In the European ESL Major League, ArthasStroitHram have become renowned for their uniquely aggressive team compositions and playstyle. Their compositions often rely on unorthodox warrior picks and high amounts of upfront damage that many have deemed a “cheese” style. However, Arthas has been competing for some time now, and have found consistent success with their strategy. After so many games, the surprise factor cannot be what makes this strategy work. So what is it that Arthas have discovered? What exactly makes this team so dangerous in ways no other team has displayed? What is the secret behind the stacking Blood for Blood?
The core of the comp is simple: during the draft phase, acquire as many heroes with access to Blood for Blood as possible. When running this comp, Arthas will always focus on securing Rehgar, the only healer with access to the talent, and one of the two warriors who can get it, Tyrael and Anub’arak. They will always have at least one assassin with it, and ideally another damage source with the talent such as Sylvanas. On the surface, there isn’t really much else to it. Get Blood for Blood on everyone they can and blow somebody up.
However, to really execute this composition, the team has to be incredibly careful. The goal is to eliminate one target at the start of a fight, allowing the team to then cleanup an uneven battle. If they are not communicating perfectly and picking their target carefully, the team will unload everything with no result, and have little left for the ensuing teamfight.
This is where Arthas truly shines. Their coordination is exceptional. Both their preferred warriors have ways to lock a target in place and initiate the fight, but it is their execution of these skills that makes the team so hard to anticipate. Sometimes they will use these initiators to hold their elimination target still for the burst, while other times they will isolate the healer in order to access a target for long enough to take them out. The team knows not only who the target is, but the path in to that target before the fight starts. This can only be accomplished through trust and solid shotcalling.
They have to be able to control the game from minute one, taking big risks to pick up early kills and keep objectives in their favor until their composition comes online.
So how do you stop a cheese comp so consistent that teams are banning out Anub’arak on a regular basis? The thing to remember is that Blood for Blood is not available until level 16, meaning that their team composition doesn’t really come together until the midgame. If Arthas sacrificed too much in the early game, they’d be too weak to make their “blow up one dude” strategy function on their terms. They have to be able to control the game from minute one, taking big risks to pick up early kills and keep objectives in their favor until their composition comes online.
This means that their weakness is in the time before they have access to level 16. Strong early roaming compositions, or high levels of early crowd control are crucial. If you’re team composition relies on chaining Heroic Abilities together, you’re waiting too long to get things going. You need a team that has a power spike at level 4, not level 10. Teams need to force Arthas to slow down, to follow what the other team wants to do around early objectives.
However, what will make team Arthas so exciting to watch in the future is how they continue to find unique ways to play their own unique style of Heroes of the Storm.
What Arthas have accomplished is something that every single sports team craves more than anything else. They understand their team identitiy. They want to win by creating mismatches, dictating the pace, and never taking their foot off the gas. This informs every decision that they make from the pick and ban phase to early rotations to late game objective control. Every team is after the same goal in every match—destroying the enemy’s Core. However, this exciting team understands their path to that objective better than many teams across all forms of competition.
Eventually this Blood for Blood “cheese” composition will be broken: it hasn’t been a guaranteed win since the team unveiled it. However, what will make team Arthas so exciting to watch in the future is how they continue to find unique ways to play their own unique style of Heroes of the Storm. I for one can’t wait to see what they think of next.
