Heroes Celebrity Clash League: Week Three Post-Game Recap

Posted by Beckwin on 2/10/2020

HeroesCCL Week Three Results

This last Wednesday we saw the conclusion to week three of the HeroesHearth Celebrity Clash League and it was quite the spectacle! Some teams had a rough start and took some time to find themselves, weeks one especially seemed like teams were trying to figure things out. Weeks two and three gave us some great games as teams settled and adjusted to one another.

We started the night with Easy Money taking on The KT-Ls with Easy Money falling 0-2, and ended things with Upstanding Citizens knocking out Down to Dongle 2-1 in one of the most anticipated matchups so far in the league.

Game one draft, Towers of Doom, The KT-Ls versus Easy Money

Game one of the first set brought us to Towers of Doom with The KT-Ls drafting a standard team composition with their signature Yrel from Liam. Between him and Leonblack, on Mal’ganis, they maintained control over the game until the very end. Despite banning out Lakefu’s Auriel she played a phenomenal Deckard. Easy Money continued to show glimpses of promise throughout the game but struggled to come together as a cohesive unit. Mochrie continued to shine on his role as a damage dealer with his Hanzo this map, along with BigScoop, Tim from Heroes of Fitness, on Rehgar. Unfortunately, Easy Money fell after an extremely clean game from The KT-Ls.

Game two draft, Tomb of the Spider Queen, The KT-Ls versus Easy Money

With game two we headed to Tomb of the Spider Queen, a rotation heavy map. Again we saw Yrel from Liam and Mal’ganis from Leonblack and our first Stukov of the league from Lakefu. Kagirii played one of her staple picks, Jaina, and performed very well throughout the game. On the side of Easy Money, we saw something a bit unconventional with Cho’gall. Backing it up with Sylvanas and Ragnaros they had insane wave clear and push but things just didn’t seem to click for them this game. It was nice to see the ZaneHyde Cho though as there were some rumblings of who had the better Cho’gall between Leonblack and him. The KT-Ls ended up taking the game and the series 2-0.

I got a chance to talk to Kagirii from The KT-Ls see how she and the team were feeling after securing their place for week four.

Beckwin: “Your team has been giving us dominant game after game so far in the CCL. Heading into these games against Easy Money was there anyone you were particularly worried about or were you all feeling pretty confident that you’d take the series?”

Kagirii: “I’ve been pretty confident in my team but I was a tad worried about a potential Tim (Heroes of FItness) Cho’gall.”

Beckwin: “It seems like we got the ZaneHyde Cho’gall instead. What’s the general vibe of your team knowing that you’ve secured a place in week four? You’ll be going up against Mewnfare’s team, Upstanding Citizens. Anything about their team concern you?”

Kagirii: “Our team has been pretty confident throughout most of the tournament - aside from Tatski and I who freak out before every match. I think we’re all just excited to be in the finals and we’ll see how things go!”

I also took a moment to speak with Kyle Fergusson about his time in the CCL and how the team is feeling after being knocked out of the league.

Beckwin: Unfortunately, Easy Money had a difficult time throughout the CCL. There was some promise in week one but things just didn’t seem to click. Now that your time in the CCL is over, how’re you feeling about the whole experience?”

Kyle Fergusson: “I had a lot of fun getting to solo lane and double soak, not something I get to dedicate time to with solo Storm League streams. Getting to work on Yrel and getting back to Leoric after years away was the most rewarding. The biggest lesson was just how powerful a team can be when everyone is in their main roles. As ZaneHyde put it, we won a lot of drafts, but we just didn’t have players dedicated to those particular heroes. Easy Money was sporting three main tank players, one assassin, and one flex. Support mains on the enemy side made a huge difference in what a team could pull off.”

Beckwin: “Despite having multiple tank players on your roster you seemed to adapt fairly well. What was your team’s mindset going into this set against The KT-Ls, the powerhouse of the league.”

Kyle Fergusson: “We were pretty broken. We knew from the start that The KT-Ls would be our toughest matchup and while we took a game off each team before, we didn’t find encouragement for our team dynamic. We debated whether or not we should ban Yrel and Ma’ganis but the call was made that the enemy just had too many good heroes to choose from anyway.”

Easy Money certainly had a difficult time in the Celebrity Clash League and unfortunately, they won’t be making it to week four but they put up a good fight and gave us some solid games. We were still unable to see Mochrie’s Tracer, people don’t want him to play it. The KT-Ls continue to seem unstoppable as they head into the finals.

For the next series of the night, we had Upstanding Citizens going up against Down to Dongle and it was an excellent set of games!

Game one draft, Battlefield of Eternity, Upstanding Citizens versus Down to Dongle

Game one of the set, on Battlefield of Eternity, Aullora was able to take her comfort pick of Ragnaros which has been impressive since her shift from support. Down to Dongle opted to ban Ana after Mewnfare’s showing with her as Upstanding Citizen’s new support player. On DtD’s side, we did get to see Selenityy’s Li-Ming which is always a consistently strong pick, especially on Battlefield of Eternity allowing them to have strong immortal poke. Upstanding Citizen decided to take Deathwing but unfortunately, the curse of the zero percent win rate Deathwing took hold of them. Down to Dongle took map one with multiple big late-game team fights.

Game two draft, Cursed Hollow, Upstanding Citizens versus Down to Dongle

For map two we went to Cursed Hollow where we saw some unique team compositions for both sides. Upstanding Citizens gave us another peek at Turk’s Lost Vikings while Down to Dongle gave us the league’s first Abathur game. We also got our first Arthas, Dehaka, and Whitemane from DtD and UC respectively. Casanova and Trikslyr both played very well with their Arthas and Dehaka combo, creating a nice chain of crowd control. Unfortunately, the constant pressure from The Lost Vikings couldn’t be matched by Down to Dongle -- they were unable to keep up and push back despite their global presence with Dehaka and Abathur. Upstanding Citizens took map two and brought us to game number three of the series.

Game three draft, Infernal Shrines, Upstanding Citizens versus Down to Dongle

The final map of the series, and night, was Infernal Shrines. Despite having a zero percent win rate in the league so far, Upstanding Citizens once again gave Deathwing a chance to redeem himself. We saw an aggressive draft from them with an Uther and Kerrigan to endlessly lock down their opponents. Vipey, on Down to Dongle, got to play one of his favorites, Qhira, which is always a treat. Casanova’s Diablo was definitely the highlight of this game, being a constant threat that never seemed to want to die. Down to Dongle ultimately fell to Upstanding Citizens on this map, giving Deathwing his first win ever in the CCL. Upstanding Citizens took the series 2-1.

After the series, I had a little chat with Selenityy from Down to Dongle.

Beckwin: “Unfortunately with this loss, it marks the end for Down to Dongle in the Celebrity Clash League. Your team had a strong run throughout the first two weeks and put up a good fight against Upstanding Citizens, giving us one of the most anticipated matchups since the start of the league. If you had the chance what would you have done differently?”

Selenityy: “I think my team played very well, and although we were knocked out I do believe if it was a best of 5 we would have made a comeback. After our losses, we looked back and already knew what we did wrong and how to fix it. Adapting quicker would be the only thing we could have done differently.”

It’s good to see that despite their loss they seem to be going out with their heads held high. I also reached out to Turk in hopes I could get some insight from him regarding Upstanding Citizen’s play but he was unavailable for comment. I assume he was… meditating.

With the end to this week, we say goodbye to Easy Money and Down to Dongle but we head into the finals with the powerhouse The KT-Ls and the underdog team Upstanding Citizens. Overall it seemed like Upstanding Citizens knocking out Down to Dongle was quite the upset to the power rankings but it’s always exciting to have series like this.

The finals of the HeroesHearth Celebrity Clash League start on February 12th, at 8 PM CT. Tune into the HeroesHearth Twitch channel for all the action and to see who will be crowned champion!

Tagged in: CCL, Heroes of the Storm, Celebrity Clash League, eSports, community, Competitive

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