Our Story
Hero Squad Play began as three friends crammed around a sticky café table at a 2010 Melbourne LAN party. We were hunting for raid tips, patch notes and gear advice—only to bounce between intrusive pop-ups, dead forums and half-finished wikis. Over a stack of cold chips and energy drinks we made a pact: if the perfect site didn’t exist, we’d create it.
What started as a weekend blog evolved into a full-time mission. From our small studio in Collingwood, we now serve hundreds of thousands of players across Australia, New Zealand and the broader Asia-Pacific region. Yet our founding goal remains unchanged: deliver genuine, hype-free gaming guidance that elevates every session, whether you’re a rookie on mobile or a master in pro leagues.
Our Mission
To unite gamers through honest information, inclusive community spaces and unforgettable shared experiences.
We believe great games do more than entertain—they connect people, teach teamwork and spark creativity. By surfacing reliable data, expert tactics and a welcoming environment, we help you and your squad realise that potential.
Our Vision
A world where every player, regardless of skill, identity or location, can log on and feel:
- Informed – clear answers to complex questions, free of click-bait or paywalls.
- Connected – meaningful friendships, positive rivalry and respectful discourse.
- Empowered – the confidence to compete, create and even build a career in games.
What We Do
| Pillar | How It Helps You |
|---|---|
| Editorial | Daily news written for AEST schedules, spoiler-free reviews, and patch analyses built on raw server data—not rumours. |
| Guides & Tools | Interactive walkthroughs, latency benchmarks and squad-matching utilities that let you spend less time searching and more time playing. |
| Events & Esports | From grassroots online cups to stage-lit finals, we organise, cast and support tournaments across OCE titles big and small. |
| Advocacy & Access | Partnering with accessibility NGOs and local devs, we push for settings, hardware and policies that keep gaming open to all. |
Our Values
- Integrity First
No paid opinions, no stealth ads. Affiliate links and sponsorships are always labelled, and negative reviews stay published—no exceptions. - Community Over Clout
Comment threads are actively moderated, toxicity is zero-tolerance, and roadmap polls let members choose the features we build next. - Inclusive by Design
We support women-led squads, LGBTQIA+ charity streams and adaptive-tech showcases, because a stronger player base is a diverse one. - Learning Never Stops
Writers attend dev conferences, analysts watch scrims, and our code team open-sources site plugins—so improvement is baked into our DNA.
Meet the Squad
- Aisha “ByteQueen” Rahman – Editor-in-Chief
Former QA tester turned game journalist, she transforms patch notes into plain English faster than you can say “hotfix.” - Liam “PingLord” Davies – Lead Dev & Infrastructure
Obsessed with minimising latency across the Southern Hemisphere. If the site loads in <200 ms, thank him. - Noah “CoachKoala” Ngata – Esports Director
OCE champion in two FPS titles, now mentors upcoming teams and crafts our tournament rulebooks. - Sienna “IndieScout” Wong – Community & Partnerships
The bridge between passionate players and Aussie indie studios; organiser of our quarterly Game Jam Down Under.
(And a rotating cast of volunteer writers, moderators and podcasters—applications always welcome!)
Community & Culture
Every line of code and paragraph of copy is a love-letter to the culture that raised us: 2 am boss wipes, couch-co-op laughter, convention queuing and midnight patch hype. We celebrate the wins, debrief the losses and never gate-keep the fun. You’ll find:
- Charity Streams supporting mental-health initiatives like CheckPoint.
- Server-Wide Events where SEA, NA and EU friends join OCE lobbies for lag-tolerant party games.
- IRL Meetups at PAX Aus and local bar-cades—yes, the first round’s on us.