By quincy0191
“But that doesn’t mean the rest of the scene is quite so assured. Reason Gaming nearly went from Gold Division to the Diamond Grand Finals, which would have been an incredibly impressive feat. As it was they had a great comeback, looking like a legitimate contender to the current #2 in willowkeeper.” The only difference this time around is that Reason actually did make the Grand Finals with two series wins over tree, an opponent they had difficulty beating last cycle. Strengths are shifting all over the place, which means the playoffs and World Finals are going to be a hell of a ride.
Cycle MVP – Boxi
This one’s been a long time coming – Boxi’s clearly established himself as one of the most individually talented players around (hence the Best Newcomer win), but he’s had trouble sustaining good play. For every huge move he makes, there’s another that just looks silly. This time around he managed to keep himself from making too many mistakes, finishing first in K:D (2.27), second in kills per game (7.8) 3rd in K+A:D (4.29) and K+A-D (11.3), plus top ten placement in deaths per game (3.4) and GPM (403). He led all suicide players in average farm to boot.
One of the more impressive things, though, is his hero list. Six players tied for the most heroes played, including the tree suicide, and he’s got some off-the-wall picks like Accursed, Electrician, Gunblade, and Lord Salforis. Just as a cherry on top, he held the record for most kills of any player-hero combo (Kinesis, 16.5), and held one of the ties for second place (Lord Salforis, 14.0), the latter of which was the most kills in any game without a death. When it came to overall or single-game play, Boxi really brought his best in Cycle 7.
Best Hero – War Beast, 85.7% win
War Beast was 6-1 over the last cycle, with Tremble and a resurgent Rhapsody (both 4-1) just behind him. This is also one of the few true two-way heroes in the game, with three games in the jungle (3-0) and four as a suicide (3-1), and it’s not like his numbers were boosted by a particularly good War Beast player. Six different players picked him up, with only Zlapped playing him twice, and CholoSIMEONE’s suicide WB the only loss. We’ll forgive that, though, since it was his first time playing the hero.
Overall, War Beast’s 4.9/3.1/7.3 line and 430 GPM average suggests a hero that’s difficult to stop from farming regardless of what role he’s in (410 GPM in the woods, 437 as a suicide), and considering he was played against the likes of SynC, tree, Rea (twice), Null, and PI, with only Mint coming out with a victory, it’s not like he just beat up on weaker teams. This hero will have an impact if you let it, and in Cycle 7 it ran wild.
Worst Hero – Parasite, 28.6% win
Someone seems to have gotten hit hard by the nerf hammer. What appeared to be a slight decrease to Parasite’s power turned him into simultaneously the worst and sixth-most played hero last cycle. It could be that players just need to figure out how to use him, or it could be a symptom of an overall problem: common heroes did not do well in Cycle 7. Of the 10 most picked, just two (Doctor and Pyromancer) had a win% over 50%, and collectively they won 42.6% of 155 games. With a long break between cycles and plenty of time to analyze and counter common picks, it would seem we are in the midst of a shift as currently powerful and popular heroes may be making their way out.
The culprits when it came to Parasite’s issues are pretty varied; Nir (3-2) and RockyBalboa (1-1) aren’t to blame, but the five other players who collectively chose Parasite seven times did not win a game. That’s a list that includes Zlapped (one game) and WhaT_YoU_GoT (two games), so we’re by no means lacking talent here. Meanwhile the only team to lose to Parasite more than they won was Reason, who faced him just once. At 292 GPM and a deadly sub-.500 K:D of 3.1/4.5/7.1, it’s not that surprising that Parasite suffered.
Best Single Game Performance(s) – Grand Finals Game 3, iNsania on Engineer and Zlapped on Glacius
I really don’t want to put ties in here. It dilutes the great accomplishment of an individual player, which is what this category is supposed to be about. But the dual support of SynC in the decisive third game of the Grand Finals is very difficult to ignore. iNsania actually led the game in K+A:D with a 15.0 mark from a 9/2/21 line and 435 GPM. Zlapped was only slightly outdone in second place, a 9.0 K+A:D as a result of one more death, 10/3/17 and 336 gold per minute. Would you believe that iNsania outfarmed everyone in the game except ImbaBoy’s Klanx and Flensmeister’s Doctor Repulsor? Or that the only player to come between him and Zlapped was m`ICKe, 402 GPM on Pebbles?
Of course, the context is pretty important; this game won them the cycle. More impressive is the fact that they were playing support. Supports aren’t supposed to farm like that, and they’re not supposed to be the ones getting kills all over the place, and they’re not supposed to win the game. Because it was iNsania’s mines that got him a double tap and sealed the victory – sure, m`ICKe had a great toss, but it was set up by the SynC captain. Then there are the individual accomplishments; a 28 K+A-D from iNsania was tied for first overall. He also had the third-highest assists in a single game. Zlapped’s ten kills were the second-most of any support game. All sorts of reasons to give their support play the top single game performance.
Best Single Game K/D/A – Loser’s Bracket Round 2, Boxi on Lord Salforis
I mentioned this game earlier, but let’s dig a little deeper. Boxi went 14/0/1 in 15:05 against Prime Icarus, a game that could have seen tree dropping a series to a team they shouldn’t lose against. Suffice to say PI had few delusions of a series victory once Boxi got rolling, and this was the single-best K+A:D and K:D mark in the entire cycle. It was arguably one of the best kill-death games of any cycle, seeing as Boxi killed just under one hero per minute and set a new single-game record for kills per minute at 0.92. The previous record was set literally one round prior, as Xibbe’s Bombardier went 14/2/14 in 15:15 (0.88 kills/minute) against REXXARS, breaking his own Cycle 2 record of 0.79. These three games are now the only ones to cross the 0.7 kills per minute mark, with just 13 passing a kill every two minutes. Three of those 13 belong to Boxi, more than any other player. And he’s just now winning an MVP?
Best Single Game Farm – Round of 8 Game 2, ImbaPingu on The Dark Lady
There weren’t a ton of high-farming games this cycle – Pingu’s 725 GPM is the only game to cross the seven hundred mark, and just 11 in total beat 600 GPM. But it’s no surprise, really, that he came out in first; 13/1/5 and 318 creep kills in 34 minutes will get you some gold. Doing it against SynC eSports is especially impressive – this is a relatively new team (which has since reshaped their roster), but their ascent to Diamond so quickly and performance like this against the top team in Season 3 certainly bodes well. If nothing else, ImbaPingu’s a guy to keep your eye on, because he clearly can get out of control.
Best Single Game CS – Round of 8 Game 1, BeaverBanger on Corrupted Disciple
First game of the first round and BeaverBanger sets a mark that won’t be exceeded for the entire cycle. Prime Icarus had their chances against Nullstone in a game that lasted just over an hour, but Null don’t tend to lose those long ones, and BeaverBanger’s CD was a big reason why. With 489 creep kills and 45 denies, he didn’t set a record in either individual mark, but 534 overall creeps killed was enough to put him above two other 500 CK games, a baltazar` Gemini with 528 in Game 2 of the Winner’s Semifinals against Reason, and ImbaBoy’s Klanx in Game 3 of the Grand Finals sitting at 505. Corrupted isn’t really considered the hardest of carries, but if you let him farm like that, he’s going to win a lot of games.
Here are your leaders from Cycle 7 of HoN Tour Season 3 (all played at least five games):
Highest Win% – War Beast, 85.7%
Lowest Win% – Parasite, 28.6%
Most Picked – Kraken, 22 games
Executioner (Most Kills) – Madman, 7.8
Cautious (Least Deaths) – Ophelia, 2.2
Savior (Most Assists) – Drunken Master, 11.3
Best Farmer – Tremble, 562 GPM
Best Experience – Tremble, 600 XPM
Best Ricer – Puppet Master, 259 CK
Best Denier – Puppet Master, 25 CD
Highest K:D – Madman, 2.35
Highest K+A:D – Ophelia, 5.18
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.
