by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

It has been roughly two weeks since the conclusion of Heroes of the Dorm. The games were well played, the broadcast was top notch, and lots of people watched, but what does that all mean? Here are a few things that I took away from the Heroes of the Dorm tournament:

This game is for real

First things first, Heroes of the Dorm showed that there is already a tremendous following for this game and that it will be a viable eSport.

Since the game has been playable for over a year and is already so incredibly polished, it is easy to forget that it is still technically in closed beta.  Normally when a game has this much hype during closed beta it is because most people are unable to play it and that creates an increased desire along with a romanticized idea of how good the game will be. That level of excitement often fades quickly once the game is released and people can actually play it for themselves.

Heroes of the Storm is different because there are already a large number people playing and they know how good it is first hand. The fact that so many people have already made it their game of choice, despite the fact that it is still in closed beta, is a testament to the quality of the game and the staying power that it will have.

Along those same lines, the fact that hundreds of people showed up to attend a tournament for a game that is still in beta (and that tens of thousands more watched it on television) is mind boggling. Lest we forget, the tournament was also televised on a major sports network and was one of the top trending items on Twitter at the time. Blizzard managed to create an event that appealed to both the traditional eSports enthusiast and to those who didn’t even know that eSports existed. For the traditional fan, the games were well played and tightly contested. For the neophyte, the collegiate aspect combined with the obvious energy made it intriguing and interesting.

These guys are good

The caliber of play in this event was simply outstanding. In earlier rounds because there was more of a disparity between the two teams, there were some obvious examples of what separates the good teams from the great teams. In later rounds the games were more evenly matched and it was difficult for either team to establish a clear advantage until late in the game. There were many lessons the average player could take from these games.

Don’t engage too soon

One of the biggest differences I noticed between the Heroes of the Dorm games compared to the games I typically play was in how the teams engaged, or in many cases did not engage.

There were numerous examples of both teams having complete sight of each other, but rather than engage in a team fight they would instead dance back and forth always keeping the same amount of space between their two teams. I don’t know about your games, but in the games I play if the two teams can see each other there is usually a team fight about to go down. At the very least one or two people are going to think there is a team fight going down and run in and get blown up.

Go back and watch some of the games and note how and when the top teams choose to engage. First and foremost, you will see that they almost always have either a number advantage or a level advantage, in many cases both. The engagements also usually serve a purpose.

Unlike the games we play, where both teams run into each other in the middle of a lane and decide it is time to team fight since the other team is right there anyway, good teams engage only when there is a purpose or because they have some type of advantage. You can also learn a lot by looking at when a team chooses to not engage. I can think of many a game where we have been in clear control only to end up losing because were caught in a single bad engagement late in the game.

Don’t just focus on Objectives

Heroes of the Storm is an objective based game, which is what separates it from most other MOBA’s. However, one thing that Heroes of the Dorm showed us is that blindly focusing on Objectives is not always the right thing to do.

It is much more important to work as a team and to have a plan. There were numerous examples where a team would forgo an Objective if going for it would put them at a disadvantage. Rather than force themselves into a bad situation, they would instead come up with an alternative plan and focus on that instead.

The best example of this was in a game between UC Berkley and ASU in the Finals. The map was Haunted Mines and ASU was able to get an early 100 skull golem because they had control of the mines and UC Berkley chose not to fight them over it. Instead UC Berkley focused on getting a level advantage, won the next team fight, and went on to win the game and later the match. This pattern repeated itself often in Finals where ASU would do a better job on Objectives, but UC Berkley continually got the best of the team fights thru better coordination and team work.

Hero bans are needed in competitive play

If you watched any of the Heroes of the Dorm matches I don’t have to tell you that most of them featured the same core group of Heroes. It was just a matter of which team drafted them and in what order. Adding a single Hero ban for each team would not only add an extra layer of strategy, it would also create additional excitement for the crowd.

Some of the biggest cheers in the arena were the result of a team picking something other than the standard meta picks. As good as the last few games were, just as many people talked about the games where a team picked Murky or where a team went all specialists and tried to tank with Azmodan.

There are other tournaments like the ESL Major League which already include Hero bans, so it has been shown to work with Heroes of the Storm.

Open Beta is two weeks too late

Heroes of the Dorm attracted a tremendous amount of attention, especially from people who don’t normally play Blizzard games. Sadly, with open beta scheduled to begin more than two weeks later I don’t know that Blizzard is going to be able to make the most of that attention. Imagine the impact if one of those many Blizzard commercials during the Finals had said, “Play this game NOW at www.heroesofthestorm.com“. There will still be plenty of people who try the game having watched Heroes of the Dorm, but there would have been so many more if people could have immediately jumped in while caught up in the afterglow of such an exciting event.

I don’t want to blame Blizzard unfairly here. It is difficult enough to organize an event like Heroes of the Dorm within the small time frame that they did, let alone to try and coordinate that event with game development. I am simply lamenting an opportunity lost.

Conclusion

Heroes of the Dorm was a massive success, which probably surpassed even Blizzard’s expectations. If you haven’t already, check out the official Heroes of the Storm YouTube channel here to watch of all the games. Even if you don’t learn anything, it is worth it for the entertainment value alone.