Mid-Season Brawl Playoffs Recap

It’s the Grand Final of the Mid-Season Brawl, Team Dignitas is playing on stage, down 2-3 in games. A single alter in the ongoing Towers of Doom game will seal their fate and crush the dream for every single fan in the audience. After the first four games in the series, I have reached a point where I can no longer just sit in a seat on the stands, I have moved out to the area next to the stage where I nervously pace back and forth while watching the game with increasingly accelerating heartbeat.

“Oh no... This is the end...” are the sorrow filled words that keep repeating themselves in my head. I turn around to look at our coach who is standing close by, his face shows no emotion as his eyes are staring up at the screen behind me. I wipe my hair out of my eyes after having teared at it throughout the game. Suddenly a collective roar breaks out from the crowd! I turn around and dare to peak out through my fingers, WE GOT A KILL! AND ANOTHER! AND A THIRD! IT’S A TEAM WIPE!

Euphoria breaks out in the crowd! The casters can’t be heard over the shouting! The dream is still alive! Team Dignitas takes over all the structures on the battleground, then proceed to wipe Gen.G again, and complete the miracle comeback that will go down in competitive Heroes of the Storm history. I turn back to look at our coach again, our eyes meet, we give each other a fist bump and he walks up on stage to the team, leaving me behind breathless and overwhelmed by all the emotions imaginable.

Another Heroes of the Storm global tournament has come to an end, and yet again it gave us everything we could have asked for: an awesome group stage that pitted every region against each other, a dominating favourite, a miracle run through the lower bracket, comebacks that will go down in history, a Grand Final that sent everyone through a rollercoaster ride of emotions, and an atmosphere that most other esports titles can only dream of.

It’s the middle of June and the destination says Jönköping, Sweden. Every Heroes of the Storm esports fan knows what that means - one of the most anticipated tournaments is about to commence! The renowned Elmia conference center is housing DreamHack Summer where the playoffs of the HGC Mid-Season Brawl will be played. After a week of intense group play, the remaining teams in the tournament were sorted into the bracket. This included Team Dignitas in the upper bracket where they, after finishing second in their group, faced the undefeated Gen.G.

Team Dignitas vs Gen.G - Upper Bracket Semi-Final

This was a scary, but yet anticipated matchup. The undefeated “Korean Overlords” against the hope from the West. Each team a titan in their half of the world, this series was simply going to be epic. Contrary to the hype, the series ended in a bit of an anti-climactic 0-3 for Gen.G, who were still undefeated in the tournament. Team Dignitas was showing great promise, taking the early lead in the games, but exceptional rotations and aggressive calls to take down structures when behind led Gen.G to victory. Team Dignitas was dropped to the lower bracket where they had to fight every game to stay alive in the tournament.

Team Dignitas vs Fnatic - Lower Bracket Quarter-Final

The two teams from last year’s Grand Final, first and second seed from EU. Team Dignitas ended up losing the first game in the series, but although we lost that game, we were also treated to Zaelia’s first competitive showing on Alexstrasza. After the first game, Team Dignitas managed to get their drafting back on track and went on to take the next three games - therefore winning the series 3-1 and eliminating Fnatic from the tournament.

Team Dignitas vs Tempo Storm - Lower Bracket Semi-Final

Tempo Storm had looked incredible in the in the tournament so far, besting the Ballistix not only once, not only twice, but all three times they met in the tournament. Prior to the tournament, POILK said in an interview that he didn’t think NA would be a problem, but a certain doubt had started to spread throughout the community after Tempo’s strong showing and the slow start that Team Dignitas had in the tournament. Both teams went confident into the series, but in the end Team Dignitas put action to their words and took the series 3-0, advancing to the top 3 in the tournament where two Korean teams awaited them.

Team Dignitas vs Tempest - Lower Bracket Final

On the final day of the Mid-Season Brawl, Team Dignitas was the only Western team left in the tournament and, as such, they now had the full backing of the attending crowd behind them. Maybe this was one of the factors that led to this spectacular series. On the first day in the group stage they suffered a 0-2 defeat to Tempest, but in this series, we truly started to see the level of international LAN play that we know and love. Tempest took the first game on Dragon Shire, which is usually Team Dignitas’ best map, but after some amazing teamfighting, Team Dignitas was able to bring the series home 3-1 and advance to the Grand Final where Gen.G waited for them, still yet undefeated in the tournament.

Team Dignitas vs Gen.G - The Grand Final

Expectations were low. Gen.G had rushed through the group stage and the upper bracket without dropping a single game. The question was not whether Team Dignitas could win the series, but rather if they could take a game at all and put a stop to Gen.G’s thirty-odd game win streak. Coming from the upper bracket, Gen.G already had a 0-1 lead in the series due to the winner’s advantage. The first game went to Gen.G, and the crowd had to dig deep to find hope and believe in the Western dream. But then it happened! Team Dignitas drafted comfort heroes like Stitches, Medivh, and Jaina, and won the Infernal Shrines game! The Korean dominance was broken! They could bleed!

The crowd was on point and started to cheer louder than ever. Gen.G took the next Tomb of the Spider Queen game pretty convincingly, and now only needed one more game to crown themselves Mid-Season Brawl Champions. The Towers of Doom game that followed can only be described as the best game ever played in competitive Heroes of the Storm. As I described it in the beginning of this article, it was hard to even watch the game that felt like it lasted a lifetime. Team Dignitas ended up confirming the most spectacular comeback anyone could ever imagine. The series was dead even at 3-3, which meant that we were going to the 6th deciding game. Sky Temple was the battleground where the 2018 Mid-Season Brawl champions would be decided.

It didn’t look good in the beginning as Team Dignitas couldn’t find a good way to engage into Gen.G on the temples. It all came down to a chaotic situation where Team Dignitas made a last effort attempt to take the boss after losing all their keeps, and after actually capturing the boss, they all backed to their core to defend against Gen.G who rushed in to end the game. It was a nail biting finish. Team Dignitas managed to kill all the members of Gen.G when their core was down to 1%, but Rich on Genji died mid-air after using his Swift Strike, leaving behind the Final Cut from his level 16 talent on the ground. This ended up taking the final 1% off Team Dignitas' core, winning the series 3-4 for Gen.G and winning them the Mid-Season Brawl.

Snitch later said, “Having been part of such a fantastic series is amazing and looking over on Rich afterwards and seeing how happy he was when he lifted the trophy makes me feel like I was not even sad to lose the series.”

The Mid-Season Brawl was yet again an unforgettable Heroes esports tournament, and just like last year, Team Dignitas played a vital part, fighting till the very end with tooth and claw to make EU and the West proud. We have to give a massive shoutout to the crowd, not only our beloved “Dignitas No. 1 Fan”, but also to the fine folks from Heroes Lounge who had gathered more than 60 people to come and watch the games, making the atmosphere absolutely outstanding.

The Team Dignitas squad will now go home to compete in HGC EU again and prepare to face the rest of the West when the next Western Clash takes place in Burbank, California later this year.