By quincy0191
The HoN Tour Season 3 World Finals are nearly upon us, and North America/Europe – well, Europe – knows who will be looking to take the biggest check back home. First up in our stat previews of the two NA/EU teams headed to Thailand is SynC eSports, AKA the winners of seven of eight HTS3 cycles (sorry iNsania) and the longest consecutive streak of cycle wins in HoN Tour history. With the first overall seed from the regular season wrapped up early, they’ve had plenty of time to prepare, but hopefully rust doesn’t play a factor as there’s a lot of distance between their Cycle 8 win and the start of the Finals.
VITAL STATISTICS:
65-13 record (83.3% win) over HoN Tour Season 3 (1st)
24.6 kills per game (1st)
16.6 deaths per game (1st)
46.8 assists per game (1st)
362.7 team GPM per game (1st)
472.1 team XPM per game (1st)
Average game time of 34.14 minutes (2nd shortest)
78 games played (2nd)
66 heroes selected (t-2nd, Reason Gaming)
Magmus most selected hero (27 games)
BEST HERO: Pebbles, 21-2
Right off the bat we’re smacked in the face with the m`ICKe factor, considering he’s the only one who’s played Pebbles. SynC have precisely two losses when the boy wonder gets his hands on one of the game’s burstiest initiators, and none have come since the Cycle 4 Grand Finals. Half a season of play and nine straight Pebbles victories since SynC have lost with Pebbles, so don’t expect them to start now. They’ve generally done a good job staggering their Pebbles picks as well; over cycles five through eight, the hero has always been picked between one and three times.
WORST HERO(ES): Tempest & Glacius, 13-4
That’s where we are with SynC. Their worst heroes are still above a 75% win rate, because they just win with everything. If you’re willing to go below ten games played, Puppet Master’s just 4-3, but they have no heroes with a win percentage under 50% and more than three games. In other words, there is no hero that you can say SynC is bad with without having to acknowledge the likelihood of a small sample size fluke. The closest we’re going to get is Tempest and Glacius, both of whom have served Sync well, but not quite as well as just about everything else. So it’s off to the gallows with them – we have standards around here.
THREE THINGS TO WATCH
Can anyone get through the early game?
SynC are masters of the quick victory. Before 30 minutes, they sport a 38-1 record, with their only loss back in the Cycle 3 Grand Finals against tree. They excel so thoroughly at the laning phase that many opponents are forced to tap out before they can get going. If they manage to get a foothold, though, a 30-60 minute game puts SynC at 21-11. Still a good record, but no longer otherworldly. Past an hour and they’re just 4-3, or an entirely beatable team. There’s a bit of a tautology here – if you’re good enough to last that long, then you obviously have demonstrated a capability to win. But it’s important to recognize that capability is not just theoretical.
Will Flensmeister, KheZu, or iNsania be killed enough?
These three players are very good at not dying. Between them, they have 230 individual game records, and in 129 of them, they’ve died three or fewer times. You would expect SynC to have a good record in these games – if players aren’t dying, you’re doing well. But let’s consider that this accounts for 56% of their games, and hard support and suicide are two of the most hazardous roles in the game. So it’s still pretty impressive. But the big reveal is their record in those games:[/b] 129-0. Yup. Zero losses in 129 instances. If you don’t kill any one of them at least four times, you’re going up against a shutout. Bring one back to the well that often, and suddenly you’re looking at a much more manageable 54-37 record. Good luck, though.
What role is Zlapped playing?
To be fair, iNsania deserves some of this section as well as the team’s drafter, but Zlapped is unquestionably the best jungle player in the game right now. Whether he’s actually off camping in the woods, though, is not always certain. Through Cycle 6, Zlapped played exactly two games as a support hero out of 59. In Cycle 7, though, he was suddenly on second support in five of eleven games, going 4-1. Then he returned to the forest for Cycle 8 as SynC swept, playing a jungle hero in each of the eight games. Was Cycle 7 just a fluke as SynC tried a new strategy and then abandoned it? Or was it an audition for plays they’re going to make in Thailand? Either way, Zlapped has shown himself to be more than competent, as his win rate on each role differs by just seven percent.
PLAYER PROFILES
iNsania
Role: Captain & Hard Support
Most Played Hero: Glacius/Rhapsody, 15 games (20.3%)
Highest Win% Hero: Engineer/Pyromancer, 10-1 (90.9%)
Heroes Played: 15
Average K/D/A: 3.2/3.5/10.2
Average GPM: 232.2
Average XPM: 328.1
Average CK/CD: 42.6/4.4
Flensmeister
Role: Carry
Most Played Hero: Doctor Repulsor, 22 games (28.3%)
Highest Win% Hero: Doctor Repulsor, 19-3 (86.4%)
Heroes Played: 21
Average K/D/A: 5.6/2.9/9.0
Average GPM: 434.4
Average XPM: 554.0
Average CK/CD: 183.6/16.9
m`ICKe
Role: Initiator
Most Played Hero: Pebbles, 23 games (29.5%)
Highest Win% Hero: Pebbles, 21-2 (91.3%)
Heroes Played: 20
Average K/D/A: 6.3/2.8/10.0
Average GPM: 404.8
Average XPM: 504.4
Average CK/CD: 160.6/12.2
KheZu
Role: Suicide
Most Played Hero: Magmus, 18 games (23.1%)
Highest Win% Hero: Swiftblade, 14-2 (87.5%)
Heroes Played: 20
Average K/D/A: 4.3/3.6/7.8
Average GPM: 383.5
Average XPM: 499.4
Average CK/CD: 155.2/9.6
Zlapped
Role: Jungle & Second Support
Most Played Hero: Ophelia, 18 games (23.1%)
Highest Win% Hero: Ophelia, 16-2 (88.9%)
Heroes Played: 16
Average K/D/A: 4.8/2.6/9.9
Average GPM: 360.8
Average XPM: 479.6
Average CK/CD: 146.4/1.9
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.
