Heroes of Might and Magic V is often compared to Heroes of Might and Magic III, although it has never enjoyed the same popularity as its “big brother”. Nevertheless, the fifth part of the game still has loyal fans who regularly host friendly tournaments and leagues. Cybersport.ru found out what the Heroes of Might and Magic V community is currently living with and what the esports component of the game looks like.
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Heroes of Might and Magic V was released in May 2006. The game was developed by the Russian studio Nival Interactive under the leadership of the owner of the series – the French company Ubisoft. The fifth part retained the classic gameplay elements from past games, however, unlike its predecessors, it transferred them into a completely three-dimensional world. Subsequently, it was this visual “rebranding” that became one of the factors that helped the game acquire its own fan base.
To understand how Heroes of Might and Magic V lives now, we talked with several old-timers of the game. One of them is Kirill KillAndAction, a 46-year-old player and tournament organizer at HoMM V.
“I’ve been playing Heroes for over 25 years since the first game in the series came out. This is one of my favorite things to do in my free time. When the versions of the “ three ” developed – Shadow of Death and others – somehow they did not drag me out, but I liked the fifth part the most. The mechanics there were very different in terms of network play, graphics, and the Russian developer, of course, also played a role. At first, just played the campaign. Then it somehow happened that he started a family, the first child grew up a little, and there was more time for tournament games. “
According to KillAndAction, the path of the fifth “Heroes” into esports turned out to be difficult. In the early years, everyone played regular online rating matches on ubi.com servers, but due to the low activity of developers, fans from the CIS began to organize their own tournaments.
“Since 2009, we have held about 70-80 tournaments. Communication with the developers has long been lost, so enthusiasts were involved in the entire organization. Previously, of course, there were good prize money, and not only in the form of cash. On average, such tournaments gathered 16-20 participants, but there were even fewer. Usually simple formats are used with a group stage and a playoff grid, and the matches themselves are played on a pool of eight standard templates. “
The main problem at the time was the lousy balance that often negated the competitive edge of a match. Players have repeatedly turned to Nival with suggestions and requests to make changes to the HoMM V source, but all requests were refused. In the end, in 2009, the enthusiasts themselves developed the tournament module, which made it possible to conduct full-fledged competitions. Since then, the “get-together” of Heroes of Might and Magic V has split into two parts.
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Art: onlyhdwallpapers.com
If you look at Heroes of Might and Magic V from the point of view of esports, the largest community is in the classic version of the game, in which the balance problems were manually corrected using the Tournament Edition mod. Unfortunately, this community, although relatively large, is very fragmented. He does not have any idea or platform that would unite all gamers. The second current in the fifth “Heroes” was formed by the players in the Random Tactical Arena – this is a separate mod of a modified duel, which is now used for most of the Heroes of Might and Magic V tournaments.
“Most users play the original version, but they are scattered across different servers on the same Discord or VKontakte. The special tournament version is played by fewer people, but they are more organized. It’s hard to compare online as there are no statistics. If we proceed from the information that I have, then 200+ people play in the usual, and about 40 in the tournament ”.
According to KillAndAction, the backbone of the community was formed in the late 2000s. Now the number of active players in HoMM V has decreased significantly, but sometimes young faces still appear. Basically, the party of the fifth “Heroes” consists of old-timers who have long been friends and communicate with each other. Mostly these are CIS players aged 30-35.
What is Random Tactical Arena?
The Random Tactical Arena mod was created in 2009 by fans of the game, until today its development and debugging has been alternately supported by several enthusiasts. Geographically, most of the RTA community is located in the CIS. The community has its own website and a separate server on Discord.
RTA tournaments are regularly held online, and the main one, on the basis of which the rating of the participants is compiled, lasts three months. Typically, the organizers are the administrators of the RTA portal and several proactive members of the community. Sometimes they even manage to collect a small prize pool, but these amounts look insignificant even in comparison with the Heroes of Might and Magic III tournaments. However, fans of the “five” do not play it for money.
RTA community on Discord
Unfortunately, the fifth “Heroes” do not have their own viewer mod, so the matches have to be streamed through a screen sharing in Discord. One of the active streamers and organizers of RTA tournaments is Alexander Zub. He told us what Random Tactical Arena is.
“In short, the RTA is an imitation of the final battle. Each participant is given a certain amount of money, with which he can buy an army, purchase artifacts or additional levels for the hero. It is from these parameters that tactics are built. The balance has been completely reworked from the original game. Usually, the formation of the troops is given 15 minutes, after which the players begin the battle in neutral territory. The battle can last from a few minutes to an hour or even more, depending on the skill and setup of the participants. “
If you look at the RTA matches from the outside, they are not at all like the classic “Hero” battles. In this mod, players do not need to rebuild the city, collect resources and clean the map. You just need to find the optimal balance between the army, hero and artifacts, and then it is good to uncontroll everything on the battlefield. Someone prefers a large army, someone relies on powerful spells, but for someone it is more important to get additional levels (and the enhancements that they give). The combination of these parameters can vary from both the personal preferences of the players and the matchups in which they fight.
Record 1v1 match in RTA mod:
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