The Korean Final Boss
Written by: Koznarov
It’s been a while since we last watched some Eastern Heroes of the Storm. The last Korean tournament was the Chilly Mountain Winter Cup South Korea, back in December. After all these months, the Asian teams have sharpened their teeth to fight for the brand new FiSH Bowl Heroes League, an event organized by a player we all know and love: Hide.
Two teams from the Chinese Gold Heroes League, FLY and RNG, were invited to the tournament. The other six rosters were drafted by six renowned captains: Kcb, KyoCha, Reset, Lockdown, Spell (Ttsst) and Gondar. Many HGC and post-HGC veterans joined the player pool, so it was an easy task for the captains to draft some fearsome rosters. These are the six drafted teams:
Even though the Korean rosters were brand new, the situation wasn’t much better for the most experienced Chinese team, FLY. They only kept two players from their last iteration: 9Ge and Mizuhara. Their performance seems to get better with each tournament they play, and FiSH Bowl wasn’t an exception. In the very first round they defeated Kcb’s team, Flying Tech Ho. It was a really close series where any of the teams could have won, but in the end 9Ge led FLY towards a 2-1 victory. Unfortunately, despite this great performance, they weren’t able to defeat TwT—KyoCha’s team—at the semifinals.
RNG wasn’t able to mimic FLY’s success and lost against Gondar’s team in their first match. Afterwards, Gondar and his teammates couldn’t keep their winning streak up and lost against Lockdown’s crew. Their match was quite intense. Gondar’s team fought hard, but it wasn’t enough.
The Finals
TwT won the CM Winter Cup, but their drafted roster was quite different from the one that took the Chilly Mountain tournament. In fact, their captain, KyoCha, was the only remaining player from their previous iteration. On the other hand, Lockdown, who played for Headless in that tournament, managed to draft one of his former teammates, Crow. Though there were only three players in common, this series was somehow a reedition of the Winter Cup finals, where KyoCha’s TwT defeated Lockdown’s Headless.
The bo7 finals began at Alterac Pass. The game was quite tied when the second objective spawned. Both teams showed their commitment and patience by waiting almost eight minutes to take it, from level 14 to 21. Despite losing that second objective, in the end Lockdown’s team claimed the victory. And they won again in the next map, Volskaya Foundry. TwT came back by taking the next two games, at Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines, to tie the series 2-2.
At this point, Lockdown and his teammates made their intentions clear: they wanted to take it all. At Sky Temple they won the most one-sided game of the whole series, carrying their initial advantage until they destroyed the enemy core. But KyoCha’s TwT still had something to say. After some initial struggles, they ruled over Towers of Doom, leading the series towards their seventh and final map, Cursed Hollow. After some back and forth fights, TwT decided to let Lockdown take his third tribute, but he went for boss instead. Once KyoCha’s team noticed they had been tricked, it was too late. They were facing a curse and a boss with only a single keep to defend their bottom lane.
Source: https://tl.net/forum/heroes/573577-hots-korean-final-boss-fish-bowl-heroes-league
