For the last year HoN Tour has promoted competitive play at all levels, and in all parts of the world. While each region has their own localized competitions, the worldwide season has been leading up to one thing - the crowning of a World Champion. The upcoming HoN Tour World Finals will showcase talents from the three main regions: four teams from Southeast Asia, three from North America and Europe, and the pride of the CIS region. Over $150,000 is on the line in the three day event, so lets meet the teams competing for the largest prize pool in Heroes of Newerth history.
Achievements
1st - HoN Tour Season 1 Playoffs
1st - (5) HoN Tour Season 2 Cycle 4, 6, 7, 9, 10
2nd - Sound Blaster Heroes League Season 1
2nd - (3) HoN Tour Season 2 Cycle 3, 5, 8
3rd - HoN Tour Season 2 Playoffs
3rd - Sound Blaster Heroes League Season 2
3/4th - DreamHack Winter 2024
4th - HoN Tour Season 1
HoN Tour Season 2, Rank 2 Overall Standings
Roster
Handsken - Captain/Jungle - Sweden
SuperKGE - Middle - Sweden
Sealkid - Muscle/Support - Sweden
Jonassomfan - Suicide - Sweden
fUzi - Carry - Sweden
Player Interviews
Road to Thailand
No other team has used the exposure and constant competition of HoN Tour better than Bad Monkey Gaming. When the whole affair started, they were relatively unknown, thought of as just another team from Sweden who happened to have the Norwegian organization Lions eSports backing them. As one of the original Diamond Division members, and one of the few teams to always maintain that status, they have established themselves slowly but surely as a dominant powerhouse in HoN. Their first true venture into the limelight was as a result of their notable rivalry with compLexity Gaming, a contest fueled by consistently hard fought and epic matches After meeting in nearly every HoN Tour cycle, the squads went on to face each other in the Grand Finals of Sound Blaster Heroes League Season 1 and in the Bronze match at HoN Tour Season 1 Finals in Las Vegas. It began as a David vs Goliath matchup, but over time the Lions grew stronger and even maintained the better record at points.
The story line that the rivalry provided helped to build up the Lions as a credible team; the results they brought home underlined that credibility further. Although it was just one third place outcome in HoN Tour Season 1, they were always near the top and scratching on those podium places - mostly they were knocked out by compLexity Gaming in the end. Their real emergence came in the playoffs, where they entered as a wildcard and perhaps the odd favorite, while the QsQ program around four-time DreamHack Champion NoVa had the odds in the eyes of most spectators. At that time Jonassomfan, the future BMG suicide player, was at the other side of the fence, engaging in fierce battles with his future teammates.
In one of the more epic matches in Heroes of Newerth history, the team then known as Lions eSports managed to shut down QsQ in the Grand Finals, using their trademark tactics and Heroes like Engineer and Devourer to great effect. With that victory the plane tickets straight to the Grand Finals were punched, and the Lions left their kingdom of Sweden in an attempt to conquer Las Vegas. Ultimately they fell short, failing to record a match victory at the event, though their three game series against compLexity did not disappoint in terms of excitement. The lackluster performance at the event resulted in long-time member Krebsen leaving the team, giving his team the opportunity to rebuild and revamp for the next HoN Tour campaign.
They took their chances by picking up ex-QsQ player Jonassomfan, but unfortunately success did not come quickly as was shown during the devastating events of the DreamHack Summer 2024 qualifiers. As one of the best teams in Europe, the premier team of Sweden, and a rising star in the scene, the team completely wiffed on both opportunities to play the big HoN tournament on home turf. They were instead relegated as merely spectators, watching stayGreen and their rivals compLexity Gaming slugging it out on the big stage.
After that debacle and with HoN Tour Season 2 around the corner the trend for the Lions was headed only one direction - up. The HoN Invitational title was the first real championship added to their resume, followed by a total of five Diamond Division crowns, and the distinct honor of being the only team in all of HoN to have a favorable record over the dominant stayGreen. Granted, that favorable record meant nothing in the HoN Tour break, when the HoN competitive circuit moved to Jönköping, Sweden for DreamHack Winter 2024. Despite a valiant effort and one of the best series of HoN ever played, the Lions were bested by swindle and company, resulting in a disappointing elimination in the semifinals. Their morale wasn’t broken however, as the team rallied back around their two captains Handsken and SuperKGE, finishing off the last stretch of HoN Tour with back-to-back titles and huge momentum for the playoffs.
Unfortunately said momentum began to fade when they received a direct seed to the last stage, granting them a rest and absence from the competitive scene for over two weeks. After coming out of the gates slightly rusty, the squad was defeated by the newly rebranded Sync eSports and then NK in the lower bracket. Iit looked like all the dreams to go to Thailand and become World Champion were done. Only the announcement of another NA/EU team being eligible for the big clash in Thailand saved them, giving them an opportunity to end the season with a high. The rest is history as the BMG squad came to play, as they took home a dominant victory against Team NK to clinch the third Thailand ticket. Now the squad is getting ready for the tournament of their lives with a prize pool north of $150,000 USD - that could be a whole lot of bananas for the Swedes.
In Thailand?
It’s been written a lot over the past couple of weeks, months, and maybe over the last year: Bad Monkey Gaming likes to play the more aggressive game. That does not mean they can’t play the defensively oriented game as well, but overall they like to be the aggressors in the game, pushing the pace and making kills happen all across the map. With playmakers such as Jonassomfan, Handsken, fUzi, and SuperKGE the ganks and rotations of BMG have proven to be lethal for the opposing team in almost every situation.
Not only do they like to get aggressive and force the issue and the fights, they are also trendsetters in terms of new strategies and Heroes. A draft with Bad Monkey Gaming is never really just a draft; it’s more exciting than with other teams. Over the past couple of months the team brought out the Devourer, Ravenor, Gauntlet or even an suicide Valkyrie. Some of them even caught on like wildfire with many teams suddenly picking up Ravenor for a while.
Outside of their notable innovations, the LAN performance and demeanor of the young team has been questioned by some. At DreamHack Winter 2024 observers saw the tactician swindlemelonzz try to get under their skin with warfare outside of the game, something that the team responded well to. Thailand is going to be the third LAN for most of the members, but it’s also going to be special. In Las Vegas, Nevada only a handful of spectators and fans were in the actual suite, while in Sweden the massive number of eyeballs were only on the DreamArena stage - this time a big convention center full of HoN crazed fans will be watching every single step they take. The pressure is on and it’s going to be a show in and of itself to see how the team responds to the new situation.
