Thank goodness it’s the weekend! A chance to relax, sleep in, have a lazy Sunday afternoon… NO! It’s Hon Tour time! HoN Tour cycle 1 continued this weekend with more awesome games being played in the Diamond division, and this Saturday certainly did not disappoint. Cycle 1 of HoN Tour will come to a close this Sunday and more than $32,000 in prizes will be awarded to the top teams. compLexity Gaming is still in the running for the coveted #1 spot in the Diamond division but if you missed some of those games here is a recap for you:
Saturday, December 1st 12:00EST – Winners Ro16
After months, years even, of waiting HoN Tour finally kicks off! The top 16 teams are seeded according to rankings from the qualifiers and #4 compLexity gaming faces off against #15 Pencils.
While the hero kill score stayed relatively even throughout most of the first game, coL consistently controlled their opponents resources, offensively farming, preventing Pencils from getting any ganks with their highly aggressive Parasite and Dampeer combination. Eventually the huge Pebbles played by [coL]bkid proved too much for the Pencils team and compLexity took game 1 in 37 minutes on the back of a 13/0/5 Pebbles.
Game dispelled all illusions of parity between these two teams. Though they both might be top 16 and in the Diamond division compLexity was on another level entirely. With an early lead due in large part to [coL]bkid on his signature Magmus and [coL]MoonMeander on his favorite hero Bubbles the coL squad farmed up their carry to extreme levels. Despite a few playful over extensions in the late game and a lost rax coL completely dominated Pencils in game two and took the series 2-0.
Saturday, December 1st 15:30EST – Winners Ro8
With morale high among the coL players after their victory in Winners Round of 16 they move on to play their RO8 opponent, the new team of old players, rank #5 Domain of Pain. While DoP hasn’t been around for very long their deep roster of veteran gamers such as AngryTestie (of SK.HoN and SC:BW fame) is one to be respected if not feared.
Game 1 was an impressive slugfest between the teams, going blow for blow, pushing, farming, ganking in unison. [coL]haxxeren and teammates Moonmeander and even Chessie on the jungle War Beast reached great levels of farm in the first 20 minutes finishing items that gave coL a small advantage going into the mid game. AngryTestie led the charge for the DoP team farming over 400 GPM on Arachna and providing the firepower for an early Kongor kill and a rax push. Eventually compLexity’s patience paid off and they took a successful team fight as they defended their base. coL never let the momentum slip and continued to compound their lead with 500 GPM games on [coL]haxxeren’s Wretched Hag as well as [coL]Chessie’s Wild Soul. DoP raised the white flag at 41 minutes in and coL takes the 1-0 advantage in the Bo3 series.
If game 1 was a slugfest then game two was a question mark. DoP drafted an unconventional line up to say the least. Bramble, Soul Reaper, and Cthuluphant made it into the DoP team and though the challengers were able to get some early game ganks coL made sure to defend well and farm even better to take an advantage. With nearly 500 GPM on [coL]haxxeren’s Zephyr and a strong showing on bkid’s Pebbles coL crushed the game, forcing a concede at just 22 minutes sealing the 2-0 victory and advancing in the winners bracket.
Sunday, December 2nd 15:30EST – Winners Semi-Finals
In Boxing there was Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, in Baseball the Yankees and the Red Sox, one great rivalry is all that it takes to make a bout, a game, or a match epic as epic can be. For Heroes of Newerth that rivalry is compLexity Gaming and Trademark eSports. coL and tdM are consistently vying for the spot at the top of the HoN competitive scene. Though coL at one point seemed impervious to the constant attacks by tdM and other top teams it no longer appears to be the case. After tdM showed the world that gods could bleed by eliminating the coL squad from the HoN Tour Qualifiers in 4th place they went on to win the tournament 2-1 over V0TE (now known as sG), giving tdM the #1 seed going into HoN Tour. The following weekend tdM did it again as coL met up with the Trademark crew in the finals of DreamHoN at Dreamhack Winter. tdM took the series home 2-0 in dominating fashion and coL left Sweden tasting mortality for the second time in recent memory. For the third weekend in a row the teams met up, this time to see who will advance to the Winners Bracket Finals of HoN Tour Diamond Cycle 1 and guarantee themselves at least $2,000 and 3rd place in the event.
Game 1 started with both teams getting a very strong draft, each with a line up that nearly perfectly represents their individual style, however going into the later stages of the early game coL simply executed better gaining a quick 5,000 gold lead and a large hero kill advantage. Once the game was in their favor coL never let up on the pressure continuing to push, farming hard on their Magebane, and taking decisive team fights ending with a tdM concede at just 28 minutes in. coL looked like a team reborn, not allowing their the previous setbacks against tdM to affect their play and went into game 2 with all the momentum.
The draft in game 2 looked a little less standard for compLexity, trading their normal jungle player Chessie for a secondary support in the form of Plague Rider. tdM got another offensive lineup with a Parasite, Pebbles, and Pollywog Priest all making their way in for the legion team. coL took a small lead early with effective hero kills and nice push coming out via [coL]MoonMeander’s Keeper of the Forest. All that changed in one team fight, a deep initiation from [coL]bkid on Magmus into the tdM base led to a lost team fight and a game that quickly spiraled out of control for the compLexity squad. [coL]haxxeren maintained 500 GPM throughout the game but it wasn’t enough to fend off the tdM team as at 51 minutes in coL succumbed to the consistently great team fight of the Trademark crew. The series was all evened up and it would come down to the rubber match to decide who would go on to the Winners Bracket Finals and who would drop into the lower bracket.
With a standard line up working so well and a less standard line up not paying off quite as much coL decided to progress with the next logical step: a completely off the wall all-in push strategy including Zephyr, Rhapsoy, and even [coL]MoonMeander on Balphagore. tdM countered with a team sporting fantastic anti-push and great scaling in the form of Torturer and Wretched Hag. The coL crew worked to push down towers as fast as possible in order to secure an early gold lead and hopefully a barracks, but for every tower coL knocked down it seemed like tdM was able to even it up. Lack of team fight and scaling on the compLexity line up showed throughout the mid game and after just 28 minutes coL put up the vote to concede and Trademark took the series and the match up for the third week in a row.
Saturday, December 8th 12:00EST – Losers Round of 4
This weekend coL has to put it all on the line, if they drop another series they will be eliminated from HoN Tour Cycle 1 Diamond. 3 series is all that is between them and the Grand Finals, fighting for $4,000 and 4000 points toward the HoN Tour Season 1 LAN Finals. 3 series, between coL and a championship once again. compLexity’s first opponent was during the LR of 4 against LIONS eSportsKlubb, the #12 seed in the event and a European squad with a known sponsor yet an untested roster. LION has looked strong in the past against coL taking some games during scrims, yet compLexity was certainly favored going into the match.
Game 1 started with a bit of an unfortunate circumstance for compLexity as star hard carry player [coL]Haxxeren was unavailable for the match and had to be replaced with backup player [coL]Shamsz. Going into the draft compLexity and LIONS went blow for blow as each team appeared to get a hero line up they were comfortable with, coL picking Silhouette to be played by MoonMeander while LION picked Moon Queen to be played by Superkge. Despite having a very “compLexityesque” draft the coL squad fell behind early with [coL]bkid getting the only decent farm on the team’s Behemoth. Despite a very passive mid game (3-3 hero kills in 35 minutes) the LION squad was able to secure, maintain, and extend their lead getting huge farm on Moon Queen. After an over extension from the coL squad following a successful push defense the coL squad had to tap out at 50 minutes in, dropping game 1 to a huge Superkge from the LION squad.
Game 2 opened with compLexity having some interesting lanes, suicide mid Pharoah and long lane Torturer with Glacius in the long lane but the coL squad utilized effective roaming to score early hero kills and a quick gold lead. On the other side of things Forsaken Archer in a dual lane middle got effective farm, but LION did find themselves behind by 5000 gold and a moderate amount of experience at 25 minutes into the game. Kills traded relatively evenly during the mid game but [coL]MoonMeander on Wretched Hag compounded his farm and eventually picked up a Harkon’s Blade after a Hellflower and a Shrunken Head. With the charge led by an extremely fed Hag coL took a third Kongor kill, another team fight, and finished the game at 40 minutes in. With momentum on their side once again coL marched into game 3 on even ground, just one game away from the next round and one step closer to victory.
HoN Tour Season 1 Cycle 1 Losers Round 4 LION vs coL Game 3. That’s a mouthful of identification but you should remember it. It’s a game that will go down in the history books as about as impressive of a showing as one can expect out of a team. It started very innocently with another standard coL lineup: bkid on Pebbles, Moon on Bubbles, Chessie on Ophelia, and even Shamsz on Witch Slayer. Witch was sent into the short lane to solo against Krebsen’s Magmus and Handsken’s formidable Engineer, a rough lane for the coL player. The late early game into the mid game was a slugfest, hero kills going one for one, tower trades, and even team fights; the gold and experience advantage is negligible at 20 minutes in. Just prior to the 30 minute mark coL went for an aggressive gank that quickly turned into a team fight. An even trade in the initial skirmish turned in favor of the LION squad after Krebsen landed a beautiful Eruption ultimate and managed to save his teammate on Engineer with a quick Storm Spirit. This team fight marked the end of the even part of this game as LION grabbed a large experience lead and moderate gold lead which they would hold onto and build upon for the next 20 minutes. After letting LION have their fun the coL squad went absolute monster mode taking a decent team fight, and somehow continuing to close the experience gap until it eventually tipped into the favor of the compLexity team. Two level 25 players, Superkge on Silhouette and Aellgi on Hag, led the charge for LION as posturing near Kongor pit occupied 10 or more minutes. At nearly 70 minutes into the game coL got the break they were looking for: a HUGE team fight that closed the gold gap and put coL ahead in experience by 10k. With multiple players down coL tried to press their advantage against the middle lane going for the barracks and despite multiple LION buybacks coL crushed one hero after another. The following few minutes were filled with won team fights for the coL squad, picking off heroes left and right, buy backs, ports, and destroyed barracks but at 75 minutes in the LION squad raised the white flag and coL took the series 2-1.
Saturday, December 8th 15:30EST – Losers Finals #1
With all the momentum of the epic victory against LION at their back the coL squad braced for another tough series but they were given a lucky break. Their next opponents, Q Squad 357, were unable to field 5 players so coL was awarded the forfeit win and the immediate advance to the next round to play against the losing team from the Winners Finals.
Sunday, December 9th 12:00EST – Losers Finals #2
It all comes down to this. 3 teams remain in Diamond Cycle #1. 2 series are all that are needed for the coL squad to regain their throne and only two teams stand in their way. First up is stay Green (sG), the team formerly known as V0TE or Gary Johnson 2012. The powerhouse of star players from around the world dropped their set against tdM 2-0 in Saturday’s games to find themselves up against coL. sG last played coL on LAN at the DreamHoN at Dreamhack Winter event 2 weeks ago where coL crushed the V0TE team 2-0 in the opening series of the event. It will be up to sG to show that they have what it takes to bring down coL or for the fourth week in a row we will see a rematch of coL vs tdM.
Should coL win the series against sG their work is not done. Immediately following the Losers Finals #2 the winner will have to face tdM and take two best of three series in order to secure the first place prize of HoN Tour Diamond #1. It’s going to be a hell of a ride.
HoN Tour Cycle 1 Diamond Coverage
The action starts on Sunday, December 9th at 12:00EST with coL vs sG (V0TE) and will continue with the Grand Finals shortly after. HoN Tour coverage will be provided by compLexity’s own caster Beef at http://www.twitch.tv/complexityhon and by Honcast at http://www.honcast.com. Check http://www.hontour.com for more information and of course stay tuned right here to http://www.complexitygaming.com for all your coverage of coL.HoN and HoN Tour Season 1.