As we previously saw, the European Division S has lured many former HGC players who also recruited the very best of Open Division and national teams. In North America, things are quite different. We saw most of the HGC players at the Toasty & Gladman Invitational, but that was a mere mirage. North American Division S has former HGC and Open Division players, but many players from the amateur leagues have stepped up to join the big leagues.
However, these amateur players will see a lot of familiar faces in Division S. HeroesLounge has partnered with Nexus Gaming Series, a pillar of the North American Heroes community, to run the North American side of Division S. In Europe, most amateur teams prefer to compete in specific leagues within their own countries, North America’s players tend to just join NGS and advance into the Open Division when they felt prepared.
Here we bring you a tier list of the Division S teams. The first impression is that there’s a huge gap between the qualifier winners (with many veteran pro players) and the rest, but we’ll see what actually happens once the league begins.
Legendary Tier
The Lost Boys
cattlepillar
zergling
Hosty
TalkingTrees
KilluZiiioN
This will probably be the most dominating team of the region. KilluZion and Hosty partnered up after HGC cancellation and have won every single tournament in North America since. They played most of these tournaments with Team Feedem (former Team Freedom), so we only got to watch The Lost Boys play once in the first Division S qualifier. They swept their opponents and dropped only one map, so we couldn’t witness much of what makes this team so good, but we’ll find out soon enough.
Comanche Power Train
bkbgrnrjefek
Mysticleez
Unaverted
Noah
LegacY
Comanche Power Train emerged from the Open Division team Divination, one of the top OD teams last year. Led by the European veteran bkbgrnrjefek (Team Good Guys, Virtus.pro), this team has kept its core together and took down most of the other teams in the Division S qualifiers. They combine the experience of players who have been competing since the early stages of the game with some OD sophomores willing to demonstrate what they are capable of.
Epic Tier
Multiple Smiles
ViN
Diesel
HaoNguyen
Liam
ceasarsalad
In their run through the OD playoffs, Divination eliminated a team that had been quite successful until then, Freebirds. Now, former Tempo Storm ViN has joined that Freebirds roster for Division S. The current Multiple Smiles roster participated in the T&G Invitational representing Endemic Esports. There, they fell at the semifinals against Team Twelve. In Division S, we’ll find if they’re all smiles or if they’re fast and furious too.
Looking For Work
Fury
SwabsMcGoo
Droplets
Casanova
Darkchimaera
Looking For Work keeps four players from the HGC LFM roster. Theoretically, this HGC-level team should be far above the OD teams we’ve already checked, but so far, they’ve struggled too much in this early stages of the post HGC era (to be fair, seeding has harmed them a lot in the tournaments they’ve played). They’ve probably just been warming up, but they can’t be overconfident if they want to fight for the Division S trophy.
Celeb Gaming
HunterCJ
Evasion
Slyp
Met
Satat
Last October, Broken Alliance announced their acquisition of a Heroes roster to participate in NGS. After the first Division S qualifier, the team left Broken Alliance to join Celeb Gaming. With a couple roster changes, these players have finally stepped up and earned their qualification through points after three qualifiers.
Rare Tier
Close To Death
RedRobot
CookieMan
BloodSplat
Keenan
Hooberman
Close To Death is probably the team with the best improvement throughout the qualifiers. Multiple Smiles ended their run in the first round of the first qualifier, but in the fourth qualifier they made it to the finals against Looking for Work. Multiple Smiles seems to be the nemesis for this team, but they’ve shown they can challenge teams above them in this tier list, so Close To Death should not be taken lightly.
Order of the Sleeping Dragon
Elhaym
Shot
CorgiBooty
EnimaticLuna
treebeard
Order of the Sleeping Dragon became a familiar name in last year Open Division. Though not obtaining great results, they attended almost every cup. For Division S, they’ve reinforced their roster with some Open Division talent, including former PSISTORM Gaming Elhaym. With this new lineup they’ve managed to make it to the semifinals in the Division S qualifiers three times.
Revive Esports
JTR
Gronmin
Tempest
funbunz
Faatz
Born in the NGS battlefields, Revive Esports made its way to their top league, Heroic Division. Now, with their qualification for Division S, they’re starting to draw some attention and even received an invitation for HeroesHearth Fight Night. In fact, they are the first active post-HGC team to be invited. Will this team be able to adapt to this sudden level up and keep performing as well as they used to in NGS?
With this setup, the North American Division S is the perfect scenario for new legends to be born: players from the amateur scene face consolidated pro players, trying to get on their level. We’ll witness if these players rise and shine. No matter what happens, Division S is already a huge opportunity for the NA base talent.
Share with us your thoughts on these new teams!
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Division S Preseason Rankings: Europe
The Fish of Doom
Moving Forward in HotS
Children of Agon: The Nexus Contest Winners
Mal'Ganis: The Secret Chinese Weapons