by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

The popularity of eSports has never been higher.  Not only can you watch games 24/7 on Twitch and Youtube, but major television networks are also broadcasting video game tournaments.  ESPN is even looking for a dedicated eSports editor, yet another sign of how mainstream gaming has become.  While the general public is increasing aware of competitive gaming, there is still a large portion of the gaming community that doesn’t even follow the tournament scene for their favorite game.

If you are one of these people, there has never been a better time to start watching.  Not only is there a wealth of quality Heroes of the Storm coverage, but the game itself is much easier for viewers to follow than some other competitive games.  Even the most casual player can watch a game between two highly skilled teams, and feel like they understand what is happening.

Blizzard has embraced Heroes as an eSport from the very beginning.  They staged their first major tournament, Heroes of the Dorm, before the game was even officially released.  Now we have The Road to Blizzcon, a series of regional qualifiers leading up to the World Championships at Blizzcon.  The next stop on The Road to Blizzcon is the Americas Championships, taking place this weekend in Las Vegas.  Eight teams will compete for a $100,000 prize pool, with the top two teams qualifying for the World Championships.

This event will be streamed live on the official Heroes of the Storm Twitch channel, beginning Saturday at 10:00 am Pacific Time.  If you are not already following the Heroes tournament scene, let me make a case for why you should watch.

To Be Entertainment

If you are interested enough in Heroes of the Storm to be reading an article about it, it is a safe bet that you will enjoy watching a Heroes tournament as well.  While we are still in the early evolution of tournament coverage, the production quality is already quite good.  In addition to a professional quality program, there are also a wealth of interesting story lines to follow.

In Tempo Storm, you have a team that a month ago was considered almost unbeatable.  There were three North American qualifiers for the Americas Championship, and Tempo Storm won all three, with a combined record of 24-1.  However, their aura of invisibility has taken a hit after resounding defeats in their last two Final appearances.  It will be interesting to see if they can rebound and return to their former dominance, or if it is time for another team to rise to the top.

As if that wasn’t enough intrigue, you also have COGnitive Gaming, who unexpectedly removed one of their top players earlier this month.  They were considered one of the top North American teams prior to this sudden roster move, but now expectations are unclear.  COGnitive also features Glaurung, a former member of Tempo Storm.  While they are still on good terms, there is always special motivation when playing a former team.

If you like an underdog, this event has that as well.  Furious Gaming is in as a last minute replacement, after the original Latin America qualifier, Brave Ozone, was unable to participate due to Visa issues.  Furious Gaming was only able to finish third in the Latin America qualifier, so if they are able to make some noise this weekend it would be a huge shocker.

Finally, Cloud9 is the team coming into this weekend with all of the momentum.  While Tempo Storm has been the top North American team the last few months, Cloud9 has consistently been a close second.  They finished second in all three North American qualifiers, and earlier this month they won six consecutive games against Tempo Storm to win the Heroes Major League – Americas Season 3 title.  Prior to that, they made a statement at the MSI Masters by soundly defeating Team Liquid, Europe’s best, en route to a third place finish.  Cloud9 won the original Heroes of the Storm Invitational at Blizzcon 2014, and they are a favorite to claim one of the top two spots this weekend, and return to Blizzcon in 2015 as well.

To Improve

You can learn so much by watching top players compete at a high level.  While there should be plenty of excitement and drama during the games, don’t get so caught up in the moment that you don’t appreciate the quality of the play on display.  By all means, enjoy the show, but try to find something that you can take away to improve your own game as well.  I could easily write an entire article on what you can learn from watching eSports.  In fact, that was my plan for this article until I started writing and decided to make it more Americas Championship specific.  Instead, I will focus on three areas to pay special attention to.

The first is the draft.  You will immediately notice that certain Heroes will be picked or banned in almost every game.  While it is good to know which Heroes are considered auto picks, that only gets you so far.  It isn’t breaking news that Johanna and Zeratul are good.  The real opportunity for learning is in the situational picks.  By this, I mean Heroes who you don’t see picked in every single game.  When you do see one of these lesser played Heroes pop up, pay special attention to why they were chosen.  What map are they playing on?  What other Heroes do they have on their team, and who are they trying to synergize with?  Which Heroes are on the opposing team that they might be trying to counter?  Don’t just ignore the draft phase and wait for the actual game to start before paying attention.  There is a lot to be learned by watching the draft as well.

The next thing to note is how these top teams operate during the laning phase.  Even the newest of Heroes players understands the importance of having someone in every lane to soak experience.  What often gets lost is the fact that you only need one person in a lane to gain XP, so having two or three Heroes in the same lane isn’t always the most effective way to play.  Watch how well the pros are able to maximize experience, while still rotating around the map to contest objectives, grab mercenaries, or take advantage of an opponent who is out of position.  They use their manpower efficiently in order to accomplish several things at once.  They don’t send three Heroes when two can get the job done.  Pay close attention to how effortlessly they transition between solo and group play, and learn from it.  While you aren’t going to have the same level of coordination in your solo queue games, if doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate these efficiency lessons into your own game.  You may not be able to control what your teammates do, but you can strive to ensure that you yourself are being as productive as possible.

The last example of something that you can learn from watching these games is now the teams engage, or in many cases how they don’t engage.  Often in competitive games you will see the two teams involved in what looks like a dance.  The will move forward and back, up and down, always keeping the same amount of distance between their two teams.  They might exchange a few ranged attacks here and there, but they don’t fully commit.  There is a lot more maneuvering before fights in these games, and teams are looking to engage on their terms.  Contrast this to the games that you and I play in, where team fights seem to break out whenever the two sides come within sight of each other, and the difference is startling.  Pay special attention when you see this back and forth to try and figure out why they decide to engage when they do.  Maybe it was because their Ultimates were available, while the other team’s were on cool down.  Maybe it was because the enemy Kael’thas got a little to close, and they decided to pounce on him.  Maybe the enemy healer moved a little too far away, and left the tank vulnerable.  Lessons such as these can improve your own positioning, and help you identify where the enemy team is vulnerable.

The Community

While Blizzard has designed great game, and followed it up with major tournament support, what really makes this game special is the community.  There is a passionate group of players and content creators who are also pushing this game forward.  While watching the Americas Championship, you will be exposed to many of these fine folks.  Of all the people expected to be on camera this weekend, the only one who actually works for Blizzard is Trikslyr.  Everyone else is just someone who cares enough about Heroes of the Storm and eSports to devote a large portion of their free time to it (Trikslyr also spends a lot of his personal time to promoting Heroes, he just also happens to work for Blizzard).  All of the hosts and casters, and many of the players you will see competing, also produce some type of audio or video content.  If you enjoy a certain caster’s personality, or a player blows your mind with their play on a certain Hero, check out Twitch or YouTube and you will probably find more from them.  Some of my favorites include GillyweedSC2, SolidJake, Trikslyr, and the Tempo Storm YouTube channel, but that doesn’t mean the others are any less awesome.  If you are not already watching Twitch streams, YouTube videos, or listening to podcasts about Heroes of the Storm, then let this event be your gateway drug.

For The Swag

Apparently Blizzard was concern that my writing alone might not be enough to convince you to watch this weekend’s event.

If a quality production, top notch play, and a devoted community aren’t enough reason to watch, then maybe a special limited edition portrait will do the trick.  Blizzard announced in a recent blog post that anyone who watches a Heroes of the Storm regional championship from a Battle.net linked Twitch account, will receive a special Storm Watcher portrait.  This weekend’s Americas Championship is your first opportunity to earn this item.  Full details on this promotion, as well as how to link your Twitch account to your Battle.net account, can be found here.

In addition, there will also be two special sales to celebrate the victorious team.  The week of September 22nd, all five Heroes used by the winning team in their clinching game will go on sale.  The week of September 29th, all five skins used by the winning team in their clinching game will go on sale.  These sale items will be in addition to the normal weekly sale rotation.

I am very excited for this event, and I hope you are as well.  Don’t forget to tune in to the official Heroes of the Storm Twitch channel to catch all of the action live starting Saturday at 10:00 am Pacific Time.  If you miss any of the games, they are usually posted on the Heroes of the Storm YouTube channel a few days after the event.

DJTyrant and I will be covering the event live, so follow us on Twitter and stay tuned to BlizzPro for the latest news.