After a gruelling tournament, Arizona State outlasted hundreds of collegiate Heroes of the Storm teams to win the second installment of Heroes of the Dorm.
Real Dream Team, the tournament favorites, were dominant all tournament long en route to the championship victory. The members of the team will receive a package of college tuition and scholarships worth up to $375,000.
The team did have an experience edge in the competition, with three members having competitive experience—Mike “MichaelUdall” Udall and Stefen “akaface” Anderson of Panda Global and former COGnitive Gaming player Austin “Shot” Lonsert. The team also brought back Parham “Pham” Emami from the ASU side that narrowly lost to California Berkley in last year’s final.
Real Dream Team defeated Dark Blaze of University of Texas Arlington in the final—both teams were seeded at No. 1 on their respective sides of the bracket. The Arlington team had a few pro players of its own, including Richard “Kladeous” Tran and Eugene “Yuuj” Tseng of up and coming side Team Blaze.
UT Arlington tried to take it to ASU early in game one, banning out their three top-picked heroes, but ASU were able to adapt their gameplan. In game two, ASU flexed their muscles on Towers of Doom and stopped UT Arlington from taking a single map objective all game.
It looked like ASU would continue their chain of dominance just 12 minutes into the final game with an all-out assault on UT Arlington’s core, but Dark Blaze were able to stabilise and nearly pull off an incredible comeback. Unfortunately they were undone by their own mistakes, and ASU claimed the title.
The final was broadcast on ESPN2 for the second year running.
