How to draft in Brawl Stars Ranked

A Ranked match is often decided before anyone moves. This guide walks through the draft the way the Smart Draft assistant reads it: the pick order, what each pick should do, how roles counter each other, and why the map can flip all of it.

The pick order: 1-2-2-1-1-2

Ranked drafts follow a 1-2-2-1-1-2 order. One team makes pick 1, the other answers with picks 2 and 3, the first team takes picks 4 and 5, and the second team closes with pick 6. If your team has first pick, your brawlers come from picks 1, 4 and 5; otherwise you get picks 2, 3 and 6.

The order creates a trade between strength and information. The first pick is made blind, so it has to be strong without knowing anything about the enemy. The last pick sees five brawlers and can counter the whole enemy lineup. Everything in between is a mix of the two: claim strength early, react late.

Bans come first

When your draft has a ban phase, plan the bans around the pick order. The assistant follows two simple rules:

The enemy has first pick: ban the strongest meta brawlers. Whatever you leave open, they can take with pick 1.
Your team has first pick: decide what you'll open with, then ban what counters it.

Some brawlers are only worth banning on certain maps or modes. From the author's notes:

Shade: banned specifically on closed maps, where he's strong.
Chuck: played almost only in Heist for safe damage — his ban rate is noticeably higher there too.

What each pick should do

Pick 1: the strongest safe brawler

Nothing is known about the enemy yet, so pick 1 should be a top-of-the-meta brawler without an obvious hard counter on this map. The assistant never opens with an assassin or a thrower, because both are easy to punish once they're shown.

Picks 2 and 3: strength plus a first reaction

The second team now knows one enemy brawler. Pick 2 is still mostly about meta strength, but it can start answering pick 1. Pick 3 comes straight after, so use it to fill whatever role your lineup is missing.

Picks 4 and 5: the first real counters

The first team has now seen two enemy picks. Pick 4 is the first true counter-pick, and pick 5 weighs everything the enemy has shown so far to close the last gap in your lineup.

Pick 6: the pure counter

The last pick sees the whole enemy lineup and can't be answered. This is where situational brawlers become safe, throwers above all: nobody is left to punish them.

At every step, remember that the enemy may still have picks left. A brawler that looks great now can be answered by their next pick, and the assistant warns you about the most likely answer.

Roles and how they counter each other

Smart Draft sorts brawlers into nine roles: antitank, tank, assassin, control, support, sniper, thrower, damage and gem carry. A brawler can hold more than one. The key relationships:

Antitanks beat both tanks and assassins, anything that has to come close.
Tanks beat control brawlers, and assassins can't counter them.
Assassins punish fragile backliners, and an all-control enemy lineup is their best case, but they can't beat antitanks or tanks.
Throwers hit antitanks and control brawlers from behind walls, but they're fragile, so they're a last-pick role.

The model also tracks the role a brawler is countered as, which isn't always the role it's played as. Willow, for example, plays like a thrower but gets countered like an antitank. And raw power can override the chart: a top-of-the-meta brawler can win a matchup it should lose on paper. The author's note on Damian sums it up: this brawler breaks role logic through raw power. The roles guide covers each role in detail.

The map changes everything

Every Ranked map is closed, medium or open, and the assistant scores picks differently on each.

Closed maps (lots of walls, short sightlines): point-blank burst damage is at its best, and brawlers with fixed ranged damage underperform.
Medium maps: the reverse. Fixed ranged damage is strong and point-blank burst loses value.
Open maps (long sightlines): range pays off and tanks struggle to close the distance; on some maps tanks are ruled out entirely.

Cover matters within a map too. Bushy maps help assassins sneak in. And once the enemy drafts a wall-breaker, walls and bushes stop being a safe place: approach routes get exposed and anyone relying on cover loses value. The mode guides list the current map pool with the type of every map.

Buffies, Hypercharges and your own account

A tier assumes a complete build. Brawlers marked “needs Buffies” on the tier list are placed with their Buffies equipped; with only some of them, they play below their tier, and a missing Hypercharge costs strength too.

If you enter your player tag in the app, the assistant recommends your own pick only from brawlers you've fully built: power 11, star power, gadget and Hypercharge. For your teammates' slots it still suggests the strongest option overall, because it can't see their accounts.

Mistakes the assistant warns about

Opening the draft with an assassin or a thrower.
Picking a thrower into an assassin that's already on the enemy team.
Taking a brawler that two enemy picks already counter. One bad matchup can be played around; two usually can't.
Drafting a tank onto a map where tanks can't reach anyone.
Leaving a top-meta brawler unbanned when the enemy has first pick.
Forgetting that the enemy still has picks left to answer yours.

Below Mythic and from Mythic up

The assistant has two modes. Below Mythic, it lists the best picks for the selected mode and map. From Mythic upward, it switches to the full pick-by-pick draft with bans, where every suggestion responds to what both teams have already picked.

Try it in your next Ranked game

Last updated 16 October 2026