This article is part of our Heroes of the Storm series.
Cloud9, Team Naventic wants your mantle.
About a month ago, the default favored team entering any Heroes of the Storm tournament was Cloud9, the first world champions in the game's professional history.
Team Naventic started to rewrite that narrative with a LAN win over Cloud9 at the beginning of May.
The team took down Cloud9 3-2 in the finals of DreamHack Austin, North America's first summer global qualifier. The win came as a bit of surprise. Cloud9 handled Team Naventic in the group stages, winning 2-0. Undeterred, Team Naventic came out of group stages to meet and beat Cloud9 in the finals.
Now, looking at the second NA regional, Team Naventic's team captain Christopher "Zuna" Buechter sees the eight-team tournament Cloud9 as a sideshow to the main attraction: Naventic-Cloud9.
"I think C9 will be our biggest opponent more than anyone else," Buechter said in a recent interview. "Teams usually don't perform as optimal at LAN. I think C9 should be our biggest opponent. The only other teams are Gale Force eSports and Panda Global that could take games off us."
It's not that Buechter doesn't respect the rest of the field. Quite the contrary. His respect for the field and the sport allows him to understand the difference between gameplay at a LAN and online.
"I think it comes down to being comfortable with the setting," Buechter said. "There's been so little LANs for some people. I feel like in a couple months from now I feel the playing field will be a lot more even."
After its DreamHack win, the team took a break. One week off. No stress. A reward for winning the right to represent North America at the summer global. The break, according to Buechter, hasn't affected scrimmage results. Naventic scrimmages one or two teams a day, playing for about four to six hours a day. The team dives into replays and goes over drafts to ensure optimal play.
"We still expect to get first place," Buechter said. "We definitely feel like we're the strongest in NA."
Buechter feels his team still employs its crafty compositional synergy that powered it through DreamHack. The team feels it can run anything, a confidence that fuels the team. In an effort to improve on the performance, Buechter thought the sole culprit for Naventic's losses at DreamHack Austin came from poor drafts. Execution, communication and teamplay were all solid in game.
"I definitely felt like we had really good synergy," Buechter said. "One thing that our team strives on is communication."
Fans should expect to see some double support compositions, Buechter thought. Naventic had seen it a lot lately in scrimmages and the leader of Naventic suggested Tyrande and Tassadar could be key heroes in Burbank.
A key component of that meta analysis: Naventic and C9 do not scrimmage each other. A tense rivalry between what many consider North America's top teams means neither has an absolute read on the other entering the tournament. And maybe it's for the best. It adds to the drama of the tournament and each team firmly believes it can play anything at anytime.
Even with a pass to the summer global in Sweden in tow, Naventic is hungry for another win. Buechter went on record saying he believes Naventic will win its group and Panda Global will also advance out of the stage. He sees Cloud9 and Gale Force eSports as the two teams to jump out of the second group.
Then, if fate allows it, Cloud9 and Naventic may be squaring off for the title of best in NA.
"We're going super try hard," Buechter said.
