From Brood War to Starcraft 2 to League of Legends, it’s impossible to escape the insults that fans of one esport throw at one another. Starcraft 2 is too “simplified and for people who are bad at Brood War”. “Go back to League, Dota 2 isn’t for kiddies.” “Heroes of the Storm is built for casuals,” and so forth.

There are plenty of interesting global patterns that drive each game once they have time to foster and develop over time. Unlike Starcraft, which has generally separated from Koreans and “Foreigners”, and League, which started mainly in the West, Heroes has an advantage of being released to the major regions -- North America, Europe, Korea, and China --across the board around the same time.

The most fascinating thing about Heroes compared to League is how Heroes has already managed to mirror some of League's signature patterns. Back at Blizzcon, Cloud 9 from North America won the tournament which should signify good things for the region -- but not all good things last.

A Storm Leaves America Crippled and Europe’s Constant State of Flux

Tempo Storm, one of the best teams in North America, , signaled a huge change for the competitive environment in NA when former League of Legends players Zuna and Arthelon departed from the team. Their departure, along with the retirement of Dreadnaught, left Tempo Storm low in morale and crippled. Essentially, Tempo Storm broke into two halves which eventually would be the “reformed” Tempo Storm and Naventic. The two teams were only a shadow of how strong Tempo Storm was as both teams looked to be underwhelming. While other teams in NA such as Blaze and Panda Global are looking to bridge the gap between the top and mid tier teams for the next part of the season, they’re not good enough to actually improve the region, especially for Cloud9, who's the best team in NA.

What good is a top team if the rest of the region can’t compete at near a close level to propel the level of play of the top team -- even the region -- forward? If this sounds familiar, you’ve probably thought about almost every split in the NA LCS years past where Team Solomid looks good but as no one in NA punished their mistakes, they never improved. C9 pre-summer finals 2015 was also at the top of the region, but it was hard to say whether or not a true rival in NA ever really gave them a challenge before TSM toppled them in the finals that year.

C9 not having any ability to improve by scrimming the rest of NA wasn’t in fighting shape come the Spring Championships, destroying any chance for them to make leeway into the tournament. Sure, Team Naventic looked like a cut above the rest, but NA will need more than that if they can hope to be a relevant in 2016. Hopefully, NA can work through a reconstruction period of their own and come out stronger than before by the time Blizzcon comes around.

Europe, in terms of their regional strength, remains somewhat of a mystery. From November 2015 to the present, Europe has had an insane amount of roster changes which has made it very difficult to gauge the strength of the region as a whole. Dignitas is agreed upon by everyone to have made it out of the massive roster shuffle the strongest, but since there isn’t a single team in EU that’s had a long period of time to gain synergy, the region as a whole is still shrouded in mystery. With the amount of talent they have, fans should stay optimistic by the time summer comes around. The lack of an official preseason in Heroes of the Storm has created a very different situation than we see in more established esports.

“Look the East, it’s Burning Red!”

Since the beginning of esports, fans and spectators pass along one simple creed: Korea is always the best. And for a long time, that was true, as Koreans completely dominated and continue to dominate Brood War, Starcraft 2, League of Legends. With the exception of Dota 2 and a number of Fighting Games on which other Asian regions focus, Koreans have a history of rising to the top of every esport one way or another. When Blizzcon rolled around, China and Korea lost, and fans came to one of two conclusions: either China and Korea needed more time to develop, or the West was finally triumphant in their own esport like EG had recently won TI5 in Dota 2 at the time.

The real answer is that the infrastructure of the tournament had hugely hindered the abilities of both China and Korea to perform well at Blizzcon. The Chinese teams who went had several visa issues and were unable to field their full roster, and Korea was only given one team to travel to Blizzcon.

During that time, MVP Black was considered by most who followed Korea at the time to be the strongest team, but they were upset by Team DK KR. So Team DK goes to Blizzcon through an upset win and places third/fourth at the tournament despite the fact that in several interviews members of Team DK state that this tournament would be easy, especially given their backgrounds as former Starcraft players. Cocky Korean representatives getting upset by westerners is a nice throwback to the 2013 Samsung Galaxy Ozone roster who went to Worlds in League of Legends. Them being the only representative was no different from the lack of Eastern support that Riot once gave earlier in League history, where China and Korea weren’t able to send as many teams to Worlds as NA or EU even though they were stronger regions.

At the Spring Championships, however, China and Korea were able to send two representatives -- just as many as NA and EU and without visa issues -- to win glory for their home country. China sent both eStar gaming and Edward Gaming, while Korea sent MVP Black and Team No Limit -- which is actually made up mostly of Team DK after they broke up due to lack of organization funding. Oh, and guess what? All four of those teams placed in the top four of the Spring Tournament, while stomping most of the competition in the group stages along the way.

The Present and Future

Across each region, it’s relatively shocking how similar the histories are from conception to growth and onward across each of the four major regions. History is not only useful for providing interesting narratives; it is useful to learn from it as to not repeat the mistakes of those who came before us. As League of Legends started off making mistakes, they too would grow and take steps to becoming a more stable competitive scene. They once had less slots for Eastern regions at the world championships and now it’s equal. Heroes of the Storm, while in a lot of turmoil, is also taking considerable steps forward by creating Heroes of the Dorm for a legitimate collegiate scene.

So where does that leave us? NA is incredibly top heavy with an environment that may not foster the growth of the top. EU, while weakened by its constant roster swaps, still has a lot of talent in the region if they are given the chance to grow, and China and Korea both reign supreme as of this moment. It sounds a lot like League did at various parts of its history. Heroes is just as interesting in their own way -- even with a twist -- as League of Legends and any other esports; these narratives, much like the teams involved, just need some time to develop.

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