The North American Challenger League - or NACL for short - has given Heroes of the Storm fans something major to expect. Starting this winter, competitive HotS teams will fight for $10,000 - the first good paying tournament for Blizzard's new MOBA.
Heroes of the Storm might be in alpha but eSports organizations are already eager to tap in its potential. Over the last few weeks, established teams like mYinsanity, Curse, Mousesports and Team Empire decided to sign Heroes of the Storm rosters and be among the pioneers of this new title. Even former players from other disciplines - particulalrly StarCraft 2 - took interest in the new game and names like Idra, LzGamer, AcE, sC, CrazyMoving, Noblesse and others were seen forming teams and discussing the competitive aspects of the game.
Soon enough, tournaments also started appearing. Even despite the lack of custom games or a draft system in the game, Heroes of the Storm enthusiasts found a way to come together and clash swords, guns and magic on the Nexus battlefields. Just a week ago, a start was given to the mYi-Versa invitational - a four-team tournament for the European scene - while last night was the premiere of the ESV Champions League, a long-running tournament with eight of the leading North American teams.
Today, things got even more serious as the first big money are being thrown into Blizzard's attempt at the MOBA genre. In a short twitter post, NACL - a company known for running League of Legends tournaments for the past year - announced a $10,000 for Heroes of the Storm for their winter season. The league will run in parallel with League of Legends' third NACL season and another newcomer to the brand - Smite.
Prize Pools: League of Legends $30k, Smite $10k, Heroes of the Storm $10k #NACLWINTERCIRCUIT
— NACL eSports (@NACLeSports) August 26, 2014
Unfortunately, that's where the information stops. NACL's main page is still not updated and doesn't reveal any details about the start date (we have the registration start date, though, in October 1st), the format, the length of the season or the number of teams that will participate.
