Still itching for some of that college sports-based bracket goodness? We don’t blame you. And if you’re into video games — or willing to give new things a try — we’ve got just the opportunity for you.

Saturday marks the “Heroic Four” of Blizzard Entertainment’s “Heroes of the Dorm,” a 64-team tournament based on Blizzard’s popular “Heroes of the Storm” video game. The tourney has played out over the past month or so among American and Canadian university students, and now we’re down to the final four. The semifinals will be broadcast live on ESPNU at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on Saturday, with the Grand Finals airing Sunday on ESPN 2, also at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT.

Fair warning: Your social media feeds are probably going to get pretty nerdy (and we say that with all the love in the world) during those broadcasts. So for those who might be completely oblivious about Heroes of the Storm — and for those who could use a little refresher after last year’s tournament — here’s a quick guide on everything we think you need to know to enjoy the weekend’s festivities. Maybe you’ll even give the game a try yourself.

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Game overview

Heroes of the Storm is part of a larger genre called MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas). In this particular version, each player selects one character — or “Hero” — for the duration of a game and teams up with four other players for a 5-on-5 battle.

Each hero character has 3 basic abilities, which players use to attack, heal and otherwise engage in battle. During those fights, they gain experience points by killing computer-controlled enemies that make their way across the map, as well as by taking out opponents’ heroes and fortifications. Heroes gain levels from those experience points, and they unlock various enhancements to their abilities through “talents” as they increase in level. At level 10, a player chooses between two ultimate “Heroic” abilities, which can be further enhanced upon reaching level 20.

Take Warcraft character Thrall, for instance. His basic abilities are Chain Lightning, which damages multiple enemies:

Feral Spirit, which summons a lava wolf (DOGGY!) to attack Thrall’s enemies:

And Windfury, which allows Thrall to move and attack faster:

For his Ultimate (or “Heroic”) abilities, Thrall can choose between Earthquake, which slows his opponents down:

Or Sundering, which stuns them:

Each team has a home base, where they initially start the game; the objective is to destroy the opposing team’s “Core,” which resides within the base and is heavily fortified. If a hero is killed in battle, he or she respawns after a certain length of time at their home base. Injured heroes can also retreat to the base to heal and regain mana, which is used to cast a hero’s abilities.

Players generally move along lanes that lead from one base to another, although there are areas in between that allow for ambushes and at times include various bonus objectives. Along each lane, there are various fortifications and walls that must be breached before advancing toward the enemy’s base.

Battlegrounds

For example, here’s a picture of the “Sky Temple” map:

And here it is again with the 3 major lanes marked:

Each map has its intricacies that are discussed in detail on the official Heroes of the Storm website.

Some have pirate ships:

Others feature haunted mines:

Perhaps you’d prefer to fight for the favor of two immortals locked in eternal struggle? Yep, we’ve got that, too:

And then there’s everyone’s favorite, the Dragon Shire, where teams race to take control of a dragon knight statue that can punt opponents across the map:

Heroes

We won’t go through all of the heroes here, but there are some basics you should know.

First, the heroes break down into four different categories, or “roles”:

Assassins are the classic “glass cannon” of online video games. They’ll put out a huge amount of damage in a short amount of time, and many have crowd-control abilities that disable opponents, allowing the assassin to maximize her or his advantage.

One Assassin you’ll likely see a lot of this weekend is Li-Ming, a relatively new hero who specializes in short-range mobility and ridiculous amounts of damage as a magic user:

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Warriors are the tanks of the Heroes of the Storm world. They can take a beating while stunning or slowing the enemies. Johanna is one of the more popular Warriors for her ability to disrupt an opponents’ plans and turn the tide in 5-on-5 team fights:

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Support heroes fulfill the medic role in the virtual battlegrounds, healing teammates and enhancing their abilities with attack speed increases while freeing them from movement-impairing abilities. Rehgar, for instance, can either help his team destroy opponents with Bloodlust or keep them out of harm’s way with his massive healing:

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Specialist heroes, as the label would suggest, don’t fall into an easy category. They’re not for beginners, but in the capable hands of an expert, a hero like Zagara can lock down an entire lane by himself:

Tournament structure

Each round is a best-of-three match, except for the Grand Finals, which are best-of-five.

What’s on the line?

Members of the winning Heroes of the Dorm team will win a $25,000 per year college scholarship for the duration of their academic career — or, if they’re graduating soon, $25,000 toward their loan repayment or a cash prize equal to the last year of their tuition if they’re debt-free. That scholarship prize applies for graduate students, as well, who were eligible to participate in the tournament under the official rules.

Heroes of the Dorm ‘Heroic Four’ participants

The four remaining teams in this year’s tournament are Arizona State’s “Real Dream Team,” who will face the University of Connecticut’s “Tricky Turtles”; and the University of Texas at Arlington’s “Dark Blaze,” who take on the University of Tennessee’s “We Volin.”

(1) Arizona State University

Michael “MichaelUdall” Udall (captain) — Sophomore, Business Communication major

Parham “Pham” Emami — Junior, Electrical Engineering

Isaiah “Snickers” Rubin — Senior, Civil Engineering

Austin “Shot” Lonsert — Senior, Sociology

Stefan “Akaface” Anderson — Senior, Criminal Justice

Vann “Vannity” Childs (substitute) — Senior, Business

ASU made the Grand Finals of last year’s inaugural Heroes of the Dorm, where they fell 3-2 to University of California Berkeley. The “Real Dream Team” plays an aggressive style, boasting the shortest average game time of any remaining team at just over 16 minutes. ASU has yet to lose a game in this tournament, and their captain has predicted they’ll go undefeated all the way to the championship — and then he’ll dab.

Get a sneak peek at the new observer interface for #HeroesOfTheDorm – see it in action TOMORROW at 5pm PT on @ESPNU!https://t.co/zvMR88bOm6 — Heroes of the Storm (@BlizzHeroes) April 8, 2016

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(1) University of Connecticut

Mitchell “MonkeyLamps” Salvatore (captain) — Sophomore, Computer Science and Engineering

Daniel “DanLeeFor3” Lee — Sophomore, Digital Media and Design

Hyesung “Chiruno” Lee — Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering

Adam “Batosiz” Weinstein — Senior, Digital Media and Design

Jason “Seryuu” Yip — Freshman, Computer Science

Qiansheng “Qxcvz” Hu (substitute) — Sophomore, Computer Science and Engineering

UConn is also undefeated in this year’s tournament, and they too have bitter memories from last year. The Tricky Turtles were disqualified in the quarterfinals in 2015 after it was discovered one of their players was technically no longer a student due to financial limitations.

If the Turtles win it all this year, they plan to dedicate a portion of their winnings to that same player. And their semifinal match against ASU should be fascinating. Where the “Real Dream Team” is in your face and wants to force the issue, UConn plays a slower game and wants to know it has the advantage before getting into a team fight.

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Tune in for #Tenn v #UTA at the #HeroesOfTheDorm Heroic Four, April 9 at 5pm PDT on ESPNU! >https://t.co/AiGubT8MDK pic.twitter.com/Pi2DUYR0XT — Heroes of the Storm (@BlizzHeroes) April 8, 2016

(1) University of Texas, Arlington

Eugene “Yuuj” Tseng (captain) — Senior, Finance

Richard “Kladeous” Tran — Junior, Information Systems

Yusuf “Kure” Sunka — Sophomore, Political Science

Andrew “MiST” Rodrigues — Sophomore, Exercise Science

David “DXN” Nguyen — Junior, Accounting

Tina “dubu” Dao (substitute) — Junior, Nursing

“Dark Blaze” is similar to any other great sports team. You know what’s coming, but can you stop it? Three of their five main members consistently play the same hero when given the opportunity, and Texas-Arlington does a nice job of banning opponent heroes who could prove problematic. With no items in Heroes of the Storm, proper team construction is crucial, and that’s where “Dark Blaze” should shine — unless other teams use their bans effectively.

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(2) University of Tennessee

Jay “Gutslug” Crist (captain) — Junior, Mechanical Engineering

Adam “MathDizz” Disney — Graduate student, Computer Science

Patrick “IWHBYD” DiNicola — Senior, Biomedial Engineering

David “Roflcopter” Young — Senior, Electrical Engineering

Ryhan “Frumgor” Pathan — Graduate student, Computer Science

Taylor “Merton” Richardson (substitute) — Junior, Computer Science

That’s a whole lot of brainpower on the “We Volin” squad, and they use it in their playstyle. Much like UConn, Tennessee will let “Dark Blaze” push and be aggressive, waiting for the right counter to push back once their opponents have been eliminated.

Semifinal results:

To the aggressors go the victories in Heroes of the Storm, as ASU and Texas-Arlington advanced with decisive 2-0 victories. They’ll face off in the Grand Finals on Sunday.

Okay, so how can I play?

Heroes of the Storm is free-to-play and can be downloaded at the official Blizzard website. You’ll need a Battle.net login to play online. If you decide to take the plunge, hit me up on Twitter, and let’s play a game or two together.