Starting January 13th, these competitive game modes will be available for play testing in the (soon to be beta) technical alpha.
E-sports fans of Heroes of the Storm players have reason to celebrate today. A new "Hero League" has been introduced, and it promises to offer players the most competitive in game experience to date. There is a lot to cover, and you can always read the changes for your self, but here are the is most important info you need to know:
- Versus mode has been renamed Quick match to reflect the quick, non competitive nature of the game mode. It will still retain it's blind pre-pick hero selection and hero mirror matches can still occur.
- In order to play Hero League, you must reach player Level 30 or higher and own 10 or more heroes. This does not include the free rotation heroes. The 10 hero requirement is to satisfy the draft format, as any player with less than 10 heroes could conceivably have all of his or her owned heroes chosen before they had their chance to select.
- When a player (or party of players) meets these requirements, the matchmaking system will attempt to match parties of equal size against one another. Meaning pre-grouped teams of 5 will face other pre-group stacks of 5, and a group of 3 with 2 solo queuers will face an opposing team consisted of the same ratio.
- Once the players have been match together, the map the game will be played on will be displayed. Throughout the entire draft, teams will be able to type privately to plan their team composition. Players will have 30 seconds to choose a hero and only heroes that player owns will be available. A coin toss decides which team gets the first pick and, after that, the draft goes along as you would expect it. Alternating between 2 picks each, the draft ends with the team that lost the coin flipping choose the last hero. If any player quits the game during the draft phase, the game will be cancelled before it begins.
- All players will start the Hero League as Rank 50, the lowest possible rating. With each victory, players gain points that go towards rank promotion, allowing the most skilled players to achieve rank 1, the highest rank achievable housing the highest levels of play. Losing enough consecutive games will result in rank demotion, but never below rank 50. A minor point buffer is granted when a player ranks up so ensure an immediate demotion won't happen after only a few losses.
- Any player who abandons a game during Quick Match or Hero League and fails to rejoin before the game has finished will be prevented from joining another Hero League until they complete a Quick Match game. A player that leaves a Hero League game during the draft portion of the game will cause a substantial loss of ranked points and also cause members of that players premade group to lose points as well. You will also be unable to play a Hero League match until the player completes a Quick Match game.
- Future plans for a dedicated "Team League Mode" will be implemented and promises to be an even more competitive experience than Hero League.
You can read more about additional changes to custom game options in the official blog post, and while you are there be sure to read the last part about friendly reminder of the unfinished nature of these game modes. Expect to see a large number of improvements to ranked play, as this is merely an initial test of the foundation competitive HotS will be built upon.
What do you think about these game modes? Can't wait to get into the closed Beta this January? Let us know in the comments section!
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