Road to CCL S4

A World without Drafts

Written by: Koznarov

In the first part of our CCL Season 4 preview we talked about 30k, Oxygen and Diamond Hands, but there are still some teams we haven't met yet. Do you wonder what happened to the Season 1 and 2 champions Simplicity? Do you want to know which other stacked rosters have joined CCL organizations? Don’t worry! Here comes the second part of our CCL preview.

New players are highlighted in bold type.

Chilly Mountain

Roster: Makke, BananaH, Ultralisk, Mascarade, Daykwaza, Dynouh

Chilly Mountain has signed the European roster Wurst And Homies. This was probably a natural choice for them, as Ultralisk and BananaH already played for CM at CCL Season 3. This roster has been one of the most successful in Europe for the past couple years. They won X-Cup Summer, Fall and Winter, the Nexus Cup 2022 and the Defrost Miami LAN. They also earned a spot for the Masters Clash Championship, where they’re currently leading the standings.

Contracts signed. Roster locked.

A new era of @HeroesHearthCCL pic.twitter.com/fVL9ZwnpnQ
— Chilly Mountain (@Chilly_Mountain) April 22, 2022

STORM Esports

Roster: CPX, Lauber, Svampgrotta, Mokka, Jun, Nazmas

This hasn’t been an easy offseason for STORM Esports. StoiC, Manager for STORM, thinks that the absence of a draft has its ups and downs. Now players are free to play with whoever they want, form teams and look for an organization to host them. This has drastically changed the balance of power, which has shifted from the teams to the players. StoiC’s overall impression is that, though things are now harder for the organizations, the current situation is better for the players and thus, for CCL as a whole.

We're excited to announce our official roster for Season 4 of @HeroesHearthCCL ! Join us in welcoming the squad 😎🤝 @JohanLauber @CPogX1 @JunHotS_ @MokkaMKC @svampgrotta @NazmasHotS pic.twitter.com/NpKZK81Ing
— STORM Esports (@StormEsportsUS) April 22, 2022

About their new roster, StoiC explains that the main issue for STORM was that “many of the players that we were interested in were already committed to other organizations before we even contacted them.” Despite these difficulties, they’ve managed to get Lauber back and surround him and CPX with some very experienced players.

Granit Gaming

Roster: Breez, Wubby, Azyrite, POILK, SmX, QuackNiix

Our favorite boy band is back! Granit Gaming has brought together four of the five Fnatic players who won the 2017 Mid-Season Brawl (and recorded a parody of “I Want It That Way”). They’ll be joined by Azyrite and POILK to complete a new Swedish superteam.

If these great players get back on their level, they'll be a fearsome roster and serious contenders for the CCL Season 4 trophy. However, some of them have been in and out of the scene for a while, unable to fully get back on track. They will have the chance to get as many games as they need, as Granit is one of the three CCL teams—alongside Oxygen and Chilly Mountain—that also competes at MCC.

Simplicity

Roster: TTporky, berrberr, Apdo, Doolall, Wishing, Slips

Simplicity kept the same core for the first three CCL seasons. This “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” strategy worked wonders for the first two seasons, where Simplicity became the back-to-back champions. But the third time wasn’t a charm and all those decorated players parted ways with the org. To rebuild its roster, Simplicity has set its eyes on the East and signed four Korean players.

Wishing, the support, is probably the most familiar player of the Korean part of Simplicity’s roster. He made it to the finals of the last two HR:CS splits with SmogeBusiness/pepeSmack. Apdo and berrberr come directly from the Chinese and Korean scenes. The last time we saw them was at Revival Season 6, where they played for Tempest. We don’t know much about the fourth Korean player, Doolall, and we don’t know how they’ll deal with the ping, but this roster definitely expands the regional rivalries at CCL.

WildHeart Esports

Roster: Zergling, WearyDay, MasonBlaze, HaeBin, ibtingz, Roger

Developing new talent has always been one of WildHeart’s trademarks. They’ve been involved in most of the amateur tournaments with WildHeart Omega and, in fact, they are one of the HR:CS organizers. Jazzalene, Manager for WildHeart Esports, explains that the absence of a draft means new talent has even less of an opportunity to prove themselves. However, that didn’t stop them from getting a new rookie for CCL Season 4: Roger, who—as others before him—comes directly from WH Omega:

“WildHeart, and specifically GOON, truly has a passion for developing amateur players and we have a track record to prove it. Roger, SlugHunter, Nintorii, Lupus and Valamar were all players that once played on our academy team. We set out with the ambition to make our academy team a clear path to playing in CCL. That doesn’t mean we will always exclusively draft from our academy team, but it does mean we get to build and mold players into what WildHeart is looking for. It also means that we are engaged with the community and watching for upcomers that we believe have the potential to make it.”

Last season WildHeart and its rookies made it to the top 3 of the league. Will they be able to repeat this deed?