Heroes of the Storm doesn’t have the numbers that other MOBAs do streaming-wise, but this past week proves that it absolutely deserves to hang. Culminating in a nail-biting Finals series between the Korean team Gen G. and the European Team Dignitas, the 12-team “Mid-Season Brawl” (read: halfway to the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship, or, HGC, finals at BlizzCon) just ended.
Gen. G, backed by one of the best players in the world (Rich, who mained Hanzo for the series), was the heavy favorite — and after an upper bracket advantage win and a victory on Valskaya Foundry (one of Heroes’ Overwatch maps), it seemed like it was in the bag. Dignitas won it out in Towers of Doom fighting for their life in return in one of the most exciting eSports matches in recent history. From there it as an all-out slugfest tug of war, before (spoiler):
Gen. G took it in Game 6 on Sky Temple (my favorite map), with a Genji (my main) photo finish from Rich (my favorite player — this round was seemingly machinated for me). Given that Genji was mostly banned for the series, it was a spectacularly fitting ending.
That might not be the most interesting news to come out of the Brawl event though. While Korea and Europe typically reign supreme at HGC, the US’ Tempo Storm put up a fight and is coming for the crown. To augment the intensity of the competitors, the casting team did a great job of making sense of all the chaos. Having watched the Heroes shoutcasters grow from day one it’s amazing how far they’ve come at calling matches.
I recommend starting from the beginning of the series, but if you really want to get a sense of how great these matches are, start with Towers of Doom — it’s a good intro as to what makes Heroes stand out from the rest of the MOBA scene.
Heroes eSports [YouTube]
Source: Destructoid Heroes of the Storm just had one hell of a mid-season competitive series