In the game Brawl Stars, randomly joined players choose how they wish to communicate and show up to play with their fellow teammates. This gameHER provides some thoughts on the ways in which we can all be more considerate and team-oriented when it comes to in-game emotes.

By Elin Yim

Stop spamming angry emotes at me!

Let’s take a step back here: Hi! I play Brawl Stars, a mobile third-shooter hero game. Players choose their brawlers, select a game mode, and hop into battle. Sounds simple, right?

Not quite.

In 3v3 regular game modes, many players don’t have other active friends to team up with all of the time (including myself). Thus, we resort to random matchmaking, allowing the game to create teams of players in the same mode filled with brawlers in similar trophy ranges.

However, now that we’re in the arena, we worry about what we’re exactly dealing with. Do I have an ideal team composition for this arena/map? Will these randoms play well without throwing the game? No trolls, please!

There isn’t any planning or coordination before gameplay. Additionally, unlike gamers who can create a team beforehand, gamers seeking teams by random matchmaking don’t really have any means of communication, except our brawlers’ movements/gestures and pins/emotes that are awfully misused.

Pictured: Pins the writer has in play (right side) and an opponent on the enemy team using a smiley face pin. Screenshot courtesy of Supercell.

But, again, they’re the only features we have to communicate with our random teammates, assuming players haven’t disabled pins on their devices. We can (& should!) use them to our advantage to facilitate teamwork, instill confidence in ourselves, and ultimately become stronger, more cohesive teams. And this rings true for every game. Like Brawl Stars, most games will have ways for players to collaborate, which may be through a live chat, pings, or voice chat, to name a couple. Regardless of what type of video game it is, or what options there are, communication remains a central part of gameplay in every game, by shaping a team’s mentality and, thus, becoming a deciding factor between a victory and a loss.

Imagine this: enough players enter the lobby, teams are made, and players transport into the arena. Each player has a matter of a few short seconds to look at each team’s brawler composition and decide what the battle plan is. Suddenly, one of your teammates has an automatic distaste for your chosen brawler and spams the angry button, along with pointlessly attacking you with their precious slots of ammo. Your teammate is definitely expressing frustration towards you.

Pictured: A player attacking their own teammates. Screenshot courtesy of Supercell.

Right away, before you even encounter the enemy team, your interactions with a toxic teammate have impacted the course of the game. The immediate hostility and great effort the teammate makes to let you know that they’re NOT happy falters confidence — confidence in your skill and your team’s ability to win the battle. There’s now pressure to prove you can still win, that you’ve made a fine brawler selection. But, isn’t this communication a good thing? It lets you know which brawler to pick next time, giving you more insight and critique?

Pictured: Piper in the writer’s game. Screenshot courtesy of Supercell.

In my opinion, not really. Besides communication, your mentality matters. For example, I play Brawl Stars as a casual (but frequent) player, and my main brawler is Piper. She’s a sharpshooter who can deal incredible damage at a far distance; however, she has low health and does not deal a lot of damage when ambushed or in close confrontation. Thus, she does best in open maps without many obstacles or bushes that enemies can ambush her from.

Although Piper is my favorite player, I won’t jump into every match with her, since I understand that she’s a poor choice for some tight map layouts. However, there are some maps that may not be the most open, but I believe they’re still viable enough for me to win with a Piper selection. After all, I have the most fun with her. I also have spent more time brawlin’ with her and have refined skills. I know what my capabilities are; accordingly, I’ve been able to play well on these maps. In this way, I have a mentality where I feel comfortable and believe I can still succeed, though random teammates may immediately react negatively.

Pictured: An open map in Brawl Stars. Screenshot courtesy of Supercell. — Pictured: An open map in *Brawl Stars*. Screenshot courtesy of Supercell.

Communication shapes mentality, and mentality shapes communication. When a teammate starts attacking you, you’re bound to lose some bit of your confidence and sense of a team, making it more difficult to secure the win. Conversely, if a teammate is displeased, their emotions will be evident through the way they communicate with you, impacting YOUR mentality now — replicating a circle. Knowing this, I believe we should strive for communication between our teammates to positively boost each other’s mentalities and make each other feel supported, not bashed. Our random teammates are, indeed, random, and we don’t have the power to plan out our strategy before we’re launched into the game. However, we absolutely can use our gestures and pins in an effective way to better our gameplay.

Whether it may be witnessing a teammate kill many of the opponents, successfully defending territory, or healing you, you can encourage your teammates to keep their performance up by recognizing them with positive gestures, whatever that may be in your specific game. If a teammate dies, messes up, or is badly hurt, you can still acknowledge it! For Brawl Stars, I can give a sad face when our team is at a disadvantage, and I can give an angry face to indicate that their move wasn’t the best. Spamming angry emotes and indicating that you want to attack a teammate, on the other hand?

Pass.

Game on!

About the author:

Elin’s two favorite things? Gaming and language. She will most likely be playing Brawl Stars or tutoring Spanish at Virtually Verbal, her co-founded nonprofit offering free language courses. By writing, she can combine her two passions to create her state of euphoria. She’ll continue wanting to break down communication barriers, whether it be dealing with toxicity in gaming or a language barrier. You can contact her through Virtually Verbal’s platforms:

For more information on Elin’s organization, Virtually Verbal:

Reach out via email at info@virtuallyverbal.com.

Instagram: @virtuallyverbal

Website: www.virtuallyverbal.com

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Communication And Mentality: Thoughts on Brawl Stars Social Etiquette

In the game Brawl Stars, randomly joined players choose how they wish to communicate and show up to play with their fellow teammates. This gameHER provides some thoughts on the ways in which we can all be more considerate and team-oriented when it comes to in-game emotes.

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