Last year ESPN2 aired the finals to Blizzard’sHeroes of the Stormtournament for college-aged players, aptly namedHeroes of the Dorm, a first for the network. Now it is doing it again asHeroes of the Dormreturns for a second year.
The competition sees students from across the U.S. and Canada creating teams and battling it out in the Nexus, the setting that mashes together Blizzard properties likeDiablo, StarCraft,andWarCraft, along with lesser-known titles likeThe Lost Vikings.This year, more than $500,000 in tuition and other prizes is on the line.
According to Blizzard’sblog post, the tournament begins March 19, with the Round of 64, and will stream live on Twitch and YouTube and will be aired on ESPN3. The Round of 32, Round of 16, and Round of 8 will all be broadcast in the same fashion.
Once things get down to the “Heroic Four” on April 9, the tournament will be held in front of a live audience and will air on ESPN2. The Grand Finals take place the next day on April 10, and will also air on ESPN2. ESPN coverage of the event will also be available via the WatchESPN app and website. Additional programming details will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Students can create or join teams now by heading to theHeroes of the Dorm website. Registration is open until February 18, and qualifiers begin on February 20.
If you’d rather just watch, but want to get a little extra skin in the game, the Heroes of the Dorm bracket challenge will allow viewers to predict which of the 64 teams will win the challenge. More information will be available via the website closer to the start of the tournament.
We can likely expect to see more events like this from Blizzard, as its parent company acquired the business assets of Major League Gaming last month, saying it hopes to become the “ESPN of eSports.”
