Playing Team League for Fun and Profit

by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

I have been having so much fun playing Team League recently!

Now you might be thinking to yourself, “Who plays Team League?”. Maybe you have heard that the queue takes forever, or that it is impossible to find anyone to play with, or that everyone who plays Team League is a pro. Well times have changed. It is easier than ever to get into Team League and I have two good reasons for why you should be playing.

Fun

I play a lot of solo queue and I am just going to be honest, being a part of a full group of five players is simply a more enjoyable way to play. Win or lose, the added level of communication and coordination that goes along with a premade team adds a whole new dimension to the game. I’m not just talking about playing with friends either, I mean playing with random people as well.

So far this week I have played fourteen TL games and I didn’t know a single one of my teammates prior to this week. Some of these players were better than me, some were worse, but either way we had a good time playing the game the way it was meant to be played. We cheer when we win, we take responsibility when we lose, and we laugh when someone does something silly. Many of these players are now on my friends list and we are regularly inviting each other to groups.

If you haven’t tried playing with a five man premade group then you owe it to yourself to give it a try. Hopefully you will have just as much fun as I’ve had.

Profit

In a recent blog post, Blizzard announced that Preseason will soon be coming to an end, and that Season One will officially begin the week of June 14th. They also confirmed that players will receive rewards based on the highest Rank they achieved in Preseason. These rewards will include gold, portraits, and special mounts. Since there are separate rewards for Hero League and Team League, there has been a resurgence of interest in TL since the announcement.

As nice as earning double gold rewards and different color portraits may be, the real incentive to playing Team League is that it is easier to earn a mount. You only have to reach Rank 40 or better to earn a mount in Team League, as opposed to Rank 20 or better in Hero League. For many players, achieving Rank 20 in HL simply isn’t possible at this point, but reaching Rank 40 in TL certainly is.

There are still several weeks left in Preseason so there is plenty of time to start playing Team League and earn the rewards. Regardless of your skill level, everyone can reach Rank 40 if they make the effort since you don’t lose Ranks between Ranks 50-40.

Getting Started

The biggest obstacle when it comes to Team League is finding people to play with and completing 20 placement games. Luckily, this is a great time to start playing TL since there are so many other players out there also looking to earn the rewards. The key is knowing where to look.

The first place to check is your in game friends list. Remind them that there are rewards for playing and that you only have to end up Rank 40 or better to get the mount. If you are lucky, you can get four of your friends to join and be all set, but the odds are that it won’t be that easy. The next step is to look for players thru in game chat channels. If you have a Heroes podcast you like to listen to, or a big streamer that you like to watch, they probably have a custom chat channel in game for their community members. These channels are great places to find new friends to play with. There is even a custom channel just for players looking to play Team League. Last but not least, you always have general chat as well. This channel probably has the broadest reach of them all, but it is also going to be the most random as far as the type of person you are going to end up with. To join a channel, simply type /join <channel name>

Here are a few examples of channels where you might be able to find potential teammates:

• /join blizzpro (Blizzpro & Heroes Power Hour Podcast)
• /join amovetv (Into the Nexus Podcast)
• /join frogpants (The Core Podcast)
• /join stormcast (The Stormcast Podcast)
• /join hotscast (HotSCast Podcast)
• /join team league
• /join general

There are also options outside of the game for finding players. Heroes of the Storm has a very active community on Reddit, and there is a subreddit specifically for people looking for groups. I have also used Twitter as a way to find people for Team League. Be sure to include the hashtag #BlizzHeroes in your tweet to help increase it’s visibility.

If you are going to venture into Team League you should plan on using voice chat. You can certainly play Team League without voice chat, but it definitely makes things easier. Since odds are that your opponents are on voice chat, not using it will put you at a disadvantage. It also increases the social aspect of playing as a team. Skype, Discord, and Curse are the major programs that people use. Ideally you should download at least one of these programs if you are interested in playing Team League.

Temper Your Expectations

Team League can be a rough place. While there are lots of teams playing to earn rewards, there are also plenty of teams that are in full try hard mode. You are likely to run into some very well organized teams and the results may not be pretty. Don’t get discouraged. Focus on having fun, and don’t be results oriented.

If your goal is to reach Rank 40 for the mount, just be happy to have one more placement match complete. As you get more games under your belt, the matchmaker should do a better job of matching you against teams of equal skill and your result will hopefully improve.

Good luck and have fun! Hopefully I will see you soon in Team League.