Transparent's Top Tips!

Level up your Heroes Lounge team, the easy way!

This article is aimed for lower division, or new starting teams.

Many of you may know me for casting or running the Nexus Rumble, but for Season 24, I intend to return as an occasional player! Over the many years of being involved, I have a few simple guidelines that helped my team enjoy success in the past! Please note, these are BASIC and SIMPLE tips, and many players will be far above this advice, and have much better judgment of their own ability! Or, if you’re a completely new team, and want to get the latest edge in competition, these tips are for you!

Tip No.1 - Clear the mid wave, move on.

We all do it in Storm League, we even see the top level players do it, but needlessly fighting in the mid wave can take up a lot of time, even if you get a kill, you can come away battered, bruised, and behind on rotation! 

It’s easier to just focus on clearing the wave, getting to the next one and being ahead in the early game rotation! I know you might have a hero that wants to stack a quest, but I PROMISE you will get them later in the game! 

Tip No.2 - Don’t invade early game camps!

So you used tip no.1, you’re ahead on rotation, surely you can use this advantage to invade the opponent camps? 

STOP! Although you can get a good advantage from taking the enemy camp, the risk is VERY HIGH! You’re often very far from safety. If you’re ahead, focus on keeping ahead - when invading a camp, the value you can gain just isn’t as much as you could lose!

Author's Note: There are definitely compositions and times where invading camps pre 2 minutes is a good idea, but unless you are 100% sure, and know it won't mess up your early game rhythm, stick to your own plan!

Tip No. 3 - Out of mana? Stop using abilities! 

This may sound silly. But in competitive hots, abilities matter! It’s too easy to see that your ability is ready, so you should try to use it straight away to poke the enemy hero? Think again! Instead, keep calm and wait. If you’re clearing a wave, think - is my ability the best one for this? Or can someone else do this more efficiently? Trust that your tank will find a good time to engage, and be ready, with both abilities and mana to follow up. This isn’t Storm League, so it’s no one-person-show!

Tip No. 4 - Don’t be greedy/Try not to die.

Especially true in the bruiser/solo lane role. If you die, not only does the opposing team get XP, but your team loses an XP soaker. Remember, as a solo laner, you can be responsible for one third of the teams minion soak, or even more! So in times where you think there is a small chance you take down someone at 10% HP, but danger might be round the corner, maybe let them spend the time hearthstoning and walking back to the battlefield, while you get ready to strike in a good position or push with your whole team!

Tip No. 5 - Know your maps.

The first 2 minutes and 30 seconds of each map can, for the most part, be played the same. What this is for each map is too much for this short guide, but we may revisit in future.

But how many maps do you really need to know? 5. (4 if you really think you're going to win!) If your opponent bans 2 of these 5, you can have 3 maps you feel super confident on. If every member of your team knows what they are doing for the first 2 minutes and 30 seconds of these 5 maps, then you should be where you want to be when the first objective starts.

We all know how hard fighting from behind is and trying to make that 6.5/10 comeback real. So why make it hard? Keep it simple, get ahead and then just keep winning! It’s not going to work every time, but consistency is key for the 10 rounds of Heroes Lounge!

Season 24 kicks off 20th May!

Enjoyed this blog post? Talk about it in our DISCORD! If enough people enjoy it, there may be a 2nd round of Top Tips!