The very first cycle of HoN Tour is set to come to an action-packed conclusion this weekend, and in the Silver Division we have four teams left that certainly all have a chance at taking home the crown.
Having only lost one game throughout the first Silver Division cycle, and that being in their last match, Druidz eSports definitely looks to be one of the strongest teams remaining. They’ve played a wide variety of heroes as they’ve dominated their way through the competition thus far. That said, if they’re looking to claim the Silver Division title for Cycle 1, they have a couple of key areas to improve upon.
Why They Can Win It All:
They’ve won with a variety of strategies ranging from an all-out push to a more conventional hard carry lineup, and a mix between the two. They are simply incredible when it comes to teamfights and have shown game after game that they know how to utilize the farm they get from pushing those outer towers quickly.
They always seem to control Kongor and get the Token for themselves. Team members can play many different roles on a bunch of different heroes, and their drafting always seems to leave them with a strong lineup. They are simply a team that will be hard to set up a game plan for.
How They Get Taken Out:
If there’s been one weakness Druidz has shown, it’s been in the laning phase. In a lot of their games they actually gave up the Bloodlust kill to the other team. Throw aggressive lane setups at them and don’t be afraid to roam into other lanes to set up kills.
Don’t give them the opportunity to start ganging up and forcing a team fight, which is where they shine.
Keep Kongor warded! Also, while they did win a few games featuring a conventional hard carry lineup, those were by far their weaker games. Ban the pushers like crazy and force them out of a push strat.
Things To Watch For:
FibUnk0 has had an incredible tournament so far this cycle. Playing mostly in the suicide role, he’s not only held his own, but outright won those lanes a few times. Most notably he’s played a downright devastating Behemoth. In both games, he set up Bloodlust kills before the creeps spawned and made his presence known with kill assists in every lane as he deftly roamed. Hopefully we’ll get to see some more FibUnk0 Behemoth play as this cycle wraps up.
[nDMC]Endemic
This team has featured one of the roughest paths to the Semi Finals, needing to win a decisive third game in three of their four matches this cycle. Also, in each of those games, they actually fell behind early on. They’ve showed incredible resolve in gutting out some ugly wins in those third games. Even though their upcoming opponent (Druidz) looks to be somewhat formidable, Endemic is by far the worst matchup for them of the three other remaining teams.
Why They Can Win It All:
They just find a way to get it done when they need to, and they’ve done it a number of different ways. Endemic seems to figure out the perfect adjustments they need to make to get back in a game. Something else they have been especially proficient at is mid-game ganking.
They’ve run a lot of lineups featuring exceptionally powerful mid-game heroes like Fayde, Tundra, and Pharaoh, and shown why those heroes are so feared. Look for Endemic to turn on the aggression as the laning phase ends and put some serious pressure on unsuspecting opponents.
How They Get Taken Out:
Look for early opportunities for kills, as Endemic’s opponents in the past have taken advantage of this.
Survive the mid-game gank-a-thon that they’re going to inevitably look to throw upon you, and finish off what you started.
Ban those annoying gankers like the ones mentioned above, and you could easily have the game won at the lock pick phase as Endemic makes a lot of questionable—but interesting—choices during that stage.
Things To Watch For:
When on the Hellbourne side, they have no problem straight-up trolling the lock pool with obscure heroes. Regardless of which Legion heroes their opponent locks, Endemic can guarantee they’ll have to play something odd by “stealing” two of the three heroes that the other team locks.
Another fun thing to keep an eye out for is which hero team captain Xatron will build Alchemist’s Bones on next. He’s already bought the item for Pebbles and Aluna. Can he single-handedly give this item a resurgence?
It’s hard to imagine any team having an easier path than what Non3Ense had to get this far in the Silver Division. Four matches, three forfeits. Their only real match was about as uncompetitive as it possibly could have been. So needless to say, there’s hardly anything we can know about this team so far. We’ll get to know if they truly deserve to be where they are after this weekend, assuming someone shows up to play against them.
Why They Can Win It All:
It’s easy: nobody knows anything about them. In the two games they won they utilized both a push strat as well as something a bit more traditional, so it seems they have some flexibility in their play style. If anything, they’ve probably gotten a lot of extra practice time while other teams were, you know, actually playing games.
How They Get Taken Out:
And just as easy: they don’t have any real experience in this division. In the game in which they used a Zephyr pushing strategy, their opponent clearly had no real clue how to deal with it, but still managed to get a few kills in.
Against a more experienced team, being similarly lackadaisical in their approach to that strategy could have much more serious repercussions. It’s hard to imagine this team is going to come into this weekend’s slate of games with the same edge the others are, having not played anything close to a serious match thus far.
Things To Watch For:
Something of interest in the one game they played was the unbelievably aggressive lane setup they sent top as Legion. They sent Engineer, Magmus, AND Master Of Arms up against a Dark Lady being babysat by an Aluna. And by babysat, I mean they watched each other die over and over again. Hopefully they’ll look to do something similar again, because that’ll definitely mean one thing: lots and lots of action.
[SdS]SdS
SdS seems to have found the middle ground amongst the final four teams in terms of difficulty in reaching the Semi Finals. Their first opponent in the division forfeited, they swept their next opponent, then needed to play all three games in their last two matches. They’re definitely one of the more entertaining teams left as they are extremely well-coordinated in their ganks and counter-initiations, while also playing a couple of rarely seen heroes regularly.
SdS’ lineup featured Rhapsody in an astounding six of the eight games played so far this cycle and Bramble in three of those eight games. Perhaps we’ll see even more Bramble play this weekend considering they won all three games played with him.
Why They Can Win It All:
You only need to watch a few minutes of SdS play to know that they are incredibly well-coordinated. They use Pharaoh in a lot of their games, and it seems like you’ll always see a Tormented Soul come flying in from across the map right as they initiate, and kill, their target.
The ports to other lanes to assist someone being dove upon are fast and simultaneous. It’s obvious they possess the teamwork to claim the Silver Division title for the inaugural cycle, but will their unconventional hero lineups help or hinder them? It seems to be clearly in the positive so far, as Bramble was making quick work of enemy heroes who didn’t quite seem to have any experience against the hero’s abilities. It remains to be seen if their upcoming opponents are prepared to deal with these seldom-picked heroes.
How They Get Taken Out:
Be careful with how aggressive you are against this team. As was stated earlier, they are quick and willing to port to other lanes to assist if need be. Keep early game tower diving to a minimum.
At the same time, if you can draw them to use Homecoming Stones you can easily gain an edge in gold and experience as they overload lanes in a false alarm.
They won the majority of their games taking over the mid-game with semi-carries, so a team built around a true hard carry that can draw things out into the late game should have a decided advantage against SdS.
Also, considering that Pharaoh and Rhapsody are played in a majority of their games, you may want to consider blind banning them both as they were a staple of their lock pool picks.
Things To Watch For:
There seem to be three players tied exclusively to three heroes. First is MERRlCK playing the fantastic Rhapsody mentioned above. He’s had some absolute game-changing ultimates thanks to great positioning in team fights.
Next is Steve` playing on Bramble. Now, they did only play three games with the hero, but that’s still about three more than I’ve ever seen.
Lastly, we have Mike`` playing Pharaoh. If a fight is happening, Pharaoh is almost certainly going to be involved somehow. It’ll be interesting to see how they react if teams start forcing them to play other heroes.
In conclusion, we have four very unique teams set to battle it out for title of Cycle 1’s Silver Division Champion. They’ve all had different paths to get this far, and things are definitely going to get shaken up as they fight this weekend, but there’s one thing that I’m absolutely sure about: the Gold Division is going to have their hands full when these teams move up to compete at the next level. Give ‘em hell!
-Speidel
