Interpreting OKX's Latest IEO Project Brawlers: A Self-Developed Game by the WAX Team, Where "Farmers" Turn into Fighters
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Interpreting OKX's Latest IEO Project Brawlers: A Self-Developed Game by the WAX Team, Where "Farmers" Turn into Fighters
BBrawlers: A WAX team-developed, noisiest P2E game in the Metaverse.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy 0xPing, TechFlow
Who is the number one gaming blockchain?
If judged solely by user count, WAX might be the undisputed champion.
Thanks to games like Farmers World, Splinterlands, and Alien Worlds, WAX has long dominated the DappRadar rankings.
WAX, short for Worldwide Asset eXchange, is built on a modified EOS architecture and inherits the Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, with a theoretical TPS exceeding 3,000.
Since its inception, WAX has focused exclusively on NFTs and blockchain gaming, a direction closely tied to its core leadership. Jonathan Yantis, WAX's current COO, founded Ultima Online in 1998—an online marketplace enabling players to trade in-game assets—a remarkably forward-thinking concept at the time. WAX CEO William Quigley was previously a co-founder of Tether. Additionally, Frederic Chesnais, CEO of Atari—the legendary game developer behind Tetris—has joined WAX’s advisory board.
At the recent Game Developers Conference held in San Francisco in 2022, WAX Studios made a high-profile debut of its self-developed professional wrestling-themed game—Blockchain Brawlers.
On March 25, Blockchain Brawlers announced it would launch via OKX through Jumpstart mining. The mining event featured two token pools: OKB and WAXP. Users could stake either token to earn BRWL.
March 30—today—marks the official launch of the Blockchain Brawlers game. OKX has concluded the mining phase, and the BRWL token is now listed on OKX.
Why did OKX choose this game for its Jumpstart program?
From OKX’s perspective, the game offers three key highlights:
1. Celebrity appeal: Ric Flair, one of the most iconic figures in American boxing history and a 21-time world wrestling champion, publicly endorsed Blockchain Brawlers. A custom championship NFT featuring Ric Flair has already been minted;
2. Proven team experience: The development team behind the scenes—WAX blockchain—has previously launched several well-known blockchain gaming projects such as Alien Worlds and Farmers World. Moreover, WAX hosts a relatively rich gaming ecosystem with over 180 NFT-based game applications. Blockchain Brawlers is an exclusive project developed directly by the WAX team;
3. Shift in design philosophy: Most current blockchain games emphasize financial incentives while often neglecting core gameplay elements like fun and engagement. In contrast, Blockchain Brawlers aims to return to the essence of gaming, adopting a strategy that prioritizes entertainment over yield—setting it apart from many peers in the space.
Furthermore, looking at recent Jumpstart projects, OKX appears to be strategically positioning itself within the Metaverse ecosystem.
So how does Blockchain Brawlers actually play?
Farmers Turn to Fighting
“The loudest P2E game in the Metaverse!”
This is how many overseas P2E enthusiasts describe the game. Given its combat theme, it superficially resembles a royal rumble-style multiplayer wrestling battle game—but this is a major misconception. At its core, the game follows a “buy-character-farm-equip-mine” model very similar to Farmers World. While PVP combat offers substantial rewards, it constitutes only a small portion of overall gameplay.
The game design is straightforward: it almost entirely excludes free-to-play users. Every player must own a permanently held "Brawler" NFT and a "Ring" (fighting arena) to begin playing.
In addition to purchasing brawlers on the market, players can craft their own using starter items. To build a powerful team of fighters, you’ll need the in-game token BRWL.
A booster pack containing both a Brawler and Ring had an initial price of $350 in February. Its current secondary market price stands at 5,715 WAX ($2,067.69). The lowest retail price for common Brawler NFTs is 2,920 WAX ($1,058.21), and for common Ring NFTs it's 1,025 WAX ($374.23). This means the basic entry cost currently ranges between approximately $1,400 and $2,000. There’s also optional gear NFTs offering additional income, starting at a minimum price of 1,200 WAX ($450).
Game Mechanics
In the core PVE mode, players must select three components per battle:
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Brawlers: Influences the ratio of BRWL (token) to Gold (NFT) earnings. Rare brawlers generate more BRWL, while common ones yield more Gold.
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Ring: Determines the number of brawlers that can participate simultaneously. Rarer rings allow more brawlers on the field at once, starting at one.
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Gear: Optional. Rare gear yields more BRWL; common gear yields more Gold.
BRWL is the in-game token earned by brawlers through arena battles. Higher rarity brawlers earn more BRWL tokens. Equipping different tiers of gear—such as copper knuckles, baseball bats, or steel chairs—increases BRWL rewards.
BRWL has strong utility within the game. For example, it can be used to heal your wrestlers after matches, craft better rings, stronger brawlers, and even more extravagant equipment.
In addition to earning BRWL tokens, players may receive Gold NFTs as post-match rewards. Gold is also required for creating, healing, and performing special upgrades on brawlers.
Details about the PVP mode have not yet been released, but the developers emphasize that victory will require flexible human-driven strategies. Winners will receive generous prize pools along with champion ring and gear rewards.
How Sustainable Is Play-to-Earn?
To address common inflation and devaluation issues in P2E economies, the WAX team has proposed several improvements:
1. No free entry—this design inherently prevents bot accounts from flooding the system and disrupting economic balance.
2. Repetitive bot-like gameplay yields diminishing returns over time, reducing incentives for automated farming.
3. During early testing, the team monitored over 20 distinct player behavior patterns, enabling more responsive adjustments to reward distribution.
4. Characters have specialized roles: common brawlers excel at mining Gold NFTs, rare ones at earning BRWL. The ratio between them is 1:2, and character and gear progression requires both resources.
5. A more refined NFT wear-and-tear cycle mechanism
Reflecting on past models, the Blockchain Brawlers team believes P2E mechanics must impose certain limits on earning frequency to prevent declining revenues and eventual economic collapse.
They’ve adopted a smarter approach than previous projects. For instance, Thetan Arena last year capped total and daily earning battles for NFT heroes to control inflation—a move criticized by analysts for undermining NFT value, making ROI nearly impossible and pushing players toward non-NFT characters.
Blockchain Brawlers takes a more nuanced approach: instead of limiting the hero NFTs themselves—which preserves their standalone utility, tradability, and PFP collectibility—it imposes usage limits on supporting items: both the "Ring" and "Gear" have a maximum of 250 uses, regardless of rarity.
Team and Funding Background
Blockchain Brawlers is developed by WAX Game Studios, a newly formed team under the renowned WAX blockchain. Michael Rubinelli, who joined in January, previously worked at major gaming companies including EA and Take-Two, and served as CEO of Australian esports media outlet Esports Mogul. His experience is expected to bring valuable insights into game project management and operations.
WAX is known for its blockchain games, hosting multiple titles like Splinterlands, Farmers World, and Alien Worlds—all consistently ranking among the most active on DappRadar. The volume of NFT transactions on the chain is also impressive. Farmers World alone has seen over four million transactions totaling $200 million.
WAX has launched multiple blockchain games with similar mechanics, all sharing a common trait: they maintain healthy return and economic cycles in early stages, offering early adopters reliable ROI guarantees (note: the game officially launched on March 30).
Buyers of the initial blind box NFT packs released in February have already seen gains of 4–5x within just over a month. The Discord community is highly active, with over 29,000 members. The market momentum is strong, and the game may replicate the success of Farmers World, potentially lasting longer thanks to improved game design.
Understanding the Gold/BRWL/NFT Secondary Market and Redemption Mechanism
How Long to Break Even on Gold/BRWL?
Currently, the development team has not set any official redemption prices or liquidity pools. They intend for market dynamics to determine the WAX value of Gold and BRWL, so no precise break-even calculation is possible yet. However, since Gold is easier to obtain than BRWL, BRWL supply in the secondary market is expected to remain significantly lower than Gold over time.
The only available clue regarding cost recovery comes from a document released on the official website on February 14. The developers hypothetically stated: “If you start with an epic-tier brawler, intensive gameplay for around 80 days would be needed to assemble a full roster of eight top-tier brawlers and a premium ring. Starting with common brawlers, it would take over six months of intensive play to achieve the same result.”
This suggests the game’s fundamental design still favors high-spending players. The claimed balance of diverse character strengths and strategic combinations may ultimately be disrupted in the secondary market.
Redemption Mechanism: AtomicHub / Alcor DEX
There are two primary redemption mechanisms:
First, AtomicHub—the NFT secondary marketplace on the WAX chain—where various NFTs are traded using WAX as currency. Brawlers, Gear, Rings, and Gold are all NFTs tradable here for WAX;
Second, Alcor DEX, a decentralized exchange on the WAX chain, where a trading pair between BRWL and WAX will be launched. On centralized exchanges, BRWL will go live on OKX on March 30.
Outlook and Concerns
A major blockchain gaming platform with built-in traffic—WAX—is launching another large-scale P2E game. This time with a development team possessing stronger operational expertise, and having reflected on past flaws in economic design, aiming to deliver a more sustainable, community-focused blockchain game. The current level of NFT fundraising and trading activity is rare among today’s GameFi NFT projects.
Unlike many projects with unclear development timelines, Blockchain Brawlers has a clearly defined launch date—March 30—making it one of the few new blockchain games going live recently, potentially repositioning WAX back into the market spotlight.
One minor concern is that in terms of gameplay innovation, Blockchain Brawlers doesn’t significantly surpass titles like Farmers World or Axie Infinity. At its core, the game still primarily derives player motivation and enjoyment from monetary gains.
Whether this model can replicate the massive success of 2021 in the evolving narrative landscape of 2022 remains to be seen. It will depend heavily on whether actual in-game earnings prove sufficiently robust and attractive—especially given emerging competitors like STEPN, which offer both entertainment and P2E mechanics. Additionally, while the team has provided extensive details about NFTs, there remain opacity issues around tokenomics—including total supply and demand for BRWL, various tiers of brawlers, rings, crafting mechanics, external allocations, and specific hero earning capacities. WAX has disclosed little data in these areas. For now, closely monitoring the initial launch information may be the safest approach.
Overall, at a time when crypto market confidence is gradually recovering in late March, launching a nostalgic, classic farm-and-earn blockchain game feels perfectly timed.
Finally, as a WAX observer, we applaud OKX for bringing us this “loudest P2E game in the Metaverse.” The market needs a bit more noise.
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