After the FIFA interview with Maid “Kora_Sensei” Korić, I decided to continue this series of interviews with one of the best regional Brawl Stars players Teo “inder45” Božikov, who is also our commentator for the upcoming A1 Adria League season. Inder is usually in the playing roster of Brawl Stars competitions, so this commentating role is a new experience for him, but as we saw last week, he fits it perfectly. He talked to me about the Brawl Stars competitive scene as a whole, his career in the game, and of course, the details about the approaching fifth season of A1 Adria League.

After featuring Hearthstone in the previous two seasons, A1 Adria League decided to switch the mobile titles a bit and add Brawl Stars to the roster. What made Brawl Stars the perfect candidate for the next two seasons of A1AL?

I think the biggest reason for picking Brawl Stars over Hearthstone was it’s popularity. I would say that in the Balkan region at the moment, Brawl Stars is the most popular mobile game, or at least that’s what I would say if you are looking at YouTubers that create Brawl Stars content. Another good reason would be that Brawl Stars is a 3vs3 game where playing as a team is really important. The matches usually last about 2 minutes and are full of chaos and intense plays which makes it much more interesting to watch than Hearthstone, which is more slow paced game where thinking takes time, while in Brawl Stars you need to think really fast and have great reflexes.

You have played Brawl Stars competitively before. You will take part in the upcoming seasons of A1 Adria League, but in a different role, as a commentator. How different is commentating to actually playing the game and do you miss competing?

It is really different, the biggest difference (besides the obvious) is that I can see the mistakes players make during their match and I’m focused on everything that is happening on the map while as a competitive player that was much harder to do, because games are really intense and you don’t have much time to think and because of that you will probably make a mistake or two that could cost you the match. Yeah I’m definitely sad that I won’t be competing in this season because my team is one of the favorites to win the whole league, but I still wish them good luck and I hope they win.

The company behind Brawl Stars, Supercell, is constantly organizing weekly and monthly cups with various rewards to help the growth of the game’s competitive scene. While worldwide the scene is better than ever, in the Adriatic region we are still in the process of developing a competitive circuit for Brawl Stars. We hope that A1 Adria League will help the players in their paths to a competitive career and we certainly hope on seeing some of you competing at the highest level in the future.

Supercell gives a lot of attention to Brawl Stars when it comes to the esports aspect of the game. Our regional players have had limited chances to take part in a competitive Brawl Stars environment, so what does it mean for them to be able to play Brawl Stars for real prizes?

Yeah, Supercell really loves Brawl Stars and wants to make it their No.1 competitive game. As for our regional players I think they will be under a lot of pressure because of the prizes they can win, but that is good, a bit of adrenaline while you play is something I really like while playing competitive matches.

FIFA has the FBC that immensely helped the growth of competitive FIFA in the Adriatic region. Are there similar communities for Brawl Stars? Are there groups developing and trying to help the growth of the game over here?

Might sound a bit egoistic but I actually created a big league whose purpose was to “wake up” teams in our region and tell them that we can make Brawl Stars an esport in our region as well. I think that helped a lot to form a few teams that are now one of the best in our region, but of course I’m not the only one, there are also others who created their tournaments and helped Brawl Stars develop as an esport over here.

How will the fifth season of A1 Adria League be played out when it comes to Brawl Stars? What format will be used in the qualifiers and in the stages afterward?

I actually really like the format in A1 Adria League. There will be seven online qualifiers in which the teams need to get as much points as they can, and after seven weeks the top 8 teams with the most points will advance to the Online Playoffs where they will compete for really big prizes. As for the in-game format, in the qualifiers it is BO5 in game modes while every game mode is BO1, each team has 1 ban that is global which means that no team can play the banned brawler for the rest of the match.

Anything you want to add and say to the players, followers, and the organization behind this tournament?

For the players I would say that you should just keep practicing, and that nothing will come over night, classic I know, but it is true, especially in Brawl Stars, keep focusing on your game and don’t get down if you lose. Re-watch the match you lost, find mistakes and try to focus on them so you won’t make the same mistake twice. For followers I hope you will enjoy the streams and support us in making our game a real esports, and for the organisation all the best whishes since I hope we will get to know each other a bit better as I’m new to all this.

Thank you for the kind words Inder. We are lucky to have you as a part of the staff this year and we will definitely have time to get to know each other during the season. Brawl Stars is continuing this week, so don’t forget to tune in at our Twitch channel and watch the best regional squads battle it out on their way to the playoffs.