World Champions and newly sponsored Tempo Storm take on the newly formed MVP Miracle. Will Tempo Storm continue their winning ways or will the new boys take the first series of season three?
Team 1: MvP Miracle
MvP Miracle is the newly formed sister team of well-known MVP Black. Despite Coach Kim previously suggesting that MVP may leave Heroes in the future that hasn’t stopped them putting together a strong looking roster, comprised mainly of TNL and DSA members. With MVP Black as practice partners and talent like Sniper and Reset this team is sure to threaten.
Team 2: Tempo Storm
Tempo Storm, formerly Tempest, is well known for breaking MVP Black's win streak and then winning the Summer Global Championship in dramatic fashion. What is perhaps lesser known is their results recently are less spectacular. An unfancied L5 recently swept them in a 3-0 drubbing in the Power League and they have looked very mortal in recent series.
The 'Third' Epic team
Wolf in his pre-match discussion called it the 'best production in Heroes' and after watching the entirety of the series I don’t think anyone could dispute that. In a scene that has bemoaned poor production, long breaks and small crowds, this was a breath of fresh air. A large crowd watched from the beach framed by a beautiful backdrop of the sea. Audio-visual was superb with great sound and graphics leading to a flawless production. The mid series break had an epically Korean clip that I’m not sure I understood, but loved.
Map 1- Dragonshire
The picks for game one were not too surprising as Tempo Storm got their beloved Falstad. Despite Muradin having definitely taken a hit in the most recent patch, Tempo Storm like him and continued to pick him. MVP Miracle’s draft screamed combo potential with Sanctity/Mosh and Maw/Mosh potential.
As might be expected in a first game of a big series both teams start off cagey and it isn’t until after five minutes there is a first kill and a Dragon Knight following soon after. The game continued to be relatively quiet until a team fight when a beautiful Mosh/Sanctity combo proved immune to the desperation of Gust and caused havoc amongst Tempo Storm. The decisive moment in the first game came from a late game Maw into a three man mosh, which caused a team wipe and a DK for MVP Miracle giving them the win.
Map 2 Sky Temple
Tempo Storm’s draft looked far superior to their first draft as they got their favourite Falstad and ETC too. MVP Miracle drafted Brightwing which is a brave choice as she has been recently changed, then nerfed.
Unlike the previous game, map 2 started much more explosively. Both teams went for towers which were important in order to try to have the temples target more important structurers. MVP suffered a series of sloppy kills against themselves losing three heroes within the first three minutes (Muradin, Brightwing and Greymane). Tempo Storm were dominant early on and took the boss at six minutes and eventually took the win after the scrappy back and forwards team fights they are famed for.
Map 3 Infernal Shrines
The draft was, well... different but ended up very much in favour of MVP Miracle. Against Tempo Storm’s strong melee composition MVP took twin warriors to hold, or freeze them in Arthas' case, in position. The twin composition of ranged assassins, Raynor and Tychus, who can shred high hit point heroes were intended to combo with the slowing to tear through Tempo Storm.
The game was a shining example of how a game can be lost in the draft. Hero after Hero fell on the side of Tempo Storm to the MVP counter composition and the game ended in favour of MVP with twelve kills to zero.
Map 4 Cursed Hollow
MVP Miracle picked up Zeratul looking for easy prey, burst damage and channeling potential. With Rehgar picked away from them Tempo Storm went for Brightwing which, as in match two, seemed like a bold move.
Too bold perhaps as MVP’s composition did what it was intended to do and took early kills with Zeratul a constant threat on Tempo Storm’s backline. The game was only five minutes old when MVP killed four members of Tempo Storm and forced an early curse on Tempo Storm. Tempo Storm tried to fight back but they couldn’t combat the burst of MVP and a fourteen-minute boss push ended the game and the series 3-1.
Analysis of the Series
MVP Miracle deservedly won the series 3-1 and in a couple of games (three and four) were very far ahead in the game, whether it be levels, kills or objectives. Apart from game two when they suffered sloppy early kills they looked far superior. A lot of this came from hero drafting with them having far superior drafts especially in game three and four.
As a hint of the meta, ETC went 3-0 and Muradin 0-3, Rehgar 3-1 and Brightwing 0-2. Could we finally see the fall out of Muradin from competitive play? Tune in to the next Super League games on Thursday 4th August at 5 AM CET on https://www.twitch.tv/ognglobal to find out!
Follow us on Twitter @GosuGamersHotS and on Facebook for more competitive Heroes of the Storm news and coverage from around the world.
