Gaming
esports
Clash Royale League pros talk meta shifts and 2v2 tactics
Top Clash Royale players discuss the CRL, keeping up with new deck builds, and how team play is changing up competitive Clash – and share a few tips, too.
Supercell have put on a few glitzy Clash Royale tournaments over the last couple years, but the card-driven mobile strategy game is making a much more concerted esports push with the new Clash Royale League. With 44 teams in the mix, including Cloud9 and other huge organizations, as well as $1 million up for grabs, the Clash Royale League could also help legitimise mobile esports on the international stage.
Clash Royale's elite players have been waiting for this moment, and now with major orgs, team houses, and weekly LAN play in the mix, they're stepping up to show why the game deserves to hang with esports heavyweights. But this opportunity also comes with a new challenge: the addition of 2v2 play, which doubles the number of players while shaking up the kinds of strategies needed for success.
Before the league started play, we spoke to a few top pro players about the growth of Clash Royale esports and its competitive meta, and how they're getting in sync for team play – with a few tips along the way for how you can try to rise to their level.
A Royale upgrade
The Clash Royale League is a big step up
© Supercell
As a unique game experience with a relatively recent competitive push, Clash Royale's top players aren't hardened, longtime esports pros – they're young adults and teens who have turned their passion for the game into an amazing opportunity.
CompLexity player Colton ‘Coltonw83’ Wall shares how he was just a frugal college student when the first King's Cup happened in late 2016. He budgeted $100 for his travel and lodging expenses, knowing he could potentially break even if he finished above a certain level. Needless to say, it was well worth his investment. "I did very well using my own decks, and I ended up getting second, which was $10,000," he says. "That was my first-ever tournament."
While high-profile Clash Royale events used to happen every so often, with online tournaments to help fill the gaps, the constant grind is what excites Coltonw83 the most about the League. "Now it's constant preparation. As soon as one opponent is done, you get ready for the next one," he explains. "I really like that, because this is my passion. Having a goal every week is really nice."
Meanwhile, Immortals player Joshua ‘Ah craaaap’ Sharon says he played Clash Royale casually for months before committing to improving and getting into high-level competitive play. For him, it was joining clans and mutually feeding off of others members' drive and determination that helped him grow into one of North America's elite players.
He played in the events leading up to last year's Crown Championship and has been a noteworthy player in the scene for a while now, but says that the Clash Royale League already has so much more impact than previous Supercell efforts.
"This one feels a whole lot more official. Before this, esports was always pushed, but not in the way that this one has been," he recalls. "This is the first time where I've seen different people who never would've talked about the esports side of Clash Royale… they're actually excited to watch it and find out more, and learn from it. That kind of growth is incredible to look at."
As someone who has had a competitive fire burning inside of him since a very young age, Ah craaaap is happiest to have the opportunity for constant action with the Clash Royale League. "I've always been competitive. When I was younger, my mom made me choose between sports because I was playing too many sports all year," he says. "Just the competitive aspect, it's going to be so much fun for me."
Pushing the meta
As Coltonw83 mentioned, the early days of competitive Clash Royale were a lot looser when it came to deck building – but as esports efforts have grown and the game has expanded, a stronger meta has taken shape and gradually evolved over time.
"When the game first came out, no one really knew what they were doing – so people would just kind of throw cards into a deck and build whatever they wanted," suggests Tribe Gaming player Ian ‘Oxalate’ Smith. "Now that the game's a lot more advanced and there's a lot more cards, people come up with a few different decks, then other people modify it and try to counter those decks with other decks. That's what creates a meta shift."
Pro players and content creators are constantly developing and/or trying to break new decks, and that experimentation fuels new trends and strategies all the while. But given the frequent shifts, it behooves players not to focus on one type of deck or approach, because they'll inevitably face someone who is well-equipped to overcome that kind of assault.
"I like to play everything. I used to only like control decks, where I would be able to outplay my opponents eventually and wear them down," says Ah craaaap. "Now I've been able to grasp all different kinds of archetypes, and all of them are more exciting than the others because there's different ways I can outplay opponents in each of them."
Every pro we spoke with suggested that watching pro players' YouTube videos or streams is one of the best ways to improve, as you can see both what and how they're playing – and it's a good way to keep tabs on the myriad meta shifts, too. "I would say what helped me the most is to watch other people play tournaments," affirms Cloud9's Berin ‘Berin’ Bjelak. "Watch them play, what they do and how they do it, and then try to copy it."
Coltonw83 adds that community leagues and friendly clan battles are other great ways to boost your skills, and that no matter what you play, watching back your own replays is a key part of getting better.
"Every time you lose, you shouldn't just rage and be like, 'I got unlucky.' You should watch the replay and find out what you should have done better," he suggests. Learning to analyse your own replays is a skill that builds over time, and he claims that "not making the same mistakes twice" might be the greatest skill a pro player needs to succeed at the highest level.
Oxalate adds that it's crucial to have a game plan going into each match, rather than solely reacting to opponents in the moment. That said, he suggests that countering opponents' moves is a smarter approach than just constantly making aggressive plays. "Be super patient. Always wait 'til they make a push before you push, until you get to more complex Clash Royale," he affirms. "Every time you start a game, just think, 'What do I need to do to win this game?'"
Double or nothing
Pro players have seen Clash Royale's 1v1 meta evolve and shift over the last couple of years, but 2v2 has largely existed outside of the competitive scope. The Crown Championship and King's Cup were 1v1 events, but alongside the influx of organizations and full teams in the Clash Royale League, Supercell have also made 2v2 a key part of every showdown.
It's not the only mode in the mix – they still play 1v1 matches, and have 1v1 King of the Hill skirmishes, as well. However, mastering 2v2 play could be the difference between racking up wins or watching the playoffs from home this season. It's a different kind of beast from the usual high-level duels, and the need for great communication and smart, complementary deck-building is absolutely key.
"In 2v2, [we've been] scrimming other teams and scrimming internally, and making sure that we get our communication down," says Coltonw83 about how compLexity got ready for the CRL season start. "You can't overcommit, and you need to know who needs to defend what, what cards your team-mate has in hand, and how much elixir they have. Communication becomes a really important aspect."
Clash Royale League teams have an obvious advantage when it comes to communication: they're living in team houses, practicing daily together, and playing side by side on the CRL set. In fact, Ah craaaap says a lot of Immortals' prep time together isn't necessarily focused on playing together, but rather building up chemistry and getting strategically in sync. "We care a lot about that, especially with 2v2s," he says. "If we don't talk to each other, we're going to lose every single time."
It's a much different experience when you're playing on your couch or in bed, while your team-mate is potentially on the other side of the country (or world). Still, Coltonw83 suggests that it's essential to make that connection however possible.
"If you can and you're going to play 2v2 competitively, just getting someone in a voice call, like Discord, is great for that. Just getting in a voice call, communicating – make sure you never double up on Logs or a Goblin Barrel. Something we'll do sometimes is if we have a really aggressive deck that we start the game aggressively with, we'll tell each other, 'I got left, you got right,'" he explains. The goal is to disrupt opponents and try to take advantage of their bad communication.
"Being able to pair attacks together is really nice, because you don't operate as two 1v1 players – you operate as a whole and you build your deck around that. You use your decks to complement each other, to make sure that if he's going with one thing, I go with something that supports it so that one person never has to front all of the elixir. That type of thing is really good for 2v2," Coltonw83 adds. "It's very different from 1v1, and I know a lot of people don't realize that."
Tactical team play like that has already made 2v2 a compelling part of the early Clash Royale League action, and if team-mates continue to devise new techniques and push forward the meta, then it could truly become the defining competitive Clash experience.
