Looking from afar, DreamHack Winter is like any other big Heroes LAN tournament. Several established teams (as well as several unestablished ones) are invited. A relatively large prize pool is put out to spice things up. The “DreamHack” brand is providing extra flair to a tournament where segregation between the potentially championship teams and the chaff-that’s-there-to-possibly-maybe-create-an-upset is clear cut.
Or at least that would’ve been the case a couple of months ago, before the professional Heroes scene – and Europe’s in particular – plunged into chaotic roster shuffle roulette.
For MOBA fans, and especially those involved in Dota 2, the phenomenon is very familiar. In the wake of every edition of The International, teams’ line-ups are thrown into disarray. Big stars depart from their long-time homes. Entire rosters disband. Teams engage in player trading, hoping to find stability and forge a successful legacy for the next year. Even crown champions are not immune to roster changes, as the case with TI5 winners Evil Geniuses showed.
The same shuffle is now befalling Heroes of the Storm and DreamHack Winter comes just in time, putting all this chaos under the reins of entertainment. There are barely any stable rosters, some of which are less than a week old. The palette of storylines is colorful, including on-paper dream teams, former tyrants struggling to regain their past glory, and young teams looking for their fifteen minutes of fame.
As one author would put it, entropy shakes its angry fist at those being clever enough to organize the world. And it’s beautiful.
Below are the major talking points leading into the $25,000 DreamHack Winter.
Everybody expects the Spanish inquisition
Following their long period of dominance over Europe for half a year between March and August, Team Liquid ran into the threat of obscurity. Internal discord had a tangible impact on the team. The “Spanish Armada,” as everybody liked to call the roster around Moreno brothers LucifroN and VortiX, showed weaknesses nobody thought possible before. The struggle goes all the way back to the MSI MGA finals where Liquid, still in their prime, finished fourth behind MVP Black, Tempo Storm and Cloud9, losing four straight and rather one-sided games to the Koreans and the eventual World Champions.
And while every team has its best days, this was clearly not a momentary weakness. Team Liquid weren't convincing in the Enter the Storm #3 playoffs either and two losses to Bob? (later Dignitas) cut off all hopes of repeat championships. Inarguably their roughest fall from grace came at the European Qualifiers for worlds, where Dignitas beat them twice once again, putting a full stop on the hot new rivalry of the region. The kings fell, not even making the top four.
Changes were, of course, bound to happen. Rumors of the departure of star support player GranPkt and melee assassin specialist Blackscorp surfaced shortly after Liquid’s elimination from the World Championship campaign. Many speculated that Liquid’s line-up would be completely revamped, leaving only the Moreno core and even dropping resident specialist player FalcoN.
Rumors were confirmed at the recent Fragbite Masters, where Liquid paraded their new line-up of LucifroN and VortiX alongside Lowell (ex-Fnatic), Cris (ex-ROCCAT) and GerdamHerd (ex-mYi). And it worked! Liquid ended up crushing through Fragbite Masters, capped it off with a first place at the first qualifier for Enter the Storm EU #4 and are leading the round robin group for Heroes Battle Arena. In November, they’ve lost only two of their fourteen matches.
For the first time in a long while, Liquid are feeling in shape again.
The new dream team of Europe
For the majority of fans, the roster changes within Dignitas were unexpected. The team that was born as a quintet of exiles led by former G2 carry player Adrd and SK Gaming support Bakery became Europe’s favorite sons almost overnight, ascending from that “cool group of people that play Kharazim and is named Bob?”, to Team Liquid’s nightmare, to European runner-ups, to World Champion runner-ups. Whatever magic was holding Dignitas together, it was clearly worth hanging on to.
Closer inspection would reveal a clear foreshadowing, however. Sources close to Dignitas revealed to Daily Dot that tension has appeared within the team during the World Championship finals. The black-and-yellow jerseys then attended Fragbite Masters subbing in Na`Vi’s Schwimpi and JayPL. While Dignitas management denied there’s any roster change coming, the subtle player switch looked all too familiar to what Fnatic and Liquid went through around the time of the WCA qualifiers before ultimately contracting their “try-outs”. Na`Vi’s withdrawal from Fragbite and DreamHack Winter further amplified the suspicion.
At press time, Dignitas’ roster is all but finalized and Schwimpi and JayPL have indeed left Na`Vi and joined the UK-based team. A dream team under Bakery’s leadership.
On paper, Bakery is completely right. JayPL and Schwimpi built reputations as monstrous flex players and were instrumental to Na`Vi’s success at HWC Europe. The Swede is among the best Tyrande players on the continent and fixes this hole that Dignitas used to have. Schwimpi’s main role on Na`Vi was secondary tank and he’s filling the same shoes in Dignitas as well, giving a tanking head to team’s main warrior Atheroangel. Both come from a team known for their immaculate drafting and are looking forward to add the same depth to their new home.
Dignitas’ biggest enemy, however, are not the teams at DreamHack, but time. The new roster has been together for a very short time and this showed at Fragbite as they lost to teams no World Championship silver medalists should lose to. What’s even worse? Both mYinsanity and Fnatic are attending DreamHack, with the former sharing a group with Dignitas and being called the scariest team to face by Bakery himself. At the same time, TCM – another team in Dignitas’ Group A – are subbing in Adrd, the former assassin player for Dignitas themselves.
Even as a fan, I am not feeling too confident for Bakery’s boys.
Playing with the big boys: Fnatic
For an esports dynasty with a loaded pedigree, Fnatic were never a convincing team in Heroes of the Storm. A lot of that stemmed from the lack of a stable, coherent roster. Ever since that first line-up put together for the 2014 World Championship was dissolved, Fnatic fluttered about constantly, changing more players than probably any other supposedly top team. In the span of one short year, Fnatic went through a total of three total reformations.
As a result, Fnatic never won any tournament with a prize pool higher than a $1,000. For the majority of the year, they were nothing more than a top four team, placing behind whoever was considered the top in Europe at that time and showing palpably worse play and lack of cohesion. The internal conflicts were not long before they reached the ears of journalists and even the wide public. Resident tank player Breez voiced his displeasure with most of his team-mates which led to the eventual departure of Lowell, Wubby and Kesil. At this point, the answer to the question “what would Fnatic need to do to continue existing as a relevant Heroes entity” was simple: Build a team around Breez so that the November fall-out doesn’t repeat.
Looking back to the last couple of weeks, Fnatic might’ve actually found the line-up that fits that description. Getting former Pirates in Pyjamas Swedish duo of Smexystyle (support) and Quackniix (flex) as well as relative unknown ShadowLink (flex) led Fnatic to finish second with the Fragbite qualifiers and finish second in the main event leaving behind VP, G2 and Dignitas along the way.
After many months of being left out, Fnatic look like they’re ready to again play in the big boys‘ league.
There’s no definitive best in Europe
In a recent interview, G2’s captain Nicker stated there are no favorites at DreamHack Winter. He can’t be more spot-on.
That’s the first time this has happened in Europe. Although the scene has been closer in terms of skill compared to North America or Korea, there’s always been a best team and its worthy rival. It started with Liquid and Gamers2, moved on to the rise of Na`Vi and their HWC Europe championship and then Dignitas with their World Championship silver medals. At their primes and most stable forms, each of those teams could easily be called the best on the continent.
Not so much today. Liquid are back on a winning streak, but it’s been a long time since their terrorizing form of spring/summer 2015. Dignitas are playing with ungreased “dream team”. On the surface, Fnatic’s quintet is finally in coherence but the team has never won a major before. TCM, mYi and ROCCAT are teams subbing in players left and right in pursuit of their break-out performance. Virtus.Pro’s and G2’s rosters are largely unchanged which is a potential ace card, turning these tier two teams to potential championship material.
The king’s throne is open. Let the fray begin.
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