REVIVAL is back!

Last March and April, the first season of Heroes of the Storm League: REVIVAL kept the flame of competitive Heroes alive in South Korea. It gathered most of the former HGC players who formed new teams, with eight captains picking out their own rosters. It all ended in a live event that reminded us of the excitement of watching players onstage.



Now, Season 2 is up with some noticeable changes. The draft system has been abandoned in favor of pre-formed rosters. Last season featured two groups in a dual tournament format where the two best teams advanced to Bo7 semifinals (with a 1-0 advantage for the higher seeds). This time, the format is a 6-team league with a single Round Robin where best four teams advance to a bo7 gauntlet playoff. The finals will be played offline in the FreecUp studio.

At first glance, the reduction in the number of teams may look like a TO decision based on low interest...but actually, the response from the players was overwhelming. Several teams applied for the tournament, and a qualifying stage was added. Several notable players even came out of retirement to fight for the Korean crown once more.





The qualifier round included three Bo1 Round Robin groups of three teams. The winner of each group automatically qualified while the rest were seeded into another bracket with a Bo3 series each to determine the last three teams to qualify for the main stage.

In Group A, Kkitudio became victorious after defeating Gondar Fanclub and ATM. Group B was ruled by Blast, a fearsome team with many big names, and Group C ended with KSC’s victory over Trogg and Versus. Finally, Gondar Fanclub, Trogg and OMG nabbed the three remaining spots. The resulting teams are an interesting bunch.

The first season winners, Never Ending Story, are gone, and Hooligan stands as the sole survivor. He will face many great veterans such as HongCono, Kyocha, Reset, the brothers Hide and Lockdown, Sniper, and BlueB2tle, so things won’t be easy. But these veterans won’t be the only contenders for the REVIVAL title. Trogg, the team that defeated GLuck at last Crucible, will be aiming to make a name for themselves and create their own legacy.





This will also be the first big Asian tournament since the first season of Gold League 2019. Many Koreans, including Gondar, Reset, Hide, Magi, Frankle, and Good participated in the Gold League and even faced off against each other in the finals on mixed Chinese/Korean teams. REVIVAL signifies a renewed interest in keeping HotS esports alive in the Eastern world where classic Blizzard games like StarCraft: Brood War and Warcraft 3 are traditionally treasured.

No English stream has been announced for the tournament yet. If you want to learn more about REVIVAL Season 2, check out the AfreecaTV Heroes site and Gclef’s twitter. The action begins on June 26th. Tune in and watch these teams fight for their spot in the grand finals on July 13th at the FreecUP Studio in Seoul!