Heroes Rising Recap

Crowd Gathers for Team oVo vs BRFC

<h2>Round One</h2>

The invited teams and Team Blaze (top seed from the online qualifier) all enjoyed a first round bye in the double-elimination contest, with the first round consisting of two matches.

Bob Ross Fan Club vs. Team oVo

Bob Ross Fan Club (BRFC) made relatively quick work of Team oVo, with their first victory coming at 12:04, without even having their level 16 talents on Battlefield of Eternity and completing the 2-0 sweep with a 13:25 decision on Sky Temple in their second match.

Match Keys: Kenma and McIntyre played Kharazim and Thrall, respectively, in both matches. Team oVo chose not to ban out either hero, and BRFC made them pay, utilizing some of their strongest heroes for two consecutive victories.

SK Gaming vs. King of Blades Alpha

SK Gaming (SK) and King of Blades Alpha (KOB) traded their first two games 1-1, and in the decisive game three on Infernal Shrines, KOB took the W.

Match Keys: Although SK took more objectives (3-2) and more camps (8-4) than KOB, in the end having Sylvanas (played by FrozenX) helped KOB push one lane and, eventually, the core.

Murloc Geniuses Getting Ready

<h2>Round Two</h2>

<h3>[Winners' Bracket]</h3>

Cloud9 vs. Bob Ross Fan Club | Tempo Storm vs. King of Blades Alpha | Murloc Geniuses vs. Team Blaze

The First round of the invited teams went as most expected; a few close games here and there, including a late game throw from Bob Ross Fan Club when they were facing off against Cloud9 (one of the matchups that had everyone talking), but in the end the invitees won all of the matches with 2-0 victories.

COGnitive Gaming vs. Panda Global

The only game in the winner's bracket that did not consist of an invited team vs. an online qualifier was COGnitive Gaming (COG) vs. Panda Global (PG). COG has had a lot of talk lately as a team that has been slipping from the competitive scene and Heroes Rising was a chance to write a new story for themselves. They didn't. PG dominated both games, the first with a 100% objective rate and a two level advantage on Infernal Shrines, and the second with above ten takedowns more, limiting COG to just one turn-in on Tomb of the Spider Queen.

Match Keys: The relatively poor play of COG's support iakona on Uther, paired with Scylol's misclick into taking Judgment, completely ruled them out of their first match, and the impressive play in game two by PG's MichaelUdall on Jaina and psalm on Kerrigan led PG to an easy two-game sweep.

<h3>[Losers' Bracket] </h3>

Due to seeding, Team Blaze and COGnitive Gaming both had a bye in round two.

King of Blades Alpha vs. Team oVo

After trading their first two games on Sky Temple and Cursed Hollow, game three was on Infernal Shrines and Team oVo (oVo), backed by the experience gain of TR4PQU33N's Abathur, won the race to Storm Talents and used them to push for the win. King of Blades Alpha ELIMINATED.

Bob Ross Fan Club vs. SK Gaming

Bob Ross Fan Club (BRFC) struck first taking a close game on Infernal Shrines in the 26th minute. SK Gaming (SK), with their backs against the wall and facing elimination, would immediately strike back with a victory in another close game on Dragon Shire while pulling out the seldom-seen Diablo, played by Araragi. However, BRFC was on a mission to show that they didn't get to Heroes Rising by mistake, and took game three with a dominant four-level lead on Cursed Hollow. SK Gaming ELIMINATED

Match Keys: Arguably the best Abathur in the world, BRFC's Fan simply did his thing.

<h2>Rounds Three and Four </h2>

The middle rounds were pretty uneventful, from a bracket standpoint. The only set that didn't end 2-0 was Tempo Storm (TS) 2-1 over Murloc Geniuses (MG), but after falling 2-1 to TS, MG would quickly be eliminated 0-2 by Bob Ross Fan Club.

Here's a breakdown of these middle rounds:

Round Three

Team oVo 0-2 Team Blaze
Team oVo ELIMINATED
Bob Ross Fan Club 2-0 COGnititive gaming
COGnitive Gaming ELIMINATED

Round Four

Cloud9 2-0 Panda Global
Tempo Storm 2-0 Murloc Geniuses
Panda Global 0-2 Team Blaze
Panda Global ELIMINATED
Murloc Geniuses 0-2 Bob Ross Fan Club
Murloc Geniuses ELIMINATED

<h2>Losers' Semifinals </h2>

Similar to the last two rounds, Bob Ross Fan Club (BRFC) made quick work of their opponent. Game one was a decisive four-level advantage win on Sky Temple, and although we saw some pretty epic 4 vs. 5 play by Team Blaze with Jason putting on a Falstad Epic Mount clinic, they did end up losing the second game on Towers of Doom. TEAM BLAZE ELIMINATED.

Match Keys: Team Blaze put up a good fight on Towers of Doom, but BRFC had such a strong early game, with their dominant front-line of erho on Leoric and McIntyre on Sonya, that Team Blaze was just never able to completely catch up in damage to the core.

Cloud9 vs BRFC

<h2>And Then There Were Three... </h2>

Cloud9 (C9). Tempo Storm (TS). Bob Ross Fan Club (BRFC).

We all predicted this might happen, but with recent roster changes no one could be sure. How would Arthelon fit in with C9? Would shotcalling be on point for TS without Dreadnaught? BRFC has only been together for a short while, still without a sponsor. Do they have the chemistry to take down one of the NA powerhouses?

There were a lot of questions that needed answering...

<h3>Winners' Finals </h3>

Game one of the Winners' Finals was on Towers of Doom and, by way of great shotcalling by Srey and Kaeyoh showing his versatility on The Lost Vikings, Tempo Storm (TS) was able to keep Cloud9 (C9) on their back foot for the second-half of the match and secure the win. C9 had yet to taste defeat at Heroes Rising, but TS was able to take a game against the World Champions.

Game two was a bit of a different story as C9 wanted to make a statement, and make a statement they did. Only suffering A SINGLE TAKEDOWN, C9 won on Dragon Shire with a three-level advantage.

Going into game three, all tied up at 1-1 in a best of three, the two NA giants would faceoff with elimination on the line. Throughout the game it was back-and-forth. TS would secure a turn-in in the 16th minute, but would get caught in the mid-lane and suffer a four-man wipe. C9 pushed mid and suffers a COMPLETE TEAM WIPE, but not before Arthelon can secure a C9 victory with his last-second auto-attack before dying. Tempo Storm would face Bob Ross Fan Club in the Losers' Final.

<h3>Losers' Finals </h3>

The winner would face C9 in the Grand Final, the loser would go home. Like the Winners' Finals, the first two games would end as a split 1-1, and force another decisive game three. In a 30-minute Dragon Shire, BRFC would once again show why they are at Heroes Rising. After some clutch heals from Kenma's Malfurion and multiple last-second Dimensional Shifts by McIntyre's Tassadar, BRFC secures a kill on Kaeyoh's Zagara and that is all that they needed. erho grabs the Dragon Knight and heads straight for the core and TS has no way to answer. TEMPO STORM ELIMINATED

The Coveted HeroesRising Trophy

<h2>Grand Final</h2>

We already saw this matchup in round two, and Cloud9 (C9) won back-to-back in the first two games of a best-of-three. This time, Bob Ross Fan Club (BRFC) would face an uphill battle, with C9 starting with a 1-0 game advantage in the best-of-five Grand Finals due to completing the Winners' bracket without dropping a set.

Game Two: C9 wins with a 20 to 18 level advantage by way of three Immortals to one. C9 leads BRFC 2-0.

Game Three: BRFC responds after securing a Frozen Punisher on Infernal Shrines, and pushing the bottom lane to victory. C9 leads BRFC 2-1.

Game Four: BRFC evens the series on Blackheart's Bay by way of great shotcalling and more world-class Abathur play from Fan. C9 tied 2-2 with BRFC in best-of-five Grand Final

Game Five: As was with Tempo Storm vs. BRFC, the final match takes place on Dragon Shire. A back-and-forth affair comes down to a post-20 team fight, and BRFC, with amazing heals from Kenma's Uther is able to stick around long enough to secure a tough kill on iDream's Zeratul followed shortly by another on Arthelon's Raynor. Zuna controls the 20-minute Dragon Knight, pushes bottom keep, and eventually the core.

<h3>BRFC WINS HEROES RISING!</h3>

<h2>Take on the Tournament </h2>

It was great to see a tournament such as HeroesRising happen. Crowdfunding of this scale shows how much the community loves what Blizzard has created for us, and the support that we plan to show going forward.

The teams, both online qualifiers and invitees alike, showed up to compete and entertain. We saw blowouts, we saw nail-biters, and in the end, we even saw the highly-anticipated upset.

One of the main themes around Heroes Rising was giving some lesser known teams a chance to test their mettle against NA Juggernauts. This idea of giving newcomers a chance at tournament play is starting to take off with fan-supported events such as Chair League as was mentioned by Zoia during Sunday's semi-finals broadcast.

Lastly, props to Zoia and Gillyweed for their casting. Well done.

<h3>Tournament MVP</h3>

McIntyre, Bob Ross Fan Club

BRFC might have started a bit slow, but they really showed up to Heroes Rising. After qualifying as the three-seed in the online qualifier, they buckled down and came into their own. Among the stand-outs of the team, Stafford 'McIntyre' McIntyre really shined. He showed his skill as a true flex player, digging into a deep hero pool that included Jaina, Thrall, Sonya, Tassadar, and Falstad, and forcing bans from his opponents. McIntyre showed why he is constantly atop the HL ladder and that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.

Follow us @LiquidHeroes to stay in the loop with live tournament coverage and news! We are dedicated to bringing you quality articles and the best Heroes of the Storm news coverage on the web!
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<div id="footer">Writer: PROlane
Editors: Vaalia
Graphics & Format: Shiroiusagi, Vaalia
Art & Photo Credit: eSportsArena</div></div>

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