On May 10th, the grand finals of the first professional Heroes league in Korea, HTL, were being held at a small studio of Inven Broadcast. On one side, we had the first professional Korean Heroes team composed primarily of ex-SC2 players, Team No Limit. On the other was a young but promising team, backed by a big-time esports organization, MVP Black. Team No Limit was the clear favorites at the time, but many hoped MVP Black's creative compositions and out-of-the-box strategies would give them the edge. They wanted to see a strong fight and a good competition against the esports veterans. What ensured was a brutal domination by TNL, starting with an unbelievable Abathur backdooring strat and ending with MVP Black struggling hard to fight back.

Five months later, the two teams are meeting again at the Super League Grand Finals, facing off to become the Korean Champions and win a coveted sport at Blizzcon 2015. However, their positions are now completely reversed. After a successful roster change, MVP Black has turned into an unstoppable force, relying on their strong mechanics and innovative compositions to dominate their opponents. They chewed through former champions of various regions one after another, such as Snake, Team Liquid, and Tempo Storm. On the other hand, TNL was recently picked up by a new Chinese sponsor and now compete under the name 'Team DK'. They're entering the grand finals from the lower bracket and are coming in as underdogs after a rough start in this tournament. They've shown difficulty adapting to the new meta, and have been criticized for being too predictable and too passive. They were able to show their true potential and strength when it really mattered, however, as they plowed through the lower bracket and improved their performance against teams like MRR and Snake as time passed. Especially in their last match against Snake, Team DK proved they aren't always predictable through TLV and Tassadar, and playing their hearts out.

With everything on the line and so much at stake, who will come out on top and take the trophy?

Quick Navigation: Map Analysis, Face-to-Face, TLDR

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Looking at the Maps

With the finals being a Best of 7 series, a strong understanding of the map pool is more important than ever. Here are the maps that are favored by each team: (the map win-loss are exclusive to Super League)

Team DK

• Dragon Shire - DK (4-0) / MVP (3-1)
  
• Garden of Terror - DK (3-0) / MVP (1-1)
• Haunted Mines - DK (1-0) / MVP (0-0)

When it comes to Team DK, they have a clear divide between the maps they like and the maps they tend to avoid. They are undefeated when it comes to Dragon Shire and Garden of Terror, maps where they can maximize their strengths of well-timed rotation and merc control. While Dragon Shire is a map MVP Black showed strong preference for, they did end up losing to MRR, and haven't shown as big of a dominance streak as Team DK in recent games. Haunted Mines is an old favorite of Team DK and we caught a glimpse of their old strategy when up against RAVE HotS, where the two undead kings (Arthas and Leoric) joined forces with Tassadar and crushed the hopes of RAVE's Queen of Blade and Banshee Queen.

MVP Black

• Cursed Hollow - DK (2-1) / MVP (3-0)
  
• Infernal Shrines - DK (0-0) / MVP (1-0)
• Sky Temple - DK (1-3) / MVP (1-2)

For MVP Black, they tend to perform equally well on most maps, but there are couple maps where they show very strong compositions recently. While Cursed Hollow is a map also favored by DK, particularly when Abathur is in play, MVP Black's Butcher and Jaina composition has proven to be quite unstoppable thus far, particularly when combined with Uther or Kharazim. Their Tychus and Kharazim plays on Infernal Shrines were also strong against Team Snake. When it comes to Sky Temple, it's not particularly a map MVP Black has performed strongly on in the past, but Team DK has shown extreme weakness with this map, leaving in a more favorable spot.

The Unknown

• Tomb of the Spider Queen - DK (2-1) / MVP (2-0)
  
• Blackheart's Bay - DK (0-1) / MVP (0-0)
• Battlefield of Eternity - DK (0-0) / MVP (1-0)

These are the three maps that may potentially be the deciding factor of the series, if each team manage to secure wins on the maps they are favored in. Both teams have shown good performance in Tomb of the Spider Queen, so it's hard to favor one team over the other. Blackheart's Bay is somewhat of a weak map for Team DK, but MVP Black hasn't shown to be particularly good with it either. When it comes to Battlefield of Eternity, both teams have been fairly even although it is a map where MVP Black's Kharazim/Sonya could shine.

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Face-to-Face

MVP Black is a team that has without doubt one of the best drafting tactics in the world. They have little restrictions on their hero pool thanks to their flex players, KyoCha and Lockdown. They excel at counter-drafting enemy compositions and tend to showcase unorthodox strategies every game, while still having solid mechanical skills and execution in-game. On the other hand, Team DK is known for their strong rotation and great control of the game. Their top-class front line of sCsC and Noblesse make them masters at counter-initiations, especially with their expert aggro and peeling. Unfortunately, they are quite weak against rapid changes in the meta, and their drafts are their weakest point due to their tendency to stick to "comfort" heroes. However, once Team DK goes into their comfort zone, they are often unstoppable as evident by the team's perfect record in Garden of Terror and Dragon Shire.

The match will most likely boil down to how well MVP Black can mess up Team DK's composition with their drafts, and how well prepared Team DK is in their Plan B or C. MVP Black will probably try to deny CrazymovING's Jaina or sCsC's Arthas in their drafts, while Team DK need to be able to answer Merryday's SSS Kharazim, Lockdown's Sonya, or KyoCha's Butcher. It will be particularly interesting to see if Team DK will be able to fend off MVP Black's invincible Kharazim/Sonya/Butcher dive composition.

MVP Black had incredible momentum these past few months, and has remained undefeated ever since their roster change. Can Team DK be the one to put an end to it, or will they fall like the other top teams?

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TLDR;

• Last time the two teams faced in a LAN match, it was at Grand Finals of HTL, the first professional Heroes League in Korea. Back then, Team DK was the clear favorite, and MVP Black was the underdog.
  
• Now, MVP Black is the favorite while Team DK is the challenger.
  
• For MVP Black, Team DK is the last one they need to take down to really prove that they are the No.1 team in Korea
  
• For Team DK, they want to get revenge on MVP Black for knocking them out in the qualifiers of Nexus Cup Kael'thas Season and MSI MGA, denying them international recognition.
  
• As a team of ex-SC2 players, Blizzcon has been a long-time dream for Team DK.
  
• Team DK is more favored in Dragon Shire, Garden of Terror and Haunted Mines. MVP Black is more favored in Cursed Hollow, Infernal Shrines, and Sky Temple.
  
• MVP Black is known for diverse strategies and creative compositions, and have been looking stronger and stronger in the past few weeks. They have the best drafting in the world with wide hero pools.
  
• Team DK is known for strong rotation and control of the game. They excel at aggros and counter-initiation in team fights. They are often very weak during meta shifts due to their weak drafting, but they show their best performance towards the end of each patch.
  
• Team DK's sCsC has so far been invincible on Arthas with an unbelievable 8-0 record. Will he be able to keep it going and become a legend? Or will he fall under the seven sided strike of merryday's Kharazim like countless other warriors?

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r_gg's Heroes Super League Coverage on reddit

• Group B 2nd Match - MRR vs MVP Sky, about MRR
  
• Group A Winner's Match - Team Snake vs MVP Black, on Snake's Oreoman
  
• Group B Winner's Match - Team DK vs MRR, on DK's sCsC
  
• Group A Loser's Match - GameAde Top vs Danawa Joker + History of KR scene
  
• Group B Loser's Match - MVP Sky vs RAVE HotS, on RAVE's 555 nickname
  
• Group A Final Match - Snake vs GameAde TOP
  
• Group B Final Match - MRR vs RAVE HotS
  
• Playoffs - 1st Match - MRR vs MVP Black
  • Match Analysis
• Playoffs - 2nd Match - DK vs Snake
  • Match Analysis
• Winner Bracket Semi-Final - MVP Black vs Snake
  • Match Analysis
• Lower Bracket Semi-Final - DK vs MRR
  • Match Analysis
• Lower Bracket Final - DK vs Snake
  • Match Report