By quincy0191
That didn’t last long. Here we were, wondering if SynC were finally starting to falter a bit, and then they go and totally dominate their opposition en route to a fourth cycle championship out of five. No longer are they completely dominant, but they at least look much more like the team that we saw for a couple months before the end of last cycle.
Their main opposition, BMG, seem to have dropped off significantly since their victory, and were on block for demotion. They staved that off, but not much else, as a loss to eventual runners-up Nullstone Gaming had them gone after the first cycle. For their part, the Americans (now the only ones after Night Raid got pushed to Gold along with Cycle 4 surprise Dawn) reached the Grand Finals before disappointing in two quick games, making it pretty damned hard to figure out who SynC’s best opposition is. And in all honesty, that just makes it more fun.
Cycle MVP – m`ICKe
There were two other strong contenders in Haxxeren and CholoSIMEONE; the former had a very strong statistical performance, which is somewhat expected as a carry player, but it’s notable to lead in so many categories despite your team going just 4-4. CholoSIMEONE had a decent performance by the numbers, and lead or was close to the top in a number of categories, but the difference was apparent when he was absent for Game 1 of the Loser’s Bracket Finals.
But m`ICKe showed up for every game, and it was apparent. He tied for the lead in lowest deaths per game at 1.9 – not bad for an initiator – and led in K+A:D (8.71, 2nd place 6.63) and K+A-D (14.6, 2nd place 14.1). He was second in K:D and only one of two players over 3.00 – Haxxeren being the other – as well as third in assists per game with 10.7. No doubt he’d be higher on many leaderboards if he weren’t winning so quickly, with SynC spending less than half an hour per game on average, the lowest average length. As an aside, the top four spots in K+A:D were all SynC players, m`ICKe, Zlapped, Flensmeister, and iNsania in order, with KheZu finishing ninth. I’m betting he’s kicked before the end of the week, they can’t really tolerate that sort of underperformance. Or maybe they’ll get rid of Flens, since he’s now the only player without an MVP to his name. You have three more cycles, Mr. Carry Player. Get it together.
Best Hero – Doctor Repulsor
The Doctor Is In, as some might say, with an 8-3 record over 11 games in Cycle 5 to go along with a 5.8/3.0/8.8 line, 539 XPM, 428 GPM, and 196 CK. His K+A:D of 4.88 led all heroes this cycle, but the only other places he finished inside the top five were deaths per game, assists per game, and creep denies per game. But he finished inside the top 10 in just about every category – Doctor in this cycle was a lesson in being good at everything but great at nothing.
Three players were perfect on Doctor, with CholoSIMEONE and Horspel (AKA NoX) going 1-0, while Flensmeister had a grand old time at 4-0. Only BeaverBanger didn’t have at least a .500 record with one loss in one game, and both BigArlong and baltazar were 1-1. That means that no team was worse than .500 with DR, and funnily enough all players were between 500-600 XPM and 400-500 GPM.
Worst Hero – The Dark Lady, Gemini (tie)
This is the first time we’ve had a tie for one of these, as both TDL and Gemini went 1-4 on the cycle. For those who don’t think five games is enough, Drunken Master was 2-6, which is a better winning percentage but a few more games as well. Please stop picking Drunken Master, people. He’s terrible. He doesn’t win games.
Neither did either of these carries, though. Neither of them did especially poorly from a K/D/A or GPM standpoint – Gemini was 7.2/4.8/8.2 and 476 GPM, while TDL was a mediocre 5.8/4.8/5.8 with 469 GPM – but for heroes that need high farm that wasn’t going to cut it. Unlike the above, BeaverBanger had the best TDL performance at 1-1, while mzry, Horspel, and BigArlong all lost in one game. The same goes for Gemini; BeaverBanger at 1-1, Horspel at 0-2, and Night Raid ringer inthe6 at 0-1. No doubt NR’s use of both heroes despite their issues filling out their roster contributed to their poor performance, and in all honesty these look like flukes more than anything. In five games, sometimes there will be random poor performances, and if NR hadn’t used both heroes neither would qualify and we’d be talking about how bad Drunken Master is instead.
Best Single Game Performance – Loser’s Bracket Round 2 Game 2, CholoSIMEONE on Kraken
Like last cycle, Game 2 of the LBR2 included some pretty great plays. We’ll be seeing one of CholoSIMEONE’s teammates in a bit, but for now, a 10/3/21 line with 419 GPM and 298 CK in just over an hour is pretty great. Getting involved in 31 kills meant he was helping kill someone (or doing it himself) once every two minutes, and getting involved in so much action without dying consistently is pretty impressive. Not to mention precisely the job of a mid player.
It’s also worthwhile to once again consider the context. Null were down 0-1 to BMG in the Loser’s Bracket, which meant another loss would knock them out of the tournament. Instead, thanks to CholoSIMEONE, they tied the series and set up the eventual Game 3 win that put them back on track to reach the Grand Finals.
Best Single Game K/D/A – Loser’s Bracket Round 2 Game 2, BeaverBanger on Oogie
BeaverBanger on Oogie has the highest kill per game score of any player-hero combo (15.0, min. 3 games), and this game is no exception. 21/1/9 and 653 GPM is tied for his second-most kills in a single game, and tied for the third-most kills in a single game overall. That means he owns three of the top 10 highest kill games, and along with Haxxeren is the only player to appear more than twice (the others are baltazar` Puppet Master and Doctor Repulsor, probusk Maliken, and a three-way tie for 10th).
This was also the best single game K:D and K+A:D that included at least one death (otherwise 1/0/0 or 0/0/1 is a “better” line), and tied for the second-highest K+A-D. I do have to once again point out the context of being down 0-1 in the Loser’s Bracket, because the pressure of elimination makes this that much more impressive. And of course there’s the fact that teams would subsequently respect ban the Oogie against Nullstone, which makes it seem like this is the game that pushed Oogie over the edge from dangerous surprise pick to signature carry for BeaverBanger.
Best Single Game Farm – Round of 8 Game 2, probusk on Soulstealer
I only had to change the first part of this section’s title, because probusk’s SS comes back with a vengeance. Dawn’s demotion to Gold had a lot to do with other teams realizing they needed to shut down probusk to win, but that didn’t work out so well in this game. He went 7/1/4 with 675 GPM in just over 26 minutes to get them a needed victory in Game 2 against Nullstone; they weren’t facing elimination, but they were down 0-1 in a series that could have and eventually did put them in danger of going to Gold in Cycle 6. For a game at least, probusk helped stave off demotion.
Best Single Game CS – Loser’s Bracket Round 2 Game 3, Horspel on Gemini
Horspel (NoX for those who are unaware) picked up 777 total creeps in this game in the form of 773 kills and four denies, the only player to cross 700 CK in a single game this cycle, the third player to do it overall (probusk Maliken Cycle 4 Ro8 Game 1, ImbaBoy Bushwack Cycle 3 WBSF Game 1), and now the record holder for single-game CK and CS. The one major caveat that has to be acknowledged is that this is also the longest game of HoN Tour Season 3 so far at 83:46, which means Horspel had a lot of time to kill large creep waves and clear the jungle.
Nonetheless, it was a testament to endurance, going for nearly an hour and a half in Game 3 of a series and still managing to accumulate a huge number of creeps. I’d also like to point out Haxxeren’s LBR2 Game 2 Magebane, which picked up 734 CS in 63:22, nearly twenty minutes less and just forty fewer creeps.
Here are your leaders from Cycle 4 of HoN Tour Season 3 (all played at least five games):
Highest Win% – Doctor Repulsor, 72.7%
Lowest Win% – The Dark Lady/Gemini, 20.0%
Most Picked – Magmus, 26 games
Executioner (Most Kills) – Oogie, 11.5
Cautious (Least Deaths) – Puppet Master, 2.6
Savior (Most Assists) – Prisoner 945, 11.0
Best Farmer – Soulstealer, 557 GPM
Best Experience – Puppet Master, 642 XPM
Best Ricer – Oogie, 346 CK
Best Denier – Soulstealer, 27 CD
Highest K:D – Oogie, 2.76
Highest K+A:D – Doctor Repulsor, 4.88
quincy0191 is a HoN veteran with a focus on the numbers. Fascinated by quantifying and valuing human beings, he shunned the world of finance in favor of sports and competition. When not on Honcast you can find quincy playing games like Civilization and Pokemon, or watching movies, writing, pondering, or catching a game of baseball.
