"Новичок-2012. Winter"

Or is it enough to just watch streams like that, practice with a friend who has 0 experience playing online.

That is quite enough. I wouldn't say so if I weren't sure. I have a friend who only played hot-seat with me a couple of times and plays fine. I've invited him many times to tournaments on HeroesWorld, but he doesn't want to play online. He plays Dota and Lineage )))

It's just that if a person has a serious approach, that they're not too lazy to calculate something during the game — that's normal! If a person has successful experience in other computer games, then they can learn to play Heroes as well, provided their brain works properly. Streams simply show how it should be done, what the priorities are in the first week, how to build chains, etc. Heroes doesn't require fast-clicking or build-orders timed to the second. So it's possible to learn to play at an average level very quickly.