bytes: Blizzard Esports Roundup

Heroes of the Storm – HotD Registration

Heroes of the Dorm is Tespa’s collegiate Heroes of the Storm league, featuring fierce rivalries and some of the highest stakes in college esports: fully-paid college tuition for the winning team! Now in its fourth year, more than $500,000 in scholarships and prizes are up for grabs.

Regional winners and other top teams on the national leaderboard will be seeded into the 64-team National Championship bracket.

Registration is still open and the first week of Regional Play begins on Feb. 7-8. To view the broadcast schedule, please visit: https://heroesofthedorm.com/watch


Heroes Global Championship Week 2 Recap

Week 2 of the Heroes Global Championship (HGC) is in the books. While it is still far too early to predict which teams will emerge at the top of the standings and earn a trip to the Western Clash (Katowice) and Eastern Clash (Taipei), a number of matches this last week showed some interesting trends we’ll need to keep an eye on as the season progresses. Most notably:

  • Team Freedom (NA) took out HeroesHearth Esports (NA) 2-1 earlier in the week, but their match against rivals (and perennial contenders) Tempo Storm (NA) was more telling of how they might fare in the lead up to the Western Clash. In the end, though, it was Team Freedom who won their first showdown of the year 3-2, and with a win over Gale Force Esports in Week 1, they now find themselves both undefeated and at the top of the North American leaderboards.
  • In Europe, Team Dignitas (EU) continued to look impressive, winning their games against Diamond Skin (EU) and Method (EU) 3-0. Surprisingly, it was the 2017 Mid-Season Brawl champions Fnatic (EU) who stumbled this week, dropping a close series to underdogs Zealots (EU) 3-2.

All matches will be broadcast on the Heroes of the Storm Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/blizzheroes

NA, EU and KR VODS: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCASdq716V77-Ixup3HZOZWQ/playlists


StarCraft II

Serral Wins First WCS Event of 2018 at Leipzig

From Jan. 26-28, one of Europe’s finest — Joona “Serral” Sotala — battled through a gauntlet of some of the best StarCraft II competitors, including Artur “Nerchio” Bloch, Juan Carlos “SpeCial” Tena Lopez, and Tobias “ShoWTimE” Siebe, to take first place at WCS Leipzig 2018.  In addition to the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize pool and WCS Circuit Points, Serral will be automatically seeded into the WCS Global Finals later this year.

The final standings are as follows:

  • First Place ($20,000 and 3,000 WCS Circuit Points): Joona “Serral” Sotala (Zerg)
  • Second Place ($10,000 and 1,400 WCS Circuit Points): Tobias “ShoWTimE” Siebe (Protoss)
  • Third – Fourth Place ($6,500 and 900 WCS Circuit Points): Alex “Neeb” Sunderhaft (Protoss) and Juan Carlos “SpeCial” Tena Lopez (Terran)

For WCS VODs: https://www.youtube.com/user/WCSStarCraft

Photos and info courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment