[HotS] Why I'll Keep Playing HotS Text by TL.net ESPORTS









Why I'll Keep Playing HotS



Written by: Midseasons



2018 was a promising, satisfying year for Heroes of the Storm…until December. By now we’ve all read the Heroes director Kaéo Milker, which—while confirming that things are slowing down—is more in tune with the emotions of the Heroes of the Storm community. Milker’s post shows that the Heroes dev team is just as invested as the players are, and take the cuts just as hard.



In the weeks since those two posts, we’ve seen anger, denial, depression, and bargaining within the community. Now, as we move into 2019, we have one question left: what now? Nevermind the game itself for a moment—as people, as the community that formed around the game, what comes next for us?







That’s an incredibly personal question, and there’s no wrong answer. We’ve seen some redouble their commitment to the game, determined to stick with it and build up a community-based competitive scene to fill the esports void. We’ve seen others explore other games like League of Legends or Super Smash Bros. And we’ve even seen people publicly swear they will never play another Blizzard game again.



All of these reactions are valid. With such personal decisions, we can’t really judge others or their reasons. We all have to decide for ourselves.



Editorial voice aside, I can only speak for myself. Over the Christmas season, I was able to focus on searching my own feelings for just what I was going to do with Heroes. Now that Christmas is over, I’ve made my decision. And while I can’t be positive I’m making the correct decision, I’d still like to share it, and the thoughts that led me to it.



Heroes of the Storm has always been a passion project. Throughout its life, it’s been tangibly clear that the people making HotS were making a game that they enjoyed and wanted to play themselves. That was once the ethos behind every Blizzard game, and it remained true for Heroes even as the rest of the company shifted. While HotS never ended up being as popular or successful as we might have hoped it would be, it still showed that the people working on it loved the game and wanted us to love it too.







And I did, damn it. In 2014 I fell in love with Heroes of the Storm like few games before or since. I played more hours of HotS than I did of larger, more expensive games, and I convinced as many people as I could—a few dozen, over the years—to install and play it with me. It got me into Diablo, into StarCraft, and into any type of competitive experience at all after decades of being a PvE gamer. But emotionally investing in an online game is always a risk: none of them ever stay the same, and not even the dev team can always control the reasons why those games change. I learned all this the hard way, when I was younger; before the Storm, the game I loved the most had been City of Heroes. A classic, comic book-styled MMO, City of Heroes was abruptly shut down by NCSoft—to the dismay of the actual development team at Paragon Studios.



Just like Paragon Studios, the dev team behind Heroes of the Storm was caught off guard like the rest of us. Planned updates and announced content might not see the light, and some of the devs—we have no way of knowing how many—have been moved to other projects. It’s a shocking way for Blizzard to publicly treat its employees and contractors, and I don’t blame those who have sworn never to give the company another cent. For my part, I’ve uninstalled World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo from my PC; I’ve got enough IRL friends who play Overwatch that I’m keeping it installed for now, but I haven’t actually launched it yet.



I haven’t uninstalled Heroes of the Storm. And I have launched it throughout December. It was a test at first to see if the game would still be enjoyable in light of the news, and in the heat of an actual match, it is. Everything that makes it a good game is still there. Can you believe how fun the Stitches rework is?







Heroes of the Storm was made by people who love it just as much as I do. Look at the number of front-facing people on the team who were active and known to us as players. The HotS team has had people like Dustin Browder, Alan Dabiri, Kevin Michael Johnson, Lana Bachynski, Alex Klontzas, Oscar Vega, Kaéo Milker…



The HotS team has put so much of themselves into the game that they’re on a first-name basis with the community. In Johnson’s case—who literally has been put into the game as an announcer pack—that’s even been an invitation. As his role in HotS team has grown, Johnson has used his handle “Cloaken” less and less, and goes simply by Kevin. His voice pack in the game is labeled simply Kevin Announcer, carrying that familiarity into the match with us. “See, I told you I’d see you in the Nexus,” says the announcer, and it feels as though our friend Kevin is there enjoying Heroes of the Storm right along with us.



Whether past or present, the people who’ve worked on HotS have been vocal about it and how they feel about it. It was their job, of course, and just like any job it couldn’t and shouldn’t last forever. All of these people were, at some point, going to work on something after HotS. And their new projects are going to benefit from that same passion.



But did it have to be like this? The surprise announcement isn’t what we wanted as a community, and it’s probably not what they wanted to hear as a development team. Still, when it comes back to the question of what now?, this tweet from Alex Klontzas sums things up well for me.



As a kid who grew up spending countless hours playing Blizzard games, all I ever wanted was to be part of something that you’d think back on and would stay with you forever. They made me who I am today and I hope that Heroes of the Storm was, and will be that kind of game for you — Alex Klontzas (@azgaz) December 14, 2018





I don’t blame anyone for resenting Blizzard or uninstalling HotS. Certainly the abandoned HGC players are entirely justified. Everyone makes their own decisions, based on what’s best for their own lives. I don’t think that I somehow loved Heroes of the Storm more than anyone else does, but I’ve decided that I will continue loving Heroes, not just for my sake but for the sake of the HotS team that worked so hard on it.



The decision higher up on the Activision-Blizzard ladder clearly hurt the dev team from above. As a player, I don’t want to further hurt them from below. There are people who made this game, even if their names aren’t as known as the ones I mentioned above—who put their passion into making it loveable. Maybe they didn’t want to leave it yet, or not in this way. But regardless of how voluntarily they moved on, they should be proud of their work. They wouldn’t want the game they loved to be remembered bitterly.



Heroes of the Storm changed my life—I’ve met so many people because of it, been opened up to so many new worlds. And while it may be slowing down, it’s still there. You can’t play City of Heroes at all anymore.







I do not trust Blizzard Entertainment, and I will likely not be excited for any of their games in the future. But I’m going to keep playing Heroes of the Storm until the day they turn the servers off. And when it eventually ends, I’ve made the deliberate decision to not have regrets. Maybe that’s a foolish decision, but it’s the one I’ve made.



I’ll see you in Quick Match.











If you enjoyed this piece, check out our latest articles:





Top 5 GOAT: Team Edition

A Look Into the Nexus Contest

Life Outside the HGC: Taiwan and SEA

CBHotS Paving the Way for LatAm

Life Beyond HGC: An Offseason Update







2018 was a promising, satisfying year for…until December. By now we’ve all read the announcement post from Blizzard president J. Allen Brack, informing us that production is going to be scaled back and that HGC is cancelled entirely. But we had a follow-up post fromdirector Kaéo Milker, which—while confirming that things are slowing down—is more in tune with the emotions of the Heroes of the Storm community. Milker’s post shows that the Heroes dev team is just as invested as the players are, and take the cuts just as hard.In the weeks since those two posts, we’ve seen anger, denial, depression, and bargaining within the community. Now, as we move into 2019, we have one question left: what now? Nevermind the game itself for a moment—as people, as the community that formed around the game, what comes next for us?That’s an incredibly personal question, and there’s no wrong answer. We’ve seen some redouble their commitment to the game, determined to stick with it and build up a community-based competitive scene to fill the esports void. We’ve seen others explore other games like League of Legends or Super Smash Bros. And we’ve even seen people publicly swear they will never play another Blizzard game again.All of these reactions are valid. With such personal decisions, we can’t really judge others or their reasons. We all have to decide for ourselves.Editorial voice aside, I can only speak for myself. Over the Christmas season, I was able to focus on searching my own feelings for just what I was going to do with. Now that Christmas is over, I’ve made my decision. And while I can’t be positive I’m making the correct decision, I’d still like to share it, and the thoughts that led me to it.has always been a passion project. Throughout its life, it’s been tangibly clear that the people making HotS were making a game that they enjoyed and wanted to play themselves. That was once the ethos behind every Blizzard game, and it remained true foreven as the rest of the company shifted. While HotS never ended up being as popular or successful as we might have hoped it would be, it still showed that the people working on it loved the game and wanted us to love it too.And I did, damn it. In 2014 I fell in love withlike few games before or since. I played more hours of HotS than I did of larger, more expensive games, and I convinced as many people as I could—a few dozen, over the years—to install and play it with me. It got me into Diablo, into StarCraft, and into any type of competitive experience at all after decades of being a PvE gamer. But emotionally investing in an online game is always a risk: none of them ever stay the same, and not even the dev team can always control the reasons why those games change. I learned all this the hard way, when I was younger; before, the game I loved the most had been. A classic, comic book-styled MMO,was abruptly shut down by NCSoft—to the dismay of the actual development team at Paragon Studios.Just like Paragon Studios, the dev team behindwas caught off guard like the rest of us. Planned updates and announced content might not see the light, and some of the devs—we have no way of knowing how many—have been moved to other projects. It’s a shocking way for Blizzard to publicly treat its employees and contractors, and I don’t blame those who have sworn never to give the company another cent. For my part, I’ve uninstalled World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo from my PC; I’ve got enough IRL friends who play Overwatch that I’m keeping it installed for now, but I haven’t actually launched it yet.I haven’t uninstalled Heroes of the Storm. And Ilaunched it throughout December. It was a test at first to see if the game would still be enjoyable in light of the news, and in the heat of an actual match, it is. Everything that makes it a good game is still there. Can you believe how fun the Stitches rework is?Heroes of the Storm waspeople who love it just as much as I do. Look at the number of front-facing people on the team who were active and known to us as players. The HotS team has had people like Dustin Browder, Alan Dabiri, Kevin Michael Johnson, Lana Bachynski, Alex Klontzas, Oscar Vega, Kaéo Milker…The HotS team has put so much of themselves into the game that they’re on a first-name basis with the community. In Johnson’s case—who literally has been put into the game as an announcer pack—that’s even been an invitation. As his role in HotS team has grown, Johnson has used his handle “Cloaken” less and less, and goes simply by Kevin. His voice pack in the game is labeled simply Kevin Announcer, carrying that familiarity into the match with us. “See, I told you I’d see you in the Nexus,” says the announcer, and it feels as though our friend Kevin is there enjoyingright along with us.Whether past or present, the people who’ve worked on HotS have been vocal about it and how they feel about it. It was their job, of course, and just like any job it couldn’t and shouldn’t last forever. All of these people were, at some point, going to work on somethingHotS. And their new projects are going to benefit from that same passion.But did it have to be like this? The surprise announcement isn’t what we wanted as a community, and it’s probably not what they wanted to hear as a development team. Still, when it comes back to the question of, this tweet from Alex Klontzas sums things up well for me.I don’t blame anyone for resenting Blizzard or uninstalling. Certainly the abandoned HGC players are entirely justified. Everyone makes their own decisions, based on what’s best for their own lives. I don’t think that I somehow lovedmore than anyone else does, but I’ve decided that I will continue loving Heroes, not just for my sake but for the sake of the HotS team that worked so hard on it.The decision higher up on the Activision-Blizzard ladder clearly hurt the dev team from above. As a player, I don’t want to further hurt them from below. There are people who made this game, even if their names aren’t as known as the ones I mentioned above—who put their passion into making it loveable. Maybe they didn’t want to leave it yet, or not in this way. But regardless of how voluntarily they moved on, they should be proud of their work. They wouldn’t want the game they loved to be remembered bitterly.changed my life—I’ve met so many people because of it, been opened up to so many new worlds. And while it may be slowing down, it’s still there. You can’t playat all anymore.I do not trust Blizzard Entertainment, and I will likely not be excited for any of their games in the future. But I’m going to keep playinguntil the day they turn the servers off. And when it eventually ends, I’ve made the deliberate decision to not have regrets. Maybe that’s a foolish decision, but it’s the one I’ve made.I’ll see you in Quick Match.



remindbg Profile Joined July 2018 2 Posts #2 No thanks



konadora Profile Blog Joined February 2009 Singapore 50090 Posts #3 not a big follower of HotS but i do enjoy watching/playing it sometimes. why did they pull the plug on HGC though? POGGERS

Woosixion Profile Joined February 2012 59 Posts #4 On January 22 2019 11:38 konadora wrote:

not a big follower of HotS but i do enjoy watching/playing it sometimes. why did they pull the plug on HGC though?



Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses. Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses. the only way out is through...

EsportsJohn Profile Blog Joined June 2012 United States 4833 Posts #5 On January 22 2019 13:29 Woosixion wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 22 2019 11:38 konadora wrote:

not a big follower of HotS but i do enjoy watching/playing it sometimes. why did they pull the plug on HGC though?



Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses. Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses.



This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.



The bottom line, however, is that Heroes of the Storm is not a significantly popular game. Blizzard can't throw millions of dollars at it like Riot did for League of Legends and expect it to be sustainable. The player base is minuscule compared to LoL and Dota, partly because Blizzard was late to the party in the MOBA world and partly because the game lacks scaling skill levels to separate good and bad players (AKA design issues). Hero bans didn't even exist until 2 years into the game's existence.



It would have been possible for HotS to have a successful Blizzard-sponsored league if it hadn't been poorly implemented. Blizzard pumped in way more money than they ought to have in order to artificially create an esports scene that could not exist without that money, and in light of budget cuts, they could not retain that esports scene on a reduced budget. The difference between a league with almost no broadcast time, no more player salaries, and significantly reduced prize pools is the same as nixing it altogether.



As a side note, OWL is on the same trajectory. Despite a fairly steady first season, the player and viewer base is becoming stale. Eventually the lack of results after such a significant allocation of resources will force them to downsize considerably. But at least they somehow suckered multiple orgs to pay them a shitton of money to sustain the league for another year or two. This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.The bottom line, however, is that Heroes of the Storm is not a significantly popular game. Blizzard can't throw millions of dollars at it like Riot did for League of Legends and expect it to be sustainable. The player base is minuscule compared to LoL and Dota, partly because Blizzard was late to the party in the MOBA world and partly because the game lacks scaling skill levels to separate good and bad players (AKA design issues). Hero bans didn't even exist until 2 years into the game's existence.It would have been possible for HotS to have a successful Blizzard-sponsored league if it hadn't been poorly implemented. Blizzard pumped in way more money than they ought to have in order to artificially create an esports scene that could not exist without that money, and in light of budget cuts, they could not retain that esports scene on a reduced budget. The difference between a league with almost no broadcast time, no more player salaries, and significantly reduced prize pools is the same as nixing it altogether.As a side note, OWL is on the same trajectory. Despite a fairly steady first season, the player and viewer base is becoming stale. Eventually the lack of results after such a significant allocation of resources will force them to downsize considerably. But at least they somehow suckered multiple orgs to pay them a shitton of money to sustain the league for another year or two. Strategy

Kuroeeah Profile Blog Joined February 2013 3756 Posts #6 I think people can agree or disagree about HOTS as a game. I went from disliking the game from it’s beta to growing warm to it with quests and heroes. Have I stuck with the game like I did with League or DotA? Nah but what I will say for HOTS is that I do feel the game is easier to return to just for a quick match when you compare it to it’s competitors. They kept adding to the game, whether the ideas were good or bad, the developers of the game were vocal, relatively easy to talk to (through online channels or in person) and I felt the small tight knit community HOTS had the devs and their player base a stronger relationship than their other games.



Anyone that looked at the game probably could have told you HGC was never ever going to touch DotA or League. I’m curious if the twitch viewership was so bad that it matched SC2 during it’s low point (Maybe 5k viewers?)



The super immature part of me wants Overwatch League to crash. I have nothing but contempt with the way Blizzard their e-sports across the board. They have this “me too” philosophy where they see Riot and want to jump on the band wagon.



I’m not big into Overwatch so I don’t know too much about it outside of watching some OWL games in the beginning of it’s first season and briefly enjoying it because nothing else was on in Twitch. There’s practically no story line in OWL in both the teams and it’s players. Every big e-sport has a big name. Maru or Serral for SC2, Dendi or Arteezy for DotA, Faker for League but who’s the equivalent for OWL? It feels like Blizzard plastered this idea of making “home” teams just for the artificial purpose of people to cheer for whatever they’re most local to. Probably very wrong here though but would still love to know..



Anyway I digress. I hate the way Blizzard just dropped HOTS. It probably makes a lot of sense financially but the it was handled was done in the worst possible way ever if you remotely liked HOTS. I sort of want OWL to fail, not because I bear any ill will towards the game or the people that follow it. I want it to fail because Blizzard needs a hard lesson that their general bandwagon attitude towards e-sports (imo) is pretty disgusting.

MarianoSC2 Profile Joined June 2015 Slovakia 1269 Posts #7 Oh I thought this was about Heart of the Swarm. The good old days... NVM Rogue the Sexy Boy >= Maru >= Trap >= Neeb >= Life :(

Waxangel Profile Blog Joined September 2002 United States 29116 Posts #8 On January 22 2019 17:05 MarianoSC2 wrote:

Oh I thought this was about Heart of the Swarm. The good old days... NVM



granted, a lot of people DO miss the TvZ dynamic from heart of the swarm... granted, a lot of people DO miss the TvZ dynamic from heart of the swarm... Administrator Hey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?

BigFan Profile Blog Joined December 2010 TLADT 24439 Posts #9 On January 22 2019 17:05 MarianoSC2 wrote:

Oh I thought this was about Heart of the Swarm. The good old days... NVM

This is a bit odd seeing as no one really cares about older expansions and this is the heroes part of the forum. Makes me wonder if one posted before reading



All in good fun ^^ This is a bit odd seeing as no one really cares about older expansions and this is the heroes part of the forum. Makes me wonder if one posted before readingAll in good fun ^^ Former BW EiC "Watch Bakemonogatari or I will kill you." -Toad, April 18th, 2017

hairswigs Profile Joined January 2019 United States 2 Posts #10 --- Nuked ---

Charoisaur Profile Joined August 2014 Germany 13347 Posts #11 On January 22 2019 17:05 MarianoSC2 wrote:

Oh I thought this was about Heart of the Swarm. The good old days... NVM

That would be odd considering you can't even play Heart of the Swarm anymore. That would be odd considering you can't even play Heart of the Swarm anymore. INnoVation

figq Profile Blog Joined May 2010 11851 Posts Last Edited: 2019-01-24 02:22:16 #12 HotS is not automatically dead since Blizz is not making a championship, or since it won't be as big as LoL or Dota. It's still a game with a fanbase larger than many other active games. If anything the move by Blizzard just proves that organizing their world championships costs a shit ton of money for them and is a huge investment. So my admiration to them for still doing those for the other games.



EDIT: I'm gonna throw this in just to make people angry ^^. (But really it's just a good comparison to prove the point that the game is not dead.) Here it goes: I bet HotS still has bigger active player base than Broodwar globally. And Blizzard is not hosting their own world championship for BW either. Is BW dead because of that? Far from it!



Disclaimer: Personally, I haven't played much HotS, but I don't play any mobas regularly. So I believe my point can be objective enough, since I don't feel invested in HotS at all. I still can acknowledge its worth. If you stand next to my head, you can hear the ocean. - Day[9]

EsportsJohn Profile Blog Joined June 2012 United States 4833 Posts #13 On January 22 2019 16:49 Kuroeeah wrote:

I think people can agree or disagree about HOTS as a game. I went from disliking the game from it’s beta to growing warm to it with quests and heroes. Have I stuck with the game like I did with League or DotA? Nah but what I will say for HOTS is that I do feel the game is easier to return to just for a quick match when you compare it to it’s competitors. They kept adding to the game, whether the ideas were good or bad, the developers of the game were vocal, relatively easy to talk to (through online channels or in person) and I felt the small tight knit community HOTS had the devs and their player base a stronger relationship than their other games.



Anyone that looked at the game probably could have told you HGC was never ever going to touch DotA or League. I’m curious if the twitch viewership was so bad that it matched SC2 during it’s low point (Maybe 5k viewers?)



The super immature part of me wants Overwatch League to crash. I have nothing but contempt with the way Blizzard their e-sports across the board. They have this “me too” philosophy where they see Riot and want to jump on the band wagon.



I’m not big into Overwatch so I don’t know too much about it outside of watching some OWL games in the beginning of it’s first season and briefly enjoying it because nothing else was on in Twitch. There’s practically no story line in OWL in both the teams and it’s players. Every big e-sport has a big name. Maru or Serral for SC2, Dendi or Arteezy for DotA, Faker for League but who’s the equivalent for OWL? It feels like Blizzard plastered this idea of making “home” teams just for the artificial purpose of people to cheer for whatever they’re most local to. Probably very wrong here though but would still love to know..



Anyway I digress. I hate the way Blizzard just dropped HOTS. It probably makes a lot of sense financially but the it was handled was done in the worst possible way ever if you remotely liked HOTS. I sort of want OWL to fail, not because I bear any ill will towards the game or the people that follow it. I want it to fail because Blizzard needs a hard lesson that their general bandwagon attitude towards e-sports (imo) is pretty disgusting.



Viewership was holding fairly steady throughout 2018 at 5-10k concurrent viewers for NA/EU, a little more for big matches like DIG vs Fnatic or some of the early games in the season. The finals of Mid-Season Brawl and BlizzCon were 20k+. Not anywhere close to LoL/Dota numbers, but it wasn't necessarily bad; it just didn't grow over 2 years.





Viewership was holding fairly steady throughout 2018 at 5-10k concurrent viewers for NA/EU, a little more for big matches like DIG vs Fnatic or some of the early games in the season. The finals of Mid-Season Brawl and BlizzCon were 20k+. Not anywhere close to LoL/Dota numbers, but it wasn't necessarily bad; it just didn't grow over 2 years. On January 24 2019 11:11 figq wrote:

HotS is not automatically dead since Blizz is not making a championship, or since it won't be as big as LoL or Dota. It's still a game with a fanbase larger than many other active games. If anything the move by Blizzard just proves that organizing their world championships costs a shit ton of money for them and is a huge investment. So my admiration to them for still doing those for the other games.



EDIT: I'm gonna throw this in just to make people angry ^^. (But really it's just a good comparison to prove the point that the game is not dead.) Here it goes: I bet HotS still has bigger active player base than Broodwar globally. And Blizzard is not hosting their own world championship for BW either. Is BW dead because of that? Far from it!



Disclaimer: Personally, I haven't played much HotS, but I don't play any mobas regularly. So I believe my point can be objective enough, since I don't feel invested in HotS at all. I still can acknowledge its worth.



I'm not sure that Heroes of the Storm will have a burgeoning pro scene now that HGC is gone. A large part of the community is casual, the game is designed to be casual, and there is very little investment interest in the esport after Blizzard destroyed it. In comparison, games like StarCraft are kind of built on the competitive aspect. Still a fun game though, and Blizzard is still developing it.



I'm not sure that Heroes of the Storm will have a burgeoning pro scene now that HGC is gone. A large part of the community is casual, the game is designed to be casual, and there is very little investment interest in the esport after Blizzard destroyed it. In comparison, games like StarCraft are kind of built on the competitive aspect. Still a fun game though, and Blizzard is still developing it. Strategy

EsportsJohn Profile Blog Joined June 2012 United States 4833 Posts #14 On January 23 2019 04:43 Waxangel wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 22 2019 17:05 MarianoSC2 wrote:

Oh I thought this was about Heart of the Swarm. The good old days... NVM



granted, a lot of people DO miss the TvZ dynamic from heart of the swarm... granted, a lot of people DO miss the TvZ dynamic from heart of the swarm...



Maybe a lot of Terrans. Speaking as a Zerg player, I do not Maybe a lot of Terrans. Speaking as a Zerg player, I do not Strategy

konadora Profile Blog Joined February 2009 Singapore 50090 Posts #15 On January 22 2019 14:10 EsportsJohn wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 22 2019 13:29 Woosixion wrote:

On January 22 2019 11:38 konadora wrote:

not a big follower of HotS but i do enjoy watching/playing it sometimes. why did they pull the plug on HGC though?



Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses. Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses.



This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.



The bottom line, however, is that Heroes of the Storm is not a significantly popular game. Blizzard can't throw millions of dollars at it like Riot did for League of Legends and expect it to be sustainable. The player base is minuscule compared to LoL and Dota, partly because Blizzard was late to the party in the MOBA world and partly because the game lacks scaling skill levels to separate good and bad players (AKA design issues). Hero bans didn't even exist until 2 years into the game's existence.



It would have been possible for HotS to have a successful Blizzard-sponsored league if it hadn't been poorly implemented. Blizzard pumped in way more money than they ought to have in order to artificially create an esports scene that could not exist without that money, and in light of budget cuts, they could not retain that esports scene on a reduced budget. The difference between a league with almost no broadcast time, no more player salaries, and significantly reduced prize pools is the same as nixing it altogether.



As a side note, OWL is on the same trajectory. Despite a fairly steady first season, the player and viewer base is becoming stale. Eventually the lack of results after such a significant allocation of resources will force them to downsize considerably. But at least they somehow suckered multiple orgs to pay them a shitton of money to sustain the league for another year or two. This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.The bottom line, however, is that Heroes of the Storm is not a significantly popular game. Blizzard can't throw millions of dollars at it like Riot did for League of Legends and expect it to be sustainable. The player base is minuscule compared to LoL and Dota, partly because Blizzard was late to the party in the MOBA world and partly because the game lacks scaling skill levels to separate good and bad players (AKA design issues). Hero bans didn't even exist until 2 years into the game's existence.It would have been possible for HotS to have a successful Blizzard-sponsored league if it hadn't been poorly implemented. Blizzard pumped in way more money than they ought to have in order to artificially create an esports scene that could not exist without that money, and in light of budget cuts, they could not retain that esports scene on a reduced budget. The difference between a league with almost no broadcast time, no more player salaries, and significantly reduced prize pools is the same as nixing it altogether.As a side note, OWL is on the same trajectory. Despite a fairly steady first season, the player and viewer base is becoming stale. Eventually the lack of results after such a significant allocation of resources will force them to downsize considerably. But at least they somehow suckered multiple orgs to pay them a shitton of money to sustain the league for another year or two.

thanks for the detailed explanation! thanks for the detailed explanation! POGGERS

Odoakar Profile Joined May 2010 Croatia 1822 Posts #16 Yes, let's show the ActiBlizz that no matter how hard they fuck us, we will still support their products and will keep on playing and possibly spending money on it.



Classic stockholme syndrome 101.



I'd never even start a HotS anymore as a matter of principle.

Odoakar Profile Joined May 2010 Croatia 1822 Posts Last Edited: 2019-01-26 10:58:42 #17 On January 22 2019 14:10 EsportsJohn wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 22 2019 13:29 Woosixion wrote:

On January 22 2019 11:38 konadora wrote:

not a big follower of HotS but i do enjoy watching/playing it sometimes. why did they pull the plug on HGC though?



Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses. Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses.



This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.

This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.



But who is the blame for this? This is not a matter of 'oh poor ol' blizzard tried, but the gamers just didn't commit'.



We asked multiple times for crowdfunding tournaments. We asked multiple times to provide team specific mtxs with cut of profits going towards teams.



Community figures provided countless feedback to the game. Hell, they even flew pros to Summit where pros would directly tell them what needs to be changed, and then a year later you would hear from those pros that not one suggestion was implemented.



Then they introduce 2.0 and lose 70% of sales because who the fuck would by something just to get stupid tints, banners, emojis and so on. Pre 2.0 I was spending a lot of money on stims and premium skins for my favorite heroes. Than they brilliantly remove the option of buying the skins you want but start giving you 'free' skins for heroes that you don't play.



Then the OW speed meta cancer starts.



Then they start moving away from their original gameplay vision and start doing awful hero reworks, laning changes, xp changes and so on.



And for some reason, they were unable to produce a good map ever since Infernal Shrines and BoE.



There's only Blizzard to fault for running this game to the ground. Players gave them more than enough chances to succeed.



I fully agree with the part of Blizzard artificially creating esport scene and going towards a crash with OW that will destroy many naive orgs that bought spots in the OWL.



Richard Lewis nailed it here:

But who is the blame for this? This is not a matter of 'oh poor ol' blizzard tried, but the gamers just didn't commit'.We asked multiple times for crowdfunding tournaments. We asked multiple times to provide team specific mtxs with cut of profits going towards teams.Community figures provided countless feedback to the game. Hell, they even flew pros to Summit where pros would directly tell them what needs to be changed, and then a year later you would hear from those pros that not one suggestion was implemented.Then they introduce 2.0 and lose 70% of sales because who the fuck would by something just to get stupid tints, banners, emojis and so on. Pre 2.0 I was spending a lot of money on stims and premium skins for my favorite heroes. Than they brilliantly remove the option of buying the skins you want but start giving you 'free' skins for heroes that you don't play.Then the OW speed meta cancer starts.Then they start moving away from their original gameplay vision and start doing awful hero reworks, laning changes, xp changes and so on.And for some reason, they were unable to produce a good map ever since Infernal Shrines and BoE.There's only Blizzard to fault for running this game to the ground. Players gave them more than enough chances to succeed.I fully agree with the part of Blizzard artificially creating esport scene and going towards a crash with OW that will destroy many naive orgs that bought spots in the OWL.Richard Lewis nailed it here:

EsportsJohn Profile Blog Joined June 2012 United States 4833 Posts Last Edited: 2019-01-26 20:14:11 #18 On January 26 2019 19:56 Odoakar wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 22 2019 14:10 EsportsJohn wrote:

On January 22 2019 13:29 Woosixion wrote:

On January 22 2019 11:38 konadora wrote:

not a big follower of HotS but i do enjoy watching/playing it sometimes. why did they pull the plug on HGC though?



Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses. Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses.



This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.

This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.



But who is the blame for this? This is not a matter of 'oh poor ol' blizzard tried, but the gamers just didn't commit'.



We asked multiple times for crowdfunding tournaments. We asked multiple times to provide team specific mtxs with cut of profits going towards teams.



Community figures provided countless feedback to the game. Hell, they even flew pros to Summit where pros would directly tell them what needs to be changed, and then a year later you would hear from those pros that not one suggestion was implemented.



Then they introduce 2.0 and lose 70% of sales because who the fuck would by something just to get stupid tints, banners, emojis and so on. Pre 2.0 I was spending a lot of money on stims and premium skins for my favorite heroes. Than they brilliantly remove the option of buying the skins you want but start giving you 'free' skins for heroes that you don't play.



Then the OW speed meta cancer starts.



Then they start moving away from their original gameplay vision and start doing awful hero reworks, laning changes, xp changes and so on.



And for some reason, they were unable to produce a good map ever since Infernal Shrines and BoE.



There's only Blizzard to fault for running this game to the ground. Players gave them more than enough chances to succeed.



I fully agree with the part of Blizzard artificially creating esport scene and going towards a crash with OW that will destroy many naive orgs that bought spots in the OWL.



Richard Lewis nailed it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZdHDsxykQ8 But who is the blame for this? This is not a matter of 'oh poor ol' blizzard tried, but the gamers just didn't commit'.We asked multiple times for crowdfunding tournaments. We asked multiple times to provide team specific mtxs with cut of profits going towards teams.Community figures provided countless feedback to the game. Hell, they even flew pros to Summit where pros would directly tell them what needs to be changed, and then a year later you would hear from those pros that not one suggestion was implemented.Then they introduce 2.0 and lose 70% of sales because who the fuck would by something just to get stupid tints, banners, emojis and so on. Pre 2.0 I was spending a lot of money on stims and premium skins for my favorite heroes. Than they brilliantly remove the option of buying the skins you want but start giving you 'free' skins for heroes that you don't play.Then the OW speed meta cancer starts.Then they start moving away from their original gameplay vision and start doing awful hero reworks, laning changes, xp changes and so on.And for some reason, they were unable to produce a good map ever since Infernal Shrines and BoE.There's only Blizzard to fault for running this game to the ground. Players gave them more than enough chances to succeed.I fully agree with the part of Blizzard artificially creating esport scene and going towards a crash with OW that will destroy many naive orgs that bought spots in the OWL.Richard Lewis nailed it here:



I never said that Blizzard wasn't to blame. I've seen that clip before and totally agree with it...I just wish I had realized Heroes was a dud in 2014 when he did. This is also quite good:



I never said that Blizzard wasn't to blame. I've seen that clip before and totally agree with it...I just wish I had realized Heroes was a dud in 2014 when he did. This is also quite good: Strategy

StarStruck Profile Joined April 2010 24095 Posts #19 On January 22 2019 14:10 EsportsJohn wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 22 2019 13:29 Woosixion wrote:

On January 22 2019 11:38 konadora wrote:

not a big follower of HotS but i do enjoy watching/playing it sometimes. why did they pull the plug on HGC though?



Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses. Because at this point it's become painfully obvious to Blizzard that HotS will never be anywhere near as popular/profitable as LoL or Dota2, no matter what they do, so they've decided to cut their losses.



This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.



The bottom line, however, is that Heroes of the Storm is not a significantly popular game. Blizzard can't throw millions of dollars at it like Riot did for League of Legends and expect it to be sustainable. The player base is minuscule compared to LoL and Dota, partly because Blizzard was late to the party in the MOBA world and partly because the game lacks scaling skill levels to separate good and bad players (AKA design issues). Hero bans didn't even exist until 2 years into the game's existence.



It would have been possible for HotS to have a successful Blizzard-sponsored league if it hadn't been poorly implemented. Blizzard pumped in way more money than they ought to have in order to artificially create an esports scene that could not exist without that money, and in light of budget cuts, they could not retain that esports scene on a reduced budget. The difference between a league with almost no broadcast time, no more player salaries, and significantly reduced prize pools is the same as nixing it altogether.



As a side note, OWL is on the same trajectory. Despite a fairly steady first season, the player and viewer base is becoming stale. Eventually the lack of results after such a significant allocation of resources will force them to downsize considerably. But at least they somehow suckered multiple orgs to pay them a shitton of money to sustain the league for another year or two. This is a really oversimplified point, but it's more or less correct. Blizzard pumped ~$5-6 million into HGC the first year and ~$10 million into it the second year and never saw any significant increase in viewership or sponsorship. The monetization of the league was terrible, with Blizzard likely fronting almost all of the costs, including player salaries (calculated to ~$15k-20k per year per player for close to 150 players) and all production costs. The whole system was incredibly dysfunctional...ownership slots were bungled horribly, the league paid for literally everything, and Blizzard, on multiple occasions, made it difficult or impossible for new brands to join the league with a sponsorship.The bottom line, however, is that Heroes of the Storm is not a significantly popular game. Blizzard can't throw millions of dollars at it like Riot did for League of Legends and expect it to be sustainable. The player base is minuscule compared to LoL and Dota, partly because Blizzard was late to the party in the MOBA world and partly because the game lacks scaling skill levels to separate good and bad players (AKA design issues). Hero bans didn't even exist until 2 years into the game's existence.It would have been possible for HotS to have a successful Blizzard-sponsored league if it hadn't been poorly implemented. Blizzard pumped in way more money than they ought to have in order to artificially create an esports scene that could not exist without that money, and in light of budget cuts, they could not retain that esports scene on a reduced budget. The difference between a league with almost no broadcast time, no more player salaries, and significantly reduced prize pools is the same as nixing it altogether.As a side note, OWL is on the same trajectory. Despite a fairly steady first season, the player and viewer base is becoming stale. Eventually the lack of results after such a significant allocation of resources will force them to downsize considerably. But at least they somehow suckered multiple orgs to pay them a shitton of money to sustain the league for another year or two.



As simple of a point as it is they were never going to compete with Dota or LoL. As simple of a point as it is they were never going to compete with Dota or LoL.

Harris1st Profile Blog Joined May 2010 Germany 3671 Posts #20



It was a nice ride, we had some good times and some bad times but in the end it was worth it.



Goodbye HotS!



I just bought a new PC and I will not install HotS anymore....It was a nice ride, we had some good times and some bad times but in the end it was worth it.Goodbye HotS! TheDougler is the master of signature bets, he is the two-time Blizzcon SigBet Champ. Also, Serral let me down.

1 2 Next All