On this weeks episode of the Victors’ Sanctum Podcast
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General: News
eSports: News
World of WarCraft: News
Hearthstone: News
‘Return of Mechazod!’ (Cooperative)- Tavern Brawl
Deck of the Week – Affordable Zoo Warlock
Heroes of the Storm: News
Heroes of the Storm: Bundles, Sales & Rotations
Talent Choices- Genn Greyman (Heroes of the Storm)
Hard Swap- Discussion Questions
Official show notes for Wednesday January 13th, 2016
Official Blizzard News
–Warcraft News
-Hearthstone News
–Heroes of the Storm News
–StarCraft 2 News
–Overwatch News
Activision/Blizzard Purchases MLG:
January 4th, 2016 -
Sarah E. Needleman - The Wall Street Journal
- www.WSJ.com
It’s official, MLG is now owned by A/B, confirmed by several media outlets. But
according to this article from the Wall Street Journal, it goes into a deeper look at this
transaction and what it might mean in months to come. Here are some quotes taken
from the article.
“Activision Blizzard, said it paid $46 million in cash late last month to buy the majority of
Major League Gaming’s assets and gives Activision Blizzard a boost into the business of
streaming live e-sports matches online. Major League Gaming says its MLG.TV attracts more
than 20 million monthly viewers on computers, mobile devices and videogame consoles.
In October, Activision created a new division dedicated to e-sports. The company at the time
said it hired MLG co-founder Mike Sepso to help run it along with Steve Bornstein, a former
head of Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, who was named chairman. Sundance DiGiovanni, chief
executive and co-founder of MLG, will join Activision Blizzard, the company said on Monday.
Last month, rival videogame company Electronic Arts Inc. announced it was creating an esports unit of its own. Competitive video gaming is booming in popularity, with live events
drawing thousands of spectators on site and millions of viewers online. Teams of professional
gamers from around the world vie for millions of dollars in prizes.
Major League Gaming largely makes money through advertising and live events. The industry
itself isn’t without its struggles—Activision Blizzard is paying less than the $67 million in equity
funding Major League Gaming had raised, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
Under the deal for MLG, Activision will absorb the company’s talent pool, which totaled about
60 full-time employees as of October. Mr. Sepso said his division plans to hire “pretty
significantly,” particularly for management positions, in the coming months.
”
Blizzard had this to say about the transaction.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced the acquisition of the business of Major
League Gaming (MLG). MLG is a leader in creating and streaming premium live gaming events,
organizing professional competitions and running competitive gaming leagues. The acquisition
expands Activision Blizzard's reach across the rapidly-growing esports ecosystem by adding proven
live streaming capabilities and technologies to the Activision Blizzard Media Networks division, led by
former ESPN CEO Steve Bornstein and MLG Co-founder Mike Sepso.
Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, said, "Our acquisition of Major League
Gaming's business furthers our plans to create the ESPN of esports. MLG's ability to create premium
content and its proven broadcast technology platform - including its live streaming capabilities strengthens our strategic position in competitive gaming. MLG has an incredibly strong and seasoned
team and a thriving community. Together, we will create new ways to celebrate players and their
unique skills, dedication and commitment to gaming. We are excited to add Sundance and the entire
MLG esports team to our competitive gaming initiatives."
Sundance DiGiovanni, Chief Executive Officer and MLG Co-founder, said, "Our mission for over 12
years has been to promote and expand the growth of competitive gaming worldwide, and today the
industry is at a key inflection point as its popularity soars and rivals that of many traditional
professional sports. This acquisition and Activision Blizzard's commitment to competitive gaming will
expand the opportunities for gamers to be recognized and celebrated for their competitive excellence."
Mike Sepso, Senior Vice President of Activision Blizzard Media Networks and MLG Co-founder, said,
"Sundance and I founded MLG to highlight the incredible talent of competitive gamers all over the
world. Activision Blizzard's esports leadership, incredible intellectual property and long history in
competitive gaming create a perfect home for MLG's capabilities. The acquisition of MLG's business is
an important step towards Activision Blizzard Media Networks' broader mission to bring esports into
the mainstream by creating and broadcasting premium esports content, organizing global league play
and expanding distribution with key gaming partners."
MLG will continue to operate MLG.tv, MLG Pro Circuit and GameBattles platforms, and will continue to
work with its partners and other publishers across the industry. MLG.tv is a premium online broadcast
network for professional-level esports and the MLG Pro Circuit is the longest-running esports league in
North America. GameBattles is the largest online gaming tournament system across consoles, PC and
mobile platforms.
With over 100 million unique viewers, the esports audience is estimated to be bigger than audiences
for many professional sports leagues. Creating premium content for these audiences will provide
significant opportunities in ticket sales, advertising, sponsorships, licensing and merchandising. By
2017, esports is projected to have over 300 million viewers1. For the past 12 years, MLG has helped
bring esports into the mainstream with broadcasts of professional gaming competitions that rival
traditional sports fan engagement.
Heroes Rising Tournament
When: Saturday, January 9th 2016
Twitch.tv/eSportsArena
Now that 2015 has come to a close, it’s time to kick off 2016 for competitive Heroes of the
Storm!
Thanks to HeroesNexus.com, we have a snap-shot on the 2015 NA Groups, as a refresher. –
HeroesNexus.com
Bob Ross Fan Club were your winners for the first Heroes Rising tournament.
They made a come-back after going down 0-2 and reverse swept Cloud9 2-3 in a bo5
series.
Hot fixes and Patch Notes:
Most recent Patch 6.2.3 Hotfixes 1/16-12/16.
Rumor has it … :
Word is, that tomorrow Thursday January 14th, 2016 we might be able to expect the
World of WarCraft Alpha to come back online and available to the public.
As of right now, there aren’t any notifications if there will be more waves of invites to
play the current Alpha build.
The Legion Alpha Test Is Back- Blizzard Entertainment 1/13/2016
If you wanted to check out all that they have added since it went down, Click Here to
review MMO-Champion’s Legion Alpha Build 20914!
Ton of info, which includes
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New Models
New Mounts
New Pets
New Spell/Ability Changes
New Icons
New Items
New Keystone Affixes (info)
New Achievement Changes
New Legendary Spell Info
New Artifact Powers
New Garrison Mission/Follower Changes
Hot fixes and Patch Notes:
Most recent Patch 3.2.0.10604
“Return of Mechazod” (Cooperative) - Tavern Brawl:
- www.hearthead.com
Today's Tavern Brawl is the Return of Mechazod! This one is cooperative where you must
kill
Gearmaster Mechazod in order to win the game. You can join forces with a friend by
issuing a challenge from the Tavern Brawl menu, or the game will find a partner for you by
hitting the regular Brawl button. Through clever use of cards such as
Arcane Golem,
Mirror Entity and
Troggzor the Earthinator you'll benefit from teamwork.
If you missed the last one, you can view the last cooperative Tavern Brawl here.
The goal is simple, defeat the boss card
Gearmaster Mechazod before he defeats either
player. He will swap sides after each of the player's turns and use one of the following cards:
Prioritize
Bomb Salvo
Overclock
Double Zap
Kill the Lorewalker
Overclock is deadly as it increases the damage of both Double Zap and Bomb Salvo. As
Gearmaster Mechazod gets more attack, the harder it will be to maintain a board and the
quicker the game needs to end. Remember, if one player dies, both players will lose, so make
sure to heal the other player if you need to! You will want to keep your health above the
Gearmaster's current attack level in case he decides to use Double Zap or Bomb Salvo. Also,
don't rely on a single large minion attacking more than once, as Gearmaster Mechazod will
Prioritize the card between turns.
This time, you'll be playing as a Druid and Mage.
Druid
The druid deck has multiple ramp cards including
Grove Tender and
Wild Growth and
tokens cards,
Haunted Creeper and
Violet Teacher. Finishing off with a
Savage
Roar will provide a large amount of damage.
Zombie Chow
Wild Growth
Wrath
Haunted Creeper
Lorewalker Cho
Darnassus Aspirant
Healing Touch
Savage Roar
Grove Tender
Jungle Moonkin
Feugen
Stalagg
Violet Teacher
Force of Nature
Ancient of Lore
Troggzor the Earthinator
Aviana
Cenarius
Mage
The mage deck contains a large amount of spell damage cards and spells for direct damage as
well as some support cards like
King Mukla and
Coldlight Oracle.
Animated Armor is
a great defensive tool.
Arcane Blast
Bloodmage Thalnos
Kobold Geomancer
Arcane Golem
Brann Bronzebeard
Coldlight Oracle
Earthen Ring Farseer
Forgotten Torch
King Mukla
Mirror Entity
Animated Armor
Fireball
Refreshment Vendor
Azure Drake
Leeroy Jenkins
The Beast
Troggzor the Earthinator
Pyroblast
Wednesday January 13th, 2016
Matt here with On Target for this week. And this week we are going to discuss my favorite deck
in Hearthstone, Zoo Warlock.
Possibly the most versatile deck in hearthstone. It can be aggro, tempo, and even board
control. It is the best way to learn the principles that make you successful, and can be one of
the cheapest to craft. It has only a few bad matchups in Hunter, which isn’t on the ladder as
much, and Freeze Mage.
The core of the deck is these 24 Cards. The other 6 you can swap out depending on your style
and the meta you are facing.
2x Power Overwhelming
2x Abusive Sergeant
2x Flame Imp
2x Voidwalker
1x Dire Wolf Alpha
2x Haunted Creeper
1x Ironbeak Owl
2x Knife Juggler
2x Narubian Egg
2x Imp Gang Boss
2x Implosion
2x Defender of Argus
2x Doomguard
You can consider Dark Peddler and Loatheb core as well, however Ive seen some builds
without them.
Building around that base is where the versatility of the deck comes in. You can build it more
aggro by putting in Soulfires or other direct damage cards or spells. You can go with a more
midrange look with Voidcallers, Mal’ganis, And Doctor Boom. You can even work to improve
the control matchup with Syvlanas, shadowflame and Jaraxxus, but that version isn't as
successful.
The main win condition for this style of deck is controlling the board early. Using your tokens as
well as Abusive Sergeants or Defender of Argus to improve your trades. Using your eggs
effectively as a anti AOE tech is helpful, or using them to trade in the 0/2 for the 4/4 next turn is
huge. Mid to late game is when you push for face damage. Only taking trades when needed or
favorable to push for the win. A lot of games end when you power overwhelming an existing
token or other minion, and then Doomguard for the 9 damage burst. You don’t worry about
Some common tech choices are Loatheb to stall aoe, Void Terror as another egg proc
(expecially effective when combo’ed with Power Overwhelming) Big Game hunter can be used
against control matchups or against Secret Paladin to kill Mysterious Challenger after avenge is
proc’ed. I’ve toyed with fist of Jaraxxus in combo with the doomguards, but not being able to
control what cards get discarded makes it tricky. Kezan Mystic is a good tech against Hunter
and Mages. I’ve even considered Wailing Soul against freeze mage as a tech, but the card slot
for one deck his hard to justify, but if you know you going up against it, it might be worth it.
This should give you enough to get you started. I suggest watching some games to get a feel
for the deck. Trump did a series where he played the deck and explained more of the
concepts. I will refer you to his YouTube page, and a link in the post that goes with this.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBjJ_H3GDNk)
Thats it for this week, we’ll get into another strong archetype for next week. Until then. Good
RNG!
Affordable Zoo Warlock
by: Matt Myers
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[Power Overwhelming]
[Abusive Sergeant]
[Flame Imp]
[Voidwalker]
[Dire Wolf Alpha]
[Haunted Creeper]
[Ironbeak Owl]
[Knife Juggler]
[Narubian Egg]
[Imp Gang Boss]
[Implosion]
[Defender of Argus]
[Doomguard]
The core of the deck are these 24 Cards.
The other 6 you can swap out depending on your sty
meta you are facing.
Click Here for Trump’s Deck Teachings for Zoo Warlo
Hot fixes and Patch Notes:
Most recent Patch 1-12-2016
No balance changes were made this patch.
A Howlin’ good time!:
This week marks the release of our newest Hero, Genn Graymane. He is the Faction leader for
the Gilneas, in the Alliance who’s home suffered an horrific assault from the hands of Salvanas
Windrunner and her Forsaken/Undead forces. Not only did she destroy Gilneas, but she also
Killed Greymane’s Son.
So, if you find yourself in a group with a Sylvanas, listen for some snark and hatred.
Greymane starts in Human form, then has the ability to swap to worgen, leaping to slash and
tear your opponents to pieces. He is a very interesting mix of ranged and melee with a very
small health pool and no Health regen factors or talents. So when playing him, be very careful to
not find yourself in a bad situation you can’t escape quick enough.
From everything that I’ve played and seen thus far, you spend most of your time in Human form.
Auto attacking and waiting for the opportunity to leap in and finish your victims. He defiantly
takes some getting use to.. actually much like Lunara did. He is, however, quite the effective
Assassin/Tool in conflicts and team fights.
Kyle Fergusson had a great Solo Q&A this week; “#32 - The Mane Event”. In this he walks you
through all of the abilities one by one, level by level making decisions on what he feels is the
best route to ‘genrally’ play our new Hero, Greymane. Click here for the link to the YouTube
video, and Click here for his Build he finally settled on.
NEW HERO:
Greymane, Lord of the Worgen, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now
available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his Abilities.
Trait
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Curse of the Worgen
o Use certain Abilities to shapeshift between Human and Worgen form.
 While in Human form, your Basic Attacks are ranged.
 While in Worgen form, your Basic Attacks are melee, but deal 40% more
damage.
Basic Abilities
Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
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Hurl a flask that damages the first enemy hit, and explodes to deal heavy damage to
enemies behind the first in a cone.
Worgen: Razor Swipe (Q)
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Swipe toward a direction, damaging enemies in front of you.
Inner Beast (W)
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Gain 50% Attack Speed for 3 seconds. Basic Attacks refresh this duration.
Darkflight (E)
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Shapeshift into a Worgen, and leap at and damage an enemy.
Worgen: Disengage (E)
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Shapeshift into a Human, and roll away in the specified direction.
Heroic Abilities
Go for the Throat (R)
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Shapeshift into a Worgen and leap at an enemy Hero, slashing the target 3 times and
dealing heavy damage. If this kills the target, Go for the Throat can be used a second
time within 10 seconds for free.
Marked for the Kill (R)
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Shapeshift into a Human and fire a shot that makes the first enemy Hero it strikes
Vulnerable for 5 seconds. Reactivate to shapeshift into a Worgen and leap at the Hero.
Bundles:
New Bundles have been added for a limited time!
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Corruptor Cho’gall Bundle
Ringmaster Greymane Bundle
Bundle Removals
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Winter Veil 2015 Bundle
Winter Veil 2015 Ultimate Bundle
Heroes
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Cho’gall can now be purchased from the in-game Shop
Greymane has been added to the in-game Shop
Mounts
Ringmaster’s Pride – Available exclusively through purchase of the
Ringmaster Greymane Bundle
Skins
New Skins
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Master Greymane
Ringmaster Greymane
Skin Removals
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Greatfather Winter Stitches
Sugar Plum Sylvanas
BUG FIXES
Heroes and Talents
Fixed an issue that made Leoric unable to walk through enemy Gates while in Undying form.
Free Rotation: January 12th – January 19th
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Artanis
Diablo
Malfurion
The Butcher
Tychus
Valla
Kael’thas (AL 5)
Arthas (AL 7)
Sgt. Hammer (AL 12)
Brightwing (AL 15)
This week in the store, on sale: January 12th – January 19th
Prices
Product
Uther
USD
EUR
GBP
AUD
$4.24
€4.19
£3.19
$5.47
Lumberjack Uther
$2.49
€2.49
£1.89
$3.25
Archangel Diablo
$4.99
€4.99
£3.69
$6.47
Hot fixes and Patch Notes:
Most recent patch – Patch Notes 3.1.0
No News this week.
Hot fixes and Patch Notes:
Nothing new at this time.
No News this week.
- Countering the META in Heroes of the Storm; How to counter Tyrande?
 With the rise in selections of Tyrande, what are the most important things to look at when
attempting to counter her selection?
 Enemy team Comp?
 Enemy CC v.s. Your teams CC?
 I keep hearing that Tyrande and Diablo work so well together, why is that?
-Heroes of the Storm: Drafting - The Basics.
When Drafting a Hero in Heroes League, what is important for you to know or
understand?
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You are 1st choice, overall.
Your team has 1st and 2nd choices.
You choose Third.
Chosing the Final 2 spots, how to make strong decisions.
Chosing the Final spot, what to consider.
In Depth Question?
If you would like to be a part of our Live Stream, you can join us every Thursday Night at
9:30pm EST at www.twitch.tv/VictorsSanctum
I would like to thank..
My Co-Host Chris Slaughter,
Matt Myers for his ON Target segment,
and Michael Johnson for his help and technical support for the Victors’ Sanctum website &
podcast.
You can find us on…
Our website: www.VictorsSanctum.com
Twitter: @VictorsSanctum
Facebook: Facebook.com/VictorsSanctum
Have a question or want to contact us?
Our e-mail: VictorsSanctum@gmail.com
Our Phone Number: (513) 258-2915
Please remember to leave your Name and question,
we'll answer it on the show!
Host: Ryan Petrey
Twitter: @Rycp1209
Facebook: facebook.com/RyCP.Gaming
Twitch: twitch.tv/rycp1209
Co-host: Chris 'Mudsliide' Slaughter
Twitter: @GFE_Mudsliide
Twitch: twitch.tv/mudsliide
Guest: Matt Myers
Twitter: @Mattatarm
Guest: Adrian Ellis
Twitter: @SarkansVS