The Carnage Pro League Cycle 1 beckons with it's 30 competitive matches over the next four weeks. Six teams have qualified for it and they will face each other in a merciless race for the top four positions and a shot at the Playoffs and the $8000 prizepool. The teams left behind will not only pass on the substantial money, but they also have to fight in the Relegation Matches to stay in the Pro League for Cycle 2. Not all of the teams that qualified are very well known, and in fact, two of them are rather unknown and add a surprise element into the mix. Let's take a look at all of the contenders:
[BMG]BadMonkeyGaming
BMG are without a doubt one of the hottest contenders to win the Pro League and the following Playoffs. With a break, at minimum, for stayGreen, BMG is the oldest and and likely the strongest of all the teams playing. As usual, all of their games are played with high aggression and action all the way, so it is always a pleasure to watch them work. After letting go of Superkge, the team has been struggling a bit to find it's new balance, as shown in their recent King of the Hill losses. Despite still learning to mesh with their new midlaner, the Monkeys did bring home the NVIDIA Cup against Sync eSports, a squad that has become something of an arch rival to BMG. In the Pro League we can expect them to be the favourite in almost every match; only Sync will likely present a consistent challenge.
[SynC]Sync eSports
Until stayGreen retired from active service, Sync eSports were probably the third strongest and most consistent team out there, but since then they have improved even more, even managing to defeat their direct rival, BMG, on several occasions. With several wins in the King of the Hill event, and a defense of their title against BMG, they’ve made quite an impression on the rest of the competitive scene as matches of Sync against BMG have become the standard finals of recent tournaments. It is up to the players now to take the final step towards the top, win the Pro League and dethrone BMG properly. They will be the favourite of many matches, just like BMG, and their direct matches will not only be entertaining, but also key to how the rest of the Off-Season plays out.
[Rea]Reason Gaming
The guys from Reason Gaming have been around for a long time and have consistently increased their skill and teamwork, moving them from a Gold team in HoN Tour Season 1 to the top team they are now. To be a fan of this team is not easy though, as they have surges of glory where they win against the strongest of teams and win tournaments with ease, but at other times they experience disappointing losses to teams they should have been able to beat. This happened just recently in the Garena Invite Cup #4, where the REXXARS left them penniless in the 5-6th rank. Reason Gaming is a team whose greatest strength can also be their most glaring weakness, so their job now is to either find some balance or just go even more hit or miss and force their unique playstyle onto their opponents. It is very likely that Reason Gaming will make it into the Playoffs, but they need to be careful; one mistake can mean the difference between big money and relegation. A victory over Team Excellent and the REXXARS is of utmost importance, and if they can beat either BMG or Sync, they should be well on their way to the top four.
[xCet]Team Excellent
[xCet]Pew and his merry band of homeless players have gathered and revived Team Excellent once more for the Carnage in Caldavar event, hoping to get a bite from the sizable prize pool offered to the top teams. One of the eye catchers this time is the addition of [xCet]Superkge, taking a very talented and famous players from BMG. [xCet]NoX has also returned after his somewhat brief stay in Thailand last winter, giving this team a pretty strong core. [xCet]fajN` and [xCet]Massera make up the rest of the standard lineup, a list of names that should give pause to all hopeful teams coming from the lower division. The new Team Excellent might surprise us all and is certainly a contender to be recognized for the prize pool. They might not yet have the teamplay or harmony that is required to beat Sync or BMG, but all other teams in the Pro League are potential prey for xCet.
[KNX]REXXARS
One of the less known teams in the Pro League, the REXXARS have already impressed players and viewers alike in the past when they went through the lower brackets of HoN Tour Season 2 like a hot knife through butter. It was too late to really get something going in that Season, but unlike some other unknown but surprisingly strong teams, the REXXARS stayed at it and participated in several events. While that involvement did not always bear fruit, they did make a good impression by kicking Reason Gaming and Cats Gaming out of the Garena Invite Cup a few weeks back, as well as qualifying for the Pro League. For the next four weeks, the REXXARS will have to prove themselves with every game, but even getting this far is already an achievement. Reason Gaming will certainly face a nightmare if the REXXARS go at them as strong as they did last month on CIS turf. While team Excellent knocked the colorful beastmasters out of the Carnage Qualifiers, the team surrounding veteran captain iNsan1a is improving quick. Just like the other teams, they have a reasonable chance to make it into the Playoffs if they can win a few key matches against their more seasoned opponents. Stranger things have happened.
[tUS]The Last of US
Although the players in this teams are somewhat well known, the team itself is probably the biggest unknown in the equation. [uqt]miestybro and his team have appeared and disappeared from the active scene every now and then, but it seems that they are here to stay now that they have qualified for the Pro League. They defeated the "brother teams", [tree]willowkeeper and [Ic3]Sweet Like ICE, to get where they are now. Those victories are no small feat considering that these teams wiped the floor with their opponents in the recent Garena CIS competition, and were considered the strongest of the "newer" teams in the competitive scene. Now the NA based squad have teams of a different caliber ahead, so it will get a lot tougher. Reason Gaming finished them off 2-0 in the qualifiers, so they clearly have a hard cycle ahead of them, and need to get wins wherever they can to not be forced into the Relegation Matches.
As you can see, very interesting teams and a promising Cycle lies ahead of us. The whole kicked off earlier this week, with BadMonkeyGaming and Sync eSports, while the real fun begins this weekend with double-headers on Saturday and Sunday. Tune in to Honcast with BreakyCPK Saturday at 12pm EDT | 1800 CEST to catch the first match between The Last of US and BMG, and tune in all weekend for more Carnage in Caldavar!
About the author: Blaze
12 Weeks Of Carnage, A New Off-Season Event
Carnage In Caldavar Portal
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