The last Heroes of the Storm Global Championship took place back in 2018. Soon after those finals at Blizzcon, Blizzard ceased its support to the esports scene. Since then, the community has presented one initiative after another to keep the flame of Heroes esports up. The last crowned champion was Gen.G, the greatest of all time. The team led by Sake won its second championship in a row and became the last official Heroes of the Storm champion. A lot has happened since Rich, Sake, KyoCha, Reset and Ttsst lifted their trophy. That’s why we bring you the Heroes of the Storm Unofficial World Champion!

This idea is based on the League of Legends Unofficial World Champion. The rules are simple: every match a team plays is a “title match.” If they lose, their championship belt goes to the team they fell against. However, the current Heroes scene has its own particularities, that’s why we’ve added a few rules of our own:

• The title belongs to organizations, not to players. If all the players are released but the organization signs a new roster, the org keeps the title.
  
• If a team disbands, but its organization doesn’t sign new players, the title belongs to the roster formed with the majority of champions (at least two players).
  
• If two or more rosters have the same number of champions, the title belongs to the one who plays first.
  
• If there isn’t any team with at least 2 of those players, the winner of the next tournament where any of the former champions play becomes the new champion.
  
• If all five players retire (temporarily or permanently), the new World Champion is the winner of the first tournament with players from at least two regions (based on HGC regional distribution).

Even with this ruleset, we’ve found a couple arguable situations. That’s why we’ve splitted the timeline twice. We’ve added Liquipedia links for every tournament so they’re easier for you to track. Now we’re finally ready to go, let’s meet the champions!

2018 HGC Finals

This is where our journey begins. After a tough series against Team Liquid, Gen.G defeated Dignitas, the last Western hope.

Gen.G: Ttsst, KyoCha, Rich, Reset, Sake, Noblesse (Coach)

HOTS League Revival S1

Gen.G disbanded. Players: KyoCha (TwTnyang), Rich (Never Ending Story), Reset (Duckpest)

Teams for this tournament were drafted from a pool with three available Gen.G champions. At the finals, Rich’s Never Ending Story defeated a team we still hear of: TwT.

Never Ending Story: Rich, Hooligan, Polaris, OhDuck, Ezz

HOTS League Revival S2

Never Ending Story disbanded. Players: Hooligan (KSC)

After Rich’s retirement to pursue his League of Legends career, Hooligan was the only champion remaining. Teams weren’t drafted at this tournament, but Hooligan formed a great roster to keep his champion belt.

KSC: Hooligan, Good, Frankle, Sniper, Jinan

GHL 2019 S2

The majority of KSC roster (Good, Frankle and Jinan) played for TheOne

This early post-HGC Chinese scene was really beautiful. Many Korean players joined the league, and organizations with a long trajectory (TheOne, CE, BTG) coexisted with the next generation of Chinese champions, led by HOTS and Tsunami.

• Group Stage 1: HOTS 2-0 TheOne
  
• Group Stage 2: TheOne 2-0 HOTS
  
• Group Stage 2: CE 2-0 TheOne
  
• Group Stage 2: BTG 2-0 CE
  
• Grand Finals: TheOne 3-2 BTG

TheOne: Frankle, Good, Jinan, hehe, Hugo

HOTS League Revival S3

TheOne disbanded. The majority of its roster (Good, Frankle and Jinan) played for KTH

After the first Chinese adventure of TheOne’s core, they came back home. There they found a juggernaut who had emerged from the ashes of the old world: The Black. The true heirs of MVP Black.

• Group B: HHACK 3-1 KTH
  
• Semifinals: The Black 4-1 HHACK

The Black: Ttsst, KyoCha, Reset, Gondar, BlueB2tle

HOTS Manager 2019 S2

The Black disbanded. Players: Gondar (Team HongCono)

We’re back to the drafted teams. Two former champions, KyoCha and BlueB2tle, were team captains and thus, couldn't play.

• Semifinals: Hide 2-0 KyoCha
  
• Winner Finals: HongCono 2-0 Hide
  
• Grand Finals: Hide 2-1 HongCono

Team Hide: SaMat, Swoy, Lockdown, Hooligan, Polaris

HOTS League Revival S4

Team Hide disbanded. Lockdown and Swoy played for Carrot

After playing for his brother at HOTS Manager, Lockdown broke free and led his own roster to victory.

• Group Stage: CGS 2-0 Carrot
  
• Group Stage: KYU 2-1 CGS
  
• Group Stage: KYS 2-1 KYU
  
• Grand Finals: Carrot 4-1 KYS

Carrot: Lockdown, Frankle, Gondar, Ttsst, Swoy

RE:FRESH 2020 S1

Carrot core (Lockdown, Frankle, Gondar and Ttsst) played as Team AF

Hide joined Lockdown’s team, replacing Swoy. The champions kept their title without losing a single map throughout the whole tournament.

Team AF: Frankle, Gondar, Hide, Lockdown, Ttsst

GHL 2020 S1

Team AF disbanded. Hide and Lockdown played for HOTS

The Jin brothers stuck together for a new Chinese adventure, but failed to qualify for the main event. They lost against a former teammate of theirs: Gondar, who played for Tsunami.

• Group C Qualifier: Tsunami 2-0 HOTS
  
• Group Stage: GTP 2-1 Tsunami
  
• Semifinals: FLY 3-2 GTP
  
• Finals: Tsunami 3-0 FLY

Tsunami: Unicron, Crow, Gondar, zio, sunXchuan



Here comes our first timeline fork. In Timeline 1, Tsunami keeps being the World Champion today. The team kept playing at the GHL, where they won all the five 2020 seasons. However, if we don’t consider Tsunami a proper organization, we would need to count Revival Season 5 as the next championship event.