About a month ago, the default when determining the favored team entering any Heroes of the Storm tournament was Cloud9, the first world champions in the game's professional history.
Team Naventic started to rewrite that narrative with a LAN win over Cloud9 at the beginning of May.
The team took down Cloud9 3-2 in the finals of DreamHack Austin, North America's first summer global qualifier; the win came as a bit of surprise, as Cloud9 had handled Team Naventic in the group stages, winning 2-0. Team Naventic was ultimately undeterred, as the second meeting turned out differently once they met Cloud9 in the finals.
In looking at the second NA regional, Team Naventic's team captain Christopher "Zuna" Buechter sees the eight-team tournament Cloud9 as a sideshow to the main attraction: Naventic-Cloud9.
"I think C9 will be our biggest opponent, more than anyone else," Buechter said in a recent interview. "Teams usually don't perform as optimally at LAN. I think C9 should be our biggest opponent. The only other teams that could take games off us are Gale Force eSports and Panda Global."
It's not that Buechter doesn't respect the rest of the field. Quite the contrary, in fact. His respect for the field and the sport allows him to understand the difference between gameplay at a LAN and online.
"I think it comes down to being comfortable with the setting," Buechter said. "There's been so little LANs for some people. I feel like in a couple months from now the playing field will be a lot more even."
After its DreamHack win, the team took a break -- one week off, no stress. It was a reward for winning the right to represent North America at the summer global. The break, according to Buechter, hasn't affected scrimmage results (Naventic scrimmages one or two teams a day, playing for about four to six hours a day). The team dives into the replays of those scrimmages and goes over drafts to ensure optimal play.
"We still expect to get first place," Buechter said. "We definitely feel like we're the strongest in NA."
Buechter feels his team still employs the crafty compositional synergy that powered it through DreamHack. Team Naventic feels it can run anything, a confidence that fuels the team. In an effort to improve on their performance, Buechter wanted to work on what he thought was the sole culprit for Naventic's losses at DreamHack Austin -- poor drafts; execution, communication and teamplay were all solid in game.
"I definitely felt like we had really good synergy," Buechter said. "One thing that our team strives on is communication."
Fans can expect to see some double support compositions, according to Buechter; Naventic has seen it a lot lately in scrimmages, and the leader of Naventic suggested Tyrande and Tassadar could be key heroes in Burbank.
A key component to that meta analysis: Naventic and C9 do not scrimmage each other. A tense rivalry between what many consider North America's top teams means neither has an absolute read on the other entering the tournament -- and maybe that's for the best. It adds to the drama of the tournament, and each team firmly believes it can play any strategy at any time.
Even with a pass to the summer global in Sweden in tow, Naventic is hungry for another win. Buechter went on record saying he believes Naventic will win its group, and that Panda Global will also advance out of the stage. He sees Cloud9 and Gale Force eSports as the two teams to jump out of the second group.
Then, if fate allows it, Cloud9 and Naventic may square off for the title of best in North America.
Buechter summed up Naventic's approach quite simply.
"We're going super try hard."