CM Fall Cup: The Icebreaker Replacement

Time Stamp: October 25, 2021 6:41 PM

Chilly Mountain Fall Cup

Written by: Koznarov

CCL Season 3 is about to take off! Unlike the previous seasons, Season 3 doesn’t have an Icebreaker Tournament to check the strength of the new rosters. However, Chilly Mountain just organized one of their cups in the North American server, and it has been a perfect replacement for the Icebreaker Tournament.

Six of the CCL rosters joined the Chilly Mountain Fall Cup: Simplicity, Diamond Hands, WildHeart Esports, 30k, STORM Esports and, of course, the tournament host, Chilly Mountain. Unlike Icebreaker Tournaments, the Fall Cup was open for everyone to join, so 10 more teams signed for their chance to challenge the CCL rosters in this one-day event. As expected, all the six premier teams easily advanced into quarterfinals, where they faced each other.

Chilly Mountain and 30k got the easier matches, getting paired with two non-CCL teams: Yolo Diving You and ORDAH, respectively. The latter was a roster led by the HGC veteran blaDe, who couldn’t beat his former teammate BadBenny. Simplicity took down Diamond Hands off stream. The last quarterfinal series was STORM vs. WildHeart. STORM took the lead in the first map, Battlefield of Eternity, but after struggling in a late-game teamfight, they found WH attacking their core. However, WildHeart’s push wasn’t enough to win the game, so STORM pushed back and got the first point of the bo3 series. In the second map, Tomb of the Spider Queen, WH got revenge: they snowballed a sneaky boss into a victory. The third map of this tied series was Towers of Doom. It was a back and forth game where STORM had a 17-10 health point advantage, but ended up losing 0-10.

At the semifinals, the current CCL champions, Simplicity, faced 30k and swept them 2-0. MichaelUdall’s organization could have taken the first map, Towers of Doom, where they almost made an awesome comeback, but their efforts weren’t enough. After that first game, the series moved to Dragon Shire, where 30k didn’t have a chance and Simplicity strangled them slowly but steadily. The off-stream semifinal was a victory for WildHeart Esports against Chilly Mountain.

Simplicity began the finals against WildHeart reminding us why they’re the only CCL champions. At Infernal Shrines they took an initial lead and kept applying pressure everywhere in a masterclass of map and objective control. Despite that overwhelming beginning, WildHeart fought hard in the next two maps: Tomb of the Spider Queen and Cursed Hollow. They stopped Simplicity’s aggressions once and again, but Kure’s team was restless. Simplicity won the series 3-0. Despite the defeat, the WH rookies played really well and showed us why they’ve made the cut into the CCL.

Masters Clash Beyond

Though most of the Heroes of the Storm competitive action has lately been focused on the North American server, there has recently been a great charity event in Europe: Masters Clash Beyond. The French tournament organizers Masters Clash lured many of the usual European contenders, such as The Hardos, Inting for Ruby, Wurst and Homies or Corridor Comrades. The map pool was quite unusual, featuring Braxis Holdout, Blackheart’s Bay, Hanamura Temple, Warhead Junction and Garden of Terror. The tournament was broadcasted on TV in France.

The tournament included a 5-round Swiss stage that seeded the best four teams into the playoffs. At the first playoffs round, Wurst and Homies took down Inting for Ruby and The Hardos defeated Corridor Comrades. At the finals, HasuObs and The Hardos grabbed a 3-2 victory over the French-German team Wurst and Homies.

However, the most important thing of Masters Clash Beyond weren’t all these thrilling series, but the altruistic part of the event. More than €1,000 were raised for the French association Oasis du Val d’Europe. They organized a raffle with many prizes: from Starcraft artbooks to signed headsets. Probably the most desired items of the raffle list were three signed HGC jerseys: Fnatic SmX, Dignitas JayPL and Team Liquid HasuObs.

Heroes of the Storm tournaments don’t give us a rest! Do you think Simplicity will break the Icebreaker curse and win their third CCL in a row?

Source: https://tl.net/forum/heroes/579896-cm-fall-cup-the-icebreaker-replacement

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