By quincy0191
The 2024 Honcast Awards are in, and we have a lot of great people to honor, so let’s get right to it. In Part 2 we have the winners of Best Captain, Best Support, Best Suicide, Best Jungler, Best Mid/Ganker, Best Carry, Most Valuable Player, and Best Team.
WINNER – swindlemelonzz
2nd: Zlapped
3rd: Handsken
This category had the biggest stomp of any this year. swindlemelonzz decimated his competition, winning just under 80% of the vote, with no one else getting even 10%. It’s unlikely anyone is particularly surprised by that result, because nobody defines the captain role more than swindle. He’s now the back-to-back winner on top of last year’s MVP victory coming largely as a result of his constant outdrafts and legendary in-game leadership. For years swindlemelonzz has consistently shown extreme dedication to his craft, and it paid off in spades over the last two years with some of the most dominant play we’ve ever seen in HoN. stayGreen as an organization and a team is his baby, and his presence on the team has guaranteed success for some time now. The man is quite frankly the best mind competitive HoN has ever seen.
I was a captain nearly my entire career in HoN. Being the best is never easy, and for a long time my teams fell short again and again. Luckily I found a great group of guys (two rosters of them!) near the end of my experience in this game and finally found victory. Lots of them. I only ever wanted to be the best team, to receive this award for a second time is the icing on the cake. Thanks to the community for once again honoring me, it is much appreciated.
– swindlemelonzz
WINNER – iNsania
2nd: Zfreek
3rd: Sealkid
The man, the myth, the bowtie, and the best support player of 2024 is SynC’s very own iNsania. Of course, he’s spread his talents around the HoN competitive scene this year, first with No Keyboard, then REXXARS, and now the top team in the NA/EU region. It speaks to exactly how good iNsania is that he’s able to go up against Zfreek and Sealkid and emerge as the top support of the year – beating those players is the highest of praise.
It feels good to win, however it's important to note that without the awesome people around me it wouldn't have been possible for me to win this prize. I'd like to thank all the NK boys for our times crushing matchmaking and practicing. I'd like to thank MGOD for owning in lane and allowing me to play my heroes to their limits, because I know he always has my back. Lastly I'd like to thank the remaining players in Sync who more often than not sacrifice themselves and make me look better.
– iNsania
WINNER – KheZu
2nd: Jonassomfan
3rd: BOXl
It’s sometimes hard to remember that KheZu used to be a carry player, because he’s basically become synonymous with fantastic long lane play. Actually, he’s closely associated with fantastic play in general, and considering where his farm often ends up, maybe KheZu still is a carry player wearing a slightly different hat. Either way, it’s fast becoming entirely too coincidental that he’s been a crucial member of two of the most dominant teams of the last several years in Stay Green and SynC eSports.
I'd first like to say that I'm honored to be voted as the best suicide player, I'd like to thank all the people out there who voted for me. My fans, all the teams I've played for in the past that helped me improve, and made me, what I am today. Special thanks to my current team, and shoutout to all of you, for making this possible.
– KheZu
WINNER – Zlapped
2nd: Handsken
3rd: Mynuts
A year ago, Zlapped wouldn’t have gotten serious consideration for this award. But that was before he became the Most Improved Player as well, and now he can certainly be called the best jungler of 2024. In HoN Tour Season 3 he has consistently excelled on every jungle hero he’s been given, including an undefeated streak on Tempest that spanned months. He’s gone up against some of the best jungle players in HoN history, two of whom fell to second and third place, and bested them in the game and now as the top jungle player of the year. The rise of SynC eSports correlates nicely with Zlapped’s emergence as a top player in the scene, and there is absolutely no coincidence there.
I'm honoured to see that I have been voted the best jungler of 2024. I would like to thank everyone out there who voted for me and supports me as a player. I would like to thank my fans and everyone who has made me who I am today. I would not have been able to do it without you. And of course I have to give a special shoutout to my teammates who I have played with for so long that are all a great bunch of people. To finish, shoutout to everyone who has made everything possible.
– Zlapped
WINNER – m`ICKe
2nd: Limmp
3rd: swindlemelonzz
m`ICKe is pretty clearly the heart and soul of SynC eSports, not to mention the man that wins them a ton of games. Winning mid is oft-cited as a crucial step in securing a victory, which certainly explains why SynC have come out on top so much – when you have a player like m`ICKe operating at such a high level, both as a part of a team and in terms of individual skill, you’re going to end up with a lot of W’s. He can take an aggressive ganker like Pebbles and constantly pick off opponents. He can set up big teamfight wins with Magmus. He can carry with Monkey King. It doesn’t matter if he’s in dual lane or solo lane, who he’s against, m`ICKe finds a way to come out ahead.
I'm not surprised at all, I would be if m`ICKe didn't win it however. He is just one of a kind, his mechanical skill and game sense is out of this world, m`ICKe does not even need wards to know where his opponents are, all he needs is me. M-God is amazing in game and outside of it.
– Flensmeister
WINNER – fUzi
2nd: Flensmeister
3rd: BeaverBanger
Bad Monkey Gaming had two iterations: pre- and post-fUzi. Before his addition they were a good team. After they picked him up they were elite. fUzi had an uncanny ability to farm incredibly well while fitting into the aggressive playstyle of BMG; it’s not easy to keep getting creep kills when you’re also fighting all the time. Every single game he had an enormous impact and rare indeed was the game lost because of him. A victory like this is always going to be a little bittersweet, because while fUzi was an absolutely amazing carry player, he’s unable to enjoy the win. But Handsken definitely knows exactly how good he was:
fUzi was one of the best players that I've ever had the pleasure to play with. No matter what type of game and hero he was put on, he would always be someone you'd know had crazy impact. I’m not surprised to see him winning this award at all!
– Handsken
WINNER – m`ICKe
2nd: swindlemelonzz
3rd: Handsken
You’ll notice this fellow has shown up previously next to the word “winner”. He also won the Most Entertaining Player and Best Mid/Ganker awards, which gives a pretty good idea of who he is. The community loves watching him more than anyone else. The fans and players consider him the top talent on the scene, and of course the best at his role. That’s not necessarily an automatic combination – last year’s awards featured Superkge as the Most Entertaining and swindlemelonzz as the MVP. The idea that one player can simultaneously be the guy that blows you away with his pure ability to play the game and just be an absolute blast to watch is more than a little impressive.
Let’s also consider the award m`ICKe won at this time last year: Best Newcomer. Oh, and his future in the competitive scene was in doubt, with probusk replacing him on Denial post-Dreamhack. There were a lot of ways his career could have gone after that, most of them not leading here. Instead, he returned to the new SynC eSports and showed everyone that DH was not a fluke. If he can maintain a trajectory even somewhat resembling what he’s done so far, m`ICKe could end up as one of the best players in HoN history, if not the best. At least for 2024, there was no one that could stand against him.
I would like to thank my team, iNsania, and the people who voted for me. Especially iNsania who has been drafting heroes I want and creating space for me. Without him I don’t think I would be the same player I am today. He brings me motivation and inspiration. I’d also like to thank Zlapped for giving me the opportunity in the first place to join the roster, and shoutout to my family, friends, my team, and Annie.
– m`ICKe
WINNER – stayGreen
2nd: SynC eSports
3rd: Bad Monkey Gaming
*Ahem*
STAY WHAT?! STAY THE BEST TEAM IN HON!!!
Oh, sorry, were you expecting something different? Because let’s make a list of all the teams to win a LAN this year: stayGreen. End of list. There were only three nominees for this category, and the vote was pretty evenly split between them, but sG came out with a pretty comfortable victory as 2024’s best team. That is a theme for them, as “comfortable victory” could pretty much be their tagline.
swindlemelonzz and company earned a true rival towards the end of 2024 with the emergence of BMG, but that didn’t stop them from winning Dreamhack. Again. Then they won HoN Tour. Again. They bowed out relatively early in the year, but they were the only one of the three teams that could say they were never #2. SynC spent most of 2024 as a runner-up until their emergence in Season 3, and it took the departure of sG for Bad Monkey Gaming to take the crown as the best team in HoN. When the only time you don’t win is when you stop playing, that’s a pretty good measure of greatness.
There’s also the consideration that this team was also named the best of 2024. Well, a team with the same name was given that award, but the fact that sG were able to lose two extremely talented members in KheZu and sLiCKz and not skip a beat is ludicrous. Even more outlandish is the suggestion that they actually got better – after all, putting Limmp and Mynuts on a roster usually improves it. Let’s take any team in HoN history, lop off two players like that (if they have any), and see what happens next. Most likely no one is taking bets that they’ll turn into the best team of the year unless there’s some sort of apocalypse. All the congratulations in the world to stayGreen, Zfreek, Chessie, Limmp, Mynuts, and their erstwhile leader swindlemelonzz, as the best team of the year.
When I created stayGreen my goal was to make the best HoN team of all time. I wanted to win five LANs, and when we left this game, we owned five separate championships. I'm honored that the community still considers us the team of the year. Some of the best moments of our lives took place thanks to HoN, and I'm incredibly happy that I was able to spend so much time playing Heroes of Newerth.
– swindlemelonzz
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.
