The Heroes of the Storm Major League Season 1 champion has been crowned!

With a maximum viewership of over 7,000 during the grand finals and a prize pool of US$4,200 for each region, the ESL Heroes of the Storm Major League was one of the biggest Heroes competitive events held so far. Over the last few days, we saw a lot of impressive gameplay, new strategies and just how exciting Heroes of the Storm esports can be.

Americas

DAY 1
We started the playoffs in America, where we had already had two amazing series in the first day that both nearly ended with five games being played. In the first best of five series against Cloud 9 Maelstrom, compLexity Gaming surprised us with an very unusual Arthas pick in combination with Jaina and built the frost duo.

In this first game, compLexity showed us how strong Jaina is after the patch by taking the win. The next three games ended in favor of Cloud 9 Maelstrom, thereby causing compLexity Gaming to drop into the losers bracket. The second series - 2ARC Iliad versus Tempo Storm - went to its maximum of five games and ended 2-3 in favor of Tempo Storm, who advanced into the winners bracket finals.

DAY 2
The second day started a spree of three full best of five series, taking several hours to complete. In the first, 2ARC Iliad just managed to win their series against compLexity Gaming, which ended with the fourth rank after. In the upper bracket, we had Cloud 9 Maelstrom competing against Tempo Storm to decide who would advance into the grand finals and who would have to prove their strength in the decider match.

The decider match started with a 2-0 lead in favor of 2ARC Iliad, who nearly saved their spot in the grand finals. However, somehow Tempo Storm managed to engineer a big comeback and end the series 3-2 to advance to the grand finals, where they met their opponent from the winners bracket finals once more. Cloud 9 Maelstrom proved yet again that they definitely know how to play this game, winning the series 3-1 and claiming the title of ESL Major League Season 1 Champion.

Europe

DAY 1
The opening match in Europe was Gamers2 versus Fnatic, which was a really hard fight. The first match saw Fnatic pick new hero Sylvanas, seeing her first outing in competitive play. Sadly, however, this pick didn’t help them, with them eventually losing the game. Sylvanas was picked three times in total during this series, which ended with a close 3-2 win in favor of Gamers2. The second match of the day was SK Gaming versus Team LDLC, which was won 3-0 by Team LDLC - this definitely wasn’t SK Gaming’s day.

DAY 2
The day started with the El Classico between Fnatic and SK Gaming, these teams having faced each repeatedly in the past with the results always differing. After the first game, SK Gaming took the lead 1-0 and looked good to win the series, but Fnatic avenged their loss and took games two, three and four to win the series.

Throughout the season, Jaina was picked as one of the first heroes in every match, with viewers noticing the direction of the new meta as well as its strongest heroes. We also saw the teams in the league favoured as the strongest face each other in the winners bracket finals, with Blackscorp getting multiple chances to play Zeratul and prove yet again why he became so famous for playing him and why he should be feared. The series ended 3-2 in favor of Team LDLC.

DAY 3
The last day of the event, which took place on April the 1st, started off quite amusingly as Fnatic and Gamers2 agreed to troll casters Kaelaris and ToD by making ridiculous fun picks. Not only did we see Nova picked up by Gamers2 but also four healers in the Fnatic lineup, thus taking away all their opponent’s potential healers. By the time the draft was finished with a Murky pick, it became clear that it had all been an April Fool’s Day prank.

After a short delay, the event resumed with the hero picks being remade. The result of the series was 3-1 for Gamers2, who then advanced to the grand finals to face the Spanish Team LDLC. This series had some really exciting moments, and it was unclear how it would end following a 2-2 scoreline after four maps - we even saw Abathur being played by LDLC. In the end, it was LDLC who took the last map and won the event, thus crowning themselves the champion of the ESL Major League Europe Season 1!

However, this is not the end. On April the 7th, the second season of the ESL Major League starts, so make sure to tune in to the ESL Heroes Twitch channel at 19:00 CEST!
 

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