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I thought Battle of Balls is a chill game. It’s not.
Please don’t let me see those cookie balls with unhinged eyes again
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
This week, I continued my exploration of games featuring balls. Our resident esports enthusiast Esther suggested Battle of Balls, a title that I had never heard of -- but was apparently played by more than 300 million people around the world at one point.
Created by China’s Giant Interactive, the game’s apparently also an esports title. According to research firm Newzoo, some 3.6 million people -- that’s four times the population of San Francisco -- tuned in for the 2016 Battle of Balls Global Final online.
Why not, I thought. It seemed like a relaxed game where all you need to do is to eat balls to grow bigger so you can eat bigger balls played by other gamers. No shooting, no face to face combat. I’ve played Katamari -- it’s similar and I loved it. So how bad could this be?
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Very bad, it turns out.
Actually, the first game was fine. In fact, I easily won just by going with the most obvious tactic: Grow to a certain size, then split myself up into smaller balls so I can go around eating more balls at the same time. It was an effective strategy: I ended up weighing far heavier than anyone else.
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That easy triumph went to my head. And forever will I regret.
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