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How to watch pro Heroes of the Storm
Here’s everything you need to start following ESV’s Heroes of the Storm Championship Series.
How to watch pro Heroes of the Storm
© Blizzard
It's still in alpha, but Blizzard's MOBA, Heroes of The Storm, is already dipping a toe into the eSports universe thanks to the ESV Championship Series. The league's first season kicks off today and will see eight teams facing off against each other in an effort to be crowned the best as the game starts to find its competitive feet. As the game's still in alpha, viewers are warned to expect "baffling tech issues, weird bugs, and other fun things" but – assuming the games go to plan – here's how to understand what's going on onscreen!
What on earth are these guys trying to do? Right, so in Heroes of the Storm each battleground is a map with several lanes running across it. You're trying to shove your way along those lanes until you reach and destroy the big palace building in the enemy base. It's a MOBA, but Blizzard would prefer if you called it a hero brawler. On each map there are mercenary camps which you can defeat in order to have mercenaries join your side and help you push for a time.
Why am I seeing ghosts/pirates/dragons/knights? On each map there are also unique objectives which bestow advantages. Cursed Hollow lets you collect tributes in order to curse your opponents. The curse makes them more vulnerable to damage and stops their towers from firing. Blackheart's Bay sees you collecting doubloons to pay a pirate captain to point his cannons at your foe's buildings. The Haunted Mines has an underground section where you kill minions. When all the minions are dead both teams get Grave Golems to help them fight, but their strength is based on how many minions you killed. For Dragon Shire you're fighting for control over Obelisks in order to turn one of your team into the powerful Dragon Knight. Most recently, Blizzard announced Garden of Terror – a map with a day/night cycle and the ability to transform a player into the Terror with special powers and extra power and health.
Heroes of the Storm
© Blizzard
Isn't this Blizzard's All-Star game? Which characters might I know? It depends which of Blizzard's universes you're familiar with, but you'll find some big names in there. From Diablo, you've got Diablo, whose abilities revolve around fire, lightning and soul collection. From the StarCraft franchise, there are characters like Jim Raynor (ranged assassin with an air strike ability) and Kerrigan (smashing her way through enemies with the power of her wings). Then for Warcraft you've got a whole slew of famous faces, including Uther, the Lightbringer (healing while wielding his impressive hammer) and Azeroth's greatest druid, Malfurion Stormrage (a support who's able to silence, root and slow).
Who are these pro players? Where did they come from? There will be a lot of unfamiliar names at first, but you might already know some players from StarCraft 2 or Heroes of the Storm Twitch. Team Snowflake actually has two former SC2 pros on its roster. There's Jacob 'LzGaMeR' Winstead who played Zerg as part of Evil Geniuses' line-up as well as Greg 'IdrA' Fields who also used to play for EG (although he was let go from the team because of his poor attitude towards the community) and has also done some SC2 casting. You'll also find a former Terran player on Glorious! Gaming in the form of Rori 'CauthonLuck' Bryant-Raible he'll be playing alongside well-known HotS streamer ZPs, while former League of Legends player Taylor 'Arthelon' Eder will be part of the Symbiote Gaming line-up.
I would clearly be amazing at this game – can I play? The game is still in alpha at the moment. That means Blizzard are only inviting small numbers of people to test it, but you can register your interest in the beta phase via your Battle.net account. Don't be taken in by any phishing scams though. Blizzard warns fans that they're not sending out game keys, but adding game accounts directly so if someone promises to send you a key just ignore them – it's a fake.
Right – you should have everything you need to start watching HotS! Let us know who you're rooting for...
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