The Race is On!

The Brawl Stars Championship is finally back for 2023! With a formula similar to 2022, the 2023 BSC is aimed to build on the successes of last year's format to provide an even better competition this year. The Monthly Format last year was simple: Championship Challenge, then Monthly Qualifiers, then Monthly Finals. However, with the addition of subregions, this Monthly Format has been slightly edited for the 2023 edition of the BSC.

The 2023 Monthly format is as follows: Championship Challenge, Monthly Qualifiers, Pre-Broadcast Monthly Finals, and then finally the Broadcast Monthly Finals. The Monthly Finals have been split into two parts this year due to the addition of subregions. Each subregion has its own 8-Team Monthly Final, and each Monthly Final Match is a Best of 5 Sets! Doing every match for every subregion on Broadcast would simply take too much time; that would be 56 Bo5s!

All teams in the top 8 will earn large sums of points towards the words qualification. 5-8th will earn 35 points, 3-4th will earn 50, 2nd will earn 70, and 1st will earn 100. There are only 6 Monthly Finals this year as opposed to last year's 7, and there is no Double Points system for Split 2. At the end of the year, the teams with the most points will have a guaranteed spot at the Brawl Stars World Finals, and the runner ups will receive an invite to the Last Chance Qualifiers!

North America is getting double the amount of Cash at each monthly this year! The region had $20,000 up for grabs at each monthly last year, and there is now $40,000 on the table each month with each subregion having it's own $20,000 prize-pool.

In traditional BSC fashion, the February month of competition kicked off with a chaotic bang! All competitive teams started their journey by taking on the infamous Championship Challenge. Historically, professional teams are able to breeze through the challenge, but this was not the case with our February challenge. Fan favorite team, STMN Esports, was one loss away from challenge failure and being unable to compete in BSC Quals. Bobby reportedly exclaimed that the challenge was "HARDER THAN MONTHLY FINALS" on a twitter post following STMN's challenge run.

What made this challenge so much harder than the one's in the past? Allowed losses, maps, and the blind pick meta. 

Following the first two challenges last year, Brawl Stars changed the number of strikes before failure from three to four losses, but the threshold was moved back to three losses. Reasoning was not shared for the reversion.

The current meta is aggressive, and this aggressiveness can make the game feel chaotic to many seasoned veterans. The key to passing the challenge is avoiding losses at the earlier stages so that you have more buffer at the games that may or may not be more competitive at the end of the challenge. Tank-heavy maps such as Sneaky Fields and Pit Stop were put in the mid-late stages of the challenge, and these maps allowed some accidental losses to slip by some teams.

The biggest issue for teams was the final stage, Goldarm Gulch. A cheesy comp whose origin is unknown has been taking the blind-pick knockout meta by storm, and this challenge was no exception. Bo, Grey, and Jacky were seen ravaging people's challenge runs all weekend. Everyone sits in the comfort of the stronghold structure, Bo drops his totem to charge supers, and Grey uses his teleport to warp Jacky onto unsuspecting enemies. I don't know about you, but I don't know many people who can handle taking a jackhammer to the face!

The competitive chaos rages on!

The First Monthly Qualifiers are always a tossup for viewers and stress for the players. Due to the absence of seeding, it's not uncommon to see top teams go down to other strong teams that get placed closely in the bracket. Earlier on Saturday, the EMEA Region saw FUT Esports (Drage, Symantec, OPE) and SK Gaming (iKaoss, Yoshii, GuilleVGX) go down in flames as they exited the competition early, failing to qualify for the February Finals. 

NA East

The NA East Qualifiers bracket kicked off at 2:00pm ET. To the surprise of many, the random Qualifier bracket was fairly balanced! This allowed for many familiar faces to make it to the top 8. Teams that made top 8 included Tribe Gaming, Mystic Esports, Chasmac Gaming, and the Papi Chulos who recently rebranded to Untamable Beasts. Notable team, Starline NA, barely missed out on the top 8, placing top 12 in the subregion.

These 8 teams then proceeded to battle it out on Sunday, leaving four teams remaining to play on the Broadcast Finals later in the month. Team Mystic fought a hard battle against the Untamable Beasts, winning 3-1 by sets. Chasmac won 3-1 against Untamable Beasts, and Tribe took home a 3-0 victory against Nando Haters. Beast Tamers, a rising team, has been taking the region by storm and defeated Friends of Ruly 3-1 after pulling out the surprise tank picks. Keep an eye on them as they take on Tribe during the Broadcast Finals next week!

NA West

The West Qualifiers started at 5:00pm ET, and STMN Esports was put on their toes once again after suffering a loss to the Dog Walkers (Patchy, Charlz, Chino) in the upper bracket. Being no strangers to high pressure situations, the STMN roster was able to regain their composure and qualify for the Top 8! STMN additionally topped West Coast 3-0 during the Pre-Broadcast Finals on Sunday! Many thought this match would be closer, but STMN swept the floor to show everyone their resolve and strength in their new western home.

Teams that made the Top 4 for the Broadcast February Finals include: Dog Walkers, Washed Team, STMN Esports, and TLG West. As a testament to these teams strength, you can also find them playing in the ESL Snapdragon Season 2 Challenge Round Robin! The NA West Broadcast Finals will absolutely be a show to catch in the coming weekend; cook up some popcorn and enjoy!