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HGC
2016-2018 • HGC Commentator and Analyst
Heroes of the Storm was a relatively niche title in the realm of esports, and as such, HGC was something of a cult classic tournament. It had regular viewers who watched every game and were extremely passionate. From an outsider’s perspective, it might have seemed like HGC players and casters were struggling because the game seemed unstable viewership-wise and its popularity was declining. As someone who worked on this project, this couldn’t have been further from the truth. HGC felt like being part of a family.
After doing OGN’s Super League in 2015 and Heroes of the Storm’s first official international tournament in Korea with Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski, the tournament was renewed for three seasons of Super League at OGN in 2016. OGN had just opened its brand-new studio in the S-Plex Center in Sangam, and it was very exciting to have Heroes of the Storm be part of it. This studio became iconic for LCK, APEX, and later Valorant’s VCT Pacific League after the dissolution of OGN.
This was a period of uncertainty because viewership and the player base for the game were not reaching expected levels. The crowds were small, rarely filling the arena. But the Korean players were very quickly becoming the best in the world. Suddenly, global interest in Korean Heroes of the Storm, or HotS, was rising. As a result, for the first time in my career, I was invited to commentate and be a regional expert overseas for the international tournaments that year. I was thrilled to be considered a Korean esports expert, and I was also the most veteran broadcast talent for these events. I helped shape the narrative around the Korean teams that were dominating the fan-favorite Western squads, and as a team, we were able to overcome the “faceless Koreans” feeling that often prevailed at the time, especially after Korean players had dominated StarCraft 2 for years prior as well.
In 2017, HGC was scaled back in Korea to become an offline tournament with no audience. The players competed in an arena, but there was no audience to see them live. They essentially played in a closed studio. This was disappointing to most, but an inevitability considering the state of HotS’ popularity. Despite that, with the move to the league format that year, Blizzard was able to give stipends to the teams involved and help provide a semblance of sustainability. Artosis left HGC commentary during this time as well and was replaced by Daniel “GClef” Na for English commentary of the Korean regional league. Korean teams continued to dominate international competition, and I was still traveling alongside them.
2018 continued in much the same way, with some Western teams starting to compete with Korea. The gap between regions was shrinking. There was some renewed interest in the international competition because Europe was performing very well.
One night, a few weeks after the HGC Finals at BlizzCon, everyone in the entire HGC scene received an email. In summary, HGC would not continue into 2019 and had been completely canceled. In an instant, everyone involved in the project lost everything. Players were suddenly without direction: teams disbanded, sponsors left. HGC commentators who worked almost exclusively on HGC were suddenly jobless. So many of the people I worked with and traveled the world with would have to move on from this thing we poured our souls into for nearly half a decade. Some of them I would never see again.
I will never forget HGC. It may not have been the biggest esport I worked on, but it might have been the one with the most heart.
