18. Meeple
The worst controller in my opinion, and also in my personal opinion the absolute worst brawler in the game, has to be Meeple. Their only redeeming quality is that their gadgets are still some of the best in the game, but honestly I don’t believe it is enough to make up for how horrendous the rest of their kit is. Ever since the damage nerf, it has completely killed them, as it changed many major interactions that forces them to use an extra ammo to confirm kills, for someone with such a slow reload speed, that is a severe nerf. They also don’t have a lot of HP, range and their super is generally situational, not a lot of brawlers can make the most out of it. They do not suit well into the tank meta at all, and especially horrendous into Charlie who is one of the rising stars in the meta due to the spiders completely eating up their ammo, leaving them completely defenceless. Meeple is just absolutely terrible, and I’m personally glad just because they are one of the cheesiest brawlers ever made and it just made going up against them miserable when they’re meta through the homing attack and broken gadgets.
17. Jessie
While Meeple is in my personal opinion the absolute worst brawler in the game, a case could be made for Jessie being the absolute worst as well, and she absolutely is an F tier brawler right now. Even my ranked randoms are not picking Jessie anymore. If she isn’t good in casuals, then just forget it against experienced players. Her main attack is just so flawed, the projectile speed is terribly slow, giving enemies plenty of time to dodge at max range, and even if it hits, it doesn’t even do that much damage, and good players will know not to group up so that her bounce shots doesn’t even get much value, like at all. Scrappy is also the worst spawner imo, it being stationary means it doesn’t offer anywhere near the pressure other spawnable does, and it doesn’t have an AoE for area denial. Her hypercharge, despite being fast charging really doesn’t get much value anymore, as all it does is waste a bit more ammo than a normal Scrappy. Jessie really is in an awful state, I’ve been saying for years that Shocky needs to be reworked in order to bring her into a healthy state, even though it does absolutely nothing against good players, it only able to punish bad players just isn’t a good design.
16. Chuck
(Why on earth is he a Controller?) Pretty much the only place you could use Chuck is in open Heist maps, where only a few brawlers are able to stop him in his tracks and deal a ton of damage to the safe. Even still, Chuck can still be countered quite hard, if enemies just ignore him and go straight for the safe, Chuck’s inability to defend would let the enemies rip open the safe faster than he could, and more often than not, if you pick Chuck early on, you’re almost guaranteed to get Cordelius’d or Charlie’d. Outside of Heist, Chuck is basically unusable, his main attack is in my opinion the worst in the game, with slow reload speed, mediocre range, a noticeably damage falloff at long range and unusually long cooldown between attacks makes it incredibly inconsistent, and Chuck is just so predictable with where he’s going with his super, the posts are just a signal for enemies to know where they should avoid, and it’s hard for Chuck to hit enemies with his super, which was his main source of damage. He may be getting his hypercharge soon, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to help him whatsoever even in Heist, the fact that Chuck cannot charge it through his trait makes it impossible to even get 1 in game with how awful his main attack is.
15. Emz
Emz has recently received a main attack damage buff, I thought I would’ve done a bit more, but as it turns out, Emz still completely sucks. Most brawlers tend to get countered by either running into their faces, or just keeping a safe distance, one or the other. With Emz, both of those options are able to fully exploit her. She deals pitiful damage at close range, usually only able to land 1 tick of her attack, and her main attack range is not good, so a lot of brawlers can just dance at the edge of her attack, usually only resulting in 1 poison tick or none at all. Emz is supposed to be good into tanks because of her slow trapping them in perfect range for her to deal damage, but I just feel like she gets ran all over even by tanks nowadays because of her slow reload speed, and a lot of them have proven to be too fast for them nowadays. Even though she can knock them back, it’s only a matter of time that they would catch up, and Emz’s hypercharge is one of the worst in the game, the charge rate is too slow and it’s just an glorified version of her gadget. Never pick Emz in ranked.
14. Penny
I feel like this will be a little bit controversial, but the truth is Penny is just nowhere to be seen in competitive. Ever since the slight nerf to her hypercharge charge rate, Penny dropped all the way from S tier to at best C- tier. Penny just really cannot handle a tank meta, her main attack does low damage and her reload speed is slow, although she does have her Salty Barrel gadget to help out a little bit, Penny suffers similar issues to Jessie where experienced players would avoid grouping up, preventing her splash from getting much value. She has always been fully reliant on her super, always compared to a 4th player with the amount of area denial it provides, but even her turret isn’t perfect, being extremely vulnerable to throwers and wall breaks that could expose it and make it a lot easier to take down. Pretty much the only place you can use Penny is in Hot Zone because that’s where her strengths really shine, and even in Hot Zone there’s just too many Berry comps running wild, and that’s horrible for Penny since Berry is a thrower that could take out her cannon in 1 hit, and also a healer that pairs insanely well with tanks. The problem with Penny is that although she is versatile in the sense that she is decently well rounded, the only thing that really stands out is her turret. If she isn’t excelling in the meta, she’s always going to be outclassed.
13. Gale
Ever since Gale had received massive nerfs to his super charge rate and hypercharge charge rate, he just hasn’t been able to recover. I do feel like Gale is a little bit underrated, as he does seem to be one of the very few brawlers with tools to fight back against Alli, bar none the best brawler in the game, as Gale’s Freezing Snow allows him to slow her down, which if you’re not aware, the way Alli works, slows will reduce Alli’s range, also his Twister gadget will knock Alli back, preventing her from abusing her extremely fast unload speed and take him down, plus on some maps such as Kaboom Canyon and Open Zone, Spring Ejector is such a game changer and allows his team for guaranteed map control and mobility tool. Those part of Gale’s kit are just amazing and basically exclusive to him that I think it’ll prevent him from going in the F tier. However, outside of that, Gale just doesn’t cut is as an aggro counter anymore, he takes way too long to charge his super and hypercharge now, he doesn’t really do a lot of damage and his slow projectile speed makes it difficult to contest against anything that isn’t a tank/ assassin. Although Gale’s hypercharge is basically a team wipe button, most of the time it’s impossible to even charge that it just couldn’t make an impact it once did.
12. Otis
Otis is designed to be a complete shut down to aggro brawlers with his super preventing them from doing anything to fight back, and he also amazing in grassy maps with his main attack covering good area and Phat Splatter blocking off choke points well. With Vision Gear, hardly anything is able to sneak past him. Despite this however, Otis just feels pretty meh all around, and I think he just feels too linear comparing to most brawlers, damage inflation has been catching up to him over the years, and Otis having a bit of a cooldown between attacks reduces the damage output he could’ve provided, and Otis’ hypercharge doesn’t really add much to his gameplay, though it is a guaranteed kill with the stun, it doesn’t change anything in terms of what Otis is good against. While Otis can easily shut down many hypercharges with the mute, he is in direct competition with other brawlers that could do that, including Lou, Cordelius and Charlie, all of which having a lot more utility than Otis. Otis to me had always felt rushed in terms of design when he’s first introduced, having incredibly generic star powers, 1 of which being necessary for his kit. I feel like this is what led to his downfall today, and so I believe those are in need of an overhaul, including adding Ink Refills into his base kit.
11. Sandy
Sandy’s super has always been one of the best in the game because of the amount of area control it offers, 9 seconds invisibility on such a large area, and also reveals enemies inside of grasses through his Rude Sands star power allows Sandy to be a force to be reckoned in bushy maps, and Sandy’s fast mobility and quick unload speed allows him to punish a lot of low HP brawlers, and his piercing attacks allows him to do decently into brawlers like Tara and Charlie. The problem with Sandy to me, is that his lack of range is becoming a lot more problematic than ever, Sandy is simply too vulnerable to any kind of opposing control effects since it prevents him from getting close and build up his super, the introduction of brawlers such as Lumi makes it very frustrating for Sandy to sneak around with her ice area, and also Sandy’s lack of damage makes it impossible for him to do well into a lot of tanks and assassins that are rising up in the meta. A year ago, I would’ve said that Sandy can be picked into everything just because even those tank and assassins that Sandy don’t have the damage to deal with, he is still farming his super and hypercharge hard, but as more brawlers get hypercharges, and because Sandy’s hypercharge charge rate was also nerfed, those brawlers would also feed from Sandy now and make a game changing play. Sandy to me had also lost a lot of his utility to Janet, where her Drop the Bass gadget also being able to detect enemies from grasses reduced the value Sandy’s Rude Sands star power could provide especially since she can activate it anytime as opposed to Sandy needing to charge his super, her piercing attacks and greater range enables her to do better into brawlers Sandy is good, and Janet also counters Sandy hard as she had more presence in grasses through the gadget, preventing Sandy from getting close and building his super. I will say, Sandy’s hypercharge is still mechanically broken, but with the charge rate being neutered, usually only able to get 1 per game, and the meta being unfavourable towards him, prevents him from being a strong brawler in the meta.
10. Mr. P
Mr. P is probably the brawler that I’m most unsure of where to rank. When you think about it, this meta should’ve been terrible for him, with his inability to fight back against aggro brawlers, and his hypercharge already being nerfed heavily, I really thought he would’ve been one of the worst brawlers in the game. I do know that he has his fair share of good matchups though, namely some top tier brawlers including Gene, Gus, Bea, Bonnie (kinda) etc, and I suppose he is at least able to get his super through his bad matchups. He is a solid last pick, where his porters can cause a lot of trouble for single shot brawlers or anyone with a slow reload speed, and Mr. P does have excellent range and his bounce shot allows him to take out other deployables behind walls very easily, plus makes him a soft counter to throwers, and he’s also very good into low HP brawlers where he doesn’t need to worry about his low damage. Mr. P also has a lot of presence in bushy maps, as the porters will help detect enemies hiding. I just feel like Mr. P’s main attack is still too weak to make him a consistent option with its low damage, slow projectile and its difficulty to land both hits on the same target makes it nearly impossible to breakthrough his bad matchups, but if you do have brawlers that are able to defend aggro brawlers for him, then Mr. P can slowly but surely take over the game, namely in Gem Grab and Bounty. Only pick him last though.
9. Squeak
Another brawler that greatly excel as a last pick, Squeak’s mainly made it this high because of his gadgets. Ever since the gadget rework, Windup has became such a strong gadget because he can deal 50% extra damage every 14 seconds, allowing him to fight back against most aggro brawlers that would normally hard counter him, combined with the range bonus, this has allowed Squeak to be such a strong brawler inside of Bounty and Knockout since he has the range to contest with them and also have the advantage for area denial as long as the map isn’t completely open. Meanwhile, Residue, despite its long cooldown, remained as a vital option to block off choke points, making him excel in Hot Zone too. Squeak also has a surprising amount of HP which also allows him to survive a long time to maintain control. Despite all of this, his slow reload speed will still leave him vulnerable a lot of the times. His damage, while good, is not enough for him to do anything into aggro brawlers close to him, and his main attack, while good for area denial, still has an attack delay that gives enemies plenty of time to dodge unless Squeak manages to directly land his attacks on the enemy. He also has a mediocre super where it’s just difficult to reliably connect the blobs into enemies, which his hypercharge doesn’t address much. Overall, Squeak is a solid B tier brawler, with a lot of risks to consider, but also very rewarding when played correctly. If the Squeak is playing well, brawlers that struggle against him will literally be unable to move the entire game.
8. Griff
(Why is he considered as a controller?) Griff can shred through even the toughest of brawlers within seconds just because of the damage he deals, especially through his super up close (due to a bug), enemies would get deleted. Inside of a tank heavy meta, Griff is one of the most reliable counters out there thanks to it, and the fact that his Piggy Bank gadget also remove the walls the tanks would need with just a click of a button, that also makes him decent into throwers, and a solid combo with snipers. He isn’t that good into everything else though, the slow unload speed makes his main attack very inconsistent against long range brawlers or brawlers with a lot of mobility, if he misses, he’d be leaving himself wide open for a second. The good thing about Griff though is that he can at least fight back, with Business Resilience star power is one of the best star powers of all time, the passive heal he gets gives him a huge advantage over every brawlers in the game where he doesn’t need to stop attacking to heal and lets him constantly spam his attacks, if he even gets 1 tick of natural heal, it’ll take a long time before enemies are able to get his HP down again, and his hypercharge while slow to charge, is mechanically broken, where the damage it deals is insane and no one can hide behind walls. All of this has allowed Griff to be a very solid brawler despite his inconsistencies.
7. Willow
Willow, despite still being one of the most miserable brawlers ever to play as for me, I don't have a choice but to admit that she is a very good brawler right now. As she has received a lot of HP buffs, Willow is now the highest HP thrower in the game, and not only that she can defend herself a lot better than other throwers. Therefore, Willow is one of the throwers that can get away with being picked first and not easily countered. Willow is also a great 1v1 brawler, with her damage, although slow, is good and consistent, plus her gadgets either being a quick finisher, or she can buy time by diving, and her super, even though there’s still millions of bugs regarding it, at least guarantees her safety against aggro brawlers, and she can use it to get a free goal in Brawl Ball, as well as wasting their ammo before they break free. I also feel like there’s something I’ve underrated for a while now, while I still stand by the fact that her hypercharge is bad since it really doesn’t add anything to her super, comparing to Barley and Berry who requires brawlers standing still and her attacks being much easier to land than Dynamike, Tick, Sprout and Grom, the damage Willow can output is just so much more consistent, thus she makes the use out of the stat bonus she gets so much better than other throwers since all it takes is landing 3 main attacks and that’s enough to do 9k damage and taking out many brawlers. Willow has also benefited from L&L not being as good anymore and Juju recently receiving a nerf that made them more vulnerable than before, now letting Willow’s safety shine much more, so overall she may even be the best thrower in the game right now, something I never thought I’d ever say, and is much better than what I previously give credit for, maybe even an A tier brawler?
6. Amber
Pretty much the only reason why Amber isn’t considered to be an S tier brawler in the game is because her hypercharge is just too slow to charge. Even then, Amber has been one of the most consistent A tier for years now, she’s just so strong mechanically. She can output large sustained damage, have nearly full control of the grass with how her main attack works and her being able to burn grasses prevents enemies from taking advantage of them. Enemies are most likely dead if Amber locks onto the enemy, and even though Amber kind of have the same issue as Emz where she is both vulnerable when enemies are too close to her are too far away, both of Amber’s gadgets can let her fight back, with Dancing Flames dealing heavy damage to any tanks or assassins close by and even able to hit through walls, and the Speed Boost she gets from Fire Starters enabling her to close the gap against long range brawlers, this gadget helping Amber close the gap also mitigates the problem of her hypercharge being slow to build up since she can get in range and hit enemies, and when she gets her hypercharge, not only is it guaranteed map control, if Amber catches 2 enemies at once, she’s almost guaranteed a teamwipe. Amber is just such a well rounded brawler in the game, hardly having any weaknesses that could hold her back, and so she will always be near the top of the meta.
5. Gene
Again, another one of those super consistent brawlers in the meta, Gene will always be one of the most reliable meta picks, and for good reasons. While Gene is not good in 3 out of 6 game modes, the other 3, Gem Grab, Bounty and Knockout, he isn’t just S tier, he’s one of the golden picks. Gene has an excellent kit all around, not only does he have one of the most game changing supers in the game where a pull is basically a guaranteed kill, the way his main attack works allows him to constantly chip enemies at a long range and effortlessly detect enemies in bushes especially with Vision Gear without sacrificing quick burst damage up close. Gene’s Magic Puffs Star Power is also one of the best in the game, the healing overtime it provides really does stack up, allowing him to really excel in passive game modes since he can keep his team alive just by existing. He’s good into snipers (minus Belle) because of Vengeful Spirits guaranteeing damage and possibly helps him confirm kills, he’s good into aggro brawlers because he can use Lamp Blowout and knock them back, as well as farm supers, and he just have such a strong synergy with pretty much every brawler in the game, a lot of them simply just cannot live without him while still being able to hold his own reasonably well. When Gene’s atrocious hypercharge eventually gets a rework someday, I really could see him being a top 5 brawler in the game, but even now he’ll always be around the top 10-20 that out of all the controllers in the game, I recommend maxing him out the most (definitely in between Gene and Amber, but I’m biased as a Gene Co main)
4. Bo
I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be saying considering a year or 2 ago, Bo used to be the bane of my existence, by that I mean my randoms would just pick him everywhere no matter the map, mode and matchup which results in me having no faith of winning when there’s a Bo in my team, Bo right now is in my eyes one of the most criminally underrated brawlers in the game. Even back when Bo was not a meta brawler, he was still a decently well rounded brawler with good damage, it’s just that he’s always outclassed. But now, he got his hypercharge which really did make a much bigger difference than I anticipated especially after the charge rate was buffed. Those extra mines, considering how they are placed gives him even better area denial, and it is now actually difficult to avoid all of them. As a result, Bo is currently one of the best brawlers in Hot Zone, it is easy for Bo to get control of the area and farm hypercharges quite well, and his decent HP and range makes it difficult to push him out. But not only that, he’s also one of the best brawlers in Heist now, his hypercharge deals ridiculous amounts of damage, not only is it guaranteed to consume one invulnerability shield, if all 5 mines exploded on the safe at once, it can go way over the 25% shield limit, which means his team doesn’t need anywhere as much damage to consume the next shield or just destroy the safe, plus it doesn’t matter even if enemies are aware and walk away from the mines, as Bo can just detonate them by himself with Tripwire. His well rounded nature also means that he’s still ok outside of Heist and Hot Zone, if enemies were to get hit by a mine they are almost guaranteed to die, and the fact that if those mines that hit the enemies are deployed when Bo is in his Super Totem lets him cycle a lot better than I anticipated. As such, Bo is still a jack of all trades like he always has been, but he isn’t a master of none anymore and is able to shine brightly in plenty of situations.
3. Finx
If you're asking me inside of the last meta, Finx absolutely would’ve been ranked as #1, the only reason why I think Finx has gone down a bit is because he’s one of the few remaining brawlers without a hypercharge, and i feel like he has a bit of a hard time dealing with the new hypercharges added this update, at least on his own, like Bonnie and Shade. Outside of that however, Finx is honestly one of the hardest brawlers to get countered, sure his main attack feels pretty pathetic on first glance with how inconsistent it is, but he’s got Back to the Finxture gadget to get all his ammo back, and no matter how inconsistent the main attack actually is, being able to burst out 6 ammo in rapid succession lets him rip through even the toughest tanks, and not only that, the teleport allows him to get out of jail for free against basically everything, so not even throwers counter him. His super is also pretty much a free win, it slows enemies projectiles so much and basically making it impossible for most brawlers to even hit anyone in your team, and also making your team’s projectiles so much easier to land, and also boost Finx’s own damage, which basically fixes all my complaints about his main attack. He’s good into tanks, assassins, most mid range brawlers, and he’s even fine into snipers as well because he has a fast move speed, if he farmed super from others he can use it and dodge their attacks very well and 1 hit will make their slow reload speed even more unbearable because of his Hieroglyph Halt star power, giving him a use case in most maps and modes, he’s just that versatile of a brawler.
2. Lou
Lou has taken over the game by storm ever since his huge reload speed buff 7 months ago, and he has since been one of the best brawlers in the game. The main problem which always held him back before is how thin his projectiles are making it very difficult to land attacks consistently, but now that he has a faster reload speed, he can spam out more attack and thus has more opportunities to land attacks, also means more chance to freeze enemies and build up his super. Lou is basically guaranteed to either confirm a kill, get a free super and build up a hypercharge if enemies got stunned because of the amount of damage he can deal and projectiles he can land, and his super has always been one of the best, with a guaranteed map control for 10 seconds, and able to accumulate a huge amount of frost meter on enemies caught inside through his Cryo Syrup gadget and possibly stunning them instantly, and even if they survive, they would find it very difficult to escape the area of frozen syrup. Also, Lou’s Hypothermia star power is one of the best star powers of all time, a maximum of 50% damage reduction is genuinely unfair, you will feel the difference in damage with just 1 snow cone hit, and Lou can build the frost meter through both his main attack and super, and it takes FOREVER for the Frost Meter to deplete, only 5% per second after Lou didn’t hit them for 2 seconds, so even if Lou failed to freeze the enemy, if they’re high in frost meter, they will still have a miserable time fighting back for the next 20 seconds with how much damage they’ve lost and helps Lou’s entire team to stay alive for so much longer. And his hypercharge has been one of the best mechanically since its introduction with its charge rate still being fast, enemies instantly being frozen is almost always a guaranteed kill and Lou’s super charge rate through his main attacks is still fast despite it being nerfed twice that he can cycle to another hypercharge so quickly, confirming another kill. Lou is just insane, pretty much every tank and assassin would find it basically impossible to move around with Lou on the map, and he’s even ok into snipers because not only does he have very long range, he also is able to tank their attacks with his Ice Block gadget. He is also just one of the best shut downs into basically anyone that got a broken hypercharge since they’re guaranteed to feed Lou, and Lou can just stop them in their tracks completely, or at least drain their damage so much that they just won’t have the damage to make the game changing play they normally could’ve. Lou absolutely needs another nerf imo, at least with Hypothermia.
1. Charlie
And finally, the best controller in the game, I predicted that this was going to happen the moment the balance changes were announced, while it was an unpopular opinion at the start, after a few weeks seeing the data from pros scrims and watching Monthly Finals, I’m confident in saying that you’re just flat out wrong if you think that best Controller in the game is anyone but Charlie. That range she got back is the difference maker between her being a niche counterpick and her being the master of everything. Yes, she may not have the insane cooldown like she had when she was first released, and yes her spiders are still nowhere close to their prime, but the range buff means everything, she’s hitting enemies a lot more frequently since there’s less room for enemies to dodge, which also means more damage and super charge per game, plus she can also wall peek a lot better as a result, effectively pushing enemies back. Especially when you consider Charlie still has one of the best supers in the game where enemies trapped in the cocoon is usually dead since they have nothing to fight back, it just made Charlie a lot stronger in every situation. Charlie shuts down every single aggro brawler because she can just trap them in the cocoon, she feasts on snipers because of the spiders, even though they’re a lot weaker, Charlie now has unlimited uses to cause a lot of nuisance, it’s impossible for most mid range brawlers to even push into her now, and now, even brawlers with piercing don’t counter her whatsoever anymore, even with the spiders getting no value against them, Charlie now greatly outranges most of them, and can switch to Personal Space to heal a ton, exploiting most of their low damage and wasting a lot of time. There’s a reason why she’s the most used brawler by far in scrims, 6th highest pick rate with 3rd highest ban rate in EMEA monthly finals, most picked brawler with 6th highest ban rate in East Asia. Literally, nothing works against Charlie now, her versatility gives her tons of use cases in every single mode, and most maps she’s considered to be a golden pick. Even the hypercharge isn’t as bad as people claimed, as the spiders will at least waste a little bit of ammo, and Charlie gets it so fast that she can abuse the stat bonus all the time. In my tier list, I’ve ranked Charlie as the 2nd best brawler in the game, while this was somewhat debatable, Charlie is absolutely a top 5 brawler in the game. I understand that Charlie hasn’t been good for a long time, and that some people, myself included like playing her, but she’s just such an oppressive brawler in general to the point that it’s toxic for the game. We know that some hypercharges will be reworked soon, and I’m certain Charlie’s hypercharge is on the list. When that happens, she absolutely needs a nerf along with it, otherwise she could single handedly ruin the game, just like she did when she was first released.
