It took the better of a year for 2017 Heroes of the Storm Global Circuit World Championships to whittle down to 16 teams, but it took just one week for those 16 teams to crown a champion.
While familiar names such as Ballistix, Fnatic and Team Dignitas made their usual appearances at this prestigious event, some newer names such as Team Freedom and Roll20 did manage to make a splash on the global stage, as well. In the end, MVP Black would fend off 2016 BlizzCon champions, Ballistix, as well as its grand finals opponent, Fnatic, for the title and $500,000.
For the most part, the group stage went as many experts predicted. While two teams from each group would advance into the playoffs, most groups had clear winners. MVP Black dismantled its competition in Group A, and Fnatic stymied its competition in Group B to reach the quarterfinals with relative ease. Those two teams were joined by Tempo Storm and Team Freedom from Group A and B, respectively.
The action got interesting in Group C, with Team Dignitas surviving an amazing series against Tempest to earn the No. 1 seed from the group, with Roll20 settling for second. That was followed by an extraordinary performance from the members of Group D, with no team really pulling away until the final matches. In the end, it was Ballistix that would move onto the playoffs, although the team certainly wasn't as dominant as last season; in which many of its 2016 games were complete stomps that ended before 10 minutes were up. Team Expert would be the final team to qualify for the quarterfinals with a second-place finish in Group D.
In easily one of the most entertaining series of the quarterfinals, Ballistix survived a three-game bout against Roll20, a top-ranked North American team with high expectations for this year's world championships. The first match of the series saw Roll20 string together a solid draft strategy to surprise the 2016 champions, but a failed double mage pick in Game 2 came back to bite Roll20, tilting the North American squad right out of the playoffs after a disappointing performance in Game 3, thanks in part to a gimmicky Lost Vikings pick.
That wasn't the only crazy quarterfinals match. Team Expert pulled off by far the biggest upset of the tournament and beat Team Dignitas in a surprising 2-0 sweep. Team Expert certainly didn't seem on the same level as Dignitas all throughout pool play, but thanks to the teams' regional familiarities (both compete in Europe), Team Expert came prepared with direct counters to the Dignitas Kharazim strategy. Team Expert countered Kharazim in Game 1 with a Muradin that effectively cut his attacks per second in half and also provided a huge meat shield in the front line to soak damage. Game 2 featured a Varian/Leoric counter that turned any engage into a risky endeavor.
While Team Expert certainly outplayed Team Dignitas, it was completely unprepared to face MVP Black in the semifinals. The same could be said for last year's world champions, Ballistix, who were utterly trounced 3-0 by Fnatic in the other semifinal matchup.
In what was billed as a battle of two of the smartest teams in Heroes of the Storm, MVP Black appeared to boast far superior intellect throughout the four-game series. While Fnatic would manage to win one match thanks in part to some excellent drafting decisions and an even more intelligent game plan, MVP Black was simply on another level. In what wound up being the final game of the series, Fnatic opted for a Medivh/Stitches gimmick that MVP Black was too smart to fall for, and that all but annihilated any chance Fnatic had at extending the series.
In the end, MVP Black was able to break free and earn another title for the South Koreans.
