When HoN Tour made its official announcement, I was incredibly excited. Not so I could see whether or not Complexity could run the table again. Not even so I could see some big plays by the community’s top players.

I want to see the awful plays.

I want to see the bad teams get gloriously run over. I’m excited for HoN Tour because I get the chance to see how average players just like me handle the big stage. Has the game’s next “Side-step King” been stuck in the 1600 bracket this whole time?

We’re finally about to find that out.

Right off the bat, one of the first things I’m eager to see is how teams handle Lock Pick. This is still a relatively new addition to the game that only the competitive teams have gotten any sort of real practice with. Will teams go with what they’ve watched on HoNCast? Or will we get to watch teams be innovative and ingenious?



I really think we’ll get to see the latter, especially in the Bronze and Silver divisions. With teams looking to play a much wider variety of heroes, the locking phase should get extremely interesting. I think (and hope) that you’ll see a lot more of the “troll” style of locking by choosing heroes that seem useless, while that team actually has every intention of building a lineup around that particular outlier hero.

If a team is capable of playing a niche hero, they can really carry an advantage during the Lock Pick stage. By locking their niche heroes and banning the more popular ones, a creative team can easily force their opponent into playing an uncomfortable lineup. Games are certainly won and lost during this phase, and I can’t wait to watch teams set up their “bloodlust kill” before the map even loads.

The laning phase, and even the pre-laning/pull-warding phase, has seen a lot of evolution over time. The current sort of Meta is how a team handles trying to ward the opponent’s creep pull, or defending against theirs being warded. Teams have done it so many different ways, and I know that during HoN Tour we’ll continue to see this phase of the game evolve as teams get creative.

But after this phase plays out, I’m intrigued by the potential of the actual laning phase. I’m looking forward to seeing the crazy lane setups (dual jungle? tri-lane mid?) that might push the current Meta game in a new direction.

The greatest thing about HoN Tour is that every single team gets the same opportunity to influence the entire community. You don’t have to be a top 10 team to expose to the world a devastating new strategy or hero synergy. You simply have to be bold enough to try it, and skilled enough to pull it off.

HoN Tour just has so many captivating storylines that I can see why everyone is so excited for it. It has something for everyone involved in HoN.

For the players, there’s a place for you if you’re looking to just make friends, or if you’re looking to make money.

For the fans, you can watch your game being played to its highest potential, or watch other average players like yourselves airmail Devourer hooks for hours on end.

But for all of us, it’s a chance to watch the game we love take a step forward into the spotlight and be a leader in the eSports scene. I’ve got to say, as someone who first started playing HoN during Beta, I never really envisioned the game coming this far. I figured my pre-purchase would get me a few months of on and off enjoyment until the next big thing came around.

It’s just now I’m realizing that I already bought the next big thing over three years ago when I gave $30 to a company I had never heard of.

So when I think about HoN Tour, I can’t help but be giddy about it. Not only because of the great potential to move eSports forward, but I get to reflect on how far this game and this community have come.

I hope you’ll all join me in enjoying the ride.

-Speidel
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