An unsuspecting weekend in the middle of September is about to see Sydney transformed into the Nexus. Heroes of the Storm will be the digital battleground that will see four teams compete for their chance at glory at BlizzCon 2018.
On the September 15-16, Australian teams Mindfreak and Crimson will go head to head in a best of five series. The winner faces the victor of the duel between Latin teams Encore Esports and Thunder Predators. Some of these teams have faced each other before, with a fierce rivalry growing between Encore and Mindfreak.
The finals will be a relentless best of seven series, with the winners of each bracket looking to establish dominance. Each team is preparing to head to the Global Championship finals at BlizzCon for their share of the $1,000,000 USD prize pool.
Heroes of the Storm Global Championship
These will be the most important games any of these teams have played and there’s no doubt we are going to see some of the best Heroes of the Storm outside of the grand final.
These teams have trained, fought and clawed their way to the top of their nations for this opportunity, expect intense team fights over every map objective.
There’s no room to hesitate or miss a stun. This is one step away from competing on the world stage. This is the World Cup qualifiers of Heroes of the Storm.
Tune in to the action on Twitch and cheer on your team. If you’re new to Heroes of the Storm you can learn a few things about the game and being a better player from the commentators and analysts André “Skimmy” Allchin Kori “Vandie” Bassi, Micheal “Disconcur” Roberts and Matthew “GLPhoenix” Hunter.
Mindfreak
Things to look out for is the patience and control of Mindfreak’s Ryoo. An ex StarCraft pro from South Korea, he’s no stranger to intense competition. Moving to Australia to study and work he found a home in the promising Australian HotS team.
Ryoo’s influence can be seen early in the game as he makes calculated moves to disable key players in the enemy team. Coupled with Mindfreak’s captain Fat94, the squad looks promising as their form demonstrates a level of restraint and precision uncharacteristic of other more aggressive Australian teams.
Speaking of aggressive plays, only joining the Crimson squad a few months ago, Hacky is looking to solidify his position in the promising Australian team. Filling the role of ranged assassin, he picks apart teams and harasses poor lonely support players without any hint of mercy.
Sometimes staying too long or too deep in the enemy team, he always looks to extract a heavy toll on the enemy for every objective they try to contest. Watch for Kva, Crimson’s tank player, to disrupt the enemy front line and create room for Hacky to pick apart the juicy vulnerable players.
Crimson
Crimson is the underdog going into these matches, however, with the recent addition of Hacky, are looking like the team to snatch the title of number one Australian HotS Squad.
After having their entire roster poached by another organisation, esports giant Thunder Predator was forced to recruit a brand-new squad at the start of June.
The new squad is looking to outperform their predecessors, with most of their players comfortable in the ‘flex’ roll, their greatest strength is their wide roster of heroes. Look for Thunder Predator to take some Meta breaking picks. They’re comfortable to work around the available heroes they aim to out draft their opponents and beat them with pure skill and counter picks.
Expect some rare heroes from Thunder Predator too. With the resurgence of specialists in the meta, they are shaping up to be an extremely fun team to watch.
Brazilian Domination
Who would have thought that Brazil would produce some of the strongest esports teams around? Must be something in the water, because Encore is no exception.
A fierce and determined team, I’ve had the pleasure of watching their last five matches live and they are proving that Brazil is here to dominate Heroes of the Storm as well.
The duo of betoGG and Corgan has demonstrated that early game aggression with heroes they are comfortable with, can outperform a slower structured team focused play.
You can see them roaming from lane to lane looking to gank enemy players from minute one. This aggression is supported by the continuous lane presence and superb positioning of Encore’s support player Thunder.
Preferring to play healers who can sustain a team instead of single target, expect lots of teams to ban Malfurion against Encore as Thunder is perhaps one of the highest rated Malfurion players on the scene.
But that’s enough from me rabbiting on about heroes and metas.
Remember to check out all the action on Twitch and follow Blizzard ANZ for all Australian Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch and StarCraft events.
Come cheer on the Aussies all the way to a BlizzCon 2018 Final!
