After the release date for Heroes of the Storm has been announced, the interested HotS player wonders whether they could eventually enter the scene professionally. Blizzard, at least, is offering 1.2 million US dollars in prize money.
Can it compete with League of Legends?
HotS is admittedly still in an early stage regarding its potential in e-sports. However, the game developer seems to be planning something big for its MOBA. At BlizzCon, taking place in November, 1.2 million US dollars will be paid out just to the HotS teams. Besides the MOBA, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Starcraft will also be featured in competitive competition.
No other game dominates the e-sports scene like Riot’s League of Legends. Even on Twitch, the game remains a perennial favorite. At the World Championships in 2014, Riot also gave away significant amounts: 2.1 million US dollars went to the participating teams, with 750,000 alone awarded to World Champions Samsung Galaxy White.
Prize money is not everything
“The higher the prize money, the more successful the game in e-sports” – this statement is, of course, a fallacy. However, in order to establish itself in the competitive MOBA scene, Blizzard must entice players from Dota 2 or LoL. And this is likely best achieved with high prize money. That HotS is “Easy to play”, but “Hard to master”, anyone can verify from the open beta on May 20th or at the latest upon release on June 2nd. The learning curve is not as steep as in the competitor LoL, but to utilize all strategies on the various maps, it requires not only individual skills but a well-developed team play strong. Toxic gameplay elements like last-hit distributions are largely absent in comparison to the competitor, and a very fair matchmaking is supposed to convince players.
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Is a furious start at Blizzcon enough?
We will see. Although according to an analyst, the MOBA cake is already divided – in favor of League of Legends. The BlizzCon tournament offers a perfect stage for a furious entry into the e-sports scene. Eight of the world’s best teams will participate. However, the teams must battle through several tournaments. In the end, 2 teams from America, 2 from China, 2 from Europe, and 1 each from Taiwan and Korea will face off.
It’s still a few months until BlizzCon, but the qualification tournaments will already show whether there will be enough interest in HotS as an e-sport category… after all, it was already once seen on ESPN2.
What do you think, how do you assess the e-sports potential of Heroes of the Storm? For more information about the new MOBA, you can find it on our HotS topic page.
