If you blinked, you missed it. In a six-second span, an elite display of professional game knowledge, team coordination and mechanical skill was put on display during the Heroes Lounge Nut Cup over the weekend that left Twitch chat, Reddit and the Heroes of the Storm community with their jaws on the floor. In Game Two of their series, team “Washed Up” consisting of former professional players Thomas “Ménè” Cailleux, Dennis “HasuObs” Schneider, Filip “SmX” Liljeström, Aleksandar "ethernal" Milanov and Ivan "SportBilly" Koturić pulled off a team wipe of “Coming Through”’s roster that all but sealed the match and series.
They didn’t make the decision to have their employer, Activision Blizzard, cut support to the competitive scene. They certainly didn’t have a say in numerous individuals who were working on the game being transferred to other titles, making their lives more difficult. And, they didn’t intentionally alienate thousands of players who have slowly stopped playing the game over the last four months. What is in their control, is how the inner workings of the game itself will operate going forward to ensure that the current playerbase is given the best playing experience possible. On Wednesday afternoon, members of the development team held an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on the game’s subReddit (/r/heroesofthestorm) where fans were chomping at the bit to get the opportunity to have their questions answered.
What transpired over the weekend was a spectacle within the Heroes of the Storm community that many feared would never happen again after Activision Blizzard stated they would no longer support the game’s competitive scene back in December. A competitive Heroes of the Storm tournament reached over 11,500 --11,537 to be precise-- viewers on Twitch at a single moment, according to twitchtracker.com.
Ever since Blizzard stated they would no longer be supporting a competitive Heroes of the Storm professional circuit, numerous crowd-funded tournaments have been popping up within North America and Europe. Now, Korea is getting involved in the action. On Thursday long-time Korean commentator Daniel “Gclef” Na shared on the Heroes of the Storm subReddit that a tournament featuring former pros was in the works. Today, specifics have been revealed. The event titled, “Heroes of the Storm League: REVIVAL” will begin on March 14, featuring a $6000 prize pool and includes eight teams made up of some of the most well-known and accomplished players to ever play the game.
When Activision Blizzard announced that the company would no longer financially support the competitive Heroes of the Storm scene back in December, the community was split. There were those who didn’t particularly care as following the competitive scene wasn’t their cup of tea, others were concerned this would be the end of their beloved title and a wide range of feelings in between existed as well. Two months into a world without the Heroes Global Championship (HGC), a story is unfolding that may be an indication as to what the future could look like for the title on Twitch, the largest streaming platform in the world.
Late Tuesday night, a Korean member of the Blizzard Entertainment scene leaked some information via datamine related to the next hero slated to enter the Heroes of the Storm universe. Lord Anduin Llane Wrynn, the High King of the Alliance, King of Stormwind, son of Varian Wrynn, nephew of Jaina Proudmoore and nephew of Magni Bronzebeard, among the other numerous titles he posses, is rumored to be entering the nexus.
The future was looking bright for Endemic Esports in the Heroes of the Storm scene. Once the 2018 Heroes Global Championship circuit ended after BlizzCon in November, Endemic worked to put together their official roster for the 2019 season. It was settled. Josh “bkid” Choi, Sammuel “bigempct” Hua, Dane “Daneski” Coleman, Vi “ViN” Nguyen and Liam “Liam” O’Malley would be the squad that Endemic would rock and try to contend in the North American region with. Then, Activision Blizzard put an end to that dream with one swift press release on December 13, ending their support of the professional Heroes of the Storm scene. The community was shaken, organizations that had invested money into the 2019 season, furious, and players whose gaming careers relied on the income, lost. This past week, Endemic Esports, led by Chief Executive Officer, Michael Reilly, released a statement that they had partnered with ULT, an apparel company, to support the players who never got the chance to represent their org in the new year.
If you’re a fan of high-level Heroes of the Storm play, the past seven days have been kind to you. Not Heroes Global Championship (HGC)-level of kindness, but solid enough to give their pallets a small taste of what they may have been missing since Blizzard dropped the hammer on the competitive scene a couple months ago. Over the weekend, Heroes Lounge held a qualifier for their upcoming Division S tournament which is the first competitive event featuring former professional players since the HGC came to an end. Naturally, teams comprised of top-tier participants faired the best and qualified for the official event beginning in the near future.
The Heroes of the Storm team ended 2018 by announcing that Activision Blizzard would no longer be supporting the competitive circuit and moving developers off the title and onto other projects within the company. 2019 is not off to a much better start. Late Thursday night, Kevin Michael Johnson, also known as “Cloaken” within the gaming industry, announced that he will be transition off the Heroes of the Storm team and onto other projects.
As 2019 rolls around, the Heroes of the Storm creative team has a large task ahead of them: giving heroes who haven't received new skins over the past 18+ months, new toys to play with. Currently, that number is 22 or a little more than 25% of the current roster. While at face value that may seem like a lot of heroes that need love, and it is, Blizzard has one of the most talented creative teams in the gaming industry and, arguably, the world. Where should they start? Great question. How about some of the heroes that haven't been touched since their release, 2016 or 2015? Below is a deep-dive into a handful of heroes that the art team can flex their muscles on.
There are 150 million Americans who play video games, making the U.S. video game industry one of the nation’s fastest growing economic sectors.
Once Activision Blizzard announced that they would no longer be supporting the competitive Heroes of the Storm scene, Ian “workhorse” Anderson, the founder of HeroesHearth went to work. His goal, aside from growing his platform dedicated to entertaining and educating the community close to his heart, was to help establish a way for the competitive scene to not completely die due to the game developer’s decision.
Today it was revealed by Dot Esports' reporter Nicole Carpenter that five former professional Heroes of the Storm players for Team Naventic have filed a lawsuit against former owner, James Ross Elliot II, for more than $50,000 in unpaid earnings. According to the report and information provided to InvenGlobal, the players had tried to serve court documents to the owner 14 times. But, due to Elliot's unknown location, they had been unable to complete the process. The Dot Esports report claims that Christopher “zuna” Buechter, Ken “Kenma” Buechter, Sammuel “bigempct” Hua, Thomas “Tomster” Maguire, and Josh “bkid” Choi state that they are owed $55,125 in unpaid wages and prize money, not including interest.
Less than a week after Heroes Lounge opened sign-ups for their crowd-funded competitive tournament, Division S, 20 former professional Heroes of the Storm players have formed teams. Thomas “Mene” Cailleux, Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider, Jérôme "JayPL" Trinh, Filip "SmX" Liljeström and Aleksandar "ethernal" Milanov will make up one team from Europe. The former Leftovers squad from EU consisting of Maksym "Mopsio" Szczypa, Mark "Linked" Šepec, Arkadiusz “Bl3kitny” Czarnecki and Mikołaj "PotiBoss" Potera have teamed up together to assert their dominance.
The law firm Pomerantz LLP announced that they are investigating Activision Blizzard's fraud charge. Pomerantz LLP, a law firm that specializes in corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigations, disclosed in a press release that they have received information that Activision Blizzard did not notify investors beforehand of their split from their partner, Bungie, in concerns for the stock price falling; if this is true, they will be investigating whether this was a deliberate act or if some of the investors happened to not be aware of it. Activision Blizzard made an announcement on January 10th that they will be splitting from Bungie, the company that developed the Destiny series, after a 10-year partnership. Simultaneously, Bungie announced they have taken over the publishing rights for the Destiny franchise, which had been serviced by Activision Blizzard. This has caused Activision Blizzard's stock price to fall from $ 51.35 (10th 16:00) to $ 45.48 (11th 10:00) based on NASDAQ.
Less than a month after Activision Blizzard announced they will no longer be supporting the competitive Heroes of the Storm scene, the first replacement professional league will begin signups starting tomorrow. Heroes Lounge, one of the largest Heroes of the Storm amateur sites in the world, has announced that their pro league, Division S, has crowd-funded over $13,700 within the last few weeks in an attempt to create an appealing enough format where former professional players and up-and-comers can showcase their play for cash prizes. Signing up to join the league is a fairly simple process, according to Heroes Lounge.
Che Chou, formerly of Blizzard Entertainment, has joined Ubisoft as the company's Senior Esports Director.
Once the Heroes of the Storm World Championship concluded at BlizzCon in November, Mandon “Dittri0” Florent went to work creating his own tournament to supersede the Nexus Games event that weren’t returning in 2019. The appeal of the Nexus Games in the past was that it took place during the competitive offseason and pitted amateur teams within the same region against one another for pride and a cash prize. He took to Twitter to seek help from the general population as creating a tournament of this size is not a task he wanted to take on alone and, to his surprise, help arrived. One of those individuals, Arnaud "Ouille" Pontonnier, contributed half of the $2,000 initial prize pool and has worked with Dittri0 to acquire additional funding, a sponsor and has helped overall to organize the event. Currently, the event, which begins tomorrow, has accrued a prize pool over $2500 and has secured a partnership with Razer headsets to be given away to the winners.
In the wake of some seriously negative Blizzard PR and a growing list of veterans leaving the company, many fans are praising the 5 founders of Second Dinner for their prophetic decision to leave their former company.
Leader of the Angiris Council and Aspect of Valor, Imperius has valiantly led the armies of the High Heavens to innumerous victories over the demons of the Burning Hells. While his methods are exact and severe, there is no greater defender of righteousness in the entirety of creation.