SDCC 2025: Brawl Stars Takes Fans on a Wild Monorail Ride into the Carnival-themed Starr Park

Festivals & Fan Cons, Launches, B-to-C Events

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Juanita Chavarro Arias

For its first U.S. activation, mobile game Brawl Stars, developed by Supercell, went big. During San Diego Comic-Con, July 24-27, it popped up an amusement park on a floating barge on San Diego Bay, and more than 4,000 fans went through the 45-minute immersive adventure that spanned a simulated monorail ride and the carnival game-filled Starr Park, the setting for matches in Brawl Stars.

“We’re excited to offer it here at San Diego Comic-Con as part of our long-term strategy to enter into the world of live experiences, bringing game worlds to life in the real world for all our players,” Ashley Jex Wagner, head of live experiences at Supercell, told EM on-site. “For us, this is very much a test. We wanted to share this experience with fans and understand what they love about the experience, what they liked, what they didn’t like, and see how it connected with audiences. And there’s no better place, in my opinion, to connect with fans than San Diego Comic-Con.”

On our way into Starr Harbor Station to board the Starr Rail, we were greeted by Fun Enforcers, played by live actors, who made sure we would have a good time, whether we liked it or not. A call and response of “When I say mandatory, you say fun!” got the crowd hyped up, if not a little on edge, too, especially when the two guides got into a sister tiff rife with shouted insults.

We boarded the monorail car, and our friendly but quippy guide led us on a calm 4D tour through Brawl Stars’ animated world, enhanced by large window screens, sounds and lighting effects. The ride was quickly derailed at Frontier World as the game’s mischievous cactus mascot Spike took over the engine room, sending the monorail flying off track. Passengers had to repeatedly tap flashing buttons to power the hypercharge system, and pull brake cords to disengage it.

After a “perfectly planned detour” through Mike’s Mine and a “totally planned explosion” caused by Spike, the tour guide, along with Brawl Stars characters Colt and Shelly, eventually quelled the situation and got the monorail to Starr Park. When the doors opened, opposite the side we had come in, Dory, the head Fun Enforcer, enthusiastically waved us over for introductions to Emory, the well-being enforcer, and to the gem-grab game at Starr Park.

He invited us to collect gems and badge stickers by playing classic carnival games, with a Brawl Stars twist, in themed areas, including Frank’s Hammer Drop at Haunted Haven, a dynamite plunger at Mike’s Mine, a ring toss at Frontier World and a spinning wheel and free grenade cupcakes at Piper’s Pie Shop. At the end, the gems and stickers were redeemable at a prize station, where we received branded gift bags.

“We had people lining up at 7:30 in the morning, and we opened at 11. We sold [2,800] advanced tickets for a $2 charity donation to the San Diego Rescue Mission and sold out in five minutes,” Wagner said. “So the demand for this from our players, and from the wider Comic-Con community, is that they want to try new things. They want to see these game worlds come to life. It’s fun to see how games are starting to enter more into San Diego Comic-Con.”

As part of the larger Comic-Con activation, Brawl Stars teamed up with MrBeast’s Feastables to distribute 20,000 limited-edition Brawl Bars, Feastables’ first-ever co-branded chocolate bars. Plus, beyond Starr Park, Spike’s Street Team ventured out around San Diego, challenging Brawl Stars fans to answer trivia, get a pie to the face or even get a Spike haircut to win special prizes and in-game rewards. We caught up with Spike a few times on our way around the Gaslamp Quarter and Petco Park.

At Spike’s Fountain of Tears pop-up near the convention center, fans could score water bottles of Spike’s own “tears” throughout the weekend. More than 8,000 people went through the OOH activation and helped Spike create mayhem by throwing water balloons at the fountain. A few lucky attendees won a golden ticket to skip the line for entry to Starr Park.

“It’s been very interesting to see Comic-Con evolve over the years, but there are things that always remain true, and that’s the genuine connection that fans have to the shows that they love, but more importantly, the ability to come together as a community and find other people who love the same things, the other fans, the other players, and have a shared experience,” Wagner said. “And that’s really what this is all about.” Partners: GDX Studios, lead agency; Secret Cinema; Future Colossal; Psyop; Stoopid Buddy Stoodios; Unobtainium.