You may have seen people glued to their phones in the hallways, using peculiar terms such as “Hog cycle,” “Sneaky golem in the pocket” or even “elixir counting.” These phrases all come from the mobile game Clash Royale, the iPhone 2016 game of the year developed by Supercell, which has recently been making waves in the BVH community.
Clash Royale is a fast paced mobile strategy game where players can battle 1v1s or 2v2s with a deck of 8 cards and has the BVH community trapped in a headlock. At face value, the premise of the game is simple: destroy your opponent’s towers while defending your own. However, with over 120 unique cards with different abilities to unlock, countless deck combinations and game mechanics to master, it is no wonder students are hooked on battling for trophies and perfecting their strategies.
Everywhere you turn during nutrition break and lunch, you will most likely see a group of friends playing Clash Royale, either watching each other play or playing against each other. Sophomore, Logan Downey, is one of these people, spending his lunches with the recently created Clash Royale club or hanging out with his friends. Downey explains why he continues to play the game.
“I enjoy playing Clash Royale because of its simple mechanics and the mental challenge it puts on me,” Downey said. “It also gives me something fun to do, like I could play in between classes.”
The resurgence of Clash Royale is not just about nostalgia, in fact, recent updates have attracted new users and brought back longtime players. For example, freshman Abraham Dominguez started playing again recently, being a part of the vast majority of players who returned to the game. Dominguez comments on how the changes to the game as well as his friends’ persuasion influenced him to start playing again.
“I started playing Clash Royale in either fifth or sixth grade, and I stopped playing for a while.” Dominguez said. “But after some recent good updates such as the adding of new arenas and seeing my friends playing a lot of [Clash Royale] and even pushing me a bit to play, I started playing again.”
For some students, the Clash Royale grind does not end at nutrition breaks or lunches. Students are able to get a game or two in during breaks within the classroom. Sophomore Elijah West, admits that he does play Clash Royale during class, with permission of his teachers during downtime in class.
“The best way to describe [Clash Royale] is that it prevents boredom. During class, I usually play during break times with my friends and it kind of helps me get locked in for the rest of class,” West said.
Outside the chaos of the arena, Clash Royale becomes a way for students to connect with each other. It is a community that has brought students together. People can talk about different aspects of the game like strategies. Downey explains how playing Clash Royale has helped him connect more with his friends.
“[Clash Royale] is something that I can connect with other people with, especially with my friends,” Downey said. “We can talk for a long time about different references, jokes, cards and strategies.”
Clash Royale has certainly made an impact this semester at BVH. But will it follow the same pattern as the other games that hooked students before, such as Block Blast or Brawl Stars, and eventually fade away? Dominguez comments on how quickly games rise and fall in popularity among students, and how Clash Royale fits into that.
“There is always some new game that quickly takes over in popularity, one example being Supercell’s Brawl Stars, and no one really plays that anymore,” Dominguez said. “I think [Clash Royale’s popularity] is eventually going to drop but still people will continue to play just like previous trending games.”
Whether Clash Royale is just a short-lived fad within the student body or a long lived staple in pop culture, one thing is for certain, Clash Royale has brought BVH’s students together through strategy, competition and a bit of laughter.
“My friends and I play Clash Royale a lot, and I hope it stays a trend for much longer, even if we are on our phones more, it feels as if we are more connected like that,” West said.
