By quincy0191
BMG - Jonassomfan (suicide)
I consider Jonas to be one of the most underrated players in the game. It’s hard to earn that title when you’re on the best team in the world, but a lot of the praise for BMG tends to go to stars like Limmp or fUzi (and deservedly so), because they’re big playmakers. But a great suicide can make a huge impact, and Jonassomfan has certainly done that.
Jonas has the most 100% win rate heroes by far; over 25 games with him on Sir Benzington, Pharaoh, Scout, Doctor Repulsor, Swiftblade, Chronos, Pestilence, Jeraziah, Lodestone, or Corrupted Disciple, BMG did not lose. He also has the best one-two punch; five games each on Benzington and Pharaoh have all been wins, and only four other player-hero combinations have a 100% win rate in at least five games. Nobody else has two.
SynC – Zlapped (second support/jungle)
Zlapped, in addition to being a popular streamer, perhaps doesn’t get enough credit for his versatility. His role is naturally one that demands skill with many different heroes, depending on whether you’re jungling or playing the support role, but Zlapped actually supports more than Support or iNsania when playing “second” support:
No doubt SynC has had more success with Zlapped in the jungle role – though jungle lineups tend to win more often in general – but of particular note is that Wards column. It’s possible that the hard support player is buying wards and Zlapped is placing them, but as a support, he’s actually responsible for more wards than iNsania and tied Support. Other second supports don’t come close; the second-most wards placed by a second support while playing that role is WhaT_YoU_GoT at 3.6, and everyone else is under two. SynC clearly likes to share ward duty far more than other teams.
Reason – AddroW (support)
AddroW likes two heroes: Engineer and Rhapsody. He’s played Engi a whopping 18 times, tied for the most commonly seen combination (Sealkid’s Rhapsody has also been seen 18 times), and Rhap has shown up 14 times, which ranks fifth among all player-hero combos. He’s played all other heroes combined only 20 times, meaning that just Engineer and Rhapsody account for 60% of his games. While AddroW has shined on Engi, his Rhapsody play has left something to be desired:
In every category except wards per game, AddroW has looked much better on Engineer, and has generally been more adept with other heroes as well, with only deaths per game improving when he switches to Rhapsody. It’s difficult to blame any of this on the hero, as Rhapsody has one of the highest win rates in the game, at 64.3% in 84 games. It’s just more likely that Reason Gaming’s strategies don’t work quite as well with AddroW on his second-favorite hero, and perhaps the player just needs a bit more practice.
willowkeeper – baltazar` (carry)
First, it’s important to recognize that baltazar` is a relatively new addition to tree, as they picked him up to replace Zloka just before the start of CiC. So their good performance and his contributions are especially notable, considering they hadn’t had a lot of time to work together (it’s also important to recognize that tree and baltazar`’s former team, Sweet Like Ice, were figurative brothers and shared considerable history). Willowkeeper’s carry player managed to rice like few others; setting a fifteen-game minimum across both cycles, his 471.7 average GPM ranked second (fUzi led), and at 259.3 creep kills he out-CK’d everyone, beating second-place Flensmeister by an average of 45 creeps per game. He also trailed only Diglet_ and BOXl in creep denies at 21.5.
Perhaps most impressive is his ability to consistently pick up CK on all the heroes he played. baltazar` averaged over 250 creep kills per game on Puppet Master, Madman, Swiftblade, Wretched Hag, and Valkyrie, all of whom he played at least three times, and all of whom average a lower CK score. Only Hag and Swiftblade averaged over 200 CK per game among all players; Moon Queen led the charts at 283 on average in 16 games, but willowkeeper actually never picked up the farming royalty. If they did, I’d be prepared for some astonishing CK and GPM scores.
The Last of US – Diglet_ (initiator?)
Diglet_ is the opposite of AddroW. The Last of US are a bit hard to pin down, having undergone significant roster changes from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2, but a major reason they didn’t lose any ground in Cycle 2 is Diglet_’s apparent ability to play every hero at a high level. He played Bubbles six times, the most of any hero, winning three games. He played Tundra, Magmus, and Rally three times each. He played Berzerker, Maliken, Pestilence, and Devourer twice each. He played fourteen other heroes once.
While Diglet_ played initiator most of the time, he also showed versatility in role, playing suicide and carry quite often as well. This complicates the issue even further; of his three Magmus games, two have been played as an initiator and one as a suicide. Same goes for Tundra. So even when you find Diglet_ on a hero he’s played before, you still don’t necessarily know what he’s going to do. Much like his namesake’s below-ground nature, the captain of tUS is an enigma.
Shrek is Love – CountCrapula (carry)
Let’s face it, in CiC Cycle 2 Shrek is Love played like crapula. They won just one of 21 games (against Reason), generally looking outmatched throughout the tournament. In scrims I’ve seen, they’ve looked much better, so perhaps nerves were an issue and performance will increase in HoN Tour.
Their carry player, CountCrapula, has an interesting quirk to his numbers: he’s breached the 10 kill mark four times, or more than 25% of Ogr’s games. In the win against Reason, he went 20/5/7, and that ties for the third-most kills in any game across both cycles. But check out his top five games by hero kill score:
Things go south quickly after those four games; with just four hero kills in his fifth-best performance (and three in his sixth), CountCrapula’s clearly a boom-or-bust player. An already poor 4.5/4.8/4.3 line with 535 XPM and 391 GPM falls to a miserable 1.7/4.3/3.0 with just 469 XPM and 346 GPM if those four games are taken out. Removing any player’s four best games will hurt their line, but not typically to that degree. Consider that the four games eliminated averaged 15/6.8/9.0, 673 XPM, and 485 GPM. That’s not a gulf, it’s the Grand Canyon. CountCrapula showed the potential to be an excellent carry player, and he’ll need to do it more consistently if Ogr want to place well in the upcoming season of HoN Tour.
HTS3 Preview - Heroes on the Rise
HTS3 Preview - Heroes on the Decline
