BlizzCon is finally in the books with Ballistix's 3-1 victory over Fnatic in the Grand Finals. Let's look at what really stood out during the tournament.
NA HOTS LUL
I wish I could dismiss this Twitch chat meme as typical Twitch chat trash talk but, sadly, it seems to describe the state of North American Heroes eSports pretty well. Both North American teams failed to win a single match during the second group stage, with North American Seed #1 Astral Authority the only team to win a map vs. Please Buff Arthas, a team from a minor region (Taiwan). Denial eSports, meanwhile, had the embarassing distinction of playing 4 maps vs. Korean teams and not getting a single kill.
Yes, you read that right. Hopefully, they will do a lot better in 2017 - but damn, they have SO much work to do.
Taiwan is legit
Please Buff Arthas made history at the Summer Global Championship when they defeated Gale Force eSports to make it to the 2nd group stage and became the first team from a minor region to get a top 8 finish. Many thought it was just Gale Force eSports being jet lagged and having other issues (they had trouble getting their entire roster to Sweden on time and suffered from a lack of practice with Fury due to him being sometimes unavailable for scrims).
Please Buff Arthas showed, though, that the finish was no fluke, as they improved on that at BlizzCon, finishing in 5th/6th by adding the Chinese hybrid team eStar to their list of victims, as well as taking down North American seed #1 Astral Authority. The scary thing is that they had to fend off 3 straight elimination maps in the grand finals of their own regional finals just to make it to BlizzCon. Could Taiwan become a major region in 2018 and get a HGC League of their own? If the play in Taiwan continues to improve and Heroes gains more traction there, this could become a reality.
China's lost a step
ZeroPanda is a good team. They nearly took down Fnatic in the decider's match of the 2nd Group Stage, and Fnatic made it to the Grand Finals. But ZeroPanda also had drafts that didn't make much sense and crushing throws that doomed their chances of taking the win when they were ahead. The rest of the region appears to be in terrible shape: the hybrid eStar team that was created from visa problems was terrible, failing to make it to the 2nd Group Stage, and the region as a whole seems to be rife with drama, not excellence.
Europe is closing the gap with Korea
Team Dignitas was expected to be good and they were. They played decently vs. MVP Black and used Li Li to shut down Illidan in Game 3 of their semifinal match vs. Ballistix.
Fnatic, meanwhile, was the team of the tournament. They won over the fans with their play, as they defeated the hybrid eStar, ZeroPanda twice, and Korean powerhouse MVP Black in the semifinals to make the Grand Finals. Considering that before the tournament some wondered if they would even make the 2nd group stage, their play was nothing short of amazing. Fnatic also had many incredible finishes vs. ZeroPanda and, later, MVP Black.
Bottomline, Europe got both teams into the semifinals, prevented the Korea vs. Korea Grand Finals everyone was expecting and won 5 maps vs. Korea. Before the tournament, it wasn't unreasonable to think they might win 0.
Clip of ending in Decider Match vs. Zero Panda
Clip of ending in Opening Match vs. Zero Panda
The Rise of Dehaka
Before this tournament, Dehaka was almost an afterthought in most regions other than China. But at BlizzCon, we saw teams figure out how to get more value than ever before from him by making use of Dehaka's near unlimited sustain.
This was important because it meant Dehaka had joined the ranks of powerful solo-laners such as Chen, Zagara, Thrall, Alarak, and to a lesser extent, Leoric. Chen and Leoric were the most common choices because they were in the competitive meta, and Dehaka picks were routinely defeating both in lane - the sustain from his trait and the fact that he could hearth and then Z back to lane was incredible. On maps like Braxis Holdout where the solo lane means a lot, Dehaka was incredibly game changing.
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