Day 4 of the Heroes of the Storm HGC Finals is done, and we finally have our top 8! If you missed out on previous days of game coverage, you can find them here:

These games are played on the current patch with Mal’Ganis disabled.

Match 1: Dignitas vs. Mindfreak

Game 1: Mindfreak tried to utilize a Stitches/Medivh combo-oriented composition on Volskaya against Dignitas, but Dig wasn’t having it. Just 10 minutes in, Dignitas had a four-level lead and was on their way to Mindfreak’s core with the Protector.

Game 2: Dignitas proved to be just too strong for Mindfreak, winning this Battlefield of Eternity game with a three-level lead and no deaths.

Match 2: Heroes Hearth Esports vs. Tempest

Game 1: HHE started slowly on this Towers of Doom game, dying a few times in the early game. However, their solo support Abathur/Illidan composition gave them the upper hand after ultimates were picked up. Illidan pushed side lanes constantly while Abathur used Mule to heal captured towers throughout the game. Tempest wasn’t able to respond effectively to what HHE was doing, giving Heroes Hearth Esports the win.

Game 2: This Tomb of the Spider Queen game was very back and forth, with both teams getting wipes and turn-ins multiple times over the game. Tempest slowly began to fall behind and, smartly, decided to play passively instead of running into HHE when they were ahead in level. Despite this, HHE was able to hold on to the momentum they gained in the late game to go for a win with level 20 talents.

Match 3: Beyond the Game vs. Luna Meow

Game 1: What started as a very even game on Battlefield of Eternity began favoring BTG after they won the first Immortal. Luna Meow pressured back, picking a fight after they hit their heroics only to fall to BTG’s Genji player shredding them with Dragon Blade. BTG won with another Immortal push straight to Luna Meow’s core.

Game 2: BTG started this Towers of Doom game by pulling ahead of Luna Meow with multiple early game kills. This came back to haunt Luna Meow as it meant BTG got ultimate abilities first, allowing them to take and hold Luna Meow’s bottom tower. Luna Meow fought hard to come back from this, but it wasn’t enough to catch up to BTG.

Match 4: Gen G vs. Miracle

Game 1: Gen G did what they do best on this Infernal Shrines game, eeking their way forward in EXP until Miracle just couldn’t fight them without being disadvantaged. Miracle was able to catch up for a small window before being completely wrecked by Gen G, making their lead even larger. Gen G rode their level 20 talents to victory.

Game 2: Gen G bullied Miracle early on in this Dragon Shire game but pumped the brakes and played a lot more passive after Miracle hit level 10. Miracle had drafted Li-Ming and Gen G knew that, if Miracle could get a kill, Li-Ming’s abilities would reset and help Miracle snowball the fight. This passive play paid off as Gen G patiently waited for Miracle to make a mistake so they could capitalize on it. Gen G took this game with an impressive display of discipline.

Current Standings

The top 8 teams going to BlizzCon are finally decided. Here are the details!

Insights

I’ve observed a few trends in the past few days that deserve to have some light shed on them.

Diablo’s Soul Shield at level 1 has been picked quite a bit this tournament, and in a few games, that choice had an obviously huge impact in keeping Diablo alive. It was typically picked against enemy comps with at least one mage, but there were even games where it was chosen against ability damage-focused heroes like Blaze or Fenix.

Tyrande and Deckard are leading the healer meta with Whitemane, Stukov, and Malfurion also seeing some play. A common trend we see among these top healers is ranged CC. Deckard, Malfurion, and Tyrande have ranged CC on their base kits, and Whitemane and Stukov can get ranged CC as soon as level 13. This lets them protect themselves, provide peel, and help secure kills for their team.

North America is leading the way with double support comps, main tank Uther comps, and solo support Abathur comps. All these strategies have won games this weekend. We’ll see how competitive these strategies really are going into BlizzCon, but drafting this way showed some limited promise.

Conclusion

Thank you all for keeping up with Daily Esports’ coverage of the HGC Finals this weekend! We will be continuing this coverage for the BlizzCon tournament as well, so stay tuned!