By quincy0191
Join the discussion on this years Honcast Awards and earn Silver Coins!
We’re not saying these guys were bad before so much as they’re really good now. In fact, their inclusion on this list means they are now some of the best players in the game, whereas before they were solid but unspectacular. Spending a lot of time playing HoN at a high level hopefully means improving your individual skill along the way, and these players have definitely seen the practice pay off.
Zlapped (SynC)
Last year Zlapped was maybe a top five jungle player. Since that time we have lost a number of excellent junglers, but that doesn’t diminish his significant improvement as a player. It’s pretty easy to call him the best Tempest in the game, as he spent a few months without losing on that hero, and his Ophelia and Parasite sit right there as #1 heroes. And as the meta perhaps shifts slightly away from constant jungle play, he’s expanding outwards to new heroes as well as upwards on existing comfort picks. Zlapped’s presence has been one of the biggest reasons for SynC’s rise to the top of HoN and dominance over their competition, and it seems unlikely his improvement as a player is just a coincidence.
Flensmeister (SynC)
2013 probably did not end with Flensmeister feeling particularly good. He had just parted ways with then-LIONS and watched them quickly become the only true threat to Stay Green, first with Pewe and then with fUzi. He found himself a new home with SynC, and while he was always a good carry player, it’s safe to say he’s become one of the best in the game. Much like Zlapped, he’s expanded his role a bit too, becoming more versatile in an attempt to give SynC additional options; before, his hero pool was extremely limited and no doubt caused LIONS some problems. The new and improved Flensmeister no longer has concerns about whether he’ll get a hero he can play.
probusk (SynC/Rea/Dawn)
Poor probusk couldn’t find a forever home in 2024, getting SynC into the Thailand World Finals before leaving the team. He spent a good bit of time with Reason once again occupying the middle lane, but he kicked it into another gear upon joining Dawn. Considering he was always one of the highest-farming mid players, a move to the carry role made a lot of sense, and some crazy GPMs put Dawn in position to win a lot of games. A role switch can sometimes turn a good player into a fantastic one; think KheZu moving from carry to suicide on Stay Green. probusk's evolution from a good mid to a great carry was sudden, violent, and perhaps the biggest jump up of anyone all year.
baltazar` (tree)
The only player who perhaps wasn’t known to casual fans until this year, baltazar` has bounced around on various mid-tier teams for years, occasionally getting some exposure but never reaching the top of the mountain. He’s gotten much closer as a member of tree, though, and with Zloka going into the army filled a hole very nicely for willowkeeper. Much of his new team’s ability to win games is dependent on his farm, and when he gets going he can be impossible to stop. baltazar` has moved from a good carry player on a good team to a great carry player on a great team, and tree’s emergence lines up quite nicely with his addition and growth.
Z4NE (Rea)
Z4NE is such a quietly good player it’s often far too easy to overlook him. In years past that probably happened too much, with Justice League and the Reason Gaming always a good team that could never break into the conversation for the best team. Now they’re getting up there, and Z4NE has grown from a consistently good but rarely great player to an occasionally amazing, far more versatile asset. He’s got an expansive hero pool and lanes anywhere, giving Reason a lot more options than they had before and helping propel them to a possible top three finish to HoN Tour Season 3.
We’ve got a lot of really talented people who love HoN, and they do their best to show it in as many ways as possible. Compilations of big plays from the community or specific players, hilarious troll videos, the biggest fails, and just outright funny moments abound thanks to these too often unsung contributors. And also stats, which aren’t fun so much as a big sheet of numbers that lie.
quincy0191 (statistics)
Some games have Bruno, others have Jon Gruden, but we’ve got quincy! Part repository of interesting stats and HoN trivia, and part hilarious commentator, quincy’s addition to the Honcast team has been well received by the community. His public spreadsheet tracks just about every stat you could want from the HoN scene, and he makes use of them in casting and his weekly articles at Hontour.com. (Editor’s note: Quincy would not write this himself, because he is just that modest)
Scumbagnetwork (Top Plays of the Week)
The production values on this series are off the charts, and it’s possible that Saturdays involve yelling “TOP FIVE PLAYS OF THE WEEEEK!!” upon seeing the scumbags show up in Youtube subscriptions. Excellent camera work and timing plus the biggest plays of the week from the community equals a fantastic and long-running series of HoN montages. Then there’s the bonus at the end, occasionally even the best part, funny plays that make you shake your head in disbelief.
TobakaZ (Montages and Moments of Newerth)
TobakaZ does plenty of stuff, but he specializes in both ends of the spectrum: seeing a similar play made a bunch of different times in a bunch of different situations, or highlighting a rare occurrence that deserves a special spotlight. His stuff can range from a player montage – he did a video on each member of SynC recently – to a hook compilation, a double tap from General Atrox, or a big teamfight combo. Regardless of when the big plays happen, TobakaZ has a way of finding them and elevating an already incredible moment.
Syther (Top Plays/Moments/Bugs)
This guy just won’t stop spamming Youtube. Not only does he do top 10 plays, he does fail plays, montages of bugs and the resulting ridiculousness, and then weird stuff from his own games. There’s an endless stream of content and it’s all as good as it is varied; making a bunch of different stuff and doing it all well isn’t easy boys. Now where the hell did that Cthuluphant go?
LightingCold (Avatar Videos)
Promise he’s not a shameless shill for S2 trying to promote avatars. He’s attempting to help you make an intelligent purchase by highlighting all the sounds, animations, new models, and whatever else comes with the release of a new avatar. There’s a lot of good stuff in the shop, but you probably can’t afford all of it, so when it comes to figuring out which are the best avatars, there is one place to go and it’s LightningCold’s Youtube channel. Then there are the times when you just want to hear “Serve…cookies…at...my funeral” over and over again.
SomaZ (Patches/New Heroes)
Straight-up patch analysis isn’t actually that common in HoN, and SomaZ is one of the few guys willing to sit down and go through changes in order to figure out how they’re going to affect heroes and gameplay overall. One of the biggest changes to the game is the introduction of a new hero, so when that happens he’ll make yet another video introducing it and giving an in-depth explanation of what it does and how to play it in an actual game. If you’re a fan of metagame analysis and new content, this has to be one of your favorite channels.
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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.
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[E]Ahimtar
Damn, i did not make it again :D
Posted about 3 months ago
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