In the last couple of months Heroes of Newerth action has peaked with the prestigious and riveting HoN Tour Diamond Division showcasing the best teams in North America and Europe every single week. Now it is time to look back at the epic action – looking at the great numbers that made this Diamond Division such a huge success.

25,275 – The first number of the article is also the first number you will see when looking at the HoN Tour Season 1 Standings right now. Stay Green has dominated the Diamond Division competition and earned a total of 25,275 points out of eight cycles. That is an average of 3159 points the crew around swindlemelonzz won every single cycle – no other team even came close to this spectacular number.

18,500 – There were 18,500 players to have registered and stepped foot on the battlegrounds of Newerth in the first season of HoN Tour. Only a fraction of them made it to the glorious Diamond Division, but the player-base stepped up to the challenge and got a taste of competitive play in all skill-levels.

17,000 – The highest recorded Honcast viewership during the first season of HoN Tour was the Grand Finals of the eighth and final cycle. Stay Green and compLexity Gaming collided for another $4,000 USD and 4,000 points for the standings, but also the prestige and honor of being among the elite teams to win a Diamond Division Championship. The games were exciting, compLexity entertained the masses with a Gladiator and Midas pick-up, but in the end the stage belonged to Stay Green once again – winning their fourth Diamond title with a smashing 17,000 HoN Fans watching.

504 – The number of games were played throughout all of the Diamond Division cycles. This means that a total of 504 times varying strategies were drafted, teams clashed and, one winner prevailed to fight another day.

136 – A total of 220 matches were part of the epic clash between the best teams in the region – not all of them were close. 136 times the games were sweeps and decided in just two maps and sometimes even in under 40 minutes. That means that almost 62 percent of the matches in the highest division HoN Tour had to offer were sweeps, some closer, some rather decisive. Doing the math this also says that 76 matches went the full distance and 8 matches were deciding the outcome of the entire cycle as the Grand Final.

29 – The number of games that decided which team is going to Las Vegas as the Wildcard Participant. Overall the Playoffs featured 12 matches, 8 sweeps, 7 active teams, 3 close three-map series and of course one of the most epic Grand Finals with Lions eSports edging out QsQ coming out of the Lower Bracket and overcoming a 0:1 deficit to start the series.

26 – More than 1300 teams were a part of the debut season of HoN Tour, but only 26 of those have made it to the top of the world. That includes an illustrious list of the standouts like Stay Green, compLexity Gaming, Trademark eSports, Lions eSports, QsQ and Tt eSports, but also newer teams that made a name for themselves lie Team Excellent, Afraid, Absolute Legends or We Are Spies.

23 – That is the number of Grand Finals matches that we got to see being played. One Grand Finals match had to be forfeited due to technical issues, the rest were settled in the Forests of Caldavar with blades, guns and a whole lot of magic. Still only three Grand Finals went on for all four maps – three times Stay Green was a part of those awesome series. First they squeaked out a 3:2 victory in Cycle 3 against the streaking Q sQuad, then they found themselves on the losing end of a 3:2 in Cycle 4 against Trademark eSports and later they won the sixth cycle against compLexity with the same score. Another thing to mention about the Grand Finals series is, that only twice a team rallied back from the initial 0:1 deficit from the Lower Bracket – twice it was Stay Green, twice compLexity Gaming was on the receiving site.

16 – Eight cycles of action, two weeks per cycle, sum it all up and you get 16 weeks of awesome Heroes of Newerth action provided by the professional circuit that is HoN Tour. Not only the Diamond Division provided heartbreaking and thrilling action, but also the Lower Divisions picked up the slack and entertained not only the players, but also the viewers that tuned in to the players streaming their own matches on the way up the “food chain” in HoN.

12 – The total number of players to ever win a Diamond Division Championship. The ten active members of Stay Green and the team formerly known as Trademark eSports are on this list, but iNsania and Skyzoe also got to taste the sweetness of a Diamond Division title while on their respective teams. For Skyzoe, the Cycle 3 of HoN Tour was also his last as an active part of sG – leaving them with a Championship victory. The Swedish support player, iNsania, on the other side won the Diamond crown twice, but was let go by the team after a disappointing finish to Cycle 3. Both eventually made a comeback in the Diamond Division as members of The Fire Rises, but they never came close to another Championship again.

7 – Cycle 7 will go down in the history of the first HoN Tour Season as the tide-turning cycle. It was not only the cycle when Stay Green obliterated every single opponent and did not drop a single map, but it was also the cycle where Stay Green officially moved ahead of Trademark eSports in the official HoN Tour Standings and later on in the official Honcast Community Rankings as well. The new sheriffs were in town, the new Kings of Newerth were taking their place on the throne.

5 – Only five teams played all eight cycles in the Diamond Division. Only the four Vegas-bound teams and Tt eSports showed the consistency throughout the 16 weeks of fierce competition to remain with the highest status in HoN Tour. Incredibly enough Tt eSports suffered through a lot of adversity by losing key members like sLiCKz, wyt` or Riser_, but they showed a lot of resilience to battle through that and remain one of the five teams that stayed in Diamond.

4 – Only four teams have a fighting chance to become the first ever HoN Tour Champion. Those four teams will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada, will get treated like Kings in the Hardwood Suite of the Palms and will play for the lion's share of the 60,000 USD. Honor, Prestige, Bragging rights and a lot of money is on the line when Stay Green, Lions eSports, ex-Trademark eSports and compLexity Gaming colliding in the chilled atmosphere of the HoN Tour Grand Finals.

3 – The top three contestants of HoN Tour will be awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals respectively -- but one of the contestants in Vegas will be left going home cold.

2 – Only two teams have ever reached the highest of highs in HoN Tour by edging out the competition to place first in a cycle. Stay Green and Trademark eSports both made it to the top four times each, defeating challengers like compLexity Gaming, Absolute Legends and QsQ in the Grand Finals. It would only be fitting to see the two standout teams of the regular season face off in the Grand Final of the entire HoN Tour Season, but Lions eSports and four-time runner-up compLexity Gaming might have something against that.

1 – In the end all those numbers don't really matter. In the end, number one is all that counts. Who can be the #1 team walking out of the Hardwood Suite with a boatload of cash, honor, prestige and a trophy. Will it boil down to Stay Green and Trademark eSports again? Will the resurgence of compLexity Gaming be topped off by a HoN Tour title? Can the Nordic Warriors of Lions eSports be the Cinderella Story of Las Vegas?

-Fantasy
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