On Wednesday morning, 28 October 2026, Garena officially released one of the highly anticipated games in the country, Free Fire India. Just after the release, drama started in the Indian gaming community as fans accused Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) of allegedly mocking Free Fire India in one of its reels, writing the caption: “Cartoon Waale Games ❌ BGMI ✅”.
Did BGMI just troll Free Fire India by calling it a “cartoon game”?
Battlegrounds Mobile India uploaded a reel on its Instagram account around 9:30 AM IST on October 28. The main character in the video was playing a game on his phone. His phone cover had the word “Free” and three fire emojis on it. The caption read, “Cartoon Waale Games ❌ BGMI ✅,” followed by a message saying BGMI has real action and real gameplay, asking players to leave cartoon games and play BGMI.
A post shared by BGMI: BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA (@battlegroundsmobilein_official)
People quickly linked this to Free Fire India because of the word “Free” and the fire emojis. Players from rival games have also called Free Fire a “cartoon game” before. This kind of trolling is common among gaming communities, where fans use different names to make fun of rival games.
The timing was also important, as on the same day, around 9:30 AM IST, Garena officially released Free Fire India in the country.
However, this is not the first time fans have accused BGMI of mocking Free Fire. During the Grand Finals of the FFMIC 2026 Fall, BGMI official casters Salty, Icybaby, iSuperjonny, and nekrouu also allegedly trolled Free Fire MAX at that time, with nekrouu saying, “The real game is happening here at BMSD 2026. Come here.” Notably, both events occurred simultaneously.
Most importantly, this could be a normal promotion video of BGMI that they just created with a unique idea. However, this started a war in the Indian mobile gaming community. Both sides of players are trolling each other with memes, reels, and comments on social media.
