In dramatic fashion, Gen.G esports defeated Team Dignitas 4-3 to become the 2018 Heroes of the Storm Mid-Season Brawl champions, taking home $100,000.  

The winning roster consisted of Won Ho “KyoCha” Jeong, Jin Woo “Reset” Im, Jae Won “Rich” Lee, Jung Hyuk “Sake” Lee, and Oon Sung “Ttsst” Kang.

One assumed that a road to the grand finals that has the best teams in the world standing in their path would be difficult but Gen.G failed to drop a single map in the event until Game 2 of the grand finals. At one point, the team had won 38 straight maps in tournament play.  

In fact, Sake, the team captain, could not remember a time where he had to work so hard to win. 

"In my time as a pro-gamer,  even winning BlizzCon, this was the toughest day ever in my career," said Sake through a translator. 

Tempo Storm, Ballistix, Tempest, Fnatic and Dignitas make up the top teams from each region and Gen.G was matched up with each at one point during the event, handling all who opposed them.

"In the process of preparing and practicing for this tournament, Dignitas was danger number one," said Sake. "Even though we beat them 3-0 earlier in the bracket, we knew this series was going to be hard."

The opening match on Volkskaya Foundry gave the impression that the series was going to be close as Dignitas jumped out to an early lead before struggling to close and increasing their deficit to 2-0 with a loss. Due to the tournament's format, Gen.G was given a 1-0 series lead as they won the winner's bracket. 

Games 2, 3 and 4 were traded back-and-forth between the teams before Game 5 on Towers of Doom led to one of the more exciting moments in competitive Heroes’ history.

Down to the final few points on their core, Dignitas won a late teamfight, captured all of the objective points and held off Gen.G from recapturing them, tying the series at 3-3.

Once the win was secured, Dignitas' players let out huge sighs of relief and shook their heads with amazement before moving on to Game 7 on Sky Temple. 

The final game of the series was closer affair throughout. As both teams crossed the level 21 mark, Gen.G found an opening at the end to rush the core which threw both teams and the fans into a frenzy.

"Towards the end we noticed there weren't any opposing buildings and the shrines were chipping away at the core so myself and Reset were going to dash to the core," said Sake. "They were going to have to make a tough choice: chase us or go after the shrines. Either way it was going to be tough for the opposing team."

A frantic core rush at the end sealed the deal as the players jumped for joy on the stage before running over to the podium and grabbing the trophy.

As for what's next for the world champions? Repeating. The team said they want to be the first team in Heroes of the Storm history to win back-to-back BlizzCon global championships.