Roll20's journey back to HGC

Heroes of the Storm fans were pleasantly surprised last month when Roll20 esports announced their return to the HGC.

Formerly sponsoring the roster of Team Octalysis, fans were disappointed with the organization’s departure following such amazing results at BlizzCon. Their previous roster was a team whose incredible performance against Ballistix was overshadowed only by the electrifying roar of the crowd behind them.

Though it’s been almost a year, Roll20 has finally returned to the Nexus. This time, however, they have their sights set on Europe; joining forces with Zealots. The Zealots roster promised incredible things following their unexpected success at the Western Clash, and although the addition of former Fnatic superstar, QuackNiix, drove the hype-train to its peak, the disappointing performance that followed would eventually derail it.

There was one person whose faith never waned though, and that was Roll20’s managing partner and esports visionary for the org, Nolan T. Jones.




Despite their performance in the first part of Phase 2, Jones believed this was a team worth supporting. Now, with their d20’s primed and ready, the former Zealots are looking to pick themselves up and reclaim glory under the banner of Roll20. In a recent interview, Jones noted that the contrast in players’ attitudes was the most significant factor in their decision to move towards Europe.

“When I sat down with the EU teams, they were a lot more direct and business-minded–coming to me saying ‘here’s our terms, here’s what we need, and here’s how it has to go.’ On the other hand, the North American teams were more quiet and didn’t know what to say,” Jones said. “I wanted to be in an environment where I was able to get answers, where I could have a conversation and talk about the future. Not just ‘how do we get through the next split?’ but ‘how do we plan for the years ahead?”

The region’s strength itself was another factor for the organization, with Jones adding that when considering the “EU meta, work ethic and approach to the game,” he’d “prefer a mid-tier EU team over a top tier NA team right now” if he was to bet his life savings on it.

Talk of the sponsorship had been in the works since March, and, while they had approached most unsponsored organizations, it was the impression left by Zealots that sealed the deal.

“All the members have been involved in all the meetings and have been really thoughtful. It makes you really wanna do business with them and root for them,” Jones said. “I really did feel like these were guys I wanted to have responsibility towards.” In particular, he noted the lack of ‘toxicity’ in the team. “Having been behind the curtain with a few different teams, I don’t feel the same sort of existential dread, or just venom, as I’ve felt from other teams” he said.

While many may question the organization’s decision to back a team who had only recently been sitting 0-8, Jones is confident they know what they’re doing. “I’ve seen the landscape, and I know that EU is a much tougher region,” Jones said. “Even looking at the names invested in it right now–Liquid, Dignitas, Fnatic–we didn’t walk into this blind, we know what we’re getting into.”

He reassured that, if anything were to drive hesitation regarding their decision, it would have been the roster changes rather than their Phase 2 performance.

“I knew losing adrd and Mopsio was going to have an impact from a drafting perspective. Cris and Shad in particular like to draft a little weird, but QuackNiix is a little more conservative–he’s so used to setting the meta,” Jones said. “I recognise there was going to be some changes, but nobody recognised just how long it would take to meld all of the things together.”

“At the end of the day I believe that this is a good roster but it’s a LAN roster, we have a lot of people with LAN experience” he added.




Behind the scenes, Jones focuses a lot on the team’s emotional management, mainly teaching players to stop and think about how they feel. One example of this occurred after last year’s Mid-Season Brawl with the North American roster.

“I could tell the last draft we put out there was just thrown together. It was nothing we had planned; the Valla, Auriel. Other teams ran that, but we didn’t. I remember getting to the post-meeting, and the guys hadn’t really talked about it, and it had been half a month,” Jones reflected.

“I was like ‘all right I’m gonna start the conversation for you. Glaurung had a pleb horse ‘cause he doesn’t really play Valla, even I noticed that! All right, talk!’ and they did, they talked about it. I see that as what I’m doing. It’s not my job to say ‘this is what happens next time,’ it’s about giving them the resources to help themselves”

For now though Jones and the new European Roll20 roster are just focused on getting the wins, and with the road out of Crucible in sight, this team will be holding absolutely nothing back on game day.