This article is part of our Heroes of the Storm series.
While Day 1 of the second North American Regional Qualifier started out a little rocky, with the implementation of an emergency stream being set up by community caster Gillyweed, the following two days were run impeccably. ESL stepped up their game -- drastically reducing downtime between games and dished out concise, meaningful analysis during the short breaks.
While the technical side of the competition lapsed at the times, the competition was fierce throughout. The highlight match of the first day centered on the matchup between Brain Power and Cloud9. While just a few short weeks ago anyone who followed the HotS professional scene would have easily cast their vote of confidence to Cloud9, it was actually the relatively unknown Brain Power who took an incredible 2-1 victory over last year's world champions, and they did it with a brand new player who had been on the team for less than ten days. While Quinn "Srey" Fischer had a tough time getting back into the competitive scene since parting ways with Tempo Storm in April, it was clear that he was a perfect fit for Brain Power.
Day 2 also brought more surprises, as the once mighty Tempo Storm couldn't manage to find their feet in an 0-2 no-shows against Team Naventic and Panda Global in the loser's bracket. While Tempo Storm failed to shine, many new teams emerged and made a name for themselves including Astral Authority, who beat Tempo Storm and Panda Global (twice), and Gale Force eSports, who ended group play with a 4-1 record and took out Astral Authority 2-0 in an epic Azmodunk-filled playoff series.
With exciting moments occurring in seemingly every match, it's easy to overlook some of the interesting changes to the meta, including the fresh resurgence of some old heroes in Anub'Arak, Arthas, and Tychus, as well as some new and unique heroes getting into the action, in the form of Tracer and Chromie. While some of these heroes saw more success than others, it is refreshing to see some new (and old) faces in an often bland and predictable draft.
The last day of the North American Regional Qualifier still sported some insane surprises up its sleeve. Cloud9 received a crushing blow as their last chance at qualifying for the Summer Championships were extinguished, while Gale Force eSports emerged as the new kings atop the North American hill with an astounding 3-0 victory over Team Naventic. There were many incredible aspects to GFE's phenomenal play that contributed to the dominance they displayed over Naventic, but it is clear that their ability to outdraft their opponents is one of their greatest strengths. During their post game interview team captain and Heroes of the Dorm champion Michael "MichaelUdall" Udall not only affirmed his prediction that his team would win the day, but went on to say that GFE will be the World Champions at the Summer Championships later this month. Only time will tell if that prediction will ring true.
