Twelve teams gathered at DreamHack Austin in June 2016 for the Heroes of the Storm Global Summer Championship. Representing North America, Khalif “Khroen” Hashim of Gale Force eSports was making himself known on the global stage as a mage to be feared. The team didn’t make it out of group stage that day, but their showing still earned Khroen the respect of Korean team Tempest, who then went on to become the world champions in that same tournament. When Tempest player duckdeok embraced the team’s trophy, he won something else that made him excited too—Khroen’s GFE-branded hair pick.

Now in 2017, with an all-new HGC format, Khroen is just as vital to Gale Force as ever. Only now instead of Magic Missiles and Arcane Orbs, he’s landing Storm Bolts and Stage Dives to swing the momentum in his team’s favor. Following the first week of games, I had a chance to speak with Khroen over Discord about the warrior role, his adjustment to the change, and what he thinks of the current tank meta.

Going from a back line ranged assassin to front line warrior is a completely different set of instincts and style of play, but GFE’s strong performance so far speaks for itself. Khroen’s warrior play is real, and while we’re likely to still see him on his signature mages, the newfound versatility is here to stay. With teammates Equinox, Fan, and MichaelUdall just as capable of taking on other roles, GFE now consists of four players that can be classified in the flex position. “In short,” Khroen explained, “a flex player is someone who can play multiple roles if needed. They’ll usually have a role they mainly play, but can ‘flex’ onto other roles according to how the draft goes.”

That flexibility is unique to GFE’s roster, and other teams don’t seem to realize it yet. In the pre-match promo video, B-Step’s McIntyre called out Khroen’s potential weakness and wondered why Gale Force “moved their ranged player to tank.”



“I actually love that quote,” Khroen answered when I asked him about it. “It makes me laugh, partly because he seemed confused as to why the change occurred. I hope he, uh, understands a bit more now that every game I was on a tank versus his team in Week 1, Gale Force won. It was a blanket statement though, and I think everyone realizes I still do play ranged heroes. I just sometimes will be seen on tank depending on how the draft goes.”

Khroen isn’t the only flex player on his team; Fan and Equinox became known for their wide hero pools back in Heroes of the Dorm 2015 and Murloc Geniuses, respectively. But Khroen’s reputation in the scene was largely made through his ranged play, and so the warrior picks have been more noticeable. I wondered, though, whether this was a change for Khroen as well or if it was just allowing the rest of us to see a side of his play that had always been there, unnoticed. “The change is somewhat new,” he admitted. “It started during scrims one day, a bit after we picked up Equinox. We were experimenting in draft and ended up with a double tank composition and three other heroes that I didn’t play. I ended up jokingly saying, ‘Just give me Mura man, I’m Mura GOD.’ We went with it.”

It paid off. “We absolutely destroyed that game, and I think I only missed like one or two stuns. All five of us were surprised. Then we just kept on trying it out, I think I went on a record of something like 15 wins and 0 losses on Muradin in scrims until we scrimmed some of the EU teams that were in the States for BlizzCon, and ended up losing to one of them.”

For all the success, Khroen is honest about the transition process. “Tl;dr—I’m still adjusting. Sometimes I do find myself being a little bit far back when just starting the game on a warrior, but I’ve been getting a lot better at recognizing how to play both styles at every point of the game. It would probably be a bit different if I only played warrior; I would be even better at the ones I do play, and pretty comfortable on more of them.”

But for a game like Heroes of the Storm, having a flexible pool of abilities can only be a strength, and as Khroen’s skills broaden, that points to good things for his team. “I think my experience playing ranged assassin for so long helps me recognize how to exploit the weakness of an enemy team’s ranged assassin when I’m playing a warrior. Vice versa, my experience playing warriors now helps me to be a stronger ranged assassin player, as I’m more actively aware of how that warrior player is trying to exploit my weaknesses.”



Assassin players at all levels in Heroes of the Storm have a wealth of options, but other classes do not. While every hero has their place in the game, the ecosystem of supports and tank-capable warriors can be a delicate balance in drafts from Bronze upwards, and players of those roles are the ones most affected by meta shifts. Even beyond the changes in playstyle and mindset required to switch between mage and warrior, the warrior-specific meta in HGC is a world Khroen needs to learn as well, and he already has informed opinions: “Heroes serve their own unique purpose, and Blizzard is really great at designing them. The warriors you’d usually see in the main tank position I believe are in a good spot right now.”

I moved the conversation to specific heroes. “I think that a lot of teams are scared of good Artanis players because they don’t have much practice against it,” Khroen answered about the here that has utterly dominated North American drafts. “And they don’t want to get caught off guard and randomly get double swapped and lose the game instantly.”

Over the weekend we saw a lot of double and even triple Warrior comps from teams, but even more importantly, fans got to see both EU and NA matches being played throughout the same day. Is there a difference in how each region’s meta approaches the Warrior heroes? “EU favors playing Leoric a lot more than NA,” he tells me. “And they run double warrior compositions with another melee assassin. NA teams are more inclined to pick double warrior only, or one warrior and one melee assassin for their front lines.”

One Warrior in particular hasn’t entered into conversations about HGC at all though. I decided to bring her up myself. “Sonya,” Khroen tells me with a sad face, “is not a good hero in this meta.”

But E.T.C. is. Khroen identifies him as the strongest objective warrior as well as the one most fun to play. He also has two strong Heroic ability options at level 10, and Khroen’s shown aptitude with both. In a Braxis Holdout game against B-Step, Khroen kept his Heroic choice hidden for almost an entire minute. 50 seconds after GFE hit level 10, Khroen clutches the perfect opportunity to dive in and save Equinox. Having lost their first game in the series, that moment swings the game—if not the whole series—into Gale Force’s favor.

“Optimally on heroes that have multiple Heroic abilities, you want to hide it to deny information from the enemy team. If I saw an opportunity to get a three or four man Mosh Pit in the bottom lane first, I would’ve slid on it and instantly taken Mosh. Stage Dive in that game was effective in the long run for point control and being able to instantly join the fight on the other side of the map.” We continued discussing the multiple Stage Dive opportunities from the game. “I remember we were 16 and they were 14,” Khroen told me. “Invading their bruiser camp, I stage dove in the bush behind them when they were retreating and nearly got punished for it. Honestly, that’s the most memorable one, because I wish I had done it a bit earlier before they could get in a position to punish me for going too far, and hopefully have secured kills.” Even fresh after a victory, Khroen looks for mistakes to improve on.



The story that will stick out in everyone’s memory in that series was B-Step’s failed attempt to take the boss on Game Five. While all eyes were on Holy Ground, it was Khroen who captured the boss for GFE by walking onto the point unopposed. “It was unlikely for us to win that fight, but we had to take it otherwise we lose. We knew Tyrael had used his Holy Ground, and by some miracle Expulsion Zone cancelled Brightwing’s Emerald Wind, so I was able to just walk onto it for free.” It’s a moment that made it onto highlight reels. But how did it feel in the heat of things? Khroen had a simple answer: “FeelsGoodMan”.

Later that week against Naventic, Khroen played Muradin again on Towers of Doom. Gale Force’s heavy emphasis on global mobility allowed the whole team to come to Khroen’s side at a moment’s notice and enabled him to roam and jump in aggressively. “That’s a comp we’re comfortable on, so I knew what I could get away with. We were able to execute the same thing versus Vox Nihili in the first HGC qualifier to secure our spot in HGC 2017,” Khroen reminds me, showing that the style is more than a one-off occurrence. “Feels rewarding to be able to execute it so well over and over. I think it’s something teams are going to become afraid of. I believe the fight we were a talent up, and I was level 13 Muradin—essentially meaning that I can use Avatar and NEVER die with Healing Static—I jumped onto the Altar, survived, and my team did the rest.” Khroen smiles. “I like being invincible.”

That’s the feeling that makes warrior play rewarding, and it’s clear Khroen’s enjoying his taste of it. In the last moments before I lost his attention, I had one definite question in my mind: When will we see him play Diablo in HGC?

“Soon™,” he answered. As it turned out, Soon™ meant GFE’s very next series against Team Freedom. Fans of Gale Force eSports will be glad to know Khroen-time can move very quickly.

Full VoDs:

• vs B-Step (Braxis Holdout)
  
• vs B-Step (Sky Temple)
  
• vs Naventic (Towers of Doom)
  
• vs Team Freedom (Battlefield of Eternity)