The Lows

Dragon Shire

Draft

Match

The Highs

Warhead Junction

Draft

Match

Final Thoughts

Hero League can be a brutal mistress. A 3-1 night can sustain me throughout my following day at work and lead to eager anticipation for more games. A 1-3 night can leave me in a place of frustrated indifference... it's just dumb hero league... stupid drafts = stupid games... et cetera. At the least, it's an interesting study in how competitive games can impact one's psyche. My buddy and I still gloat about our 0-3 series comeback in the Great 4th of July Cornhole Tournament of 2015.Since placement games, my Hero League experience has been one of extreme highs and the deepest of lows. The lows are typically punctuated with teammate toxicity, bad drafts, and a lot of finger pointing. The highs have come from improbable comebacks, strong team-play, and unexpected teammates. Let's dive in:It's an interesting and sometimes masochistic process looking through losses and trying to pick out the one I want to highlight. I could choose the one where our Brightwing never pulls off a proper emerald wind and only ice blocks once their already, essentially dead. Or I could pick the two matches where our FP Sylvannas gets zero value because said player is convinced Sylv is a split-pusher. This is still a thing people think in diamond?! Instead I've chosen what was ultimately the most disappointing match of the whole lot:My favorite map and I get to play my favorite hero for the map, Malthael. It's unfortunate I have to put this match as one of my low points because the game was actually a really good one.Bans start with Dehaka/Genji. Standard. Enemy first picks Alarak. Interesting FP. We take Falstad/Arthas. They take Diablo/Valla. I'm banning and knowing I want to Malthael and they need a healer so that I opt for the Lucio ban. They ban Uther. We take Stukov/Malthael. They take Li Ming/Alexstrasza. Our last pick settles on Tyrael. This feels like a pretty even draft.No one is able to claim DKnight for first 9 minutes. My lane matchup versus Alarak is one for the ages. Respecting the fact that if Alarak combos me he wins the trade, I play conservative. Alarak knows that he can't fight me in the wave which gives me a slight edge on the overall positioning (minions consistently on towers/wall) but this was a real chess match in which control of the lane is a constant back-and-forth. The mid/bot groups seem to both be struggling with rotations when one side overcommits to a kill and starts diving towers. Rather than backing up and soaking the fights get aggressive and unnecessary deaths start happening on both sides. Eventually, the enemy snags first DK after a proper rotation top forces me to back and our Arthas goes down to some old fashioned Li Ming burst. our side appears to regain control after we get a Li Ming pick, however, as Stukov and I are taking our top mercenaries, Arthas is doing bot-mercs and inexplicably the enemy invades as four. Arthas doesn't do the right thing and simply retreat but proceeds to ult and attempt to fight them 4v1. By the time Stukov and I arrive he's at a sliver of health and Alarak is already rotating to grab top-point. Arthas backs and they get a free dragon knight. This is where the Li Ming pick really shows its value as she's providing excellent coverage for the front-line DK keeping Malthael/Arthas from being able to melee reliably. Our Falstad decides it's time to turn things up to 11 and gusts their enemy team into our keep. It's an admirable idea but not really thought out well as Arthas is still down his ultimate and Flastad drops almost immediately to a Diablo charge and Valla stun. This results in a downed keep and a bunch of open space with all forts gone. To make matters worse, Tyrael has decided that one of the best ultimates in the game (Sanctification) just isn't his style and his judgements lack any form of rational judgement because he's simply diving their backline and dying the moment he does so. It's a classic clown fiesta and a once solid match ends in a whimper. Ughhhh. And of course no bad ending is complete without some flame from our judgment-less Tyrael: "yall are a bunch of pu*****"The perfect end to a not-so-perfect match.For obvious reasons, it's always fun trying to find the right victory to review. Do I pick one of the back-to-back-to-back come from behind victories? At the very least I'll tell you one of them was a match where I play Gul'dan on TotSQ and we lose two keeps early and then win three consecutive team fights post-16. Good times. Nope. Let's look at a nightmare scenario that somehow, someway ends well for the good guys.One of the more enjoyable aspects of playing in mid-diamond is being placed with teammates I know. I'm not talking about IRL friends (though I have had the pleasure of getting a few battle.net friends in games), but rather people I know from the HotS community: streamers, pros, former-pros, et cetera. This particular match featured players I see on GM streams from time to time. Looking at their profiles confirmed that they typically play in Masters+ so that I think it's a fair assumption that they're the same people I've seen in high-level streams.I'm last picking so I throw out my obligatory "hey fam, willing to fill but FWIW, support my weakest role." My team drafts Falstad/D.Va on first turn. Global good, is D.Va a good pick after the buff? The second turn comes and our teammate who had been hovering Arthas, disconnects... luckily there's no Arthas ban so that he still gets his toon of choice. Our support snap locks in Lili to go with Arthas. Lili solo-heals... ummmmm...I'm last pick and team is asking for wave clear; I'm thinking Gul'dan but the enemy team is Genji/Illidan/Brigthwing/ETC/Kael'thas and so I'm not really thrilled with any mage options. I decide on Xul - point-and-click CC, wave clear, and a bit more survivability than any mage can provide. I don't really know what to think about this draft other than Illidan/Genji doesn't feel right. But what do I know? For reference, here's my build for this game:Our Arthas (and notable DC in draft) is back... thank god... for a total of 15 seconds... ffffffff!!! Our Falstad correctly notes "Please play safe. Arthas DC. Hopefully he comes back." Falstad is bot and I'm top, Arthas is attached at the hip to Lili & D.Va. Not an ideal set-up, but the protracted early-game of Warhead seems to play in our favor here as both Falstad and I are winning our lanes and bot-Arthas isn't just dying randomly. Credit to our Lili who, after watching the replay, I realized was doing a spectacular job of manipulating the bot-Arthas' position. She also makes a nice rotation top to help secure a pick when bot-Arthas nails a root and I follow up with bone prison. We're almost 10 minutes into the match when Arthas does return. Both teams are at level 11 when he returns and we instantly take a favorable fight on the bottom lane netting a pair of kills which leads to us grabbing bottom boss. We sort of snowball from there clearing all their keeps and eventually getting another fight and bot-boss when it spawns again and we push core FTW.When Arthas did return the game didn't even feel fair. Their Genji/Illidan couldn't get anything going and D.Va was on point with some great self-destructs. Falstad saved our collectives butts a pair of times with perfect gusts. I underestimated the impact cups/blinds would have on the team fights and everyone did a good job of not clumping and letting their Kael'thas get free damage. I simply rooted things and put mages on the ground for easy pickings. GGs all around.I've said it before and I'll probably say it a thousand times.There's just no way around it. You're going to have throws and comebacks . Sometimes players simply don't want to take the correct ultimate for the situation. Sometimes you get a bot and everyone puts on their big-boy pants and pulls through. It just is what it is. Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.Cheersouroboros