Friday, March 3, 2017

Lessons from Day 1, #HGC Western Clash

Misfits are Mortals: The undisputed gods of HGC 2017 dropped the first map of the day to ANZ champs Nomia. It was marked by some uncharacteristic Misfits greed:


Most viewers of Heroes eSports cannot name a single member of Nomia, but they have a lot of international experience under other names. After the game one scare, and a nearly petrifying failed game two core rush by Nomia, Misfits settled down and finished them off, but if they do this tomorrow against Team Dignitas, they are heading for the losers' bracket.

EU > NA: While we probably already knew this going in, Team 8 did hang pretty well with Team Dignitas, taking a map, and while Bakery having to eat a little crow was fun, it execution of Gale Force eSports at the hands of FNATIC was anything but fun.


GFE looked completely out of sorts against FNATIC. To be fair, they made short work of Latin America's Infamous, but Infamous was playing with a sub (see below). The bottom line is that EU looked mostly in control of NA, and that the best NA teams do not look ready for the best that EU has to offer.

Heroes eSports (and eSports in general) has to do a better job with international events and Visas: At two Blizzcons, we have had teams either pull out or be cobbled together (or both) because of visa issues. Infamous, who did not look horrible, suffered from having to get a sub warrior player, who had retired from HotS and was playing Overwatch. This cannot and should not happen. These clashes are really important, especially for the smaller regions who are not getting enough time to shine or compete. This needs to be addressed better than it has been.

ANZ Has Game: Nomia may be exiting the Clash, but they took maps off of Misfits and Team 8. If we are being honest, they almost beat Misfits in what would have been the biggest upset since PBA beat GFE last summer (minor region beating a major region does not happen often). Blizzard needs to consider investing more time and effort into developing the ANZ scene as well as the SEA and Taiwan scenes.

New Meta? What New Meta?: Other than GFE busting out Lucio to a meh record of 1-1, and the considerably fewer instances of Varian, the Lucio patch has not changed things much. Tassadar is still first pick first ban material. Ragnaros is still the most important assassin (the value of Molten Core cannot be overstated. Fight me), followed closely by Zeratul, and the supports are still dominated by Malf and Rehgar, with some Monk sprinkled in. This might be because we only saw best-of-three series today, and perhaps we will see some more Lucio and any Murky tomorrow, but for as fun as Lucio and Murky are, and as impactful as they are in solo queue, it doesn't seem like they will make their way to the competitive meta any time soon.

But Muradin is back. The loss of Varian's ability to have complete lockdown has made Muradin viable as a tank again, not that he wasn't, but he did see some fall off over the play we saw in phase one. So, the new meta is the old meta? It's good for consistency, but it doesn't help the excitement.

Anne Can Still Pick Em: 6-0 today, not that I'm counting this with my overall record. But here's what's happening tomorrow:

Misfits will top Team Dignitas 3-1. The scare against Nomia and the fact that they swept Dig once will have Misfits winning easily.

FNATIC will beat Tempo Storm, 3-1. Tempo will put up a fight, but they are going to be out-drafted and out-played.

Team Dignitas will beat Team 8, 3-2. Don't be surprised if I get this one wrong. Team 8 always fucks up my picks. Team 8 is probably the only NA team capable of beating one of the EU teams.

Tempo Storm will beat GFE, 3-2. I am changing this from my bracket, so it doesn't count if I get this one right. If Tempo wins, it's a loss for me because I picked GFE originally, but I no longer believe in GFE after that second game against FNATIC.

I will be missing the FNATIC vs. Tempo Storm match tomorrow (I have to work every Saturday morning), but the Heroes Esports Twitter account has me covered... or so they say:






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