Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the news of Heroes of the Storm. As a new, blooming game, there’s a lot of stuff going on. Don’t worry, we got you covered.
Kharazim, the monk, looks absolutely amazing. His great mobility and attack speed make him a surprisingly good bruiser, while Seven Sided Strike is a great ability to counter warriors. We're not sure how useful he will be as a stand alone healer, but his kit and talents are interesting enough to let us bet he will be a frequently picked Hero in the competitive scene.
We had a chance to test Infernal Shrines on the PTR, and it is a complete madness. The affixes - Arcane, Mortar and Frozen, really make you feel immersed in the Diablo unverse and the Punisher’s obsession with hitting heroes is a cool twist from other summons. Kendric Swissh made a pretty cool video talking about this battleground and the Monk. If you haven’t already looked, you should really check it out.
With the nerfs to Kael’thas, Jaina and Gathering Power as well as the buff to Spell Shield, team compositions based around burst damage have received a pretty big hit. In the last few weeks we had already started to see a trend towards double warrior teams, and our bet is that they will be more common after this patch with the meta changing towards sustained damage compositions. The inclusion of Kharazim could also push double support compositions back into the meta.
Blizzard will be resetting the ranks with the next patch while also merging Team League with Hero League. There is also the inclusion of placement matches which should help to make the matchmaking better and help players achieve the rank they deserve to be.
In addition, Blizzard will be giving away the Hero, Diablo, for FREE as well as other cool prizes to players with a Diablo account on BNet after the patch goes live. Just log in and claim your prize. Yay for free stuff!
Tournaments:
This week we saw the first rounds of the European August Open, where strong teams such as Na’Vi, TeamLiquid, MeetYourMakers, Virtus.pro and Gamers2, alongside lesser known teams like Team Bob?, Huron and Perezoso qualified for the Round of 8, to be played next week. Unfortunately, Fnatic had to face off against TeamLiquid in the Round of 16, where they were eliminated and left out of the Round of 8 for these qualifiers. Understandably, the players weren’t happy with the seeding of the bracket.
China is one of the most important regions for Heroes of the Storm. This past Sunday a champion was crowned for the region. http://wiki.teamliquid.net/heroes/EStar_Gaming proved once again their dominance in the region by winning every series they played and qualifying alongside http://wiki.teamliquid.net/heroes/Team_YL for the World Championship at BlizzCon 2015.
eStar gaming is also one of the teams that will be competing at the http://wiki.teamliquid.net/heroes/Masters_Gaming_Arena_2015 , where they’ll face teams like Tempo Storm, Cloud9 and TeamLiquid in the first global tournament since the game was released. I’ve heard rumours that some eSports website may have something in store for this tournament in the upcoming days -- I wonder what it could be….
This next weekend will be full of competitive action, as both the North American and European August Opens will take place to determine which team advances to the Championships. Make sure you don’t miss all the action!
Group B of OGN’s Heroes of the Storm Super Tournament has begun with a strong start by http://wiki.teamliquid.net/heroes/Team_DK_KR . Next match will be held August 18 between MVP Sky and Team MRR. Heroes of the Storm Super Tournament is part of the World Championship, and it’s a great way to get to know the Korean teams.
This week Blizzard also announced that the Americas Championship will be held this September 19 and 20 in Las Vegas, Nevada! Admission will be completely free and Blizzard has teamed up with Flamingo, one of the most renowned hotels in Vegas to give attendants a special price in their hotel rooms, making this tournament a great opportunity to live the eSports experience and meet your favorite players.
This week hosted a pretty weird series of games where in the middle of a tournament, Cloud9 and COGnitive participated in a troll match. In Game 1, each team drafted the heroes of the other team instead of their own leading to a ridiculous draft. In Game 2, both teams went ARAM (all random, all mid). The commentators were not aware of this at first, which adds to the hilarity and entertainment. Both teams are top of the group and thus had already qualified for the playoffs so the series was irrelevant. Some people thought it was pretty funny, while others though it showed a lack of repect of the tournament and fans by both of the teams. Either way it was a pretty interesting series that didn't really affect other teams. Feel free to share with us your opinion on the matter in the comments.
This week Darkhoru also released yet another WP and Funny Moments video featuring massive saves, incredible turnarounds, and of course, that trademark rubber duck sound.
That’s all we got for this week, but don’t be sad, next week will be even better! Kharazim and the patch are coming this week to the main game, and Infernal Shrines will be released a bit later, so things will get pretty hectic. Have fun with all the changes!
Thanks for putting this together, this was a lot of fun to read!
Small correction: Blizz said that Infernal Shrines isn't being patched into the main game tomorrow:
Please note: Infernal Shrines is available for playtesting on the Public Test Realm, but will not be added to the live version of Heroes of the Storm immediately on patch day.
I feel bad for that tournament. Ideally tournies would be structured in such a way that players always want to win their match, instead of what looks like a matchup where players were incentivized to not give away information about their real play?
On August 18 2015 05:13 MotherFox wrote: I feel bad for that tournament. Ideally tournies would be structured in such a way that players always want to win their match, instead of what looks like a matchup where players were incentivized to not give away information about their real play?
I assume you are referring to the ESL Heroes Major League Americas with C9 and COG? I actually think in this case it was good for the tournament. Yes it wasn't the high level of play you might want to see from some of the best teams in NA, but when else have we seen teams have fun with games? The Twitch VODs with that series have several times the average number of views for the ESL tournament so far because the series got everyone's attention and word spread around about how fun it is to watch. It's good publicity.
Please note: Infernal Shrines is available for playtesting on the Public Test Realm, but will not be added to the live version of Heroes of the Storm immediately on patch day.
On August 18 2015 05:13 MotherFox wrote: I feel bad for that tournament. Ideally tournies would be structured in such a way that players always want to win their match, instead of what looks like a matchup where players were incentivized to not give away information about their real play?
I assume you are referring to the ESL Heroes Major League Americas with C9 and COG? I actually think in this case it was good for the tournament. Yes it wasn't the high level of play you might want to see from some of the best teams in NA, but when else have we seen teams have fun with games? The Twitch VODs with that series have several times the average number of views for the ESL tournament so far because the series got everyone's attention and word spread around about how fun it is to watch. It's good publicity.
I think better publicity would be a tournament structured around sillyness. I mean, I love showmatches--- if that's what is supposed to be going down. While I don't follow heroes tournaments much, if I was watching sc2 qualifiers [because I want to see top-level play] and this kind of stuff went down I'd feel a bit cheated. [Tournaments take a long time to watch, and time is a pretty precious commodity on my end]
Note that I'm criticizing the tournament structure--- not the players themselves. I think tournament structure should effect the type of gameplay desired.
On August 18 2015 04:53 Garsecg wrote: Thanks for putting this together, this was a lot of fun to read!
Small correction: Blizz said that Infernal Shrines isn't being patched into the main game tomorrow:
Please note: Infernal Shrines is available for playtesting on the Public Test Realm, but will not be added to the live version of Heroes of the Storm immediately on patch day.
hm I didn't mind the silly draft ... but they played like crap the first minutes. After that no idea since I didn't bother. Yeah seeing non meta heroes is really cool. But not if the players don't even try then you shouldn't waste your time.
I think the Could9 vs Cog was really cool. Its different and entertaining. Not trying or playing half assed games is disrespect imo, but agreeing on a set of fun rules that keeps the match fair is a-ok for me. edit: im not entirely sold that they tried their best, just assuming the subpar play was merely because the troll draft was effective.
Oh wow, this is an amazing post - I feel scrubly for not have noticed these earlier.
I'm pretty excited for Kharazim, he looks like he really could be a boss. I know there isn't a lot of information on him, but I think he can be a pretty solid solo-support. A lot of his kit allows him to not only heal well, but negate a lot of damage both literally (and figuratively/preemptively). #AoeCleanseDoe
On August 18 2015 09:42 Superbanana wrote: I think the Could9 vs Cog was really cool. Its different and entertaining. Not trying or playing half assed games is disrespect imo, but agreeing on a set of fun rules that keeps the match fair is a-ok for me. edit: im not entirely sold that they tried their best, just assuming the subpar play was merely because the troll draft was effective.
So, if it was prearranged and the casters could explain that to the audience that would be one thing. But as it is it looked like both teams were just playing because they were required to by tournament rules.
On August 18 2015 04:53 Garsecg wrote: Thanks for putting this together, this was a lot of fun to read!
Small correction: Blizz said that Infernal Shrines isn't being patched into the main game tomorrow:
Please note: Infernal Shrines is available for playtesting on the Public Test Realm, but will not be added to the live version of Heroes of the Storm immediately on patch day.
Thank you, fixed it. It is a pretty minor point though :p.
One that I was unaware of, though--- very interesting. Think they are keeping the map back because of snowball concerns?
My quote from the patch notes is before the PTR was released so I have a hard time believing Blizzard ever entertained ideas of letting Infernal Shrines be released to live this week.
On August 18 2015 05:13 MotherFox wrote: I feel bad for that tournament. Ideally tournies would be structured in such a way that players always want to win their match, instead of what looks like a matchup where players were incentivized to not give away information about their real play?
I assume you are referring to the ESL Heroes Major League Americas with C9 and COG? I actually think in this case it was good for the tournament. Yes it wasn't the high level of play you might want to see from some of the best teams in NA, but when else have we seen teams have fun with games? The Twitch VODs with that series have several times the average number of views for the ESL tournament so far because the series got everyone's attention and word spread around about how fun it is to watch. It's good publicity.
It was fun, but most players also did play quite sloppy/casual. Can't blame then, but it wasn't that much better than your average "bad compo" quick match game. I would have liked to see the the players going full HAM with the heroes they got.
I hope this will going to be a tradition though. Way better to see fun games instead of forfeighted matches. Also for the teams: I bet their sponsors love the extra visibility instead of a "no show".
What I'd like to see next time:
Monodrafts: Both teams can ban and then pick a hero role and may choose only heroes of that role (i.e. all specialists, all supports etc.)
(my team used to rock "all support" quick match 5 stacks we occasionally did for fun back in the day. Most enemys were laughing at us only for the first minutes and then quickly became very frustrated ^_^)
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0XMV334.jpg)
