This 23-year-old game finally got the first ever open World Championship in history

On 01/14 (16:00 GMT+1) and 15-16 (01:00 GMT+1), the Heroes III World Championship finals will begin and will be streamed on Twitch in English, Russian and Polish.

The Heroes of Might & Magic series was initially a spin-off of the hugely popular RPG's Might & Magic, which won the hearts of fantasy fans in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The man behind initial success was ambitious Jon Van Canghem, head of the New World Computing. However, it was only at the urging of Michael, his wife, to start turn-based strategies - first King's Bounty, released in 1990, and 5 years later Heroes of Might & Magic: A Strategic Quest set in the world of Might & Magic.

But it was only Part Three that became a global hit. Huge adventure maps, an extensive heroes development system, a hex-based battlefield and tons of parameters made HoMM III a game for years, not weeks. But what happened that in 2022 this game is still alive and almost 1,000 people from all over the world want to fight for the World Champion title?

All thanks to the fan modding community, which has cared for the state of the game over the years. However, the creation of the Horn of the Abyss mod, developed by the Russian HOTA Crew team, turned out to be crucial. Its numerous updates corrected all the original bugs, but also worked hard on the game's balance, nerfing overly strong factions. Eventually, they also set up a pirate castle, Cove, which was a separate faction, not a simple texture swap from the original ones. It turned out that Cove is not just a curiosity, it has been fully accepted by the fan community and today no one plays online without HotA mods and their new castle. Not the mention the second additional faction, Factory, will be released in the near future.

But the mod added also what the original Heroes III lacked most - the online lobby. For years, playing HoMM III online required a lot of effort and external software. With the built-in lobby not only playing PvP has become easy. The great renaissance of the game began and the competitive scene developed dynamically. Especially in one part of the world - Eastern Europe and Russia.

- The Heroes 3 scene is getting more and more popular every year. There were three national championships organized in Poland, so we decided that it was time to jump into deep water and do the World Championships - says "wrzosy", the founder of the H3.GG organization. - I admit that the response and interest that came not only from Poland and the Russian-speaking countries exceeded our wildest expectations.

Almost 1,000 people, including players from the USA, Canada, Brazil, China and Japan, applied for the qualifications, which started in March 2021. Now it's time for the final match. On January 14-16 two players from Poland - "Szopa666" and "Arytmetyczny" - will play in the BO3 system.

- This fan scene is amazing. And when I’ve heard about the World Championship, I realized that it must be well publicized and receive a setting at the highest level - says Barnaba Siegel, editor of CD-Action, a gaming magazine that has been published since 1996. The magazine is a co-organizer of the finals. - We were planning to do a big fan convention, but due to the pandemic, we had to change our plans and reschedule them. Now we have rented a professional studio, and the streaming will be, among others, on the channel of the local branch of Nvidia Geforce.

The Heroes III World Championship Final will be broadcasted with English commentary (https://www.twitch.tv/lexiav ), Russian (https://www.twitch.tv/twaryna ). and Polish (https://www.twitch.tv/nvidiageforcepl ). The games start on 1/14 at 16:00 GMT+1 and on 1/15 and 16/1 at 13:00 GMT+1.

Official partners of this event are: Nvidia GeForce, Acer Predator, GOG.com, Domino's.