The Re-ordering of Europe

In the weeks leading up to Blizzcon, it was widely rumored that teams would undergo massive roster changes following the conclusion of Blizzard’s first official Heroes of the Storm Championship. These rumors proved to be true. Several teams swapped players, and the effects of these changes were on full display at Dreamhack. Na’Vi and Team Dignitas represented Europe at Blizzcon and were considered the premier teams of Europe throughout the summer. Unfortunately, Na’Vi is still reassembling their team and were unable to compete. Team Dignitas, however, were able to play but fell short in the semi-finals. This tournament, the usurpers of the European crown were Team Liquid and Fnatic.

For most of 2015, Team Liquid was the undisputed king of the European scene. Armed with solid mechanics, aggressive strategies and game-breaking pocket picks, Team Liquid crushed the other European teams so thoroughly and so consistently that many considered them to be one of the only true competitors for the global crown at Blizzcon. Then the wheels came off. As Blizzard added and altered Heroes during the summer, a meta evolved that strongly disfavored Team Liquid’s aggressive and avant-garde play style. Some of Team Liquid’s players were left exposed. Other European teams, such as Na’Vi and Team Dignitas, began leaving Team Liquid in the dust. After Blizzcon, Team Liquid shed players Blackscorp, Falcon and GranPkt, and added Cris, Lowell and GerdomHerd. It was generally presumed that this new lineup would be weaker in the short term while they still developed comradery and a new play style. However, Team Liquid immediately served notice upon Europe that they were still relevant by winning the Fragbite Masters tournament.

The team that they beat at Fragbite? The other finalist at Dreamhack: Fnatic. Perhaps no team has undergone as many roster changes as Fnatic in 2015. Not content with mediocrity, Fnatic kept reshuffling the deck in search of success. In fact, not one of the original team members remains. Breez and Mene, who both joined at the end of July, are the two oldest members. It seems that Fnatic may have finally found its success in spades. The new lineup of Breez, Mene, Quackniix, Smexystyle, and trial player Shad showed tremendous promise at Fragbite with a second place finish against Team Liquid. After their strong performance, many considered them to be a top team in Europe and one of the favorites to win Dreamhack.



Both Team Liquid and Fnatic were placed into Group B. Their match in the group stages foreshadowed what would play out in the finals. Fnatic’s shotcalling, rotations and overall strategic play was consistently better than Team Liquid’s, earning a quick 2-0 sweep in the group stage. Team Liquid seemed almost tentative at times, often slow to rotate and very hesitant to engage even in favorable situations.

These faults continued to plague Team Liquid in their semi-final series against Team Dignitas. In fact, the 3-1 series score belies how close this series actually was. Arguably, Team Liquid did not earn their win so much as Team Dignitas found a way to lose. This series was a tale of two Core rushes. With the score knotted up at 1-1, Team Dignitas seized a tremendous advantage on Sky Temple when they capped the boss and killed off Team Liquid’s tank player. The bottom keep easily fell. With a level 20 talent advantage, Team Dignitas moved in for the kill and dived the Core with their boss all but dead even though mid temple was up. Team Liquid respawned, wiping Team Dignitas 5-0 at the Core and rushing the opposing Core for the win. This loss was palpably crushing for Team Dignitas. In the final game on Infernal Shrines, Team Liquid made its own questionable Core dive behind a mortar punisher. Team Liquid dropped the enemy Core to 25%, losing four Heroes in the process. Cris’s Leoric ghost remained at the Team Dignitas Core, while LucifroN’s Muradin charged the Team Dignitas core from his own base. Snitch’s Falstad stayed behind to guard Team Dignitas’ Core and the rest of his team charged Team Liquid Core. LucifroN arrived at Dignitas’s base and dodged Snitch’s Mighty Gust with a well-timed and well-placed Dwarf Toss. In a panic, the rest of Team Dignitas attempted to hearthstone back to base, but it was too late. Leoric and Muradin finished off the Core and secured the series victory.




Fnatic, on the other hand, had a much more solid showing in the semifinals. After dropping the first game due to some sloppy early overextensions, Fnatic proceeded to roll mYinsanity in three straight games. They led with a crushing victory in Game 2 on Infernal Shrines where Fnatic out-killed mYinsanity 9-0. Game 3 on Tomb of the Spider Queen was one of the most epic games of the entire tournament. Despite Fnatic out-killing mYinsanity 15-5, the game remained very close from start to finish, going a full 28 minutes before Fnatic inflicted a 5-0 team wipe to close the game out. In the final game on Cursed Hollow, mYinsanity curiously chose Stitches as its lone warrior, taking Gorge to try and pick off Fnatic’s Heroes. However, Fnatic beautifully countered with their Tyrael diving in with El’Druin’s Might and dropping Sanctification to force hard engagements. In these fights, Fnatic’s burly composition of Sonya, Tyrael, Kharazim (with Seven Sided Strike), Kael’thas, and Abathur had a major advantage over the softer composition of Stitches, Thrall, Falstad, Uther, and Tassadar. Time after time, Fnatic’s frontline dominated team fights, ultimately carrying them to victory and a rematch with Team Liquid in the finals.

Game 1 of the finals took place on Cursed Hollow. Team Liquid fielded Falstad, ETC, Sylvanas, Kharazim, and Thrall, while Fnatic picked up Kael’thas, Tyrael, Lt. Morales, Sonya, and Tassadar. Team Liquid took an early lead by seizing outer towers, but Fnatic quickly caught up in the race to level 10 with some aggressive rotations in which they picked off VortiX’s Falstad twice and GerdomHerd’s Kharazim once. Strangely, Team Liquid ceded the first curse of the game to Fnatic despite holding a full level lead and being in a decent position to force an engagement. However, Fnatic was unable to capitalize on the curse and loss a teamfight 2-0 as the curse ended. Fnatic then started to take control of the mid-late game with superior team fight initiation, picking off Team Liquid’s Heroes early and keeping Team Liquid on its back foot. Despite turning the tides and earning themselves a full level lead, Fnatic was unable to strike a decisive blow. Then, right before Fnatic hit level 20, Team Liquid turned around a bad engagement and scored a 2-0 team fight victory thanks to Lowell’s Thrall. This victory saved Team Liquid’s remaining two keeps and allowed Team Liquid to continue to hang around. The game was ultimately decided when Team Liquid tried to sneak in a risky two-man boss capture. Fnatic sniffed it out, but Team Liquid was able to seize the boss anyway with a timely Mighty Gust from Falstad. The boss destroyed Fnatic’s bottom keep and exposed their Core. In a moment of pure cheekiness, Team Liquid used VortiX’s Falstad to bait Fnatic towards the Team Liquid base while the rest of Team Liquid dived Fnatic’s Core and assassinated it. Based on play, it seemed unlikely that Team Liquid was going to win Game 1 without resorting to some kind of cheese-ridden play. Fnatic was in control for most of the game and was generally dictating the pace of the game before they fell for the last-ditch bait.



The control exerted by Fnatic in Game 1 continued into Game 2 on Battlefield of Eternity, sporting a triple warrior comp of ETC, Tyrael, Sonya, Valla, and Tyrande. Fnatic dominated Team Liquid’s squishier lineup of Johanna, Kael’thas, Kharazim, Falstad, and Uther. The game turned when Team Liquid ceded the second immortal to Fnatic despite holding a level advantage. This allowed Fnatic to hit level 10 at about the same time as Team Liquid. Team Liquid again hesitated to force a strong team fight during the third immortal phase, instead opting to cede another immortal to Fnatic. This move proved costly for Team Liquid, as Fnatic took a Keep and scored three kills against Team Liquid. The game was finally decided following the fourth immortal phase, where Team Liquid walked into an ambush; one clutch Powerslide into a Mosh Pit by Breez’s ETC sealed the game. Unlike Game 1, Team Liquid’s failure to act on their opportunities cost them dearly.

Team Liquid’s overall poor decision-making and hesitant play continued to haunt them in Game 3. Taking place on Garden of Terror, levels and structures stayed very even heading into the late game. Both teams hit 16 at about the same time. Then Fnatic started to pull away when it was able to secure more seeds than Team Liquid during a night phase. This gave Fnatic two Garden Terrors to Team Liquid’s one. This resulted in Fnatic taking the first Keep of the game and being able to keep pressure on Team Liquid. Team Liquid was unable to recapture their momentum, even with a Garden Terror being seized during the subsequent night phase. Suddenly, Team Liquid made the most bizarre (and quite possibly the worst) call of the tournament. With another night phase about to begin, Team Liquid tried once more to bait Fnatic with Falstad to allow the rest of the team to dive the keep like they did in Game 1. This time, the tactic failed spectacularly. First, VortiX’s Falstad got caught badly and died. Then, Team Liquid tried to dive the Core anyway, 4 vs 5. The result was all too predictable. Team Liquid offered up the series lead, and Fnatic took it convincingly.



In the final game on Sky Temple, Team Liquid opted to bring out one of their more famous pocket picks, The Lost Vikings, and surrounded them with Sonya, Leoric, Kael’thas, and Uther. Fnatic fielded ETC, Jaina, Falstad, Kharazim, and Muradin. Team Liquid was clearly putting its hopes for a comeback on the back of VortiX, who had not had a good tournament. Unfortunately, VortiX’s play held to its poor form in this game. Quackniix repeatedly victimized the Vikings with Falstad. Indeed, VortiX’s micromanagement of his Vikings was uncharacteristically sloppy and left much to be desired. Consequently, Team Liquid was unable to seize a decisive advantage over Fnatic heading into the mid-to-late game when the Vikings’ split soaking power tapers off.

What followed can only be described as pure frustration for Team Liquid. Fnatic played a brilliant game of cat and mouse to badly outmaneuver Team Liquid and seize a building advantage. The real star for Fnatic was Quackniix, who allowed Fnatic to control most of the engagements. Any engagement that was not favorable to Fnatic was immediately terminated with the simple usage of Mighty Gust. In other engagements, Fnatic simply retreated whenever VortiX popped Longboat Raid and waited for it to expire. These tactics badly exposed the fatal flaws in Team Liquid’s team composition: a lack of CC and ability to force a hard engagement. These flaws showed up in all of their glory in the deciding team fight during a temple phase around the 20-minute mark. Fnatic simply pulled back as Team Liquid burned through all of their Heroics. Fnatic then turned and killed Leoric, enabling them to hold both temples and drop two of Team Liquid’s three keeps. Fnatic threatened to seize the boss and finish the game but Team Liquid, with some masterful maneuvering, managed to keep Fnatic from capping the boss and using the temples to burn down their Core. More importantly, Team Liquid was finally able to catch and kill multiple Fnatic Heroes in a teamfight. Team Liquid promptly dove Fnatic’s Core and went in for the kill. Unfortunately for Team Liquid, their spacing around the Fnatic Core was poor and Team Liquid took a bunch of unnecessary splash damage from the Core. That damage, combined with a furious defense from ETC and Muradin, was just enough to wipe Team Liquid and gave Fnatic’s minions the few extra seconds that they needed to destroy Team Liquid’s Core instead.

Fnatic’s win at Dreamhack may mark a significant changing of the guard in the European Heroes scene. Their coordination and control were simply a cut above any of the other competitors at Dreamhack. With few exceptions, Fnatic dictated the pace and play in all of their games with masterful rotations and overall aggressive play. Though coming in at second place is never fun, Team Liquid should take solace in the fact that its rebuilding efforts seem to be way ahead of schedule. However, to get past Fnatic, Team Liquid will need to tighten up its drafting and shotcalling, both of which were subpar at this tournament.

A Meta in Flux

It was clear to everyone that Blizzard’s changes to Hero scaling was likely to have a profound impact upon the meta and the viability of Heroes. The DreamHack Winter provided the clearest look yet at how the game was going to evolve. The biggest story was the emergence of previously unused and underutilized Heroes.

For the first time in a major tournament, Thrall saw decent usage. And to the surprise of no one who has been playing Thrall and preaching the Gospel of Green Jesus, Thrall performed admirably, posting the highest win percentage of any Hero at the tournament. No, that is not a typo. Team Liquid’s Lowell made numerous plays with Thrall, posing a huge threat in the early game and shredding tanks (and everyone else) in the late game. Given the success that he had with Thrall when using him, it was surprising that Team Liquid went away from Thrall in the deciding game on Sky Temple against Fnatic.



Another much-maligned Hero who found vindication at Dreamhack was Lt. Morales. In the expert hands of Team Dignitas’s Bakery, the Medic actually looked like a legitimate – if not, at times, dominant – support pick. Medivac allowed Team Dignitas to constantly out-rotate opposing teams and get the jump on them. The greatest lesson that Bakery taught us was that, with proper positioning, the Medic can absolutely confound opposing teams that lack dive-capable Heroes. Team Liquid’s solution in the semi-finals was a heavy reliance on Thrall to pierce the frontline. The lesson here may be that Lt. Morales can be used to force certain enemy Hero picks.

The previously under-utilized Hero who shined the most in this tournament was clearly Falstad. After seeing varied usage in the group stages, Falstad had a 100% pick rate in the semi-finals and finals. He very clearly has become the ranged auto-attack assassin of choice. For comparison, purposes, the only ranged assassin who was picked more than Falstad overall was Kael’thas. The combination of a buff from the scaling changes, his inherent hyper-mobility on the battlefield, and the utility of Might Gust has swept Falstad back into ranks of the premier Heroes after months of irrelevance. Fnatic, in particular, put the bird to good use. In the final game of the tournament, Quackniix not only made life miserable for VortiX’s Vikings, but also repeatedly thwarted Team Liquid’s attempted engagements with Mighty Gust. Frankly, Quackniix made Lowell’s Sonya pick look outright futile. Quackniix also had the best play of the tournament in Game 3 of the Fnatic vs. Virtus Pro series when he used Mighty Gust to set up a massive ETC Mosh Pit.

Looking at the warriors, ETC seems to be remerging as a king of the scene, being a hotly contested pick in every game (and often banned). And his success seems to go hand in hand with the constant banning of Tyrande, one of the few Heroes who can safely interrupt Mosh Pit. For all of the play that ETC saw during this tournament, no one used Stage Dive once, making for a very interesting contrast with ETC’s previous stint as a top tank. Muradin seems to be the consensus number two warrior pick after ETC. However, most of the warriors saw a fair amount of the play with the prevalence of two-warrior compositions at the tournament. Tyrael, Leoric, Johanna, and Sonya all appeared in several games. Even Chen, Diablo, Rexxar and Stitches made cameos. Only Artanis and Cho’Gall were left on the sidelines.

Overall, the vast majority of the games’ Heroes made an appearance at Dreamhack. Other than the aforementioned Artanis and Cho’Gall, only Azmodan, Gazlowe, Li Li, Murky, Nazeebo, Sgt. Hammer, Tychus, and Zeratul were never picked. Yes, even Nova showed up a couple of times. Perhaps the most surprising name on the listed of the neglected Heroes is Zeratul. However, after receiving several nerfs, it is clear that teams believe our favorite dark Templar no longer brings enough to the table to warrant the risk of picking him.

Play of the Tournament

This award goes to Fnatic for their Mighty Gust into Mosh Pit combo in Game 3 of their series against Virtus Pro. Brilliant stuff.