Team Liquid - Jowe, Shad, Lowell, Cris, GerdamHerd

Photo by Sebastian Ekman, DreamHack

Epsilon eSports - stalk, Shtyr, Sphyxi, AndyLendi, Unnstable

Team Dignitas - JayPL, Snitch, Wubby, Mene, Bakery

Photo by Sebastian Ekman, DreamHack

Fnatic - Breez, Quackniix, Atheroangel, Schwimpi, SmX

Photo by Benjamin Cotton, DreamHack

Natus Vincere - AlexTheProG, Danatan, ethernal, Crozzby, GranPkt

Virtus Pro - bkb, Neon, PowerOfDream, CEBKAJE, Lunarn

Reason Gaming - bLaDe, Zarmony, WolfJoe, Nic, Linked

mYinsanity - Blumbi, Nurok, darkmok, HasuObs, Splendour

Making sense of the European Heroes of the Storm scene is a hard task even for those that follow it closely. If you haven’t really had the time to watch any of the online competitions in the last two months but tune in to the Regional Championship this weekend you will definitely have a hard time figuring out why the majority of the players are not on the team you remember them being on before. But we are not here to discuss why certain players decided they need to leave their old teammates or how many teams they swapped in a matter of weeks. The rosters are locked, the stage is set and all that is left is to find out which will be the two teams representing Europe at the Global Championship in Seoul, South Korea in early April.There is something very familiar in starting an European competition overview with Team Liquid, however that’s where the similarities with any previous tournaments end. After failing to qualify for BlizzCon 2015, the once undisputed top team in Europe underwent a major restructuring around the core of Lucifron and Vortix. They achieved a second place finish at Dreamhack Winter and it seemed things were looking up for the new roster. Only a few weeks later though the Spanish brothers decided they don’t want to be involved in professional Heroes of the Storm anymore and the search for new players had to begin anew. In the end, Liquid picked up former G2 player, Jowe, as their new main warrior, and Shad, who denied them the Dreamhack title while being on trial for Fnatic, as a second ranged assassin and resident Abathur/TLV player. After all, what is Team Liquid without at least one Spanish player and a solid Abathur at that?The new roster cruised through the first qualifier for the Regional Championship ultimately securing their spot with a 2-1 in the semi-finals against Natus Vincere. They easily made it out of Enter the Storm #4’s group stage and into the playoffs where quick 2-0s vs Virtus Pro and Fnatic took them to the winners’ bracket final. This time though it was Na’Vi who came out on top and after a few questionable drafts Liquid had to settle with the third place. Going into Katowice, they seem like a solid top 4 contender but in order to qualify for Korea they’ll have to turn it up a notch and play the best Heroes we’ve seen from them.As far as picks you can expect to see from Team Liquid go, look out for Cris’ Greymane who has already been attracting plenty of bans, Shad’s Abathur, especially on Cursed Hollow, and Lowell’s Illidan who’s been enjoying a long overdue resurgence after the Rehgar buffs.Formerly known as GoogleIshetZont, the Russian team who sports two ex Virtus Pro members, shocked many when they locked down the second spot for Katowice during the first qualifier. Taking down fan favourites such as The Sandwich Monkey and Fnatic, they seemed to have a good grasp on the meta at the time and capitalized well on all the fresh rosters who had little to no practice together under their belts.During Enter the Storm #4 they topped one of the stronger groups by defeating Virtus Pro and mYinsanity but couldn’t go far in the playoffs. Recently they also made a roster change adding Shtyr from The Sandwich Monkey who took Mopsio’s spot on the team. Having a team full of fluent Russian speakers should improve Epsilon's communication but taking one of the two spots for Korea seems like a big stretch for the team.There’s been a lot of turbulence for the second placed team at BlizzCon 2015 since they won their medals in Anaheim. After their attempt to build Europe’s first super team by adding JayPL and Schwimpi from Na’Vi didn’t seem to work out immediately (they lost in the semi-finals at Dreamhack Winter), the latter exited the lineup alongside Atheroangel and left the rest to struggle fielding a roster for the European qualifiers. Changing up players from week to week and JayPL’s swap to the warrior role didn’t end up being detrimental for Dignitas though as they managed to secure their Katowice spot in the second qualifier with a 2-1 score against Na’Vi.Since then they made one final change adding Mene, formerly of Fnatic and Na’Vi, to the roster. Because of all the player swaps Dignitas couldn’t claim their spot in the Enter the Storm #4 group stage and the audience hasn’t had the chance to see those five play together or form an opinion on their chances of securing another top 2 offline finish. While they might surprise the fans, it seems unlikely that missing out ETS will give them a serious edge against their opponents as all the top European teams practice against each other daily. They seem to have possibly the toughest opening game in Katowice as they will face Na’Vi but if they manage to send them to the losers’ bracket, that could be just the moral boost they need to make it all the way to the finals.While the new Dignitas playstyle and draft priorities remain a mystery for now, chances are Bakery will manage to squeeze in a few Kharazim games in Katowice and leave everyone wondering once again how do those divine palms never miss.After having a rather mediocre year up until and including the BlizzCon qualifier in Prague, Fnatic finally found the success they were looking for at Dreamhack Winter where they claimed the title in a nail biting final against Team Liquid. Even winning the last big European tournament of 2015 didn’t save them from all the off-season chaos though as they never officially signed Shad and later lost Mene to Na’Vi. Adding Schwimpi and Atheroangel sounded like a great deal for the team since they are both exceptional players but there was just one problem - neither of them was going to play in his usual role. Athero was one of the most outstanding warriors not only in Europe, but in the world while on Dignitas, however Breez already fills that spot for Fnatic. That led the only non-Swedish member of the team to switch to second tank/melee assassin and the games where he’s playing the latter have not been promising so far. As for Schwimpi who used to play second tank mixed in with the occasional Abathur, Tyrande and TLV, now he’s the designated ranged assassin but he's far from the top players in this position as of yet.Overall, Fnatic has a lot of untapped potential but it seems unlikely they will manage to utilize it as long as the players can’t play their best heroes. Their decision making has been questionable so far as well as showcased in their losses to Team Liquid and The Sandwich Monkey during ETS #4. All negatives aside, Fnatic has good enough players to make it out of the group stage in Katowice. Anything less will be a disaster, anything more is all up to how well they are using their two-week bootcamp in Sweden.As always look out for Breez’ favourite warrior in ETC and the hero Quackniix made a name for himself with - Falstad. In recent games Atheroangel pulled out one of his hero league specialties in Murky, even earning bans against the tiny murloc, so to their opponents’ dismay all the mrglgl enthusiasts out there may be treated to more of the same.The second team that represented Europe at BlizzCon 2015 also had quite the eventful off-season. Having lost two of their players in a trade with Dignitas and released their support, they chose to skip Dreamhack Winter and focus on rebuilding the team around AlexTheProG and ethernal. A couple of roster iterations later, they had settled down on Crozzby and GranPkt, but the fifth member of the team remained in flux for a while. That might have been one of the reasons why the team couldn’t secure a spot for Katowice in the first two qualifiers as they lost their final games both times… or maybe losing those matches was the reason for the continued changes - it’s tough to call which one caused the other.In the end, after Na’Vi finally punched their tickets to the Regional Championship in qualifier #3, they chose the number one player in EU’s official hero league leaderboard, Danatan, to be their fifth for ETS #4’s playoffs and Katowice. With him in the lineup, they secured the title in ETS only dropping games against The Sandwich Monkey which will not be among the competitors in Poland. Despite them arguably not playing their best in the final, the majority considers them the strongest team in Europe right now and a likely contender for one of the spots for the Global Championship. Perhaps we might see another undefeated offline run from Na’Vi in Katowice? Having AlexTheProG’s feared Stitches available for the tournament certainly increases their chances of success even more. The team also seems to enjoy a fair share of Lunara lately so it’s very likely for the dryad to be hopping around in their games.A household name in the Heroes of the Storm scene, Virtus Pro released the majority of their roster after disappointing performances at the 2015 BlizzCon qualifier and Dreamhack Winter. They kept only CEBKAJE and built a new team around him which has had a decent record so far but not quite close to a top 4, let alone top 2 in Europe. They made it to the top 8 in the first qualifier for Katowice and improved on that with a top 4 in the next until they finally secured their spot in qualifier #3. They also reached Enter the Storm #4’s playoffs where they took a 5-6th place.Around two weeks ago Virtus Pro decided to bring back to their lineup one of Europe’s fan favourites, their old warrior player bkb. Whether that will improve their chances in Katowice remains to be seen but expect a lot of Diablo and Leoric from him - the man seems to have a taste for the bad guys.The biggest surprise among the teams that made it to Katowice, Reason Gaming (formerly known as Pigs in Blankets) didn’t even manage to go further than the Round of 16 in the first three European qualifiers. They had enough points to get a spot in the Last Chance qualifier though and they didn’t let that opportunity go to waste. Three straight wins in the upper bracket against teams more favoured than them on paper sealed the deal for the up and coming roster which only got together around a month earlier.At the Regional Championship they will have to face lineups with a lot more experience, especially as far as offline events are concerned, starting with their first game which will pit them against Team Liquid. While Reason’s chances of advancing from the group stage are slim, the tournament is a great opportunity for them both in terms of learning and gaining exposure. Katowice can only help them grow as a team should they decide to stick together after its conclusion.A few months ago mYi, back then Alternate Fancy, was on the rise despite not making it to the Regional Qualifier for BlizzCon. As all other top European teams they went through a series of lineup changes since then. There is one small difference though - they didn’t necessarily wanted those, but when bigger teams came knocking some players couldn’t resist the temptation. While the current roster which was filled in with the additions of HasuObs and Splendour is not bad by any means, there must be some underlying frustration in the remaining players of what could have been have they stuck with their original lineup.History aside, mYi made sure to keep all their fans on their toes by claiming the last possible spot for Katowice. During the Last Chance qualifier they lost to The Sandwich Monkey in the upper bracket but got their revenge against them in the lower bracket final on the back of some impressive Cho’Gall play. They were one of the first teams to consider the two-headed ogre competitively viable so now that practically everyone agrees with them, expect more of this one of a kind cooperation between Blumbi and darkmok or at least plenty of bans against it. mYi have a hard group ahead of them in Katowice and this will be the biggest test for them yet but there is an abundance of offline experience in that lineup and they just might surprise all of us with an upset or two.For detailed information about the schedule, available streams and everything else make sure to visit ESL and Heroes of the Storm esports