Since the cancellation of HGC, Revival has fast become the premier Heroes of the Storm tournament in South Korea. What initially emerged as a farewell reunion of the Korean scene is now coming to the end of its third successful edition. This time around, we had a chat with Gclef, one of its casters and organizers, in advance of the grand finals.

In the first season, eight captains were designated to draft their teams from a pool of mostly former HGC players. However, what was when Revival was intended as a farewell tournament. “Revival started off as a celebration with the players to have a season or an event matches for them to at least say ‘good-bye, thank you’ to the fans,” Gclef commented. “That’s the main reason why we started out the season as a draft format.”

Afterwards, the draft system was abandoned and slots were once again open to full rosters only. But the original format wasn’t completely abandoned. Based on the same drafting system, a second competition emerged in Korea: Heroes of the Storm Manager. HOTS Manager took place between the second and third seasons of Revival and featured teams drafted by the casters. As an aside, Gclef hinted of “more to come in the future” for HOTS Manager.





The biggest difference between Revival and HGC is the duration of seasons. While HGC only had two phases per year, Revival will have four seasons in 2019, each of them lasting about a month. This change allows players to explore many new roster combinations and completely revamp teams every season. “There are players and teams who are willing to try different rosters,” Gclef explained, adding “There are lots of Korean teams mixed in with Chinese teams in GHL.”





Some teams are changing their name but keeping the core squad, though. Many groups of two or three players have stuck together throughout the seasons so far. Gclef pointed out the powerhouse team of Frankle, Hooligan, Good, and Magi, who have stayed together all year, but expressed some doubt, saying “Because Korea has mandatory military service around the early 20s for men, it may not be permanent.”





In addition to many former HGC players we’re witnessing the appearance of new talent every season. We asked Gclef about the Korean player base and the talent regeneration in the scene:

Revival S3 Grand Finals

Revival Season 3 finals will take place next October 20 at FreecUP Studio in Seoul and will feature a Bo7 series between Apple and The Black. We’ve witnessed this clash before as the opening match for Revival Season 3 back in the group stage. It ended with an Apple victory, but anything can happen this time. Who will win, the new iteration of the MVP Black dynasty or the new faces of the post-HGC era?





Apple: Kcb, SaMat, Lockdown, HaeBin, Arpian

Apple seemed to have one of the hardest matchups in their very first round, The Black. After losing the first game they reverse swept the veterans and advanced to the Group A winners finals. There they faced KINGJeongSeok, a team lead by former L5/Ballistix player NaCHoJin. Again, they took the series to its limit over five maps and came out victorious to earn their spot at playoffs as the first seed in Group A. During playoffs, they defeated KTH, a team with three of the current Chinese champions. Once more, it wasn’t easy for Apple to win, but after six maps, they secured their ticket to the finals in the FreecUP Studio.


The Black: BlueB2tle, Spell (Ttsst), Gondar, Reset, Kyocha

The Black’s story is the opposite of Apple’s. After the initial upset, Black only dropped two maps and looked stronger and stronger in every game. They took down Mad Cat (3-0) and KINGJeongSeok (3-1) through the losers bracket to claim their playoffs spot. As second seed, they faced the Group B first seed, HHACK. In a high level, back and forth semifinal series, they overcame many adverse situations and secured a 4-1 victory.

What Comes Next

If you’re looking for more Korean Heroes after Revival Season 3 finals, fear not! There will be two more tournaments before the end of the year. “There’s another Revival season secured starting on December 4th for the year-end celebration!” Gclef announced, adding, “Last year with the tragedy on December 14th—I will never forget this date—there was nothing Heroes related at the end of the year. But this year, it will be totally different.”





In addition, HOTS Manager is making a return during the lull between Revival seasons. Dates and further details have yet to be determined, but we decided to ask the defending HOTS Manager champion Gclef about his strategy. “My request was simple: ‘play whatever with max enjoyment’...then KyoCha played Murky and almost LOST,” he humorously recounted.





Despite his somewhat lax management style, Gclef is still so confident in his team’s ability that he claims he can only lose to himself: “Gondar, KyoCha, OhDuck, PanDaGom, Academy. They’re my boys and no turtles defeat dinosaurs (even ninja turtles). With that said, team Gclef won’t lose to any other team except for maybe team Gclef#2.”

Don’t forget to tune in Revival Season 3 finals on Sunday, Oct 20 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) on AfreecaTV! A huge thanks to Gclef for his time, and good luck in HOTS Manager Season 2!