ENUK editor Dom Sacco shares his views on some interesting Heroes of the Storm esports news.
You can now pay Heroes of the Storm teams directly by cheering for them using bits on Twitch.
Blizzard has teamed up with Twitch for a special cheering program that will take place throughout the Heroes Global Championship (HGC).
When fans ‘cheer’ for a specific esports team, that team will take a cut of the revenue that Twitch receives from the virtual ‘bits’ used. Teams will receive one half of one cent for every bit used to cheer for them, Blizzard told Dot Esports.
Fans who cheer for teams can also unlock special in-game Heroes of the Storm items, like banners, sprays, badges, loot chests, mounts, and perhaps most importantly, caster meme packs.
Viewers can start unlocking items for a specific team once they reach 100 bits cheered.
Also, all fans who support the program with any level of cheering will receive special loot when the community as a whole hits global cheering milestones.
It’s a great move that seems to be a win-win for all parties involved. Teams like it as it helps increase their revenues and level of support, fans like it for the extra content and Twitch and Blizzard like it for the revenues and viewer engagement.
While revenues might not be huge for teams initially, it’s a start.
It got me thinking: why not have this available for other esports including League of Legends and CSGO?
You could easily place unique skins in those games which can only be unlocked by cheering for teams. Yes League of Legends gives a portion of team icon sales to orgs, but cheering is much more engaging with the fans.
This could lend itself to the likes of the LCS, other top-level regional tournaments and Worlds.
Getting developers like Riot, Valve and others to sign separate arrangements with Twitch is not a guarantee, of course, but it’d be nice to see.
It’s a shame something like this wouldn’t really work in the UK scene in amateur tournaments – there wouldn’t be enough fans to cheer and generate enough revenues for the teams. But who knows what will happen in the future and what Riot may have in store for UK League of Legends in the future.
The Heroes of the Storm cheering initiative begins on August 1st at twitch.tv/blizzheroes, as the HGC’s Eastern and Western Clashes begin.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
