As eSports continue to grow in popularity worldwide, a number of new contenders have begun to emerge on the scene in recent months. One of the more promising of these is the PC and mobile entry Heroes Evolved, which has recently been garnering some attention from the professional community.
What is Heroes Evolved?
Heroes Evolved is a free-to-play five-versus-five MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) game, whose simultaneous availability on both mobile and PC makes it quite a rarity within its genre. The unique title was officially released back in mid-January and has picked up over five million downloads across the world on all platforms, which include iOS, Android and Steam.
Currently, there are 86 playable heroes in the game for players to choose from in each battle, with each hero being limited to a single use in a competitive match. These characters currently all fall into the “ranged” or “melee” categories. As with other MOBAs, these branch out into various subcategories, with Heroes Evolved featuring the classes of Nuker, Durable, Disabler, Ganker, Carry and Pusher. Each of these has a defined role within the game and there are many heroes that fit into more than one designation.
Currently, there are two maps available for Heroes Evolved: Altar Strife and Valley of War. Altar of Strife, which is used for competitive play, is a five-versus-five map featuring three lanes; much like most standard MOBA maps. This map type also features a jungle between the three lanes, with creatures to be farmed during the contest. Furthermore, there are two special camps that feature two key objectives for teams to claim throughout the game. Valley of War, meanwhile, is an ARAM (All Random All Mid)-style map type. In truth, it is unlikely to ever be used for competitive play, but it has been a popular game type amongst casual players so far.
The average Heroes Evolved contest lasts between ten to 25 minutes, which makes the young game one of the quickest of the MOBA genre. With such speed, teams can take a small advantage and quickly snowball the match out of control on their way to victory.
Like many MOBAs, players must kill minions to gain gold. This currency can then be used to buy in-game items to make their heroes stronger – but only for the duration of the current match. Even with such short games, the wide variety of items on offer allows for high skill cap decisions in real time, which decides the best of the best for competitive play.
Who Develops Heroes Evolved?
Heroes Evolved is developed by China-based game developer R2Games, with the title being by far the biggest hit for the young company. R2Games are based in Shenzhen, China and have created over 31 games since 2010 for both the PC and mobile markets. Other notable games from the studio include Clicker Heroes, League of Angels and Crystal Saga 1 and 2.
The Competitive Scene for Heroes Evolved
Heroes Evolved is still relatively new on the eSports scene, although it did host a World Championship back when the game was still in beta. The Heroes Evolved Championship, or HEC, 2016 was held over a month and a half in Fuzhou, China, where four invited teams battled it out for the crown. Ultimately, Team Synergy from China took home the HEC 2016 title with a 2-1 victory over Team Empire in the Grand Finals. Synergy received a $30,000 prize for the first-place finish, with the tournament’s organisers handing out $60,000 in overall prize money.
Now six months into its full release, the game is soon set to become much more lucrative, as R2Games are hoping to award $500,000 in prize money for 2017. A 2017 HEC has been announced, but, as of yet, zero information has been released on the upcoming competition.
With the likes of League of Legends, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch and Hearthstone currently entrenched in the eSports scene, it will take a lot for a new MOBA to become widely accepted. Still, five million downloads is a useful number for R2Games and it will be interesting to follow the progress of Heroes Evolved.
