We don’t get much news about the Horizon regions, Southeast Asia and Taiwan, who were all but abandoned by Blizzard over the past two years, but they continue to play and create their own tournament infrastructure. In fact, in a post-HGC era, they already have a leg up on the rest of the world.

Heroes XD, formerly Heroes of the Norm, is a community driven competition held in these regions, with versions for Taiwan and Southeast Asia. 2018 has been the first year for Heroes XD, but it has already become a pillar of the Taiwanese and Southeast Asian scene. In fact, Mirrmaid (the SEA representative at the last Horizon Clash) players used these tournaments as an example of how Blizzard could do things. Now that HGC is over, Taiwan and SEA continue to compete.

Taiwan

The Taiwanese edition of Heroes of the Norm and Heroes XD covers Hong Kong, Japan, Macao and Taiwan. This is the first tournament in which Japanese teams took their first step into the Heroes of the Storm competitive scene.

In the case of Arrogância, only some of their players participated in Heroes XD playing for other teams, but there have been many other common teams between Heroes XD and the Blizzard tournaments such as DFF, Poseidon, Green Raza, No Soak, The Avengers or Crossover.

The finals of the first season of the Taiwanese Heroes of the Norm in July were a duel between the second and third spot of the Horizon Clash qualifier: The Avengers and No Soak, respectively. (Luna Meow won the qualifier but they didn’t participate in Heroes of the Norm). The two teams maintained a close score throughout the season with The Avengers starting stronger after defeating No Soak at the qualifier and in the first round robin. However, No Soak was victorious in the second round robin and rode their victory through to the finals with a 2-1 win over The Avengers.





Since the Heroes XD season 2 began after the Blizzard qualifiers for Phase 2 Horizon Clash, not many teams from qualifiers joined Heroes XD Taiwan, though many players joined the tournament playing for other teams. The first round was clearly led by So you think you have felt pain?. However, in second round two other teams tied with them: Respiratory Therapist and a well-known team from the Blizzard qualifiers, Crossover. The fourth team to advance into the playoffs was the Japanese representative, bloodblond knights. In the playoffs, Pain? and Crossover won their matches, but while the former started out strong, Crossover’s competitive experience led them to the final victory.

Southeast Asia

Traditionally, Blizzard qualifiers for the Southeast Asian region have been ruled by Filipino and Singaporean teams such as Resurgence, DeadlyKittens, Imperium Pro Team, Renovatio I and Relics. However, when Heroes of the Norm split this region into two parts: Indonesia and Thailand. Singaporean teams could join either. After Season 1, the two tournaments merged to form Heroes XD SEA, where teams from all three three countries—Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore—could join.

Encouraging two countries with a smaller presence in Heroes is starting to show results. Acquiring experience through Heroes XD, teams such as the Thai Pachimari or the Indonesian Free-Lancer have made their way into the Blizzard qualifiers. Even though they haven’t yet been able to defeat the reigning Singaporean teams, they are getting closer step by step.

Heroes of the Norm Season 1 didn’t have playoffs for Indonesia, limiting the tournament to the double round robin format. In this scenario, Indonesia was ruled by the Singaporean team Ez Money, who also joined the Thai edition of the league (with worse luck). They occupied the first position for the entire tournament without losing a single series.





In Thailand, there was no such dominant team. The first round ended with Cai Png Gang in first place with twelve out of thirteen victories. But two teams tied in a close second position: Salty In-G-nium Brakeless Potatoes and StormGust. After second round, only StormGust managed to pick up speed, leaving the two others behind and becoming champion of the Thai Season 1.

In Season 2 StormGust showed its strength from the beginning. But they were not alone. For both round robin rounds, a small group of teams rose from the rest: Free Agent, Monster Hunter, and Reschedule. However, the Season 1 champions sailed through the playoffs without dropping a single map to become champions of both Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Heroes XD Invitational Recap

Winners of the different regions have a chance to face each other at the Heroes XD Invitational for some extra cash. As we have learned in our walk through the different regions, the qualified teams for the Season 1 Invitational were No Soak, StormGust and Ez Money.

Repeating the Horizon Clash pattern, the Taiwanese team defeated the others, and No Soak took the first XD Invitational. The Season 2 invitational confronted StormGust and Crossover, resulting again in a Taiwanese victory.

The organizers of Heroes XD are very satisfied with this first year of the tournament and already planning their way into 2019. For now, they will continue with the current regions, but if local partners from the region (for example Malaysia or Philippines, both included in the former Blizzard circuit) are interested, they are happy to welcome them.