North America Prepares for Qualifiers

North American teams have spent the past few weeks hashing out roster upheavals, but now that the Fall Regional Qualifiers are starting, the dust has finally settled! Some new teams were formed from free agents, and well-known teams in the region found balance in fresh faces. Community member Kagekiri tried his best to keep up with the personnel changes as they occurred in a public spreadsheet, and we’re excited to see these new and updated rosters in action as they set their sights on the first North America Fall Regional.

Team Naventic and Gale Force Esports don’t need to qualify for Fall Regional #1 because, based on their performances on the global stage, they’ve already received invitations. Hoping to solidify their positions as the best in North America, both teams have swapped in one new player.

Despite the fact that all of last season’s top eight teams have at least one new player on their roster, you can look forward to seeing plenty of familiar faces when teams like 2ARC, Team Name Change, Astral Authority, Panda Global, and Team Blaze compete. You might recognize many of the players signed with newly-formed teams as well; Crescendo boasts former members of Cloud9, TNC, and Brain Power; Veni, Vidi, SpongeGar counts players formerly of Brain Power, Team Naventic, and Panda Global among their ranks; and the resurrected Murloc Geniuses retain two of the original team’s roster.

If you’d like to attend North America Fall Regional 1 in Burbank, California, tickets for the three-day event starting Friday, August 5 go on sale tomorrow. Click here for more info.

DreamHack Valencia Brings Europe Together

Three chances came and went for would-be Regional Champion teams to qualify for DreamHack Valencia, and each time two new teams rose to the challenge and earned their tickets to Spain. Most of the team names look familiar: Team Liquid, Fnatic, Virtus.pro. Even if you don’t recognize a team, though, you may recognize some of its players. Team teh89, originally formed from the remaining members of Na’Vi, will be fielding well-known names like GranPkt and Crozzby, for example. Though mostly unknown, Quadratisch Praktisch Feed boast two ex-members of Reason Gaming, and multiple members of CrowingChickens have experience with other professional teams in Europe as well. Given how exciting and unpredictable some of the qualifying matches have been, this will definitely be an event worth watching!

• Team Dignitas (Invited)
• mYinsanity (Invited)
• CrowingChickens (Qualifier #1)
• Quadratisch Praktisch Feed (Qualifier #1)
• Fnatic (Qualifier #2)
• Team Liquid (Qualifier #2)
• Teh89 (Qualifier #3)
• Virtus.pro (Qualifier #3)

Meta Madness!

This competition, named for its unusual format, differs from regular competitive play in that banned Heroes are relegated to the sidelines not only for the game that’s being drafted, but for the entirety of the series. By polling fans ahead of his second tournament, European caster Khaldor initially banned five specific Heroes: Rehgar, Falstad, Kael’Thas, Tassadar and Muradin! Each game, the Hero pool became smaller and smaller as even more Heroes became permanently banned. Check out the full VOD of mYinsanity vs. CrowingChickens below!

Gul'dan Beings Darkness and a Major Patch to PTR

Gul’dan, Darkness Incarnate, has finally entered the Nexus and is playable on the Public Test Realm! Previously a young shaman of a prevalent Orcish clan, Gul’dan rose to power as a warlock corrupted by the taint of Fel Magic, luring other Orcs to follow in his stead. Widely appreciated as one of the most accurate Universe-to-Nexus Heroes, Gul’dan truly feels like the warlock he was meant to be in Warcraft. His abilities will be easily recognizable to any current World of Warcraft players, and his role as a sustained damage Ranged Assassin brings a refreshing Hero design to an incredibly unique villain of the storm.

Included as part of the same patch are all manner of tweaks to no fewer than 26 Heroes, several of whom are benefitting from the introduction of all-new Talents. Across-the-board Talents such as Executioner were changed in order to more fairly distribute their power, and neither Battleground nor Building was spared the winds of change. Even the Minions on PTR have become formidable and, now that they do twice as much damage to structures, they feel much more like an army of the Nexus worth escorting down a lane.

It’ll be a while before any of these changes impact the professional scene, but if you’d like to read more about what the future has in store, check out the July 5 patch notes.

Around the Web

• NA Heroes Fall Regional #1 - Qualifier #1 Information - ESL
• Breaking Down the Gul’dan Patch Notes Part 1 and Part 2 - GosuGamers
• Heroes of the Storm adding Auriel and Gul’dan soon - Polygon
• Building the Crescendo: An Interview with KingCaffeine - Yahoo Esports