Only four teams remain: Heroes of the Dorm starts May 12th

May 9, 2018

As the Heroes of the Dorm tournament wraps up their senior (fourth) year, only four teams remain competing for the glory that is a paid college tuition. The final three matches taking place on Saturday, May 12 in Blizzard Arena pit college students from all around North America, including, for the first time, a representative from Canada in the Heroic Four.

This year’s tournament is filled with storylines that make the action all that much more intense to follow. From a team of brothers looking for glory, a team of underdogs who took down the crowd favorite to reach the semi-finals, a group of players who have played in every Dorm thus far and Canadians who are looking to show that the US isn’t the only country in NA with talent, there’s a lot on the line for all remaining participants.

Below is a breakdown of each semi-final team and the matchups.

Université Laval - #2 Seed

Hailing from the “Great White North” that is Canada, Laval has the highest win-rate of the rest of the remaining participants, sitting around 93% coming into the Heroic Four. Laval’s road to reach where they are now in the tournament has been filled with college programs who have performed very well in the past.

Roster: Jerome “Earth” Levesque, Daniel “HairyBlob” Gourdeau, Simon “Electromad” Deroy, Patrick “Wouka” Langlois, Bruce “Nesdip” Jouve and Anthony Christopher “Quantum” Charron.

Side note: In league play earlier in the tournament, Laval downed their upcoming opponent, Kentucky 2-1 and while both teams have improved since then, it will be interesting to see how much that earlier matchup factors into how either team plays in the semi-finals. Laval is also the team with the oldest roster as seniors and graduate students round out the squad.

VS

University of Kentucky - #3 Seed

Kentucky is a team consisting of two pairs of brothers, who nearly led all of the Heroes of the Dorm participants in hero takedowns (493). Their level of aggression has proven difficult to play against thus far and has allowed games to snowball very quickly if not countered.

Roster: Mike “Quonzar” Dittert, Michael “Zabutak” Pina, Roger “RogerThat” Dittert, Daniel “Piccaboo” Pina, Noah “Gogoing” Overby and Travis “DarkShadow” Conley.

Side note: Kentucky has the oldest remaining participant on their roster in “RogerThat” who is 30. The team has also played the most games in the tournament out of the Heroic Four (40), which could provide them with a competitive edge having more practice against the field.

Cal Poly Pomona - #9 Seed

California Polytechnic State University has competed in Heroes of the Dorm since its beginning. CPP has never made it to the Heroic four, but are excited to make a splash at the live finals. Five of the members have played on the same team since Freshman year, where they found themselves in the same Dorm building looking to compete in esports tournaments.

Roster: Steven “Artificious” Nguyen, Andrew “Alterations” Koscal, Hunter “ElCazador” Gaukel, Joshua “Crabfish” Childers, Warren “PALLY” Willis and Matthew “loldotasotis” Moore.

Side note: CPP nearly didn’t make it to the Heroic Four as they were pushed to a Game 5 by North Texas in the Elite Eight. In Game 5 a late core push by North Texas required an incredible core stand by CPP to keep their Dorm dreams alive. Soon after, they were able to secure the victory and punch their ticket to the live event in LA.

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University at Buffalo - #8 Seed

Team ImprobaBull Victory is the highest seed remaining in the tournament. To reach the Heroic Four Buffalo took down, arguably one of the favorites to win this year’s event, UCI Dream Eaters in 3-0 fashion. Such a dominating victory over a top opponent will surely provide with them a level of confidence that they can truly beat anyone.

Roster: Allen “FantaFiction” Hu, Robert “Vader” Sands III, Jianyu “sethlordson” Zhang, Marc “Markybottz” Coiro and Justin “Matzoballz” Goo.

Side note: Buffalo has the shortest game time out of the remaining competitors (14:41) as their ability to end games quickly shows an expertise for finding a window to win a match and executing. FantaFiction told Blizzard that he first picked up Heroes of the Storm six months ago and is now competing in Heroes of the Dorm at a high level.

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