10 years in the Nexus: A Heroes Lounge Retrospective

10 years in the Nexus: A Heroes Lounge Retrospective

Ten years ago, in June of 2015, Blizzard created a dimension with the advanced technology of the Protoss, where they tossed their biggest names into one Protoss building - the Nexus. Somehow in this process, Heroes of the Storm was born, where Tyrael judges Kerrigan, where Diablo tries to slam James Raynor into a wall and where Arthas is throwing Frostmourne at Nova. Not only that but also Garrosh trying to nerf D.Va’s Mech by throwing it into your team, while Whitemane and Lunara just standing aside laughing about everything. Murky has bubbled his way into our hearts, the lasagne-loving Lost Vikings being surprised to be finally able to attack in this game, Abathur creeping around and Brightwing just giggling menacingly. This is what HotS has meant from the beginning, uniting all the different players of phenomenal games into one.

Since then, the official scene may have changed and slowed down a lot, with the Janitor doing his very best to keep our beloved game alive. But the real action never left — it just moved to Heroes Lounge. Week after week, season after season, a tireless crew of players, casters, moderators, and coaches has kept the Nexus alive!

What started as a community tournament turned into the unofficial official competitive scene of HotS. Fueled by passion, spreadsheets, caffeine, and an unhealthy love for Nazeebo, we’ve seen teams rise and fall, metas shift, memes become strats and somehow, someone still thinks picking Azmodan is a good idea.

So, to celebrate a decade of Nexus nonsense and Lounge greatness, we dove into the archives, dusted off the stats, and emerged with a glorious mountain of numbers, names, and memes. From the most banned heroes to the casters who never slept, from wild hero picks to siege damage so high it should be illegal — this is our tribute to you, the people who made all of this possible. Because Blizzard may have made the game, but Heroes Lounge made it matter.

But before we dive into the glorious stats, let us rewind the clock. Heroes Lounge didn’t become the heart of the Nexus overnight. From humble beginnings to hundreds of teams, multiple divisions for every skill level, and cups of every size, the Lounge has grown into something far beyond a tournament — it became a community; a home for all the nexus-loving sloths. So how did it all begin?

The History of Heroes Lounge

What began as a spark of inspiration from the North American “Chair League” has grown into Europe’s largest community-run Heroes of the Storm amateur league. In 2016, Cosmic—frustrated by the lack of organized HotS team play in the EU—decided to take matters into his own hands. A Reddit post, a Battlefy startup, and a simple philosophy later—"Make it casual, make it community-driven"—Heroes Lounge was born. Its inception was the 7th of June, 2016, with its first season debut on the 15th of July, 2016.

The name itself almost wasn’t “Heroes Lounge”; after careful consideration it came down to a final toss-up between Lounge Heroes and Heroes Lounge. The latter won out, chosen for its relaxed tone and adaptability. It reflected Cosmic’s goal: an inclusive, flexible space where players could enjoy cohesive play, just like in the pro leagues but without the pressure of having the actual skill of pro players.

Aesthetically, the league’s identity evolved too—from early quirky logos like a literal beach chair to a cleaner HotS-themed design, thanks to community contributors. Even the infamous sloth mascot wasn’t planned—it just emerged organically from community memes, Discord emotes, and shared inside jokes. Over time, sloths became the unofficial spirit animal of the Lounge, even inspiring physical merch like plushie giveaways for Patreon supporters.

The organization has always championed a grassroots model: open participation, volunteer-run operations, and a deep commitment to letting the community shape its own direction. This has helped the league last nearly a decade, bolstered by unforgettable moments like the most recent meetup at the Nations Cup in Berlin and former DreamHack meetups—experiences that left lasting emotional marks on the people involved.

While names like Transparent, Epixors, Rikki, Macdino, and Heartless deserve credit for keeping things afloat in different eras, Cosmic emphasizes, it’s truly the collective effort of players, admins, casters, and fans that has kept Heroes Lounge alive.

"Heroes Lounge is a community that happens to have a competition in it." — Cosmic

And with that Heroes Lounge is now in its 27th Season in EU, with 6 Seasons in NA, 12 Nexus Rumble seasons, 6 Athena Championships, and 12 Offseason Events (with everything from ARAM to meta- and map- madness formats). We've also partnered with fellow Nexus lovers for 12 special events, including Louka’s Meta Mayhem, Transparent’s Eggs Cup Movember, the Method Mayhem Cups or Khaldor’s Underdog Cup, just to name a few — some with real prize pools or charity fundraisers.
Even the top level tournament Division S existed — twice in both EU and NA — and for those that couldn’t make it into Masters Clash, we hosted the Nexus Forces Tournament, sponsored by Tiplu GmbH.

All of this has only been possible because of you — the beautiful community it is today.

Heroes Lounge has had an incredible journey — and the best part? It still continues and we can actually measure it. So with the nostalgia out of the way and our hearts full of gratitude, let’s take a look back at the kills, comps, bans, throws, clutches, and chaos that brought us here — and maybe learn something new along the way.

The Numbers Behind the Nexus in Heroes Lounge

Meta Legends

55,177 maps have been played in Heroes Lounge to date! Across these games, players have dished out a staggering:

• 18,439,593,855 Hero Damage
• 34,481,473,461 Siege Damage
• 11,855,320,427 Healing
• 5,149,750,689 XP soaked
• 1,112,408 Kills and 1,123,878 Deaths

That averages out per map to:

• 37,089 Hero Damage
• 69,355 Siege Damage
• 23,830 Healing
• 10,358 XP soaked
• 4.69 average KDA

So now you can benchmark your own stats — are you punching above your weight or soaking like a slacker?

Map Madness

Unsurprisingly, Infernal Shrines is the most played battleground, appearing 9,597 times in Lounge history! The rest of the maps follow close behind, as shown in the chart below:

• Infernal Shrines - Top Picks + Winrate:

  1. Johanna - 4337 - 52.6%

  2. Leoric - 3140 - 50.2%

  3. Diablo - 2943 - 50.4 %

  4. Anduin - 2681 - 46.4%
     Blaze - 2681 - 47.9%

  5. Kael’thas - 2625 - 51.7%

Meta Masters: Hero STATS

When it comes to popularity, Johanna has taken the top spot with 20,250 appearances. On the flip side, Johanna also holds the crown for most denied hero—banned in a whopping 13,261 games!

• Top 10 Hero Picks:

•   Top 10 Hero Bans:

The most successful hero taking home the most victories with the Highest-All-Time Hero Winrate of 56.76% in 2086 games is Kerrigan. Whilst Nova being the closing light with the Lowest-All-Time Hero Winrate of 45.1% in 306 games.

• Top 10 Hero Winrates:

Game Flow Stats

The Longest Map with an astounding duration of 43:33 minutes on map #1  took place on Volskaya Foundry, where Les Potis Blanchons was facing Munchies. (https://heroeslounge.gg/match/view/16585)
The honorable mention goes to the 2v2 ARAM Match between LSK & Zerfg versus Shima & YDdraigGoch which took almost an eternity of 52:05 minutes. (https://heroeslounge.gg/match/view/17294)

The Shortest Map with an incredible duration of just 3:15 minutes on map #2 took place on Cursed Hollow, where 6th Wheel HotS was facing Sloth Highlords. (https://heroeslounge.gg/match/view/2109)
This map was over faster than any caster could even introduce the teams.

The Average Overall Game Length comes down to 31:48 minutes. (Note: also including all ARAM and Meta Madness durations).

The Total Game Time Across All Matches adds up to 26,171.5 hours ≈ 1,090.5 days. That is almost 3 years of non-stop gaming in the Nexus!

The overall ratio between the Winrates of 1st & 2nd Pick are: 1st - 49.14% VS 2nd - 50.86%.
It distributes over the maps as shown in the graphic below (Blue = 1st Pick, Red = 2nd Pick):

Player Highlights

The reward for the Player With Most Games Played in any category of Heroes Lounge goes to: SamuPlays  — 968 games

• Top 10 Players With Most Games Played:

The reward for the Player Played in Most Teams also goes to: SamuPlays — in 57 different teams.

Team & Caster Highlights

The reward for the Team With Most Games Played (in any event) goes to: Munchies — 810 games

• Top 10 Teams With Most Games Played:

• Teams With Most Cup Wins:

  • Die Geilen Banger winning 4 cups so far: Division 1 Cup [EU] Season 21, 23, 24 & 25

  • Oni Chan’s also winning  4 cups so far: Division 6 Cup [EU] Season 17, Division 4 Cup [EU] Season 19, Division 5 Cup [EU] Season 20 & Division 4 Cup [EU] Season 22

The reward for the Caster With Most Casted Games goes to: SamuPlays— 368 matches

• Top 10 Casters With Most Casted Games:

→ Honorable mention goes to Bahamut, who is doing a lot of replay casts, which unfortunately cannot be tracked properly.

This wraps up 9 years of Heroes Lounge to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of our beloved game Heroes of the Storm. Stay tuned for next year’s 10th Anniversary of Heroes Lounge itself, where we will dive even deeper into more detailed stats and shenanigans. Let us know which statistics you are interested in, so we can have a look into that and maybe include them as well.

Big thanks to Staudalf for helping in providing the mountain of statistics and also not to forget Cosmic (aka Petman), for first of all founding Heroes Lounge and secondly taking the time to share the story behind Heroes Lounge.

That’s it from my side everyone — take care and see you, in the Nexus!

— RandomAggro