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Exciting things ahead for ANZ HotS

The World Championships have reached the business end.
Roar Rookie
16th June, 2017
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For those following the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship or HGC as it’s more commonly referred to, ANZ’s team to qualify for the Mid-Season Brawl (MSB) was Nomia.

Nomia took a clean 3-0 win against TrumpSports in the ESL finals last month to secure them the spot to represent Oceania overseas.

In my original article discussing Heroes of the Storm in Oceania, Nomia was noted as the team to beat. Prior to going overseas to Sweden to partake in the MSB, Nomia were able to compete in the ongoing Gamestah Season three Playoffs for one week. In this week of competition there was an upset.

Nomia were defeated by their rivals Morton’s List after an intense bo3, which had to go to game three as the decider. Previously teams have taken matches off Nomia before, but never a win so this was a great achievement for Morton’s List.

As of last week, some further good news was in store for Morton’s List. They were sponsored by the oceanic esports organisation Dark Sided which is fantastic news for the ANZ HotS scene, which has severely lacked any support from any external entities for some time now.

Although some might think it may feel discouraging for a relatively undefeated team to lose, especially before competing overseas. If anything this defeat would’ve taught Nomia not to be complacent and reignited their competitive spirit.

For some time now there have been remarks that Nomia can only improve so much before they compete globally, as the skill gap between them and the other teams appeared to be quite big. Dark Sided are keen to see if they can make remarks like this a thing of the past with their win over Nomia.

In their absence, Dark Sided, TrumpSports, NoWorries and Ethereal are jostling to maintain the top four competitive spots in the region. These teams have practiced hard to improve themselves and maintained a steady roster of players.

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All teams are eager I’m sure to come up against Nomia and see if they can take some more wins from this dominant team.

With a regular competitive environment beginning to emerge in the structure of qualifiers leading to finals here in ANZ. Some might say we’re pretty much ready for a competitive league of our own here.

If we switch our attention to following Nomia’s progress overseas in Sweden. The first game of the MSB for Nomia was versus SPT from China. CE was meant to represent China in the MSB, but due to visa issues it was up to SPT to take their place.

Everyone was waiting to see how Nomia would fare after they astounded everyone at the Western Clash with a victory snatched away from Misfits (now Team Liquid).

Nomia did not disappoint and came out with an amazingly well played 2-0 victory against SPT netting them three points. This victory set the tone for the rest of the MSB and for everyone cheering behind Nomia representing our minor region.

Next up in the group matches for Nomia to go up against was Fnatic. Fnatic have made a name for themselves after securing a previous victory against feared team MVP Black in the Fall Championship last year.

Nomia put up a decent fight but Fnatic were able to gain the upperhand from draft and execute their composition perfectly, leading themselves to a 2-0 victory against Nomia.

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MVP Black would be the next opponents after Fnatic. Fnatic and MVP Black would be the top opponents for any team to face in Group A. Nomia were not discouraged by having to verse these teams back to back even though they did not manage to snatch away any games from MVP Black either.

Up next would be Deadly Kittens and in a heated battle of cat versus dolphin as their team logos, both teams managed to snag a win each. Both teams shared a bond over coming from a minor region and were quite happy for each other with their performance.

Finally the last game of Group A for Nomia would be a show down between Roll20 and Nomia. Nomia managed to get the first win and were dominating the early game for the second match. But Roll20 put up an extremely good fight on the second map after their rocky start to secure a victory over Nomia and ensure that no tiebreaker game would occur.

The finished standings mean that Nomia is due to verse Korean powerhouse L5 on Saturday who were the winners of the Fall Championship last year. Time and time Nomia have gone up against some of the best and achieved some spectacular results, so we’re all waiting to see if this can be a Cinderella story come true.

When Nomia return we’ll be able to see the new tricks they’ve learned. And in their absence with a fairer playing ground, hopefully other ANZ teams would have been able to develop some of their own.

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