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.
On Friday morning, Supercell, creators of the massively popular Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Boom Beach and Brawl Stars mobile games released information regarding their upcoming balance update to Clash Royale. Slated to go live on March 4, the Finnish developers decided to approach this series of gameplay changes with an emphasis on diversifying the meta. How they opted to go about this was by buffing a few cards that have been out-classed recently, adjusting deployment times for horde creatures and targeting a specific individual that has been iconic across the company’s numerous titles, the Barbarian. The following patch notes were shared by the company on the Clash Royale official subReddit and inside the game’s client with developer insight.
Nearly 400,000 Pokémon fans tuned into the Pokémon Direct live stream through Nintendo’s official Youtube channel on Wednesday morning as the company announced the next iteration of the iconic franchise. On national Pokémon Day, Nintendo held a seven-minute information dump that debuted their next title set to be released later this year on the Nintendo Switch: Pokémon Shield and Sword. The generation eight title will have players explore the Galar region, an entirely new world with a horde of unique creatures populating the universe. Nintendo confirmed that Pokémon Sword and Shield will indeed be its own separate game, not a spin-off of prior generations or titles.
Activision Blizzard loves making money. So much so, that their Chief Executive Officer, Bobby Kotick, during their most recent earnings call began his statement with: “We once again achieved record results in 2018.” What followed was him stating that the company would be laying off around 800 individuals but that’s a different story altogether. A few of the company’s entities: Overwatch, the Overwatch League, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone have reliably brought in income for the company in recent years. What has struggled-- and likely one of the reasons why developers were moved off the title and onto more profitable ones-- is a way for Heroes of the Storm players to be incentivized to spend money in or on a title they love. This isn’t a recent development either. All a die-hard fan of the game has to do is visit Blizzard’s official gear shop online or at a company-sponsored tournament and you will see very, very little Heroes of the Storm merchandise. Why this is so perplexing is the concept of Heroes lends itself well to merchandising.
This morning, Epic Games laid out specifics for their $100 million Fortnite esports circuit during the 2019 calendar year. The road to the Fortnite World Cup live finals, held in New York City with a $30 million prize pool associated with it, will begin on April 13 with 10 weekly online qualifiers, each awarding $1 million in prizes. Once the final qualifier is finished on June 16, the top 100 Solo players and 50 Duo teams will be guaranteed $50,000 and the opportunity to compete for the $30 million in prizes. Going forward, Epic has announced that they will run weekly $1 million online tournaments using unique formats and game modes to help reach their $100 million total in prizes given out during the year.
We’ve all been there. You download the newest Heroes of the Storm patch on the launcher, anticipating the opportunity to jump into a Ranked game and try out the newest tweaks on your favorite heroes. You rush to click on “Hero League” or “Team League” when, like a Death Eater from Harry Potter, an estimated queue time of 803 seconds sucks the excitement out of your body. What’s there to do for over 13 minutes? You could pray to the Lord of Sin, Azmodan, and hope the stars align in a way that the wait is only a couple of moments. Or, if you’re truly cursed, the 803 seconds is a conservative estimation and, depending on your rank, you may be sitting in the queue for upwards of 20 minutes. You could cancel your attempt to play in Ranked mode and wait only a few minutes to play Quick Match or Unranked but, eh, that’s not your cup of tea. You’re a competitive fiend whose skin tingles when you see +3 for Performance Adjustment at the end of a hard-earned win. The good thing is that, while I cannot make your queue time any faster, I can present a list of cheap or free games that you can play in queue opposed to having your mind slip into madness as you watch your two favorite heroes spin in a circle as you wait for a game to begin.
When you think of your favorite esports star, you usually don't think of them competing in a small town tournament for a couple hundred dollars, if that. However, this very scenario is what gave many professional players their start. Professional Overwatch player for the Philadephia Fusion, Isaac “Boombox” Charles, is no different and, recently, he decided to give back. A couple weeks ago, Boombox made a contribution towards a tournament’s prize pool that enabled him to learn the ropes of the esports industry. It wasn’t in Overwatch, though. Boombox, a former professional Starcraft II player, decided to donate funds to the epic.LAN Starcraft II tournament prize pool, which currently stands at £1,750 plus tickets to an upcoming event.
On Tuesday afternoon, Newzoo, a research firm that provides gaming information and analytics released their “2019 Global Esports Market Report” which suggests that, for the first time ever, the esports market will accrue over $1 billion in revenue in a calendar year. According to their study, revenues are expected to reach $1.1 billion, a growth of just under 27% from the year before. Of that $1.1 billion, is it estimated that 82% of that revenue will come from endemic and non-endemic brand investments such as sponsorships, advertising, and media rights. Sponsorship, according to the study, will make up slightly over half of that amount.
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.
Everywhere you go, you can’t escape Epic Games' groundbreaking title, Fortnite. At the mall, in movie theaters, out to dinner with friends, even on jumbotrons at sporting events, you see dozens of kids showcasing dance moves featured in the game itself. Heads are no longer tilted in wonder when it’s talked about. Instead, those who have never heard of it are increasingly becoming rarer and rarer beings as pop culture thrusts the title in their faces, like a new parent who wants to showcase 2.5 x 3.5-inch photos of their children in their wallet at any given time. The game amassed billions of dollars in 2018 and created multi-million dollar celebrities from players who enjoy streaming the title on Twitch or competing in large tournaments around the globe. This isn’t the story of one of those millionaires who live in a house that features a dining room larger than any place of residence they grew up in or someone who showcases their newest Tesla vehicle they purchased for six-figures on social media or even has two computers to power their Twitch stream. In fact, on stream, you can see a microwave in the background, a stack of dirty dishes sitting on the counter and individuals throughout the day walking in and out of their modern trailer home.
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.
Nearly two weeks ago, one of the most popular, beloved and talented former professional players in the history of Heroes of the Storm esports, Thomas “Ménè” Cailleux, had enough. While streaming the game on Twitch, he began talking to his chat about his love for the title, regardless of the tough times it has been through lately, and, visibly frustrated, he began pleading for Blizzard to work with him, other former professional players and content creators to help improve the game. His rant, which was immediately clipped and put on the Heroes of the Storm subReddit, has garnered nearly 12,000 viewers and was one of the top posts for that week. His message though is one that has circulated throughout the pro scene for years: “Why hasn’t Blizzard worked with those who play the game at the highest level and have a deeper understanding of hero’s kits, battleground mechanics and what the game needs better than the vast majority of the player base? What is there to lose?”
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.
ReKTGlobal, the parent company of Rogue, today announces a $10.8-million Series A funding round. The global esports venture company’s financing was led by Nick Gross, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and musician, who is founder of entertainment and media company Gross Labs and will now join the board of ReKTGlobal. Other notable investors participating in the round include Steve Aoki, Imagine Dragons band members and manager Mac Reynolds, Live Nation, Larry Rudolph, partner of Maverick Management, Ozone Entertainment founder Bret Disend, and 1916 Management founder Jonny Gordon along with other sports, media, and entertainment investors.
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.
