t’s a natural reaction for fans of players or the pro circuit to be concerned when news of an original member of the first Heroes of the Storm World Championship team, King Caffine, declares that playing at the highest level feels like a “part-time job” to him. However, change is not only healthy in terms of keeping the HGC fresh but very common in an industry where some turnover is necessary.
Over the weekend at the Hearthstone Championship Tour’s (HCT) Fall Championship held at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, Mihai “languagehacker” Dragalin emerged from the pack victorious. After his 3-1 match against Brian "Bloodyface" Eason, they, along with David “JustSaiyan” Shan, who finished in the top four of the event, sat down to speak with the press about the current metagame, their thoughts of the tournament and a message for their supporters.
After failing to include card balance changes in the Hearthstone team’s “In The Works” blog post on September 18, Team 5 has received quite a bit of grief from the community. Professional players, content creators and popular streamers flocked to Twitter, Youtube and Twitch to express their frustration with the current state of the meta and called for action.
With numerous game modes for players to dedicate hundreds of hours to, such as traditional multiplayer, the iconic Zombie slaughter-fest and, now, Blackout, Call of Duty’s attempt to capitalize on the “battle royale” game mode, the franchise shot to the top of Twitch’s viewing leaderboard. As successful as the franchise has been, constantly hitting atop the charts for most copies of a game sold each year, Call of Duty has never had the presence on Twitch that a game of that size should garner.
When the Heroes of the Storm patch notes were released on September 17 revealing the re-worked Garden Terror map, Kerrigan and Brightwing, the community was so wrapped up in the big news that, unbeknownst to everyone, there was a small couple lines amended to the post that would have more impact than anything else.
Professional Heroes of the Storm players talking amongst one another about strategy, heroes and their opponents is commonplace as many of them are close friends. There is also nothing wrong with that, according to the rules of the Heroes Global Championship (HGC). What multiple sources have told InvenGlobal Sunday night is that players were violating both an un-written and a written one in the HGC rule book where a gray area causes confusion.
Over the weekend, the bi-annual Heroes of the Storm Crucible tournament was held across the globe. The bottom two teams in each professional division were pitted against the top two teams in the Open Division, the top amateur league, for a spot in the Heroes Global Championship (HGC) in 2019. Win your best-of-seven series, you secure a place among the other professional teams. Lose and you either remain in the Open Division or fall out of HGC.
In a match that appeared to be played almost too well to be true, it turns out, after further investigation by the Hearthstone Esports Team, it was. After five back-and-forth games, Chinese Taipei defeated Singapore in the Hearthstone Global Games only to be disqualified from the event for cheating soon after.
In a best-of-five match that came down to a singular point of health, one of the most successful competitive Hearthstone players of all-time who now focuses most of his energy on streaming, Thijs Molendijk, took down XiaoT in the annual China vs Europe Championship 2018. First prize was an Aston Martin DB11 luxury car, valued at over $175,000 euros, which Thijs gladly took the keys to and sat in moments after his victory.
Jerome “JayPL” Trinh, the French main Tank player for Team Dignitas, the number one team in Europe, has announced he will be retiring from the competitive Heroes of the Storm scene after the $1 million BlizzCon Finals taking place in November.
The world of traditional and electronic sports was blended once again Wednesday night as the Oakland Athletics (Major League Baseball) and the San Francisco Shock (Overwatch League) teamed up for a sh
The Goddess of Elune, Tyrande, is back in the spotlight after an extended absence from the competitive Heroes Global Championship (HGC) scene. If one can remember far back enough to the last time she saw as much play as she did this past weekend, you’re recalling the days of the famous or infamous, depending on who you ask, double-Support meta. Since that time period, her exposure in high-level play has been extremely scarce. If she did see play, it was as a secondary Support hero if a team composition lacked a bit of damage or needed scouting on a larger map.
The Hearthstone team announced the addition of four new cards to the same that will be available to craft and open in Classic packs next month. As more and more cards have rotated into the Hall of Fame set, Blizzard felt it was appropriate to replace them to further solidify a class' identity.
Blizzard unveiled two new Heroes of the Storm character re-works the other day, Kerrigan and Brightwing. Below are the details for each with a full breakdown of their new kits players will be able to use.
" hope that every single person who likes Kerrigan now on live will continue to like Kerrigan with the change."
" think a lot of the design ideas for Brightwing just went in and we did it. There is a lot of experimental stuff."
In a tweet seemingly out-of-the-blue, psalm announced he was leaving the scene to pursue a career in the industry-warping title, Fortnite. The announcement sent waves throughout the Heroes community. Players supported him, Reddit users questioned him and Tempo Storm lost a valuable piece to their puzzle of success.
As more and more young gamers are looking to pursue a professional career each day, Hastr0 opened up about what he looks for in a player, how social media has changed the game and advice for those in the Overwatch tier-2 scene who are looking to take the next step.
With a robust hero pool to choose from in Heroes of the Storm, each hero, when correctly paired with another or others, has the chance to shine and take advantage of what makes their kit unique in the first place. Xul is no exception. The ability to click on a target and instantly root them, is an immensely valuable tool, especially in competitive play now that Cleanse is all but gone. A potential pick at any given moment can swing a game in an instant and put the opposition on their heels, turning the tide of a series. Justing knows that and whether it is viable in the long run or not, he wants to give it an honest try before writing it off, like before.
The Heroes of the Storm team made their presence known at Gamescom this year in Cologne, Germany. While the community was under the impression that only the updated Hanamura map and the new hero, Mephisto, were being shown, Blizzard had something else lurking in the shadows.
