Tribe vs STMN September Spectacle Knockout

On September 29th, 2024, four teams went head to head in an invite-only event in Brawl Stars Esports: the September Spectacle. One of the teams was Tribe Gaming, a well-known team that qualified for the World Finals every year since 2019 except 2024. Then, there was STMN Esports, another great team and one of the first to stop Tribe gaming’s rampage in the North American region. Next, there was Elevate, a relatively new team to Brawl Esports but with a spectacular performance in the July Monthly Finals, earning themselves a spot in the Brawl Stars World Finals. Last but not least was Luminosity gaming, a fan favorite, though their performance in the 2023-2024 season was very poor. 

Unlike normal Brawl Stars Championship (BSC) matches, the September Spectacle matches would be 5v5, instead of the traditional 3v3 matches, with a modifier chosen by the viewers for every match. As a result, teams that had a three-man roster had to pick two more players. Elevate selected Juan Carlos, adding to their four-man roster. Luminosity selected Tuni and Alec26, alumni from Luminosity Gaming. Tribe added their coach, Cori, to their four-man roster, and STMN picked up Lukie and Toast, two outstanding players. 

This tournament format would also be quite different from the usual BSC tournaments. Unlike the single elimination format, teams would have another chance to compete in the losers’ bracket if they lost a match. Furthermore, bounties were introduced. These bounties were a goal set by the casters, and the first team that finished the bounty in one match would win it. So, the prize not only relied on getting a good rank, but also rested on a team’s capability of completing a bounty. not only was the prize for getting a good rank on the line, but there were also bonuses due to bounties. 

The first round would be Tribe Gaming versus STMN. Each team picked five characters that would best suit their needs. The Kenji picks on both sides were mirrored, as both wanted the best character. However, the compositions for each team were different, as Tribe picked two low-health but high-damage characters, Tick and Gray, while STMN picked the healer and midranger Moe. The game mode selected was Knockout, meaning the first team to defeat all of the enemies twice before the enemies did so would win a match, and the team would have to win two matches to win the set. As the first round started, Tribe Gaming rushed to the middle, aiming for early game mid control. Although Tribe got two quick kills as opposed to STMN’s one, in 5v5, when one character falls, the others get powered up. As the storm started to close, all the players were forced to fight for the middle. Quick kills and trades were made, with Tribe Gaming coming out on top with only one man standing. The second round played out similarly. STMN’s numbers were whittled down by Tribe, and in the end, it was a fight for the middle, with Tribe coming out on top again. Set two, however, was much more interesting. Round 1 seemed like a win for STMN, as they forced Mr. P from Tribe into a 1 versus 3–nearly impossible odds. However, due to the power-ups from his fallen teammates, his spawnables had a crazy health of over 17000. This ultimately contributed to Tribe’s victory in round 1. In round 2, it was a similar story. Tribe was forced to a low player count and fought against STMN’s player advantage. At impossible odds, Cori’s Tick, supposedly the weakest player, won against the strongest on STMN’s side. 

This won Tribe Gaming the first set. If they won one more set, they would advance to the winners’ bracket, while STMN would go to the losers’ bracket. The next set was even more chaotic than the first. The modifier was ‘super charge,’ which charged a character’s super attack quicker and made it more powerful compared to the normal attack. After a hard and chaotic battle between the two rivals, they were neck to neck with 1 match win each. Tribe won the following match, allowing them to advance in the winners’ bracket to face Elevate, while STMN would go to the losers’ bracket to face Luminosity. 

Ultimately, this tournament played out in a wild course of events, with many of these teams disbanding soon after, because many wanted fresh starts, forcing the community to say goodbye to their favorite teams, who have been together since 2021.