'Heroes Of The Storm' July Open Finals: Tempo Storm Vs. Cloud9 Maelstrom

The "Heroes of the Storm" July North American final on Sunday night felt eerily similar to June, with Tempo Storm and Cloud9 Maelstrom going head to head once again.

"Heroes of the Storm," also known as HotS or Heroes, is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game by Blizzard Entertainment, officially released on June 2 after around a year in alpha and beta testing. The June, July and August opens seed into the American Championship, which will be held in September, and then the World Championships at BlizzCon on November 6-7, with the winner taking out $200,000 in cash.

Tempo Storm took the first game of the July final on the Sky Temple map. Just 13 minutes and 39 seconds into the second game on Battlefield of Eternity they took out four of the five Cloud9 Maelstrom players, rushing the core and coming out on top for the second month in a row, winning $8500 for their efforts.

The team, which consists of five players – Wade ‘Dreadnaught’ Penfold, Taylor ‘Arthelon’ Eder, Kurt ‘Kaeyoh’ Ocher, Josh ‘So1dier’ Miller and Chris ‘Zuna’ Buechter – was back on form after some rough plays on Saturday against relative newcomers Pool Plato Some Tangos and Goon Squad.

“It feels good. It’s what we wanted to do,” said Penfold in an interview after the win. “We came here with this intent and mentality that we knew we could do it and we executed properly.”

During the game stream on Twitch the chat speculated about Tempo Storm’s double warrior double mage picks in the first game and choosing Kael’Thas’ pyroblast talent in the second. It’s this adaptability and overall awareness of the Meta that make Tempo Storm the top team in North America, and as game caster Corey ‘Cooby’ Hauver said, possibly even the world.

Tempo Storm already qualified for the American Championship when they won the June open, along with $5000. This means the second and third place teams from the July open qualify, Cloud9 Maelstrom and COGnitive Gaming.

“We’re still the top team, we can beat anyone,” said Buechter in a promo video. Tempo Storm live together in a team house in Phoenix, Arizona - the first team in North America to do so - last week Blizzard sent a video team to the house to interview them and film them hanging out.

“It’s pretty much gaming 24/7 here in the house,” said Penfold.

The first of an International Business Times series following the Tempo Storm team in the house and their preparation on the "Road to BlizzCon" will be coming out later this week. Now the team is prepping for the August open, on August 22-23. The official date of the American Championship in September has yet to be announced.