Heroes of the Storm – Hot(S) NEWS#9

   TABLE OF CONTENTS
      NEWS
         GENEREAL NEWS
         E-SPORT NEWS
      TIPS AND GUIDES
      VIDEO CONTENT
         TOP 5
         GAMEPLAY
         VIDEO GUIDE
         PRO SCENE
         SHOW
         COMMUNITY 

   NEWS
   GENEREAL NEWS

      Heroes of the Storm launch event!

All the hype has finally come to a superb final – the launch event! As always Blizzard stands to its standards – the value and the quality was on the highest level. Both attendees and live spectators were introduced to the fascinating content. Luke Mancini was again doing amazing piece of art live on stage! If you happen to be not familiar with his art check the link below this guy is incredible, I can’t wait to see final result of the artwork! Man! The wall show was amazing! Tassadar should be jealous! And Johanna trailer. Johanna trailer was so overwhelming! Be careful she’s looking for apprentice! If you’ve missed the launch event or want to refresh your memories check the links below. Oh and check the teambuilder for fun and free mount!
Team builder – https://teambuilder.heroesofthestorm.com/
Luke Mancini – http://mr–jack.deviantart.com/gallery/
Johanna trailer

To celebrate HOTS launch and to allow players to unlock progression perks faster Blizzard has announced XP boost that will last from 2^nd to 9^th June. During this time if you login to Heroes you will get +25% experience gain to hero and account levels! This boost stacks with Stimpacks and friend xp bonus!
http://eu.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/19508171/xp-boost-event-29-05-2015

      Upcoming sales (June 3 – June 10)!

Sales of this week are rumored to be awesome. In the first release week Blizzard decided to increase the amount of items in the sale to 6 up from 3. Whether it's permanent or just to increase the hype of the launch we don’t know, but what we do know is that the skins are awesome and so are the upcoming sales.
Items on sale :
Kerrigan(Queen of Pain Blades) and skin variation named Countess KerriganKerrigan – melee assassin hero capable of dealing tons of damage but has high skill cap. Countess Kerrigan is an epic skin that features different appearance and themed mount and abilities. Themed abilities are “W”(Impaling Blades) and “E”(Primal Grasp) all other remain the same, including zerglings that spawn from “W”, if you take appropriate talent.
Tyrael(Archangel of Justice) and skin variation named Seraphim Tyrael 

Tyrael – melee warrior that is very popular in current meta game. Seraphim Tyrael is rare skin that features different appearance.

Frost Wyrm Arthas(Hero to kill in try mode The Lich King) – rare quality skin that features different appearance.
Lunar tiger – this mount variation suits you if you are tired of riding carpets with your Azmodunk. 
http://eu.battle.net/heroes/en/forum/topic/13605640947?#22

      Win a retail Starter Pack!

Blog of the Storm are planning to introduce new content – Pod of the Storm. POTS is podcast about HOTS that features 2 casters. One of them doesn’t know anything about game while the other likes Heroes a lot and they both will be discussing meta game, pro scene and other HOTS related stuff.
To celebrate the launch and increase hype around podcast Blog of the Storm is offering a chance to win a retail pack. If you want to participate in the contest all you need to do is to send one sentence that will contain some explanation of the game at [email protected].
For more detailed info head on to link provided below. 
http://blogofthestorm.com/win-a-retail-pack-from-pod-of-the-storm/

      Funny flowchart from Blog of the Storm!

Blog of the Storm created another portion of funny HOTS based content! If you happened to miss previous one here it is. Do you want to play hero that often gets nerfed to the ground? Or maybe you want to play iconic character? Flowchart will help you answer these questions and understand your destiny!
http://blogofthestorm.com/which-warrior-should-you-play/

      NVidia is prepared for Heroes of the Storm launch!

To improve player experience NVidia released new drivers aimed to increase HOTS performance. Release features a lot of improvements and tweaks for example support of G-SYNC technology in windowed mode and optimizations and bug fixes which can provide increased performance for Kepler-based GPUs. For more info and discussion use the links below.
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/85823/enus?
http://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/380ds2/new_nvidia_driver_35306_whql_for_heroes/

   E-SPORT NEWS

      MSI & ESL to Host 200,000$ Master Gaming Arena 2015!

This is just unbeliviable! Few days ago DreamHack announced two HOTS tournaments with prize pool of 10 000$ and 15 000$ and now MSI and ESL are hosting MGA for Stracraft II and Heroes with total prize pool of 200 000$! I, i don’t know what to say! It’s incredible how fast Heroes of the Storm are growing in terms of pro scene and tournaments and it’s not even released yet!
Qualifiers for HOTS will be held from June 13^th to July 11^th. Tournament is worldwide and registration is open for everyone! Prizes are to be announced, but for now it is known that top 8 teams will be awarded.
Check out the trailer, Reddit discussion and official sites below!
http://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/37q6qq/msi_esl_to_host_200000_master_gaming_arena_2015/
http://play.eslgaming.com/heroesofthestorm/europe/heroes/major/msi-mga/2015-hots-eu-qualifier/
http://mga.msi.com/

Second installment of Heroes Hype have commenced recently. Heroes Hype is amateur tournament aimed at raising the completion among semi- or non-professional teams, thus any professional teams aren’t allowed to participate. Tournament is weekly based and starts every Friday at 19:00 CEST. Registration is, of course, free to everyone. For more info and discussion here are tournament related links
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/heroes/486452-heroeshype-eu-weekly-2
http://battlefy.com/heroeshype/heroeshype-eu-weekly-2/556407ab3f0a9d4500bfe21f/info

      Na’Vi, TeamLiquid and Gamers2 are invited to Dreamhack Summer!

With recent announcement of HOTS at DH Summer the biggest prize pool mark was raised. Now 3 participants are revealed with last slot being BYOC qualifier. These 3 teams are TeamLiquid, Gamers2 and Na’Vi. All of them are considered the best, with Team Liquid being #1. We will see if TL could continue their undefeated steak or #1 title will be snatched by other teams on June 14^th!
http://www.gamers2.com/gamers2-invited-to-dreamhack-summers-turtle-beach-all-stars/
http://read.navi-gaming.com/en/team_news/dhsummer_invite
http://www.dreamhack.se/dhs15/2015/05/28/announcing-the-25000-turtle-beach-dreamhack-all-stars/

   TIPS AND GUIDES

      Abathur guide from adrd

Polish progamer adrd, from one the best teams in EU – Gamers2, has made quick and neat Abathur guide!
In the guide author will introduce you to two different variations of Abathur playstyle. First one called “Symbiote build” will explain strength and weakness of Abathur that relies on helping his allies in fights. On the other hand second build named “Push build” will highlight pros and cons to split-pushing style of gameplay. Both variations provide talent overview. If you want to master one of the high skill caped hero in HOTS this is the guide to start with!
http://www.gamers2.com/hero-build-abathur-adrd/

      Valla guide from BlizzMythics

BlizzMythics are very good at creating quick yet insightful guides for heroes. This Valla guide continues the pattern. General overview of the abilities, talents and ultimates will be the start of the article. Then reader will be introduced to general strategy in terms of laning phase and teamfights. Fast, efficient and deadly – these characteristics sum up both Valla and article! Read on!
http://www.blizzmythics.com/valla-guide/

      How to Lich King by Szychu!

Another insightful guide from Gamers2! This time the author is Gamers2 warrior player – Szychu himself(Don’t worry I also don’t know how to pronounce his nickname)! Guide will provide info on two Arthas builds. The first one named “Competetive build” will discover the pros and cons on Lich King as tank that is aimed to absorb damage. Meantime the second part of guide will introduce player to Damage build.
Article will provide tips on why no one plays Arthas in current meta on laning and fighting for both builds. If you want to prepare yourself for a quest of revenging to all those who tortured LK in Try mode this guide is for you.
http://www.gamers2.com/hero-build-arthas-by-szychu/

   VIDEO CONTENT
    TOP 5

      Heroes of the Storm: Epic Plays Of The Week – Episode #32

KendricSwissh is back with 32^nd installment of “Epic Plays Of The Week” series!
Light abandons no one! 8% is not enough – kill the core meta! How to make Kael’thas happy? Stage dive is very important! How to cross Sky Temple in few seconds as Li Li? All this and more in epic series! 

Watch epic moments from TempoStorm versus Europe and Heroes of the Dorm events! Body blocking has never been so effective!(We’re not counting WarCraft III here) E.T.C. bot is of course featured in this video!
Exciting nostalgia video from Curse Entertainment!

      Valla Auto Attack Gameplay

So you played Demon Hunter in Diablo III and now you are looking to play Heroes of the Storm ? And you want to play Demon Hunter in HOTS as well? Well, I think I might have something for ya! This gameplay footage by Force Strategy Gaming will showoff how to kill demons heroes with auto attacks just as you did in D3! Map is Haunted Mines and game is almost 20 minutes long! Watch how author farms legendaries skulls to bring his team to the victory!

Another cool piece of content created by Force Strategy Gaming! This time Dennis decides to play as Nova on Dragon Shire. Man I wish you could select the map you want to play in any mode! But let’s come down to Earth and talk bout this video. This video features awesome typing&dying technique, jumping when you’re on fire as Sylvanas and a whole lot of cool commentary by the author!

Squadron are amazing guys! So much diversified content! This time they rock with try hard series called Rank WIN. This 2 hours long video features Hengest and FourCourtJester trying their best in Duo Q Hero League with a lovely couple – Anub’arak and Zagara! Watch them interacting with a chat and dealing with problems like Zagara and Anub being taken away. Oh and skins! Watch them skins!
Maps will be Sky Temple, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire and Garden of Terror. Apart from Anub and Za you’ll see Jaina, Zeratul and Malf. Overall gameplay footage provides funny, interesting and at the same time valuable games for players looking for a ways to climb up their rankings.

BlackHeart’s Bay game as Diablo. Looks like someone still plays Lord of Error 37! VOD shows off damage build of this mighty warrior from Diablo universe. Author will provide interesting info regarding talent choices and some problems that appear when playing as Diablo. For example hero has the biggest unit size in the game. Because of this it's easy to body block and gank him. Other than that you’ll see some back and forth action with unexpected ending!

This guide by BreAkerTV provides general explanation of pros and cons of the build and is backed up by video footage demonstrating the build in action! VOD shows game on Cursed Hollow. Shown build seems like a good one for the players that are starting to play hero and aren’t familiar with her full potential as well as not feeling her limits. Build offers good survivability and allows to do a lot of pocking damage thus keeping player out of danger. Further details and discussion are by the links below.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/heroes/486402-playthrough-conservative-sylvanas-chase-assassin

Gazlord is back on track! Excellent guide by Focus Fire! Mixed with nice humor, good game knowledge and nice commentary this VOD will guide you through the process of playing Boss of Ratchet on different maps.
Through the slice of different in-game moments you’ll get practical knowledge and understanding on how to solve map objectives and various situation thnx to insightful commentaries and explanations by the author. As always very valuable and high quality content from Focus Fire and definitely a VOD to watch!

Does anyone said Li Li? Well I guess we’ve seen tons of Li Li, in both Hero League and Quick Match game modes, thnx to her recently fixed bug with “W”(Cloud Serpent) talent healing triple the intended amount, lately! That totally doesn’t mean she is useless after the fix. Conversely she’s both underused and underrated hero for soloing and climbing the ranking! This short and charming guide for new players by KiyeBerries will let you be more familiar with Chen Stormstout’s niece.

Every time I watch video form this series I’m like “How they do this? How they manage to do 2 min video so funny, interactive and informative? That’s just fascinating!” Fourth episode will guide us on the topic of hero roles that are presented in HOTS. We will get to know what are roles supposed to do and how they synergize with others.

There are a lot on the line for Fnatic! It’s last play day and they are #5. By the rules only top4 teams advance to the playoffs. Fnatic have a chance to be there. They need to win series with a result of 2:0 – in that case they will have same amount of points as their rival – Team ASH that is standing as #4 and the relegation match will be played!

Second match of last play day feature teams that both are at the top of the rankings – Kinguin is#1 and this gives them the opportunity to select an opponent in the playoffs phase. Meantime Well Met is #2 and has the same amount of points as Team Kinguin. So for both of them the outcome of this bo3 will decide who will be able to choose its opponent in the playoffs and who will be #1 by the end of the season!

This Saturday match is insane! Map is Cursed Hollow and the series are bo1 – it’s quarterfinal of Zotac cup and winning team advances to semifinals that are bo3. Both teams are professional teams with long history of achievements and both of them are playing since Alpha! Find out who will come out on top and advance to semifinals!

Another superb game from Zotac cup! This time it’s semifinal and teams are Team Liquid, the reigning champion, and Gamers2, team that is considered to be in top 3 in the EU! Watch them pull off some crazy hero compositions and unbelievable moves – everything to reach the finals! 

      Ep.65 Town Hall Heroes – Special Guest Kaelaris 

Town Hall is back with new guest, tons of topics to discuss and #65 in the name. This episode features