swiss cheese. It also fires rockets at higher difficulties, and while they are reasonably avoidable, it becomes harder to deal with when you're being swarmed by countless other robots. Sometimes it'll shoot the rocket directly at you, making it impossible to escape the damage radius. Especially when you're 8-BIT. Not only that, but once you get to Insane III, if you don't take him out in time, he goes God Mode. While there are no more lasers and rockets, it's fast as hell and will likely One-Hit Kill you by simple contact.
    • That being said, when the 20th season came out the boss became far easier to beat. This is because all brawlers now get a 10% stat increase per upgrade instead of 5%, and the boss was not scaled accordingly.
  • The Mega Monster in Super City Rampage is a similar case, as it can deal a ton of damage with a melee bite attack, moves faster than most brawlers in the game when it Turns Red, has Contractual Boss Immunity to slowdowns and stuns, and leaps all over the place to force players to catch up with it before it destroys the town. It gets even worse in higher difficulties, which give it an enraged phase where it targets exclusively buildings and an AoE spin attack that stuns brawlers.
• That One Level: Minecart Madness is by far one of the most hated Gem Grab maps because of the minecart that blocks every movement you do and constantly forces bad positions of the players on both sides.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: When Spirit Knight Frank released, some fans negatively criticized his over-saturated appearance, the abundance of purple and incredibly goofy winning animation worthy of appearing in a Looney Tunes short in great contrast to the original concept.
  • This meme on Reddit covers the negative feelings of the change.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Janet's shorts can end up looking like an oversized diaper to some, depending on how one looks at them. Once it's seen it cannot be unseen.

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