▲ Former professional Heroes of the Storm players show this past week that they still got it.



If you’re a fan of high-level Heroes of the Storm play, the past seven days have been kind to you.

Not Heroes Global Championship (HGC)-level of kindness, but solid enough to give their pallets a small taste of what they may have been missing since Blizzard dropped the hammer on the competitive scene a couple months ago.

Over the weekend, Heroes Lounge held a qualifier for their upcoming Division S tournament which is the first competitive event featuring former professional players since the HGC came to an end. Naturally, teams comprised of top-tier participants faired the best and qualified for the official event beginning in the near future.

The first European team to qualify consisted of household names for fans of the competitive circuit.

Thomas “Ménè” Cailleux (formerly Team Fnatic), Jérôme “JayPL” Trinh (formerly Team Dignitas), Filip "SmX" Liljeström (formerly Team Fnatic), Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider (formerly Team Liquid) and Aleksandar "ethernal" Milanov (formerly Team Liquid) made up team "Washed Up” and qualified without too much trouble.

On the other side of the world, "The Lost Boys" qualified from North America and featured popular former pro players and up-and-coming talent.

Jerome "KilluZiioN" Tanguay (formerly Team Freedom), Ben "cattlepillar" Bunk (formerly Tempo Storm), Raphael "Hosty" Tsantili (formerly Team Freedom), Kevin "TalkingTrees" Marco (formerly Scythe Esports) and Trevor “Zergling” McDaniel (formerly Scythe Esports) all came together to advance to the main event.

Not only was pro play showcased over the weekend but, last week, numerous players and personalities who streamed on Twitch delivered fascinating feats of reflexes and game knowledge that soon made their way to the Heroes of the Storm subReddit (/r/heroesofthestorm) and received hundreds of upvotes. The comments were flooded with awe and longing of the “good old days” when plays such as these were showcased each weekend during HGC League Play broadcasts.

The most notable ones:

Formerly mentioned Ménè made use of Hanzo’s Q-range and predicted the pathing of his opponent for a quick pick. A 200 IQ play from the Frenchman, for sure.

Long-time competitive caster and former pro player for Tempo Storm, Wade “Dreadnaught” Penfold shows off his skills by juking and out-thinking his opponents while retreating and, somehow, stayed alive.

While the future of competitive Heroes of the Storm may still be up-in-the-air, the community isn’t tired of seeing high-level play, regardless of where it’s coming from.