The Rivalry Begins

North America vs Europe

The Regional Rematch





Game 2 on Dragon Shire was considerably closer, but it's Game 3 that I want to focus on the most because it's an excellent example of the comeback potential on Towers of Doom. Tempo Storm controlled much of this game, bringing HHE's core down to 4 while still having 27 on their own. At any point, a single altar or a boss could have won the game for Tempo Storm. And yet, somehow, HeroesHearth manages to hold off Tempo Storm and secures the 3-0. If you haven't seen this comeback before, you owe it to yourself to watch it in its full length.

Game 2 on Dragon Shire was considerably closer, but it's Game 3 that I want to focus on the most because it's an excellent example of the comeback potential on Towers of Doom. Tempo Storm controlled much of this game, bringing HHE's core down to 4 while still having 27 on their own. At any point, a single altar or a boss could have won the game for Tempo Storm. And yet, somehow, HeroesHearth manages to hold off Tempo Storm and secures the 3-0. If you haven't seen this comeback before, you owe it to yourself to watch it in its full length.

The Fight for International Recognition

Are They Ready for Round 3?

One team was formed by one of the top organizations in esports, with the intention of putting together North America's most talented players into a single "super team", with the hopes of breaking North America's streak of difficulties on the international stage. The other team was formed in the Open Division, having to fight their way up the ladder and into the Crucible just to get a chance at playing in the HGC. You couldn't find two teams with more different backgrounds. And yet, both teams now stand at the top of North America, having put forth a strong effort on the international stage in 2018, and both are also currently undefeated atop the standings for Phase 2.And now, this Saturday, they will clash once again for regional supremacy! But before they do, let's take a look back at their history in the HGC so far this year and see how the rivalry between these two teams has evolved and why this match is so important. Be warned, this is a fairly lengthy article and has several clips from games in it, so make sure you have lots of time available to read through it all!Back in the very first week of HGC 2018, these teams clashed for the first time, and even back then, there was a great deal of anticipation for this match.HeroesHearth Esports was still a fledgling team fresh out of the Open Division, scooped up by a relatively new organization within the Heroes of the Storm scene. However, because of those origins, they had been playing together for a much longer time than any current NA roster, which made team synergy one of their top strengths. It also meant that they had gathered a significant following from their Open Division days, with a great number of fans hoping to see them perform well in the professional circuit.Tempo Storm, on the other hand, was a team full of what many presumed to be NA's finest players, collected together by an organization that has one of the most storied histories in all of Heroes of the Storm. Tempo Storm has been one of the longest standing organizations in this game, with their first roster fielded as far back as 2015, and is probably what many consider to be the "face" of North American Heroes. However, it had been a long time since North America was an international contender, and this roster sought to change that by proving its dominance regionally and earning the top spot in the Western Clash.With that, the stage was set between these two teams. Tempo Storm was considered a highly favored team due to their high player pedigree, but HeroesHearth was determined not to go down without a fight.recalls the series as one that they primarily viewed as a chance to improve as a team:"We did figure we would come out of the match not as victors, so we treated it as a learning experience to get our foot in the online league door. We did know we could take maps off them at that point, however."The series started strong for Tempo Storm with a win on Dragon Shire, leading the game with 10 kills to HHE's 1, and keeping almost all of their structures alive in a game that never really felt close. Game 2 on Tomb of the Spider Queen started out much the same, with Tempo Storm leading 5 kills to 1, having obtained the first two sets of Webweavers and pushing into the bottom keep to open up a win condition for their team....and then the tide turned. With the game potentially on the line for HeroesHearth, Khalif "Khroen" Hashim took his Greymane play to the next level, with Chase "BBJ" Dixon backing him up on Uther.This play enabled the team to push for a boss and the win. Though HeroesHearth ultimately lost the series 1-3, it was brief moments like this which showed the incredible potential in the HHE roster, and how good they could become in the future. If you'd like to revisit the original series for yourself, I've provided links to the games below. Make sure you have enough time for Game 4, as it's a very long one (just over 34 minutes).Despite their differences, these two teams have both long held the same end goal: to bring North America back to the forefront internationally as a force to be reckoned with. And their first chance to do that arrived in March at the Western Clash. All of North America's teams were hungry for a chance to defeat Europe on an international stage for the first time in years. However, when it came down to it, many were pinning Tempo Storm as NA's only real hope for success. There were very few expectations for the rest of North America.recalls the events at Katowice and how the lower level of expectations actually helped their team:"We went into the tournament making some jokes about going 0-4 and getting knocked out quickly because that’s what most people expected us to do, and I think that mentality relieved a lot of the pressure that would have been there if we came in as a higher seed team from NA. It being ishb00 and I’s first time playing in front of a crowd, there could have been a lot of pressure, but it was mostly alleviated by having such low expectations and an overall mentality of focusing on improving. It also helped that some of the EU teams were underestimating the NA teams going into the tournament and NA had the better day 1 Meta."Needless to say, however, HeroesHearth did not go 0-4. Rather, they put up an impressive series against the undisputed top team in Europe at the time, Team Dignitas, taking a single map off of them on Dragon Shire....and perhaps in a bizarre twist of fate, it was once again a team fight in the bottom lane that allowed them to push for the core in a finish that has to be seen to be believed.HeroesHearth also managed to knock Europe's third seed (Method) out of the tournament in a 2-1 series before finally falling to the 2nd-seeded Fnatic 3-0. HeroesHearth finished their Western Clash run with a tie for 5th place, far exceeding their expectations and setting the stage for what was to come in the second half of Phase 1. If you'd like to take a more extensive look at their tournament run in the Western Clash, I've provided the links to all of their games below.Not to be outdone, Tempo Storm came into the tournament with something to prove. They started Day 1 with a 2-0 victory over the Zealots. They followed that up with a surprising victory over Fnatic 3-1, despite the latter team playing with a sub in the form of Rodney Anyani "SonicLeBeast" Kwaku. This series was full of incredible fights, but I want to draw special attention to a fight in Game 2 that I think encapsulates how much of a brawl this series really was.Eventually, Tempo Storm also fell to the juggernaut that was Team Dignitas, and later lost their rematch with Zealots in the Losers Finals, ending their tournament run at a respectable 3rd place. If you'd like to view the full run that Tempo Storm had at the tournament, check out the links below.When Tempo Storm and HeroesHearth Esports faced off again in April, things were a little bit different from the first five weeks of HGC 2018. HeroesHearth Esports had gone on a tear since their return from the Western Clash, securing a 5-0 match record with a 15-6 game record in the weeks leading up to their encounter., the coach for HeroesHearth Esports, talks about how the team took their experience from the Western Clash and turned it into a positive force for their team:"The biggest mentality shift I wanted to make with NA was to reverse the tendency of going to international events, getting outplayed, then falling into a slump for the next month due to frustrations and internal conflicts caused by the defeats. These international events are a golden opportunity for a team to grow, perhaps there should be more focus on what can be taken away from them other than tournament placing. After seeing the strength of some world class teams first hand, the players made many positive changes and adjustments. We talked about how this was our opportunity to make up some ground in the standings if we kept our heads up and came into part 2 confident in what we had learned."Tempo Storm, comparatively, had a 4-1 match record with a 14-5 game record in the weeks after the Western Clash. Their only loss up to this point had been against Team Octalysis in a hard-fought 3-2 series. Both teams were still vying for the top of North America once again, and as such, this match became one of the most important matches in all of North America.Game 1 started out on Tomb of the Spider Queen, the only map which HeroesHearth Esports took from Tempo Storm in their first series. Whether intended as mind games or not, the game looked dominant for HeroesHearth, with the only real glimpse of life being from Harrison "psalm" Chang's Maiev (in coordination with Jun "Jun" Jang's excellent Stukov play) pulling off a game saving play on Tempo's core to keep their hopes alive.admits that the team was surprised by the 3-0 result, but praises Tempo Storm for their tenacity in rebounding from this loss to play their hardest in the Mid-Season Brawl:"The Tempo series was always on our radar as the benchmark of our progress through the year, and I’d say we were all surprised at the 3-0 result. To their credit, Tempo bounced back better than we expected. Such drastically different match outcomes only a few months apart could have caused a team to crumble and take extreme measures to get back on top."If this summary has you interested in seeing the entire series, I've provided links to all of their games below.It was finally time for North America to prove itself on the second biggest international stage there is: the Mid-Season Brawl. Only two teams were permitted to travel to Dreamhack to compete in the tournament, and sure enough, those two teams were NA's strongest: Tempo Storm and HeroesHearth Esports. Both teams had already tasted international play at the Western Clash and were looking to prove themselves against the world's finest.Both teams were placed in separate groups for the Group Stage, facing off against the best in each major region, as well as two minor region teams that had won their respective Clashes. HeroesHearth Esports again set their expectations at a lower level, using the event as an opportunity to learn and aiming merely to get out of the Group Stage. They achieved this goal, taking games from Tempest, Method, and Challenge Everything in order to reach a fourth place finish in their group, though they fell early in the playoffs to Ballistix 3-1.Here's a list of their games against Ballistix, if you'd like to check them out for yourself.Tempo Storm, however, was clearly not content to settle for making it out of the Group Stage. With a surprise upset of Ballistix and then another win against Ballistix in the tiebreaker, Tempo Storm achieved second place in their group. After a difficult 3-0 loss in the Winners Bracket, Tempo dropped to the Losers Bracket to face Ballistix for a third time. The series started poorly, with the first two games going to Ballistix, and it looked like the end for North America. But in the games that followed, Tempo Storm fought back hard, dragging the series out to Game 5 and securing the 3-2 victory in a series so intense that even the casters' voices were giving out by the end of it.Unfortunately, once again Dignitas ended up being the gatekeeper for Tempo Storm, defeating them 3-0 in the Losers Bracket to end their run. However, this placed Tempo at a fourth place finish, a fairly respectable spot for a region that hasn't seen a finish higher than fifth place internationally in over two years. It also was one of the first times that a North American team was able to knock a top Korean team out of the tournament.To see all of Tempo Storm's games in the Mid-Season Brawl's playoffs, take a look at the links below.The performances of these two North American teams were a step up from what we're used to seeing from North America as a whole, and made a statement about the region's potential resurgence if they can continue this growth. When asked about how he feels about North America's performance at the Mid-Season Brawl,agreed with that sentiment:"I believe that NA’s performance in the MSB was a step in right direction for sure. It meant that NA can very well be an international threat and is making the effort and adjustments to be seen as one and perform accordingly. Of course consistency is now the next goal, one ‘okay’ performance is not enough to solidify NA as a strong international region, the improvements must be made so that at Blizzcon NA can either perform similarly or better than at MSB."And now, with the past behind us, we look to Phase 2, which brought a number of roster changes and a fresh record for every team in North America. HeroesHearth is 4-0 in matches so far, and 12-1 in games, and has looked very difficult to beat. On the Tempo Storm side, the late departure of psalm from the Tempo Storm roster has made an undeniable impact in their overall roster strength. Their newest player, Vi "ViN" Nguyen, has done a respectable job filling the shoes of their missing player, but there are concerns that the team still doesn't look as strong as they did with psalm. Despite this, Tempo Storm has amassed a 5-0 match record and is 15-3 in games. So far, these two teams have a 1-1 record with each other, with the total game wins slightly in HeroesHearth's favor at 4-3.When asked, here's whathad to say about the upcoming match-up:"They are definitely our biggest competitors. ViN has been looking good but I do not believe the team is at the level they were at the MSB with psalm. I’m hoping for a Bo5 as it is on the new patch and will be a lot of fun, hopefully 3-2 in our favor!"With all of the buildup this year, this match is shaping up to be the most important match in North America for Phase 2 as we may finally get to see who sits atop the throne of North America. Will it be Tempo Storm, a hero with a long history of strong Heroes play as they seek to continue their performance all the way to Blizzcon? Or will the former Open Division team, HeroesHearth Esports, finally take the top spot in North America?Make sure to watch the HGC at http://www.twitch.tv/blizzheroes on Saturday, July 21 at approximately 7:00 PM EDT to find out!An earlier version of this article stated that Vi "ViN" Nguyen was the team's "current sub". He has recently been selected as their fifth player as of July 18th, 2018. This article was updated to account for this change.