The filthy Sky Temple strategy that ruined my teams day

The 5 unlucky lot of us didn't know what to expect when we saw the opponents draft and, unfortunately, we played right into our opponents hands.

Their Draft



Zarya

Azmodan

Sgt. Hammer

Malfurion

Stitches



Our Draft



Tychus

Falstad

Diablo

Auriel

Xul



A hunch of what was to come

My teammates called for a Falstad and I volunteered. He was one of my best heroes and he is a generally strong pick on Sky Temple. I thought I was in for a normal game of Heroes. It was only when I saw the enemy draft SGT. Hammer followed by Stitches and Azmodan that I questioned my pick.



I still had time to adjust. A nagging thought entered my head and I let my teammates know about it in chat:



"Maybe I should go Chromie instead? To fight back against their siege strength?"



My idea was shot down. Looking back on it, I should have listened to my instincts but I pride myself on being a team player. Falstad it is.

The Horror



So the 5 of us went down mid-lane like any normal day in the Nexus. We chatted briefly about lanes and the importance of Xul pushing bottom lane hard as we fought for the middle Shrine. As the gates opened, I even wished my allies good luck. I felt good about this game, despite my initial worries on their draft making it difficult for any of us medium to close ranged heroes to function.





This hook was the beginning of the end

And then it happened. All 5 of them showed bottom lane hellbent on destroying our front wall. Master of Destruction Azmodan made short work of whatever structure was in front of him while Zarya and Malfurion kept him shielded and topped off. SGT. Hammer was sieged in the back, contently destroying anything in range while Stitches eventually hooked and killed our Auriel. The push continued.



By the time the rest of us could transition to bottom lane and stop it, they had already taken both Towers. For some reason, our Diablo player went top lane in an attempt to out-soak the enemy. It wasn't working, as the XP they were getting from stray hero kills and our front wall kept us even level.

Pointless objectives.

The Shrines spawned and this is where we thought we might be able to get ahead. I flew with Falstad to the top shrine and Diablo capture the middle shrine. Tychus, Auriel and Xul were attempting to defend bottom with the help of a fort. Maybe, in a normal game, this would have worked, but Stitches inevitably would land a hook while SGT. Hammer and Azmodan mercilessly focused all of their dps on our fort.

Zarya and Malfurion gave them so much sustainability and burst protection the death ball felt unstoppable. They took our fort and immediately transitioned our keep wall. They destroyed it.



Game time is now around 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

At this point, my team was in chaos. They moved as a single unit the entire game and our attempts at 5 manning just couldn't engage on them ever. We got a few picks thanks to Diablo and Falstad single target damage and isolation, but it didn't seem to matter. They got another pick with Stitches and proceeded to 5-man at the Boss.

I can't stress how difficult it is to engage on a sieged up hammer when protected by Stitches, Zarya, Malfurion and Azmodan. There is too many projectiles and nonsense in the way while Hammer is doing free damage.

Should have gone Chromie...

A focused strategy



By level 12-14 they were at our core, winning the game with another Boss. This team ignored every other lane and practically every objective in favor of a focused strategy that caught us completely off guard.



All of their heroics and talents choices seemed built around this strategy. SGT. Hammer, in particular, gained incredible value off of the BFG heroic, which is actually pretty insane when you are only pushing down 1 lane and the enemy team is forced to 5-man against you. It routinely hit multiple heroes or provided burst damage against whatever unlucky ally of mine was hooked.



Even Azmodan with Demonic Invasion felt incredibly strong in this style of comp. It took full advantage of our lack of wave clear and made their 5-man push even scarier.

No one to blame but us.



Before the change to an only solo queue Hero League, you would chalk this type of loss to an organized group of friends who are winning because they had a plan and were working together on group comms. But that isn't the case anymore.

Likely, one person on their team had the idea of this strategy and pitched it to their team in draft chat. Everyone went along with it and performed their roles beautifully. They punished my teams "auto pilot" mentality and capitalized on our extremely linear play and our non-reactive draft.

One of the things that struck me most is the disgust my allies had once our core was being destroyed. One of them wrote this:



"Ugh, I can't believe I lost to two specialists."

Clearly, my teammates condescending tone is the mark of a bad player. If I'm being generous, perhaps not a bad player but a small-minded one. A player that is unable to look at the bigger picture and see beyond the stale meta that Hero League creates. I commend whoever it was on my opponents team that motivated 4 other people to deploy this strategy. I commend it for its creativity and mainly because it worked so effectively.

Depth beyond the standard



Hero league meta is never ideal.

It's a cultivation of misunderstanding, the inherent uneasiness of relying on strangers, and the temptation to have fun with your favorite hero instead of crafting a working strategy. I'll be the first to admit that this strategy caught me by surprise, but I'm willing to admit your average Hero League player would have also been completely unprepared. It's hard to keep track of every possible cheese strategy on every battleground and I'm willing to bet that half of these strategies haven't even been explored yet due to the mercurial nature of the game's balance.

But, maybe the lesson I learned from this salty game can open people's mind a little when it comes to Heroes strategy. This game is way more complex than many people give it credit and I have a feeling that the first step of becoming a better player is realizing this.

You can bet I will try to use this strategy every single possible chance I can. Losing to it was the least fun thing you can imagine but winning with it, I imagine, sounds delightful



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