It is finally here! HoN Tour Season 3 has commenced and we had a fairytale start in the Diamond Division last weekend. The eight chosen teams were going at it the whole weekend, and while for two it meant the early drop to Gold Division, four other teams are still in the race and will battle it out for lots of money and points in the upcoming weekend.


Saturday: Winners Bracket

The first day of the new Season brought four high level matches, beginning with [BMG]BadMonkeyGaming and [KNX]REXXARS. Both teams had significant changes in their lineup in the more recent past, so they both still had something to prove here and nobody really know how much of an impact these changes had in top level plays. BadMonkeyGaming displayed their usual dominance in the first game, and even in the absence of Jonassomfan, it was going very well for them. The first game was over very quickly, followed by another quick victory in the second game. No questions asked, BMG was superior in every way in this match and the victory was well deserved. Next in line were [tree]willowkeeper and [tUS]The Last of Us. These two teams faced each other in Carnage in Caldavar several times and were well accustomed to each other. This explains why all three games were relatively close and they took quite a while. The first game took well over an hour and was eventually won by willowkeeper, while the second game saw The Last Of Us making up for earlier mistakes to force a third game. The last game finally had a clear winner, as willowkeeper were able to establish some dominance in that game, although even that took quite some time. In the end, willowkeeper was able to move on, while The Last Of Us were dropped to the Losers Bracket.

Third match of the day had [SynC]Sync eSports do battle with [Dawn]Dawn, one of the strongest new teams out there. This match was pretty much dominated by Sync, who still seem to be on a whole different level, but there were a few moments where Dawn was able to shine too. They still have a long way to go if they want to defeat teams like Sync, but they have taken a few steps already. Sync moved on, Dawn moved down. The final match in the first round was [Rea]Reason Gaming versus [Ogr]Shrek is Love. This match felt like the previous one, dominance by the veteran team, while the new team had little chance to shine. A deserved win for Reason Gaming while the Ogres were moved down to the Losers Bracket.

Later that day, the next round of the Winners Bracket was played. The first of the two semi-finals was between BadMonkeyGaming and willowkeeper. Both teams were going really at it here, and willowkeeper managed to impress by actually winning one of the games after a dismal first game, forcing a third game to decide the match. The last game was pretty intense and quite balanced for a while, but in the end BMG managed to win this, moving to the WB Finals while the trees had to take the long road. The other semi-finals, Sync versus Reason Gaming was also fought over very hard, but in spite of Reason Gaming getting close a couple of times, they were unable to grasp the victory in either game, allowing Sync to move on to a battle of the gods in the Finals this weekend against BMG.


Sunday: Losers Bracket

The first Sunday of a Cycle is now exclusively for the Losers of the day before, as both the first and second round are played at the same day, allowing the winners an additional day of rest. Set to play first on this Sunday were the REXXARS versus The Last Of Us. Unfortunately The Last Of Us were unable to play, so it was a forfeit win for the REXXARS and the step down to Gold Division for The Last Of Us. Dawn and Shrek is Love were also set to play in this round and they did. It was a hard match for them, and the loser would move down to Gold Division, so they gave it their all and then some. The resulting three game match was quite entertaining and saw Shrek is Love take the early lead. A smashing Oogie played by sertas brought Dawn back into the match though, when they took the second game in a long and entertaining map. The third game had to bring the decision and it was Dawn who made it through the round in one piece, winning the last bout after almost 50 minutes.

But there was no time to rest on that Sunday, as the next round was about to start. Here, the REXXARS faced Reason Gaming in the first match. The first game was a rush, as Reason Gaming basically ran over the perplexed REXXARS. They managed to recover somewhat in the second game, forcing over an hour of gameplay in this one, but it was not enough to defeat Reason Gaming, who kicked them out for the rest the cycle. It was similar with the other match of the round, willowkeeper versus Dawn. Dawn already had some hard games behind them, but willowkeeper were fresh, as they had just dropped out of the Winners Bracket the previous evening. And although there was no running over, willowkeeper managed to easily win both games, showing the newcomer how things are handled in the Diamond Division.

With this, we can look forward to another exciting weekend of professional plays in the first cycle of HoN Tour Season 3, starting Saturday at 12:00 EDT | 18:00 CEST with the, Losers Bracket match willowkeeper versus Reason gaming, followed by the Upper Bracket Finals Winners between Sync and BMG at 15:00 EDT | 21:00 CEST. All games will be shown live on Honcast, so make sure to tune in, it's going to be amazing!

About the author: Blaze