PAX West starts September 2 at 10 AM PDT, where the final qualifying spot for Blizzcon is on the line! Which team will earn their spot to Blizzcon alongside Murloc Geniuses?
EDIT: The original title of this piece has been edited to reflect the nature of the opinions below-- they are just that, opinions. Any bias or favoritism is the result of one writer's personal take on a teams power level and the chance he thinks they have to win.
Regional Information:
- Stream link
- All Group Matches are Best of 3.
- Group A plays on September 2 starting at 10 AM PDT
- Group B plays on September 3 starting at 10 AM PDT
- Playoffs on September 4 starting at 10 AM PDT (including potential Blizzcon qualification match if a tiebreaker is needed)
- All Playoff Matches are Best of 5.
- The winner of this regional will be the 2nd NA seed at Blizzcon.
If Murloc Geniuses wins this regional again, Gale Force eSports will be the 2nd NA seed at Blizzcon if they finish as the runner up. Otherwise, Gale Force eSports and the runner-up at this regional will play a Best of 3 tiebreaking qualification match for the right to go to Blizzcon.
Let's reveal the groups and talk about the teams.
Group A
Murloc Geniuses used to be the longest standing North American team before they disbanded really early this year. Well, former members Fury (he was GFE's tank until after the Summer Championships) and Cauthonluck have reformed this team, adding Jun, psalm, and cattlepillar. Not expected to be a major threat to win the first North American Regional, they instead showed that they are a force to be reckoned with, defeating one of the two favorites in GFE in the finals 3-2 to win the entire event and qualify for Blizzcon.
In the aftermath of the first regional, Jun has received acclaim as NA's best support player from many Heroes watchers, including Bakery, who is the support and captain of Team Dignitas (they won both EU regionals). Perhaps Fury should also receive acclaim as one of the best warrior players in NA - GFE won the 2nd NA regional in the Summer season while he was tanking for them, and has now won the first NA regional in the Fall season with Murloc Geniuses. Despite all of this, no one will be talking about these guys as a serious threat to win this upcoming NA regional, despite being the current NA champions.
Very few teams have been as hyped on creation as Crescendo was, before being picked up by Denial eSports. Featuring former C9 pros KingCaffeine and k1pro, as well as well known NA player Glaurung, they put on a strong performance in the qualifiers, but had a very disappointing performance in the first NA regional. They have since added another ex-C9 player in iDream, who has come out of retirement and replaced Prismaticism.
There is a lot of hype around this team, and they are expected to once again have a serious chance to win this regional and qualify for Blizzcon. Just remember this - while the hype train will be once again full steam ahead behind them with iDream's arrival, this team has serious questions to answer performance wise - they went 0-4 vs. Murloc Geniuses in the group stages of the first NA regional, and they are in their group yet again. People will be quick to once again crown them as the favorites of the group, but so far they have yet to earn that high praise.
The core of this team (Faye, iakona and Srey) competed under the name of Gul'DansGame during the first NA regional, and were considered a strong contender at Burbank. However, they somehow had a more disappointing performance - at least Denial eSports were eliminated by the regional winner. Given the above two teams in this group, they are extremely unlikely to make it out of the group stage.
A perennial top 8 NA team, their decent but unspectacular play is probably not going to even be close to enough to get them out of this group.
Group B
So, it finally happened: Fan has left Team Naventic, and joined Gale Force eSports to form an NA super team. They are the prohibitive favorites to be NA's 2nd seed at Blizzcon, and are widely expected to outright win this upcoming NA regional, since many say they just replaced their worst player with NA's best player. Some NA fans are even pinning their hopes for NA relevance in the global Heroes scene entirely on this team. Just remember that upsets do happen and that these guys are going to be playing knowing that all eyes will be on them.
Well, Fan just left. RIP Team Naventic. Seriously, it's a little more complicated than that - Naventic does have many talented players outside of Fan. However, they have rarely beaten Gale Force eSports even with Fan, so it is hard to see how they will beat them in a tournament without their best player.
They qualified in controversial fashion for the last NA regional, and had a forgettable performance. However, Equinox, who was one of their best players, has returned to the team from retirement, a welcome development. With all Heroes watchers pretty much inking in Gale Force eSports into their playoff bracket, that leaves Astral and Naventic to battle for the 2nd playoff spot. Astral has their work cut out for them, as even with Equinox returning and Naventic not having Fan, Naventic is the favorite to claim 2nd place in the groups and advance to the playoffs.
Last regional, a team called Vox Nihili which was the pride of the amateur North American Heroes scene qualified for Burbank and shocked everyone with a Semi-finalist finish. And this regional? Well - they didn't even qualify, as they were knocked out in the final qualifier by this unknown team. Making it to PAX West is a great accomplishment - I just don't think they are good enough to actually accomplish more than that.
Follow us on Twitter @GosuGamersHotS and on Facebook for more competitive Heroes of the Storm news and coverage from around the world.
