After some tournaments, the post-apocalyptic Heroes of the Storm esports scene is starting to take off. However, so far most tournaments have taken place in Europe. How is North America doing in this new beginning?

Soon after the HGC cancellation news, HeroesHearth announced they would work alongside other organizations to keep the Heroes competitive scene going. They announced Fight Nights, a show held by their entertainment division consisting of a king-of-the-hill series played twice a month. But the real deal was yet to come. On January 16th, HeroesHearth and Tempo Storm announced the Toasty & Gladman Invitational, a $5,000 tournament where somehow every former HGC NA team would be represented.

Most of the HGC players stopped playing after the cancellation, but others formed teams to join Division S and the upcoming tournaments or just kept playing on stream. Among the Division S teams, we can find Endemic Esports (as Multiple Smiles), Looking for Work and some members of Scythe Esports and Team Feedem.

The Invitational ended with the victory of Team Feedem (former Team Freedom) over Team Twelve at the finals. Endemic and Murloc Geniuses (former Tempo Storm) were the two semifinalists. Scythe Esports, Cataclysm (former No Tomorrow), HeroesHearth and Looking for Work (former LFM) completed the participating teams list.

i guess we did okay for no1 playing the game a single time since the announcement, was fun to play with my teammates cuz they r the best, we will start a rock band or something, watch out 4 us

— Justing (@ThisJusting) February 11, 2019

As far as we know, Tempo Storm and HeroesHearth have released their Heroes of the Storm rosters. However, they are far from done. Tempo Storm, same as Dignitas or Team Liquid, has continued its involvement with the Heroes community by keeping to produce written content while HeroesHearth involvement is even deeper. They have doubled down their efforts on content creation with many streamers joining their ranks and produce many podcasts and videos.

This new approach to Heroes from HeroesHearth Entertainment has given birth to this innovative format, a hybrid between competitiveness and spectacle. Fight Nights and the Toasty & Gladman Invitational are just the beginning, but a really promising one.

For example, in these tournaments, casters have access to the team comms, and that’s something that can provide an educational content. Showing how things are done inside a team in terms of shotcalling and coordination is a huge bonus for any tournament production. It also enables the viewers to share the excitement of the players when big plays happen, or even witness some hilarious moments.





This more relaxed format also allowed us to watch some unconventional picks such us D.Va, Nova, Valeera, or even the newcomer Imperius. It has been a proper goodbye for some veterans after the abrupt HGC stop, but also has reignited the will to compete in others that had accepted retirement.

Damn that was fun ggs TF

— Enzoku (@Goku_hots) February 16, 2019

The spirit of this new era can be interpreted as: “This is our game, we play and compete because we still like it and we still have fun playing.” All in all, no matter what comes next (though we’re looking forward to watch it), this has been a cheerful family reunion for the Heroes competitive scene.