Burbank. $100,000. One ticket to Sweden on the line.
Eight teams enter. One leaves a champion.
The Heroes of the Storm North America Summer Regional 2 begins on Friday, June 3. Teams have battled through online qualifiers for a chance to join Team Naventic, who won the first regional, at the summer global championship.
And this field is loaded.
Reigning regional champs Naventic and Cloud9 will likely be the favorites. Naventic and Cloud9 bombarded each other at DreamHack Austin, where Naventic fell to Cloud9 in group stages, but bounced back to defeat the world champs 3-2 in the finals.
Though Naventic does not have as much to play for, with a berth to the summer global already secured, the team surely figures to do some damage.
All eyes will be on C9 to see how the recent addition of Ben "cattlepillar" Bunk unfolds. Bunk replaced Taylor "Arthelon" Eder, who stepped away from the game, citing burnout issues. C9 qualified late for the regional, so it remains to be seen how the team will gel at the LAN. Still, it's hard to count the former world champions out.
Other teams to keep an eye on will be Gale Force eSports, who threw its eggs into Michael "MichaelUdall" Udall's basket and have seen some improved results lately. Udall was part of Arizona State's championship Heroes of the Dorm team before he joined GFE. The team's emphasized a few compositions and has an identity entering the regional. GFE is also coming off its most rewarding finish in team history, finishing third/fourth at DreamHack Austin and pocketing $15,000.
Jon "Equinox" Peterson and Astral Authority also have the makeup to take a few wins off contenders this weekend. At the first regional this summer, AA took a game off GFE and left a few HotS veterans impressed by their play.
Brain Power (formerly COGnitive Gaming) had been a steady top four finisher at the past two regionals. It would be foolish to discount the team, although its roster moves including Bunk's departure and the addition of Quinn "Srey" Fischer, could shake things up.
Here's a quick look at all eight teams competing in this weekend's regional:
GROUP A
Team Naventic roster: Christopher "Zuna" Buechter (tank), Kenneth "Kenma" Buechter (support), Stafford "McIntyre" McIntyre (flex), Fan "Fan" Yang (carry) and Sammuel "bigempct" Hua
Recent result: First, DreamHack Austin.
Panda Global roster: Harrison "psalm" Chang (bruiser), Eugene "Yuuj" Tseng (support), Richard "Kladeous" Tran (flex), Jason "Jason" Mei (flex), Josh "bkid" Choi (tank)
Recent result: Fifth/sixth, DreamHack Austin
Astral Authority roster: Chris "darkchimaera" Beery (support), Damian "FrozenX" Nagel (flex), Jerome "KilluZiooN" Tanguay (tank), Kevin "TalkingTrees" Marco (carry), Jon "Equinox" Peterson (flex)
Recent result: Fifth/sixth, DreamHack Austin.
Tempo Storm roster: Kurt "Kaeyoh" Ocher (carry), Francisco "Goku" Avalos (bruiser), Brian "Zixz" Skarda (support) Thomas "Tomster" Maguire, Ed "TigerJK" Hong (flex).
Recent result: Seventh/eighth, DreamHack Austin.
GROUP B
Cloud9 roster: Derek "DunkTrain" Arabian (support), John Paul "KingCaffeine" Lopez (tank), Kun "iDream" Fang (flex), Keiwan "k1pro" Itakura (carry), Ben "cattlepillar" Bunk (carry)
Recent result: Second, DreamHack Austin
Gale Force eSports roster: Manuel "Fury" Medina (tank), Khalif "Khroen" Hashim (carry), David "Roflcopter" Young (carry), Stefen "akaface" Anderson (support), Michael "MichaelUdall" Udall (bruiser)
Recent result: Third/fourth, DreamHack Austin
Brain Power (formerly COGnitive Gaming) roster: Jeffrey "iakona" Dolan (support), Mike "Glaurung" Fisk (bruiser), Royi "CauthonLuck" Bryant-Raible (carry), Kayla "Faye" Murray (carry), Quinn "Srey" Fischer" (tank)
Recent result: 3-4th, DreamHack Austin.
Team Name Change Roster: Kyle "Prismaticism" Belaiche (flex), Hao "HaoNguyen" Nguyen (flex), Chandler "Buds" Gavran (flex), Justin "Justing" Gapp (tank), Francis "MATRE" Gilbert-Brodeur (support)
Recent result: Seventh/eighth DreamHack Austin.