Heroes of the Storm news » Heroes Global Championship: A New Era for New Heroes

The opening weekend of the Heroes Global Championship (HGC) has arrived. Sixteen top Heroes of the Storm^® teams, eight in North America and eight in Europe, will begin their quests for championship glory playing in new leagues, under a new structure, and at a new level of professionalism. Once they’re joined by teams from Korea and China, these teams will set the stage for a remarkable year of Heroes esports.

The first match of 2017’s HGC will kick off on Friday, January 20 at 18:00 CET with Team Dignitas vs. Misfits. All series will be a best-of-five. The full opening week schedule for North America and Europe is as follows:

	Friday, January 20	Saturday, January 21	Sunday, January 22
Europe Match 1 18:00 CET	Team Dignitas vs. Team Misfits	beGenius ESC vs. Synergy	TRICKED eSports vs. Team expert
Europe Match 2 20:30 CET	Team expert vs. Diamond Skin	Fnatic vs. TRICKED eSport	Misfits vs. Fnatic
North America Match 1 23:00 CET	Tempo Storm vs. Team Naventic	Superstars vs. Team Freedom	B Step vs. Team 8
North America Match 2 1:30 CET (+1 day)	Team 8 vs. No Tomorrow	Gale Force Esports vs. B Step	Team Naventic vs. Gale Force Esports

Looking to the East, the final seven Korean HGC teams will be determined by January 22 after qualifiers have concluded, with the HGC Korea season kicking off February 5. All regular season games will take place live at the OGN studio and will be broadcast simultaneously in English on the official Heroes of the Storm Facebook and Twitch channels. All series will be best-of-five and will be streamed every weekend throughout the season on Fridays at 10:00 CET.

The casters piloting the ship this year will be none other than Gillyweed and Dreadnaught for North America, Khaldor and Trikslyr for Europe, and the duo of Wolf and GClef for Korea. The Western casters have made the journey to Southern California, from where they’ll provide the play-by-play commentary and analysis that fans have come to know and love.

A special guest will be filling in for Khaldor for the first week while he packs his bags and heads west.

Eastern Skirmishes

In China, Netease, in partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, will host the HGC Gold League. The region is still finishing up the Gold Series and will join in the full HGC festivities around the time of the first Eastern Clash.

Korea and China will run their premier HGC leagues with eight teams apiece, and each region will have their own Crucible to test the merit of those up-and-coming rosters vying for a spot in the top tier.

All HGC games in North America, Europe, and Korea will be streamed on twitch.tv/BlizzHeroes and Facebook.com/HeroesEsports, which will be live Fridays through Sundays during the regular season, with one hour breaks between the European and North American slate of games, and four hours between games in North America and Korea.

After several weeks of regular season play, the first exhibition clashes will begin. The Western Clash will take place at IEM Katowice on March 3–5 where qualified teams from North America, Europe, Latin America, and Australia & New Zealand will compete for their share of a $100,000 prize pool. Meanwhile, on March 17, the first Eastern Clash will take place at the Gold Series Stadium in Shanghai, with another $100,000 on the line for teams from Korea, China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

We’re also excited to disclose preliminary details on the Mid-Season Brawl, the first major international tournament of the year. For MSB, Heroes esports will return to DreamHack Summer in Jönköping, Sweden on June 17 with $250,000 up for grabs to the twelve best HGC teams from around the globe.

This should be an exciting year for the Heroes of the Storm esports scene—when the HGC gets underway on January 20, there will be no shortage of competitive play to enjoy. Join us on January 17 for the relaunch of the official HGC site, updated to feature the comprehensive 2017 schedule as well as league standings, news, VODs, and more.