Crossroads, a popular BrickBattle game by ROBLOX
BrickBattles are games in which PvP is utilised in order to gain KOs by "bloxxing" (destroying) others. BrickBattles can be fought in teams or can be a free for all battle. The game usually does not end and players may jump in at anytime. This game type can be found throughout ROBLOX in games such as Crossroads (although recent updates have resulted in the change of gameplay and properties of the weapons).
Popularity
Paling in comparison to the popularity of Swordfighting, Brickbattling is very much a niche hobby for a small population of the ROBLOX userbase with only about 50-100 active users. A lot of the user-pool for BBing has come from places like SFOTH, either for a chance to test the waters in another combat environment or just to pass time when an exploiter decides to go trigger-happy on their favourite swordfighting place. Given the expanded inventory of tools (Opposed to SFing's single component of the sword, sometimes with variants), it has opportunity for different strategy. While many users think that it's debatable whether or not Brickbattling is more strategy intensive than SFing, it certainly takes a lot longer to master and is considered by many the most powerful yet hardest fighting style on the site.
Weaponry
Most BrickBattles (especially classic brickbattles) incorporate the use of the older, default ROBLOX weapons, which include the Sword, Rocket, Slingshot, Trowel, Time-Bomb, Superball, and (arguably) Paintball Gun.
Brickbattling Strategies
Sword: On almost all occasions, try as best as possible to avoid using the sword unless you're absolutely sure to go into close range combat. This is to save you from certain rage that you'll bring to yourself via anyone using a rocket, slingshot, etc. A sword should normally be wielded in Brickbattling so that you charge at the opponent, hook around so that his own sword (Should he/she have one) can't reach you, and get the job done. Refrain from any kind of moonwalking because of the fact that a rocket can easily slam you from behind when you're not paying attention. However, the sword will blox an unprepared foe in a second. Most experienced BrickBattlers use the sword lunge to jump higher making their movement more unpredictable for their opponents.
Slingshot: The slingshot's potential is usually underestimated. This is a great anti-swordfighter deterrent because of how fast it saps away health when at a close range so that all of its rapid-fire pellets hit. Apart from this, it works magic in close range combat situations like buildings or rubble. It's also worth noting that this is an amazing anti-rocket trap. Shoot this at low-mid range at a rocket coming to you so that the missile will catch on to one of your pellets and it'll explode harmlessly in mid-air.
Superball: Any brickbattler worth half his/her salt is going to tell you that this weapon is going to be your bread and butter. It's so effective in long-range combat - Not easy by any means to just pick up and use, but once you develop your aim to an extent that you can hit a target with relative accuracy it's a miracle worker. With a default damage of 55, you can expect to get 2-shot kills against others at a regular basis when working in the open field, and it wasn't uncommon for you to one-hit KO, although it should be noted that due to updates this now rarely happens. To aim you must have a good understanding of projectile motion and thereby aim higher that your opponent's head. Mastering this weapon is the brickbattling equivalent of taking your training wheels off. As the great brickbattler link264 once said, "The superball in its speed, precision and usability, is the only real tool among the current set to add any real element of pressure and is what defines the active experience of brickbattling, as we enjoy it today".
Trowel: Again, underestimated - If used properly, can counter all superball attacks below the head, but you can also use it to get to otherwise inaccessible locations. Plant it nearby grounds just out of reach. By jumping normally, you have a makeshift platform to hop on to. It is great for getting away from a player, since the wall disappears automatically after a few seconds so that they can't hop on themselves. However, the best use for the trowel is to block and reflect bombs moving towards you, believe me, it's a life saver. Finally, it should be noted that the trowel is a weapon widely used by the great tacticians of the game, such as for misguiding opponents, blocking trees or planting walls on top of higher grounds for full cover.
Rocket: So many people use it so that they don't realise its real potential in combat. Number one thing to look out for here is the element of surprise. Like, throw it down like a ninja would with a shuriken. A good rule with this is to have it equipped for no more than 2 seconds. Just enough to time to throw down a rocket as close of a range as possible so that you aren't harmed yourself, and then switch to another weapon. There's no point to launching a rocket, waiting for it to hit and then waiting another 7 seconds for the weapon to reload when you can be rushing at your opponent with something like a sword or slingshot. Don't let your enemy take a break, always put a little bit of pressure onto him/her. It is common to blox aggressive players trying to kill you with a sword by waiting for them to approach you at a close range and then switching to the rocket. When using the rocket, it is best to aim at your opponent's legs as even if you miss the blast radius from the impact with the ground will still kill them. The rocket is perhaps the most effective weapon at very close distances and can also change the structure of a destructive environment, such as by destroying trees. Finally, when using the rocket you should pay attention where you aim as it can result to self-kills if you are not careful!
Bomb: Generally, this isn't used much in DIRECT combat. But coupled with the superball, it generates one of the most positively rage-inducing attacks ever invented. Throw down a bomb, wait a while so that the countdown gets shorter, and then launch a superball so that the energy from the superball transfers to the bomb. This equates to a bomb travelling at the speed of a bullet with a huge blast radius to anything around it. Incredible in the open field. You can use this as a deterrent, too. Set it off at a place you don't want your enemy to go (A cavern he could run away to, etc.) and you'll have him pinned. It also has a larger blast radius than the Rocket, and it is a far superior destructive force than the Rocket. You can easily control the direction of the bomb by mastering where to shoot it with your superball. Hit it right in the middile, and it will move in a straight line, hit it to its left side and it will move to the right and vise versa. If you master the bomb, you can also make it jump about 5 studs high by aiming at its top surface. Many brickbattlers use the bomb to jump incredibly high, about 100-200 studs by launching the bomb and jumping at the exact same time. As the bomb is being planted at the head but the player moves upwards, the bomb is stuck for a split second within the player creating an upwards thrust. Finally, you can walk to another base and start dropping bombs. As a bomb is much more powerful than a Rocket Launcher, you can destroy an enemy's base in a matter of seconds.
Brickbattling Groups and Community
Brickbattling is perhaps the only true form of fighting to Roblox not being inspired by Gmod or really any other games. It has a rich history that stems back since the creation of Roblox in 2006. In the early days most games used all or at least a portion of the brickbattling weapons and the community consisted of players regularly fighting at Crossroads. Some of the best brickbattlers of 2006 are: Predator (later changed to Predator.John123 for unknown reasons), Killing_machine_91 and Shedletsky. In 2007 Roblox hosted the Grand Melee tournamentwith user Koopa being the victor of the tournament and becoming the best brickbattler of the year. In 2008 & 2009 there were several great brickbattlers, most notably the banned user and developer HatHelper.
Brickbattle Group
With the introduction of groups in mid 2009 the BrickBattling and Gear-Fighting group "Forge Covenant Group" by user dictad0r (one of HatHelper's students) was perhaps the first group ever to use the brickbattling weapons as its primary weaponry. From the Forge Covenant annexed the BrickBattling group "Elite Stealth Bladez" by user elementalforceblade. The two groups came into conflict resulting in their annihilation. BrickBattle was later demilitarized with the first community group "Prymed" run by oloff and mj10 alongside several ex-ESB members with high roles in the council. In 2011 user Tainteddark won the annual BrickBattling tournament becoming the best BrickBattler of his era. However in 2012 Prymed came to an end due to changes in leadership resulting in the corruption and death of the group.
These events lead to the birth of the community group Brick Kings by DANTEALEX which consisted mostly of ex-ESB and Prymed members. While the group was initially successful it eventually fell to inactivity and was later destroyed at the start of 2014 as the users dictad0r and devMesh (known by the community as Vishal due to his vast number of accounts) kicked everyone below council. In attempt to revive BrickBattle, user Tyler9698, being considered by many the best brickbattler of his era, created the group "Ω". However changes in leadership lead to user junkkid (known as Dan by the community) taking control of the group in 2015. While this was controversial since he was one of the few individuals aware of dictad0r's and Vishal's motives and could have prevented the death of Brick Kings, it should be noted that junkkid was the teacher of several great brick battlers that started in 2014-2015 and was given the group by popular demand. With the help of user odkal, dictad0r was given ownership of Ω by Dan in the summer of 2015, with Vishal joining the council shortly after. The return of dictad0r and Vishal irritated several brickbattlers, caused the death of Ω by inactivity and the rebirth of the again short lived Brick Kings by user uberman360 which fell inactive a couple of months later.
Many thought that the events of 2015 lead to the absolute end of BrickBattle, with most of the veterans of the game quiting and without any active community group to guide the members. In 2016, the few remaining BrickBattlers would gather at Junkkid's Private_Crossroads and there was an average of 10-20 active BrickBattlers throughout the year. It is without a doubt that since the inception of BrickBattle in 2006, 2016 was the most inactive year in the history of the game. Out of this inactivity, a new generation of brick battlers eventually found the game and with the return of an old veteran koke15 the group "Order of BrickBattle" was created which quickly rose to popularity in 2017. In the meantime odkal hosted several tournaments in attempts to find the best Brick Battler, which resulted in 3 victors, bombpow,fozetz and ranaldinio2.
Due to changes in leadership, user ScrewGuests gained control of Order under the surpervision of odkal (now using the account CosmicTheorem) and junkkid (Dan). Due to disagreements and rivalries between odkal and junkkid, Dan left the Order and created the group "BlackRock Monarchy", gathering with him all of his students from 2014 and 2015 alongside other veterans. The conflict between the two groups seemed inevitable and an agreement between odkal and Dan was made where the loser would have to delete his group. However ScrewGuests, afraid of having his group deleted declared peace by surrendering the group to Junkkid and blaming odkal for having the community divided, leading to odkal's exile from both groups.
Eventually, Junkkid gave both groups to Koke15, and in the summer of 2017 Blackrock Monarchy and the Order of Brickbattle organized an FFA tournament. To the surprise and annoyance of many, an old inactive brickbattler from Prymed and outsider to both groups, joeymike which also happened to be one of odkal's friends triumphed as the victor of the tournament. Three days later odkal and junkkid, having settled their differences disbanded both groups in efforts to mark the end of community groups. Odkal then created his military BrickBattling group Olvora while the famous obby maker GFink created the community group "Temple of BrickBattle". In September of 2017, crossroads was shut and it was republished being filtering enabled with all of the weapons being altered and nerfed. User odkal and later on GFink and GloriedRage improved the old brickbattling weapons by localising them, making Brick Battle more dynamic, precise and faster paced. Finally, GFink used his money and fame to expand TOB and revive classic places such as Chaos Cannyon, Crossroads and Doomspire Brickbattle. At the end of 2017, GFink hosted several tournaments all which were won by fozetz and odkal hosted Olvora's first and only tournament which was won by koke15. In 2018, GFink hosted a BrickBattling tournament with a colossal prize of 100k Robux which was won by ranaldinio2.