The clear #1 Heroes of the Storm team in the world, MVP Black, may not play Heroes of the Storm in 2017, according to their manager, Kim Gwankbok.
Many players quit games to try different ones. Teams disband all the time because they weren’t successful enough, with all the players going their separate ways. But how often does a team that is undefeated so far in 2016, with wins at Heroes of the Storm Super League 2016 - Season 1, Spring Global Championships in Seoul, 2016 Gold Series Hero League - Spring, and the heavy favourite to win any future event they are able to compete in disband to potentially play a different game?
The honest answer is, this is pretty much unheard of. But in this interview, which has been translated from the original source, the manager of MVP Black makes it very clear that the entire team has major concerns over both the current state of the game and the prize pools of eSports competitions.
Concern over Skills
It is pretty clear that many members of MVP Black think that abilities are too simple and not interesting enough. The manager also makes clear that this process for most heroes has happened over time, a clear sign that MVP players disagree with quite a few of the balance changes, even though others would argue that these changes were necessary in order to prevent heroes from being overpowered.
Concern over the health of the eSports scene
“I don’t think Blizzard has a good grasp of how they want to run Heroes.”
The Manager of MVP Black goes on to voice his concern over the lack of tournaments other than Blizzard sponsored ones, as well as being especially vocal about the necessity of implementing a crowd funding system like DOTA 2. He underscores his point by pointing to the fact that Heroes of the Storm is a 5v5 game, yet the winner of a Heroes tournament receives a cash prize that isn’t really bigger than that for a 1v1 game. This is said despite the acknowledgement that Korea is better off than most.
It’s not just the Manager being vocal
Just a couple of days ago, Merryday went on a rampage about the state of supports. Read GosuGamers’ coverage on that topic here.
Sake has made it clear that he believes in the crowd funding of tournaments, much like MVP Black’s manager.
Other interesting comments in the Interview
How does a team react when a winning streak is broken? It’s a question that was asked in the NBA for the Golden State Warriors, after their streak was broken in the 25th game of the season. After MVP Black’s 40 map win streak was broken by eStar Gaming, they all had a big smile on their face, according to MVP Black’s manager. Another interesting comment is that he intends to rebuild MVP Sky, but not by importing any existing talent.
Will the Heroes of the Storm esports scene survive?
Obviously, the ranked update should do wonders for the health of the game, but with this bombshell coming out on the heels of the news that Chinese pro players are leaving the scene for Overwatch, it shows that there are clear concerns within the Heroes of the Storm community about the future of competitive HotS.
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