Update March 6, 2017: HOTS follows its older brother into glory at IEM Katowice.
The first major tournament of the rebooted and enhanced Heroes of the Storm Global Championship finished at 1am local time after an absolute barnstormer of a grand final set. Again going all five games – much like the lower bracket finals before it – it showcased the breadth of the game and its capacity for big plays.
A tournament the best strategy games deserve.
Game one is below, available on the HGC YouTube channel:
Definitely a series worth watching, between Dignitas’ unpredictable picks and Fnatic’s endlessly strong play. It’s possible fatigue was more of a deciding factor than anything else in the end, but it’s some of the best Heroes of the Storm competition there has been.
Elsewhere, CSGO ended with favourites Astralis taking the championship 3-1 over Faze. It was a tournament of upsets, though most came in the group stages. VODs are available on the ESL_CSGO Twitch page.
Original story March 5, 2017:In one of the best StarCraft II series of the game’s life, TY has defeated Stats at ESL’s World Championships. Going all seven games, the two Koreans put on a masterclass of modern SC2, showcasing different strategies in every game.
TY takes home $100,000 of the $250k in the prize pool, as well as a direct invite to the WCS finals later this year – at BlizzCon, when Blizzard get around to announcing dates. It’s his second big win of the year, and the second final he’s taken to seven games, after taking down the WESG tournament in January for another $200k in his pocket.
The games themselves were some of the most exciting I’ve seen from StarCraft II, and there were different units, upgrades and strategies in every game. Wins felt earned, battles were close, key decisions and maneuvers decided the outcome and the traditionally excited Polish crowd were at their most hype.
Here’s the VOD, with traditionally loud casting from Nick ‘Tasteless’ Plott and Dan ‘Artosis’ Stemkoski, at around 4h10m:
It will be followed by the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive finals between Faze and Astralis over on Twitch, as well as the continuing Heroes of the Storm finals at the Western Clash. Both should be showcases of their respective games, so do tune in.