The fastest growing esport is apparently only in alpha. At least, based off the players and teams rushing to play it.
Just one day after four major esports organizations revealed they’d be adding Heroes of the Storm teams for an upcoming BlizzCon showdown, a quintet filled with former professional StarCraft 2 players have also decided to try their hand at the new multiplayer online battle arena game.
Comet Team will consist of five Ukrainian pro gamers, lead by the esports ambassador himself Aleksey “White-Ra” Krupnik, Russian news site goodgame.ru revealed. Joining Krupnyk will be famous Zerg player Dmitriy “DIMAGA” Filipchuk, Svyatoslav “HappyZerG” Vlasyuk, Anton “montaNa” Alex and Alexander “Tork” Motrunich.
Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard’s upcoming MOBA, in the vein of games like League of Legends and Dota 2. Blizzard’s take on the genre features gameplay centered around more constant action, with the laning phase mostly replaced by team fights at map objectives. The game is currently in the final phase of its technical alpha, but already has a burgeoning esports scene, complete with a new league and match broadcasts.
Krupnyk calls Heroes of the Storm “fun,” “addictive”, and “the future.” The Ukrainian is one of StarCraft’s most beloved figures, an elder statesman who carried on as a pro gamer while supporting a wife and child. Famous for his upbeat attitude and unique brand of mangled English, Krupnyk produced such funny catch phrases as his patented “special tactics” and “more gg, more skill.”
His new new teammate, Filipchuk, was one of the most successfulStarCraft pros during the early days of the game. He earned over $60,000 in winnings during his career, but hasn’t played in a money tournament since January.
“We have assembled a team of friends and good people, so I think that we will succeed,” Filipchuk said.
The Nexus is supposed to be the place where heroes and villains from Blizzard’s various game universes come to clash on a shared field of battle. But its quickly becoming the place where our real life esports heroes will battle, with players from StarCraft 2, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, and other games meeting on a shared field of combat.
Who knows what the game’s future will hold, but we can all look forward to some more special tactics.
H/t Team Liquid
Published: Oct 9, 2014 02:51 pm