Hundreds of teams fell in the massive multi-week Heroes of the Storm tournament, Heroes of the Dorm, before it launched into its semi-finals round last weekend.
We won't give spoilers here, but Boston College, Arizona State, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and Cal Berkeley duked it out in amazing set of games to decide which students never have to worry about their college tuition again. Students on the winning team got the rest of their college tuition paid for by Blizzard!
These four teams were relatively unknown before ESPN's epic broadcast, as the previous stages of this massive tournament were held online. So we got in touch with each of them to find out who they are and what their team is about.
Boston Eagles, Boston College
An eager team formed around a few small groups of friends. They make sure to keep school their first priority, but practice heavily once schoolwork is done.
Roster:
Paul "Apauloh" Oh - Assassin - Computer Science, Marketing
Chris "Semicute" Choi - Tank - Economics
Jeffrey "KingPlato" Yi - Assassin - Finance, Marketing
Andrew "Fabs" Fabiano - Support - Psychology
Aristidis "Maet" Vasilopoulos - Flex - Chemistry, Computer Science
Timothy "Sungduk" Park - Flex (substitute) - Philosophy
Jin Gu Choi
Why root for them: To support the deep philosophical ideas coming out of their team meetings, like this one that Apauloh told his teammates at a recent practice: "“Practice is the best time of your life. The most transformative and enjoyable experience known to man. With friends capable of love beyond the typical acquaintance.”
Taunt: "Even though we're still relatively new to the game, we hope we can do our best and try hard to win this weekend!" - Apauloh (Aww, what a nice guy…)
Dream Team, Arizona State
A serious team of gamers who are all familiar with playing in competitive settings. They united online to create the most viable roster their school could offer.
Roster:
Michael "MichaelUdall" Udall - Assassin - Business Communications, Psychology
Stefen "Akaface" Anderson - Support - Criminal Justice
Parham "Pham" Emami - Assassin - Electrical Engineering, Pre Med
Daniel "Melkor" Korytowski - Tank - Applied Mathematics PhD
Kyle "Kotank" Noble - Support - Economics
Jordan Carlson - Flex (sub) - Aviation Management
Nick "SteelReign" Shively - Assassin (sub) - Journalism, Communication
Why root for them: Their team's experience in many competitive gaming tournaments, as a group and individuals, should help them stay focused during the tournament's first in-person matches.
Taunt: "When one player on your team has more games played than an entire team combined, it should be pretty obvious who's going to be better." - SteelReign
Mad Banners, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Two teams merged into one mega-team, united by dreams of winning the tournament while keeping a lighthearted attitude. They're new to competitive gaming, but quickly making a name for themselves.
Roster:
Miqueas “Wrath” Kim - Tank - Computer Science
Wenjie "MisterBurkes" Fu - Flex - Accounting Science
Patrick "Balarius" Benassi - Tank - Molecular and Cellular Biology
Cody "Kakisho" Chen - Support - Economics, Informatics
Nattasorn Dumnernchanvanit
Tianyun "Dayun" Zhang - Support - Agricultural and Biological Engineering Sciences
Thomas “Zodijackyl” Hahn - Support - Psychology, Leadership Studies
Why root for them: They're the underdogs in the tournament! They barely snuck into the group stage of the tournament and have won most of their matches 2-1 so far.
Taunt: "We didn't need to drop out of school to make it to the semi-finals." -Zodijackyl
Golden Bears, Cal Berkeley
An experienced team of esport-hopefuls that have played together through many different tournaments and games before. They've even got a pro Heroes of the Storm player on their squad.
Roster:
Zachary "Zero" Mirman - Tank - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Kitae Kim - Support - Biology
Conan "Suppy" Song Liu - Support - Integrative Biology
Yue "Serendipity" Gu - Political Economy
Fan "Fan" Yang - Assassin - Economics
Richard "PandaJigu" Xue - Assassin - Economics
Why root for them: Fan is a pro player on Cloud9's professional Heroes of the Storm team, was Rank 1 on the ladder when the tournament was announced, and is a big part of the reason why they're favored to win the tournament. Oh, and you should root for them to support Suppy's random outbursts of singing along with the music during matches.
Taunt: "The Berkeley esports team has a very successful history. Conan, Richard, and Fan were part of our team that won CSL!" -Zero
If you missed the epic matches on ESPN, you can watch the replay and other videos on the Heroes of the Dorm website.
