by JR Cook - 7 years ago     show comments

Just as the dust settles on HGC action with the conclusion of the Eastern Clash, the competition sparks back up in yet another region. This week saw the commencement of ANZ HGC Season 2 produced by Gamestah. The Swiss style tournament has come back for the latest season with prizes and the ever important seed into the Regional Final up for grabs.

Gamestah has changed things up slightly this season with the competition running over 5 weeks rather than 4, though the Swiss style tournament itself has stayed true being a 5 round best of 1. This gives the tournament and the teams much diversity each week, never generating stale competition. Blizzard ANZ also stepped up this season providing all entrants that participate in all 5 weeks a free Hero and Skin Bundle plus a sizeable prize pool for the top 2 winning teams. This marketing scheme proved a success with an unprecedented 17 teams registering for week 1 of the tournament.

Games went as expected with Team Nomia taking all 5 games they participated in firmly planting themselves in the number 1 spot for week 1. Number two spot went to Lleyton Hewitt FC with an impressive 4-1 performance and Morton’s List taking the third spot for week one. The commentary from Vandie and Skimmy was entertaining as always and the production provided by Gamestah was to be commended.

Rank	Team	Match W-L-T (wins +1.0, ties +0.5)	Byes (+1.0)	Score	TB	Buchholz	Pts Diff
1	Nomia	5 – 0 – 0	0	5.0	0	9.0	5
2	Lleyton Hewitt FC	4 – 1 – 0	0	4.0	0	8.0	3
3	Morton’s List	3 – 1 – 0	1	4.0	0	6.0	2
4	Pesky’s Pristine Puffy Penta Pods	3 – 2 – 0	0	3.0	1	10.0	1
5	TrumpSports	3 – 2 – 0	0	3.0	1	9.0	1
6	TLVID	3 – 2 – 0	0	3.0	1	8.0	1
7	The Bird Punchers	3 – 2 – 0	0	3.0	0	8.0	1
8	Ethereal Cat	3 – 2 – 0	0	3.0	0	8.0	1
9	WinnuS	3 – 2 – 0	0	3.0	0	7.0	1
10	You’re off the team	2 – 3 – 0	0	2.0	2	8.0	-1
11	City Wok	2 – 3 – 0	0	2.0	1	8.0	-1
12	Pogchamp	2 – 3 – 0	0	2.0	1	8.0	-1
13	Mission Improbable	1 – 3 – 0	1	2.0	1	4.0	-2
14	Onyx Esports	1 – 3 – 0	1	2.0	0	5.0	-2
15	Daddy Disco and the Concurlings	1 – 3 – 0	1	2.0	0	4.0	-2
16	Onyx United	1 – 4 – 0	0	1.0	1	7.0	-3
17	Team “Legion”	0 – 4 – 0	1	1.0	0	4.0	-4

After the competition I took some time to speak with a Blizzard eSports Spokesperson to get some insight into the ANZ scene and where they would like to take things going forward.

You guys have stepped it up a notch since last year with the addition of the Gamestah run competitions similar to the North America/European seasons. Was this something instigated by Blizzard ANZ or was it a product of the global HGC efforts this year?

The addition of an extra, local tournament series this year was completely driven by Blizzard ANZ – we love local eSports! The idea was to increase the opportunities for Australian and New Zealand teams to be able to compete with each other prior to the Regional Finals. The Gamestah guys have been fantastic to work with, and their competitions have been run exceptionally well, with Season 2 now running for five weeks in total;  up from four weeks in Season 1. There is also a Last Chance-style one day Qualifier each season, held by ANZHeroes.com. Think you’ve got what it takes? Sign for the Gamestah Season 2 Qualifiers here! (http://gamestah.challonge.com/GS2QW1)

Season 2 has begun this month, will the winning team seed directly into the Regional Finals like season 1?

Absolutely, the top two performing teams from the Gamestah Season 2 series will move on to the Regional Finals, as they did in Season 1.

Last season was entirely online, is there any chance for a LAN event for the Regional Finals? And if so how many teams would qualify?

For the 2016 Season Final, we flew the top two teams to Sydney to compete at the ESL Australia studio. We felt it worked well and helped to share the hype, with winners earning a seed directly to BlizzCon. We plan to host something similar this year, and will be adding the opportunity for fans to attend and cheer on the teams live in the studio. 

Nomia held their ground really well against some of the strongest teams at the Western Clash, what are the chances of running a competition where ANZ’s best face other region’s worst? For example, have a prominent ANZ team face off against one of the NA teams that drop down into the Crucible or have an ANZ team perform in the Crucible Finals etc.

We’ve been discussing ways we might be able to provide more competition against teams based in Southeast Asia. This is something we’re exploring with ANZHeroes.com for later in 2017.

ESL recently announced their IEM event breaching our shores. Is there any chance for Heroes or another Blizzard property to be represented there?

Unfortunately, the timing didn’t allow us to be involved in the local IEM event this year. It’s definitely something we’ll consider for future events if IEM continues in the region. Catch all the ANZ action by tuning into the Gamestah qualifiers each Tuesday https://www.twitch.tv/gamestahtv1 from 7 pm AEST. For updates during the season follow our local twitter channel @Blizzard_ANZ

In all, it seems the ANZ scene is ever growing, with backing from various sources like Gamestah and ANZHeroes.com as well as Blizzard themselves. New opportunities like the Gamestah tournament is helping build a solid foundation for Heroes eSports in the ANZ Region alongside veteran competitions such as the ANZHeroes Monthly Tournament, there is always some ANZ Heroes action to be had.