Prizes are $500 if the image is used for the mainpage, and $200 for every image used for subtournaments.  The new look will revert to a 'darker' feel with a black background, so keep that in mind, as well as keeping the image not too cluttered, as space will be needed for text and menu buttons.  Contest ends on March 31st, and payment is made via check or western union.  Contact admin@toheroes.com for any more details & artwork submission.

Some amazing talent was shown in Nival's art contest, and it would be nice to have some original work applied to the upcoming Homm5 ToH Season.

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The future of ToH and Online Heroes Gaming? [09/20/05]
Players have asked as to what will become of ToH when Homm5 arrives.  Well definitely a lot of good things, the site will once again have a new look to it, along with a brand new season that should usher a tremendous amount of new activity.  

The automation for this site was designed to handle a lot of traffic, but the dissapointment called HeroesIV never allowed ToH to rise to its full potential.  Now with HommV we have high hopes of a return to the days of Season III where 100s of games were being played a day.

Right now the player database has nearly 22,000 members, with all records & history intact.  So when the move is made to Heroes V on its launch (realistically sometime around February 2006) all veteran dragon/wyvern icons will follow through for those concerned (along with Caesar titles).  But we expect a tremendous influx of new players by that time...

Looks like Ubisoft will have its own matchmaking service (like zone, gamespy) so most if not all ToH gaming will go on there.  It is also rumored that they may have their own ladder setup as well.  But ToH is where its at... we promise :)

Ensuring Heroes V Will Be The Game We Want to Play! [1/25/06]
According to the community of Beta Testers and Fans following the development of HommV, there is a lot of balancing, bugs & gameplay changes needed before the game is released.  But the corporate pressures to release the game on time before March is up may risk the quality & playability of the game.
So the communities have set up petitions to hopefully get enough pressure to direct the attention of the powers-that-be to extending the development time.  Here is a list of the forums supporting the petition:
Ubisoft Forums
• The Genie's Lamp Announcement and Forum Thread
• Celestial Heavens Announcement and Comments
• Gamespot Forums
• La Torre de Marfil Announcement and Comments
• The Oracle League Announcement and Comments
• Guardian's Grove Forums

Microsoft Gaming Zone For Heroes III - Over Soon.  [12/7/05]
Heroes III has had the advantage of having both Gamespy and the MSN Zone as is matchmaking service, but as of Late January, 2006, MSN Zone will discontinue supporting Homm3. Many players not only use this to find opponents, but it has also become their favorite chatroom and home to meet old homm competitors and friends.

So what can be done? Nothing but to move over to Gamespy to continue playing Homm3, as Homm4 players do. A good many players will probably stop playing homm3 online because of this, as gamespy is a lot less popular among the homm3 community. We can only hope that Homm5 will bring the veterans back and UBISoft's alternative -- their own matchmaking service will help revitalize the online Homm community.

HeroesPortal.net Heroes III Challenge [09/12/05]
An agreement has been made between ToH and HeroesPortal, to start a tournament between the leagues.  It involves 8 players from each side, playing an elimination tournament -- They recently played Drachenwald.net and won 7-1 -- showing these Russians' strength in the game. 
For a example of how their tournaments work, visit this image.
We have the following 8 ToH players ready for the challenge:
Petrus, Tc_Fear, Tox, Jarcik, Druid, Maretti3, Frank, Gertva
If there are other veterans who are interested in participating, you can be placed on a 'waitlist' in case a player backs down.

Players visit the Message Board regarding the discussion on the rules for this tournament, and arranging a fair agreement on how this should be played between ToH and Heroesportal.

Battlefest Tournament For Heroes 3 Players [07/28/05]
Thanks to Lichking, the Battlefest subtournament is now open for registration.  What is Battlefest?  It is a 'faster' game played not for ToH points, but a fast-paced setup with specialized maps that allow all sorts of large stacks of troops to join your team, resulting in some extreme battles early in the game.

General News on the Heroes V Project  [07/25/05]
We should be receiving some news soon on the remaining 4 yet-unnamed towns -- a simplified demo is reported to be coming out soon, and more importantly, an 'alpha'-testing program offered to some of the Homm community leaders.   This early beta test will be occurring sometime in September, with a more comprehensive beta test later in the Fall.  When should we expect the game?  Realistically, no earlier than February 2006.

Heroes V Demo Videos... Very Impressive! [06/04/05] The videos can now be found all over the internet, but you can download them here without the hassle.  Four of them show the game as it is played, and it is such a visual upgrade over HommIV.
	Adventure map:  You can scroll across the map, zoom in and out, and rotate the map.  Everything is beautifully animated, and all looks familiar :)
	Battle Screen:  Looks just like what we are used to, but in 3D, the animations are incredible, and everything seems to come to life.  Wow... the spellcasting!!!
	Haven Town:  The whole town is rendered in 3D, you can scroll around, see every corner.  It almost looks real, or something out of Lord of the Rings...
	Demo Video:  A compilation of many scenes, a sort of 'Demo Tour' video for advertising.  The game looks almost finished... playtesting & balancing next?

Heroes IV Season III, Heroes III Season VIII [06/01/05]
The season is now open, and players may again submit their wins & losses to the rankings page.  Players who were Baron ranked or higher in ToH take note of your new Dragon/Wyvern veteran Icons.  New players to ToH can use those Icons to measure up how long a player has been actively playing in ToH.

A New ToH Season begins June 1st  [04/28/05]
Now that we can 'assume' that Heroes V would be released sometime early 2006, it is a good time to start a new season, probably the last season for heroes 3 & 4 tournaments.  The new season begins June 1st, with the current season closing on May 27th.  All player records stay intact (wins, losses, map records, medals) but the scores and rankings all reset to 1000pts.  All Baron ranked players and higher will receive new dragon/wyvern veteran icons.

Heroes V Announced... Finally!  [03/30/05] This is a great moment for Heroes fans, now we can expect a new game in the series, something we have been waiting for a long time.  The screenshots are very promising, and it looks like Ubisoft is putting their 100% into it.  Phew!  They have a Forum where the discussion is going on.

Caesar Finals   [02/01/05]
The grandfinals now begin, with 4 players attempting to win the title of Caesar.  On the Heroes III side, it is Rock_Bul vs. The_Saint_BG, and on Heroes IV it is Gustn vs. Camoes.  The winners get 200 bonus prestige points and the Caesar title (last year's winner was Valkyrica) -- and $100 cash reward.  Good luck to all 4.
Once the two winners are declared (no deadline for this round) a new ToH season will begin.