Hero Dynasties Part 2

By Geranium Battle

For Part 1 of Hero Dynasties, click here.
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Chapter 2: Geranium Battle, Cahnew, and APM

​For the purposes of Hero dynasties, Geranium Battle is a name that came out of nowhere. Other than the Legacy finals where he lost to Wild9 (who we will return to later), Geranium had failed to make much of a splash. He captained some Hero teams that had a lot of heart, but they often missed playoffs. Sometime between Season 17 and 18, he found a desire to be more of a player than a captain, and realized that some of the players that made his PR work were only available on rival teams. It was then that he decided to reach out to the creator of the APM organization, Bonemasher.
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To make a super team, it follows that you need super players. But, with the dominant players of Hero already taken, new faces would need to be found. From Pro came JRich and Germanshep, two players that had no basis of working together. JRich had been in Geranium’s Legacy server as a friend of  a rostered player, and GermanShep was the only member of the dominant Pro team For The Boys to want to prove themselves in another series and not already have a team. Hero was going to be GermanShep’s new yard. Bonemasher supplied himself and a new Australian player called LaughingFrog, and both played way above their PR. 

After using their strong play and excellent matchup predictions to make playoffs, APM had earned the bye in their conference. Another commanding week took them to the finals against At Least I Don’t Have Chicken. The dominant streak of Cmac + Nine opposed them with the looming prowess of Justin, the extreme consistency of Neji, and the momentum of Skrt and Kitten. Still, they traded sets until it came down to a final match. In that match, Cmac and Geranium traded games until it came down to game 5. In the end, Cmac’s Murloc Warlock triumphed and APM had to return trophy-less and still above the PR cap. 
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​This is where the story normally ends. The PR cap was too tight for a Hero team like this to stick together, and cutting players from the roster was a rough prospect. Geranium had just scrapped his team the season before.What was going to keep this team from becoming another hodge-podge of players that becomes unrecognizable after a successful season? 

This is where Cahnew comes in. Cahnew was a fellow NEU player who had been introduced to Geranium through THL via AlwaysJustinTime. They became IRL friends and shared a deep desire to not be the weak link on whatever team they joined. When Geranium lost that Legacy final to Wild9, the only two players to win their matches were Cahnew and himself. Speaking of Wild9, was he available to join this Hero team?

Another Pit of Misery saw the return of Season 17 winner Wild9, who replaced Bonemasher to play alongside the aforementioned Geranium Battle, Cahnew, and LaughingFrog. Wild9 was a preparatory force to be reckoned with, and communication on the team vastly improved with his addition. Geranium was the second pillar of the team, putting in time to review plays and suggest deck options for fellow team members. And… wait, where did GermanShep go? Seriously, where is Shep? 

The beginning of the season saw a scramble to try and find a replacement for GermanShep, who had abandoned THL to focus on school. The 1 seed was a rotating door of players who all won their matches, all culminating in a player who arrived just-in-time. Justin, who had just won his 3rd Hero championship in 4 attempts, was rejoining Wild9 from his Season 17 win and Geranium+Cahnew from their S18 Legacy team. Suddenly, this rudderless team that was searching for some stability found a third hyper-communicative player… and promptly lost the next 3 weeks. Maybe it comes as no surprise, but I’ve caught myself underestimating teams that scrape by into playoffs. 

Season 19’s superteam was “only” 2060 PR. Only! I know the numbers have been falling and falling, but keep in mind that over 27 seasons, only 1 championship Hero team ended their season above that mark, and only 3 have been able to pass it with years of further growth. Okay, fine. If the PR total doesn’t impress you anymore, this marked the return of Nejiboston (winner of the previous season) and Molestar (winner of Season 16 and I remember some future seasons of Hero getting named; is it time?). It was time for APM to finally take home a championship. 3 matches sealed the deal, and the winning team with the lowest ever points per week was crowned. Perhaps as a consequence of that, the team PR was actually low enough to survive the season transition unscathed. Justin had just shown his consistency, having won 4 of his 5 Hero seasons. Season 20 would bring the truest sense of dynasty possible, as everyone on the winning team could stay together to continue their dominance.

Justin left. 

Replacing Justin was Molestar, but perhaps surprisingly the rest of the team was unchanged. Keeping under the 1850 cap was an accomplishment, so the new roster was named Abusing PR Management (sticking to the required APM acronym nomenclature). The opposing Nejiboston super team, Ice Clown Citadel, now returned to a Legacy-adjusted 2176 PR, and business was as usual. Wait, where’s LaughingFrog? Seriously, what happened to LaughingFrog? 

LaughingFrog’s position remained open while the season progressed, and in Week 4 Cmac + Nine returned to our story by thrashing the daylights out of Geranium’s APM team, 20-3. They had stuck together and put up solid results, yet their days of Hero dominance had come to an end. Perhaps this was because of the change in Hearthstone’s competitive circuit resulting in players playing less and less Hearthstone. It didn’t change the fact that they could still put the work in and dominate. Regardless, after the throttling to open the 2023 THL year, Geranium and his Hero teams just… stopped losing.

The other Hero superteams that season saw mixed results. ET Y’Sharrj was a 2250+ PR powerhouse. They didn’t even make playoffs. Neji’s superteam fell in semifinals. Who else would be in finals but AlwaysJustinTime on a team that snuck by into playoffs? The aptly named Late Bloomers were riding heavy momentum, never dropping a single match in the postseason to this point. The wave of APM came crashing down though, ending the series in 4 matches. There was no underestimation, there was no justice, there was no lady luck on their side. Abusing PR Management was unstoppable.

After the championship, Wild9 retired from Hero, having no more worlds to conquer. He had his 3 victories. With Wild9 out, something needed to change, but this would be the most drastic, least dynastic change I’ve covered thus far.

Season 21 brought an overhaul to the team, changing 3 players. I can hardly call it the same team. Cahnew and Geranium were still present, but joining them was a new roster in AzaleaAkari, Stinzy, and DankestDad. Sure, DankestDad had stepped in for a week when Germanshep became a lost dog, but the core of what made Season 19 and Season 20 special was starting to leave. So, it only makes sense that Geranium didn’t win this season. Season 21 saw the return of Neji, SuperChicken, and Diamond to the winning circle, who had previously won in Season 18, Season 16, and Seasons 8 and 17 respectively. Diamond and Neji had been personal friends and worked together in Legacy and Pro but had only just found their Hero success together. SuperChicken was a long-time collaborator with Neji in Pro, and both were dominant players in the Tespa collegiate scene. Yes, that scene had dried up with low PR cheats, but it still had quite a few high PR mainstays of THL.

Speaking of high PR mainstays, Season 22 brought the return of Molestar to Geranium’s team. Mole was a player that was very consistently strong and wouldn’t leave mid-season. Along with Cahnew and Geranium, Pace and GimmeLamp would join the team that was Always Playoff Mode. Both Pace and Lamp were very strong players from the Wild Series who had not taken standard format THL. This meant that, for the first time, Geranium was the one with the 2200 PR super team. Other than Week 3, where a DQ loss would bring the only loss of the season, every match was a blowout. Always Playoff Mode won with a margin of a full match every week through finals, and that was that. Geranium Battle, Cahnew, and Molestar all notched their 3rd championships in Hero, and Geranium pledged to retire from captaincy. Normally, this is where the actors jump, high five, and freeze in air as scrolling text explains where everyone went. But, the title of this chapter was Geranium Battle, Cahnew, and APM. APM wasn’t done winning just yet. 

During this entire time, APM had been fielding multiple teams in the Hero format. While Cmac and Nine were in their prime, Ksw, Wyfair, and VinoSpumoni had been sticking together throughout the seasons. VinoSpumoni was replaced by Chewie, and eventually Ksw had to leave as well, but the spirit of APM Yang lived on through Wyfair. LaughingFrog returned to take over Ksw’s position as captain, and brought back Jammies from the original APM Yang after his long hiatus. New to the APM roster were aharmlessdog and a player from THL’s past years: Fsorace1.

It’s common for players to dip their toes back in THL’s waters after long breaks. What breaks the norm entirely is a player coming back to THL and finding as much success as Fsorace1. Fsorace1 proceeded to go on a generational tear through THL, being the runner-up on crossover player in Season 23 of Hero and winning the Crossover Player award the following two seasons. That came with a 70% match win rate across all series, and, unsurprisingly, a few series trophies.

One of those trophies was going to be Season 23 of Hero, but this underdog aharmlessdog team had a journey to make it there. After outpacing the Molestar/Pace/Wild9 team and earning their spot in playoffs, they faced yet another NiceJewishOwl F2L team. APM had Fsorace1 and Wyfair on a tear, but the team wasn’t communicating. A common theme across all of these previous teams was their communication, their innovation, and their motivation. It was then, faced with a precarious moment, that A Premium Mountain had a familiar player join the server.

Geranium Battle returned to substitute for Chewie, and APM as an organization was supporting APM the team. With the talent APM had, they only needed to share knowledge and solve problems together. Geranium and Wyfair were able to win their matches, but when even Fsorace1 couldn’t find the final win to reach finals, APM’s savior was closer than they thought. Jammies, who was nearly 200 PR below his opponent, had something to prove. He was underestimated by everyone due to his weak season results. When A Premium Mountain’s last match was a Yin-and-in, though, Jammies would bring justice for the core of APM Yang.

However, that was merely semis. In finals, who else would you expect but AlwaysJustinTime on a team that scraped by into playoffs. Now, with greater communication, and no underestimation, the organization of A Premium Mountain nearly swept through and cleaned out the NEU collegiate team. Long gone were the days of collegiate players, of calls going over open cup lineups, of team names so long even their abbreviations were wordy. Now, Hero had been taken over by the über-team, the team surrounded by an organization.
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Chapter 3: Defias and Beyond

Wild9 had been a consistent force on many Hero teams, and also one of the faces of the Defias organization in Legacy, and also a mainstay on the Cheese Mongers United Pro team. After some other teams had had their last dance, Wild9 connected all 3 series together into one whole. NotBamity and Pyrollama from Pro would join a new Defias team in Hero, and Wild9’s experience and guidance would ease the transition. Alongside his long-time teammates, Wild9 would add THLeumer, ythehunter, and JRich. Those 3 new additions would prove to be very strong, each boasting a record worthy of Hero’s MVP award. Thanks the dominance of this trio, Defias would go completely undefeated through to finals.

In finals, Wild9 found his new roster across the aisle from some of the players he had joined so many times before. Molestar and Bonemasher took wins over Defias, but THLeumer and yachster (subbing over NotBamity) swept their matches. Because of this, because all points mattered, JRich just needed to reach game 5 and earn 2 points to clinch the win. Defias received the bad news that JRich had lost his match, but this came with the fantastic news that Defias had won without the lion’s share of the matches. Now, though only captaining, Wild9 joined the short list of players with 4 Hero victories. However, Defias would not be satisfied with one title after their debut was so successful.
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In Season 25, Defias Hero kept Wild9, ythehunter, and THLeumer. Instead of drawing from his Pro team, Wild9 brought on thereallure and SuperHero from Legacy. Thereallure had won on the Defias team that won Legacy Season 19. SuperHero, on the other hand, was a long-time friend of Wild9 who had won Legacy Season 20. The Defias org had so much breadth that they even considered joining APM in hosting multiple Hero teams at once. But first, they had to focus on the season ahead of them. Their Season 24 incarnation had gone undefeated, and that extended a few weeks into the 25th season. However, their first ever loss came at the hands of an updated version of the team that they had faced in finals. Alternative Pet Merchants was the final super Hero team, with a roster that would be 2050 PR now in a season with the PR cap lowered to 1800. Geranium Battle returned alongside Molestar, and they were joined by Legacy Season 26 champions EPICat and RockedYou. Defias’ first loss came as a rude awakening, losing 20-7. But, just as APM had been hardened by a blowout loss in the past, Defias just… stopped losing.

In the semifinals, Defias defeated the Chewie/Fsorace1/aharmlessdog team that had won a few seasons prior, and then finals was against APM one more time. Matches went back and forth. Geranium subbed out, but Wild9 won all the same. Everything ended up coming down to the 5 seed match, where EPICat, winner of the crossover player award the following season, finished this season playing against THLeumer on a bad streak of losses. THLeumer needed to win this final match for all the marbles, which would have been his first win of the season. The two players traded games, THLeumer starting ahead but EPICat keeping pace. The entire season came down to game 5, and Defias came out with their 2nd championship in a row over the organization that had won the previous 4 seasons. 

And then, everything changed. It may be fresh in your mind, but Hero had moved from an 1850 PR series to an 1800 PR series to an 1100 PR series with 3 players instead of 5. The success of previous teams came into question as they’d feel out this new format. Not only that, but 5-person teams were now splitting into two teams. APM, which had 2 teams of 5, now had 4 teams of 3. Defias did end up fielding 2 teams at once, and ythehunter and SuperHero split apart from NotBamity and thereallure to conquer from different conferences. Wild9 stepped back into a captaining role, and Hero went back to business as usual. Defy Us stumbled at the beginning of the season against the core of the APM Hero team from last season’s finals, but Defias with NotBamity and thereallure continued their lossless streak to another 10 wins in a row all the way to playoffs. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Defias did not join Defy Us in the finals. Sneaking into playoffs over another APM Hero team was the other half of Season 23’s championship roster. Perhaps underestimated, perhaps regaining their luck, perhaps drawing their Dungar, Chewie and aharmlessdog were back alongside Supersenter to make it Defy Us vs APM for the third season in a row. A Poulderfist Mountain, the champions of Season 26, ended it in 2 matches. 
A dynasty doesn’t have to be continuous. A dynasty doesn’t have to be spotless. From APM Yang to Always Packin’ Mana to A P____ Mountain, the spirit of the team stayed intact. Does this mean that XplosiveSheep, the first ever Hero champions, the only other season to be played with 3 person teams, could come back and win? I’d like to see them try.

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Hero is a series plagued with strong teams. Teams that would be extremely illegal in Legacy feel commonplace. When everyone’s super, no one will be. But that’s what makes Hero inspirational at the same time. PR is nearly meaningless, and anyone can win. All of those super teams that I mentioned, all of those 2050+ PR teams, failed to win. Other than Season 22, these “super” teams have no banner to show for it. Every time, another team would triumph by communicating, strategizing, and keeping hope.

The past 5 years have seen 6 dynasties, and they’ve all shown incredible resilience. However, there has still been quite a shakeup in the past year of Hero. APMountain winning Season 23 was not the same as the APM wins of the past, and then Defias burst onto the scene and lost 2 weeks total over an entire year. Yet, one of those 2 weeks was in playoffs. Season 27 could have a new dynasty, or it could be the end of an era. If one thing is clear, you should never underestimate any team that sneaks into the postseason.