At the end of 2016, Astral Authority parted ways with their Heroes of the Storm roster, under the reason that “changes need to be made”. Luckily, Tempo Storm is picking up the slack by signing on the former Astral Authority roster.

The team first came together in early July of last year as a band of outcasts from other major teams. Reeling from the dissolution of COG and unable to pick up any momentum on Brain Power, Rori “CauthonLuck” Bryant-Raible and Ben “cattlepillar” Bunk joined forces with Manny “Fury” Medina and Jon “Equinox” Peterson, both of whom had been benched or removed from their former teams. Together they planned to revive their old Murloc Geniuses squad with the addition of Harrison “psalm” Chang.

Unfortunately, Equinox was ultimately not able to join due to a closed contract with Astral Authority. Nonetheless, the remaining members forged ahead with rookie player Jun as their support.

Under the revived moniker, they tackled their first offline tournament at Burbank and closed out a tense series against Gale Force eSports for a first place finish. They went on to win the next regional at PAX West only a month later and proved that their dominance was no fluke.

After getting picked up by Astral Authority, the team played at BlizzCon and the Gold Club World Championship. Although the team struggled at both international tournaments, they still stand strong among contenders on the North American stage.

Tempo Storm has also tasted some success. The organization is primarily known in the HotS scene for their 2015 powerhouse team that featured top players like Wade “Dreadnaught” Penfield and Chris “Zuna” Buechter, but they also sponsored Korean team Tempest for a short time after their North American team disbanded. Both teams were unquestionably the best teams in the world at various points but fell off the map quickly and eventually disbanded due to internal struggles.

Many fans were surprised to see Tempo Storm invest in the scene again after their previous ventures, but organization owner reynad was quick to clear things up via Reddit. “We are a Blizzard esports organization, and Heroes was our first game outside of Hearthstone. It's important to stay in the scene not just for the sake of brand identity, but to do our part in growing the game,” he explained. “I have a lot of faith in Blizzard's team to grow the Heroes scene and we're glad to be a part of it from the beginning.”

The team will be back in action during the North American HGC Pro League, which starts in late January and stretches to the middle of June.