With the Playoffs getting into full swing, we are going to meet several rather unknown teams, at least from a Honcast perspective. Teams that played well enough to get points in the Gold Division and thus qualify for the Playoffs, yet not good enough to ever get into Diamond and appearing on Honcast. To prepare you for the coming teams, here is an interview with both the Captain and the former Captain of [SolC]The Solaire Club, [SolC]NoobMcNoob and [SolC]jistman
BlahC: Hello NoobMcNoob. First of all congrats on reaching the Playoffs! You guys are a bit of an unknown to most people, so who are the players of The Solaire Club, and what are their roles?
NoobMcNoob: The players of The Solaire Club are obviously me, NoobMcNoob and I play second support/jungle, [SolC]Canondwarf who plays carry, jistman who plays mid/roamer, [SolC]Armyofmums who plays suicide and [SolC]StanMarch who plays support.
BlahC: To get to know you better, do you have any signature heroes or favourite strategies we can expect to see this weekend?
NoobMcNoob: Signature heroes for me are Tempest and Doctor Repulsor, Armyofmums plays a lot of Kraken and Magmus, Canondwarf plays Swiftblade and Silhouette close to perfection, jistman can play any hook-hero (Gauntlet, Prisoner, Devourer) as well as Midas very well and Stanmarch mostly plays Rhapsody and Glacius, which he obviously masters at this point. As far as favourite strategies goes all we really have is making sure Canondwarf gets farm and carries the game.
BlahC: Could you tell us a bit about the history of The Solaire Club, when and how was it founded and how it evolved since then?
jistman: Our team has been around since HoN Tour Season 2, but back then we were called "Sanctuary" and we were struggling in Bronze. We were a really casual team with five players who knew each other outside of HoN. Since then we have definitely become more competitive I would say.
BlahC: The first real appearance of your team on the scene was in Carnage in Caldavar, how did that go for you?
jistman: Carnage in Caldavar is where we first started realising that we could play competitively if we wanted to. We had PlatyChris in our team for a while (though he was playing on a different account back then) and I think that he played a big part in helping us realise our potential as a team.
BlahC: Early in HoN Tour Season 3, your team was struggling pretty hard in Gold Division, but you eventually got better. What changed?
jistman: I think that the biggest difference was when we took in NoobMcNoob into the team. This was pretty early (Cycle 2 or 3) and this is where we really started putting some thought into our drafts and strategies, rather than just picking heroes that we felt comfortable with. Also, the SolC infamous Gauntlet-Kongor strat sure helped a lot of games (credit to NoobMcNoob).
BlahC: Now that you are basically a Diamond team (after all you did place second in Gold in Cycle 8), does that help your confidence going into the Playoffs?
NoobMcNoob: Of course it’s a confidence-booster to place second in Gold Cycle 8 going into the Playoffs but it was mostly a big goal for us that we now managed to reach. We’ve placed 4th and 3rd at least once and each time we felt that we could have easily snatched a spot to Diamond (placing first or second) so it really feels good to finally make it. Although it didn’t bring us to Diamond since the regular season was over, it made us happy and hopeful about the future.
BlahC: Speaking of the Playoffs, it's going to be tough matches. How did you prepare for it?
NoobMcNoob: We wish not to reveal our strategies but we do have some planned for this event. They are very secret and we’ve only used them in TMM so that no other team would see it. Therefore they’re not that well-polished and we don’t know how much they’re going to bring to the table vs the elite teams but hopefully it’ll be enough. We are facing [NR]Night Raid in the first match which we lost pretty hard to last time, so it sure will be tough.
BlahC: Other than you of course, who do you think is most likely to win the Playoffs and who would you cheer for?
NoobMcNoob: The team that I think will most likely win the Playoffs is [Rea]Reason Gaming because they’ve been really putting down the time and effort to become the number two team in the world. Although I think this is the case I really hope that [tree]willowkeeper takes the spot since they’re Swedish and because they’ve been looking better than Reason Gaming throughout the entirety of HoN Tour Season 3.
BlahC: And while we are at predictions, who is going to win the International Finals in Thailand?
NoobMcNoob: Sync eSports are looking and have been looking unstoppable throughout the entire Season 3 and I don’t think that’ll change in Thailand. The only team that’d be able to upset [SynC]Sync eSports would probably be an unknown Asian team with some really cool strategies.
BlahC: Any shoutouts?
NoobMcNoob: I have several shoutouts, starting with the shoutout to the entire HoN community for playing the game and keeping it alive. Other than that, shoutout to you and the other journalists working with HoN. On top of that I want to make an enormous shoutout to BreakyCPK for being awesome and sticking to Heroes Of Newerth even though he could easily move on to Dota 2.
And my last shoutout is to my team of course for inviting me to join them and also for dealing with my trashtalk. There have been a lot of people who have helped us along the way, so huge shoutout to Mekx, Shorkan, PlatyChris, Hengf, Moira and quincy0191.
Well, there you have it, a young and hopeful team with some super secret strategies that we will see this weekend! Good Luck to The Solaire Club! The next matches are [DoCa]Dont Care taking on [C00L]CoolIo and The Solaire Club playing against Night Raid. There will be more coverage about these matchups soon, so make sure to check back again and the matches themselves will start Saturday at the usual time, 12:00 EST | 18:00 CET, when. Both matches will be covered by stream, one by Honcast and the other by SaintRox.
Blaze is a senior Hontour.com writer focusing on the NA/EU Diamond and Gold Divisions. After making a name for himself in the Dawn of War 1 scene, he began his career in journalism at DawnOfWar.de. As one of the first HoN Tour writers, Blaze has focused on the less known teams, bringing their name to the forefront. When he isn’t writing about HoN, Blaze enjoys playing RPGs, writing fiction, and listening to Metal, Avantgarde, and Neofolk music.
