Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Dorm

A lot of time spent preparing and playing all came down to this. Arizona State University and Cal Berkeley had passed all tests, cutting through the tough competition to make it to the finals. With full college tuition on the line, this was no ordinary match. There were many who felt that Cal Berkeley were the favorites to win it all from the very beginning, and the Golden Bears eventually proved their fans right with a thrilling victory, taking the best of 5 series 3 games to 2. However, it’s a pretty popular thought that Arizona State could have actually been the victors. A poorly-timed decision to hearth by the team in full vision of their enemies appeared to be the turning point in the decisive game, and Cal was ready to capitalize on this error. In the end, Cal Berkeley boasts the team crowned the best collegiate squad, but the tournament was a huge victory for all involved. The broadcast of the finals on ESPN brought awareness to a whole new audience, while the production and caster crew did a fantastic job of bringing the hype. Overall, while it was certainly not without its faults, Heroes of the Dorm was an extremely successful endeavor, and is hopefully just the first step in an exciting journey for competitive Heroes of the Storm.

League of Legends

EU LCS Promotion Tournament

With us much excitement as we saw in some other tournaments, the EU LCS Promotion tournament didn’t offer nearly as much drama. GIANTS! Gaming took a fairly painless 3-1 series victory over Reason Gaming, with the only hiccup coming in a game 3 loss. However, Werlyb really stepped up in the series, showing he can be a force to be reckoned with on champions besides Jax, while Pepiinero and Adryh played their carry roles well. In the other match, ROCCAT swept Copenhagen Wolves Academy in an extremely one-sided series. If you’d like to know exactly how one-sided it was, consider this: The largest gold lead CWA ever had in the series was 554. Yes, you read that correctly. 554 gold. ROC’s strategy of putting nukeduck on the utility-oriented Lulu paid off, allowing the rest of his team to shine. ROCCAT underperformed in the Spring Split, but now they’ll have an opportunity to make up for it in the Summer, having easily secured their spot back in the LCS, where they’ll be rejoined by GIANTS!

NA LCS Promotion Tournament

An LCS without Team Dignitas certainly would have felt strange, but it was almost a harsh reality. After taking a quick 2-0 lead in the series, Team Fusion stormed back with two wins of their own. After game 4 featured Fusion steamrolling their way to victory, things looked bleak for DIG. However, they had an excellent start to game 5, picking up a fairly early 4k gold lead. Fusion showed their resilience, completely erasing their deficit and looking like they were putting themselves in position to join the LCS. In the end, it was ironically poor Baron calls by Fusion that allowed Dignitas to claw their way back into the game, and the second “Baron throw” by Fusion was what DIG needed to finish off the game. It was certainly too close for comfort, but Dignitas retained their spot in the LCS.

The final match of the weekend featured Team Dragon Knights taking on Winterfox. With the talent of Seraph, Kez, and Alex Ich on the roster, TDK was a team to be feared. It only took them 4 games to show why, as with the possible exception of Altec, the entire Winterfox roster appeared to be outmatched in this series. AP Marksmen ruled, as Alex Ich showed that full-AP Corki and full-AP Kog’Maw are both champions that need to be respected, finding wins with both. Seraph even performed well on AD Nidalee in the top lane, which is something we haven’t seen in quite some time. In the end, a 3-1 series victory means that Winterfox’s turbulent season ends with them becoming the only team to lose their spot in the LCS, leaving a lot of questions of what’s to come for their players. Congratulations to Team Dragon Knights, the only Challenger squad able to defeat their LCS opponents! We look forward to seeing what they can do in the LCS.

LPL Finals

Throughout the entire split, Edward Gaming was the most feared team in Europe. However, LGD Gaming had been making a name for themselves, with the additions of Acorn and Imp paying off. We knew it would be an explosive match between these two squads in the finals, but the series delivered more than anyone could have hoped. Coming down to a decisive game five, a desperate Baron attempt by LGD when they were behind led to EDG’s Deft picking up a Pentakill. With Deft, PawN, and Koro1 still alive from the fight, they had just enough time to finish off the Nexus as members of LGD began to respawn, with those tense final moments resulting in Edward Gaming sitting on top of China’s LPL.

SMITE

SPL Season 2 Spring Finals

With the finals of the Spring Split of SPL Season 2 now upon us, it was Team SoloMid (formerly COGnitive.Red) up against AFK Gaming. TSM’s lineup had an impressive showing in the World Championship, and now had a chance to come out on top in the first playoffs of Season 2. However, that was not to be, as AFK Gaming were able to claim the best of 5 set with a 3-1 score, led by their solo laner, CycloneSpin. One of the most self-confident players in the world, Cloud9’s Omegatron, has even stated that Cyclone is the best there is in the solo lane, and many fans agree. Taking control of the game with the likes of Gwan Yu and Fenrir, Cyclone played exceptionally well in the series. Of course, this is a team game, and the entirety of AFK showed up, taking down TSM to claim the title of the best team in the Spring Split. This could be the start of a huge shift in power in the SMITE competitive landscape, but only time will tell.