Heroes of the Storm gets its first tournament with cash prizes

Heroes of the Storm may only be in alpha, but it’s esports scene continues to grow.

Last week BlizzCon hosted the first ever live tournament for Blizzard’s upcoming multiplayer online battle arena. Now, the game is getting its first prized tournament.

The Heroes Premier League (HPL) is the top regular Heroes competition running these days. Fan site Nexus Champ, which runs the league, has now pledged a prize purse to support it. The first season of the tournament, which enters playoffs after the final set of regular season matches set for tonight, will feature a $600 cash prize, split evenly between the North American and European leagues. Season 2 will more than quadruple that total with $2,500 up for grabs, a significant sum for an online competition.

That number will grow based off how much revenue the competition pulls in through streams and subscriptions—Nexus Champ puts one third of their pull into the prize purse. 

The prize may pale in comparison to the cash thrown around in esports’ biggest games, but Heroes is still only a game in alpha, with access limited by keys awarded on Blizzard’s whims. Nexus Champ building prizes based off revenue gained from that small but growing audience points to a bright future for what could be the next big esport.

The Heroes Premier League may not be the League Championship Series, or even worthy of comparison in a sentence. But it’s a good start for Heroes of the Storm.