By quincy0191
With just two ways to get to Thailand for NA/EU teams, and SynC eSports wrapping up the first overall seed early on, it was going to be a slog for whichever team had to fight through the playoffs. The newly christened Bad Monkey Gaming team got off to a bit of a poor start, with the second seed in their group, but they managed to get past Reason Gaming for the first time in two cycles and advance to the best-of-five that could send them east. Of course, they crushed the team that had forced them down in Group A, defeating Mint in three straight games that seemed relatively easy. The competition’s about to get a whole lot harder for BMG, though, so let’s get to know the a bit better.
VITAL STATISTICS:
59-45 record (56.7% win) over HoN Tour Season 3 (2nd)
104 games played (1st)
79 heroes selected (1st)
21.6 kills per game (3rd)
20.6 deaths per game (4th)
40.3 assists per game (4th)
321.2 team GPM per game (4th)
424.8 team XPM per game (4th)
Glacius most selected hero (31 games)
BEST HERO: Riftwalker, 16-4
Thanks to their impressive list of hero picks, there are contenders like Accursed (8-0), Klanx (9-1), and Flux (11-2) that could all be considered here. But if you’re looking for a hero with a good amount of games played on the team with the most time spent playing competitive HoN, it has to be the BMG signature of Riftwalker. RootOf_z’s skill with the hero is well documented, as his hat trick in the early days of HTS3 will likely live on for a long time. Out of all the heroes they’ve introduced to the competitive scene, Riftwalker is likely the one that stands out, and clearly for good reason.
WORST HERO: Madman, 8-10
Like any good team, BMG isn’t going to continuously pick a hero they’re bad with, so you don’t get a decent number of games played on a 10% win hero. They haven’t had much success with Madman, though, which is surprising as fourteen of his eighteen games are in Boxi’s hands, with a 42.9% win. Their star player has repeatedly been given chances to excel with the popular suicide and hasn’t been able to do much. Then again, it’s been a consistent problem, as Madman’s overall win% is just 45.2%.
THREE THINGS TO WATCH
Will Kracke and baltazar` get their farm?
We’ll start with the BMG carry, because he led HTS3 in gold per minute at 502.8 in 99 games. That’s a pretty ridiculous rate on a consistent basis, and no surprise, his team was much better off when he farmed well. 450 GPM should be easily attainable, and in the 62 games where he reached it, he jumped BMG’s win% from 56.7% to 82.3%. But if their consistent four-protect-one strategies really pay off, and baltazar` gets to 550+ GPM, he’s a dominant 37-1. There’s a lot to be gained if he can clear that bar, and he did it nearly 40% of the time, so it’s by no means out of the question.
Kracke’s influence starts to become apparent a little lower, at a paltry 350 GPM. Over that mark and BMG is an astounding 47-3, so maybe Kracke needs to be given a little more attention. It’s not like it’s particularly difficult for a mid player to get that sort of farm, and clearly he can have an impact with it.
What will Fusen pick?
This has to be the second-biggest question in everyone’s mind, as BMG have the longest list of heroes out of any team. With 104 games played – by far the largest amount, as second-place SynC has played just 78 – they have had more time to pick diverse lineups. Nonetheless, three of their players (Boxi, RootOf_z, and Kracke) are inside the top six for most number of heroes selected, with Boxi leading all comers at 33, well ahead of probusk’s 27. But BMG is nothing if not a study in contradictions; they also boast two of the top three most common team-hero combos and five of the top ten. That’s because team captain Fusen doesn’t share his teammates’ deep roster, or at least he doesn’t dig into it. Fusen’s played just 11 heroes in his 104 games, and 77 of those were accounted for by Glacius (31), Rhapsody (24), and Torturer (22). Another 13 games with Andromeda leaves just 18 games total split between the remaining seven heroes. Guessing what BMG will run is generally pretty difficult, but at least there’s some level of predictability.
Can they beat SynC?
Now you know why the previous question was only the second-biggest. BMG have faced 12 teams in HoN Tour Season 3, and sport a losing record against just one. Of the whopping sixteen games played against SynC eSports, they have emerged victorious in two. That rate isn’t going to be enough to win much of anything, much less the World Finals, and it has to be a major concern for them that they just have not shown any real ability to win against the HoN juggernaut. SynC is also the only team against whom they have a sub-300 GPM and sub-400 XPM; BMG aren’t just losing fluky games, they’re definitely being outplayed (but you probably didn’t need me to say that). The past is the past, and they better hope it stays there.
PLAYER PROFILES
Fusen
Role: Captain & Hard Support
Most Played Hero: Glacius, 31 games (29.8%)
Highest Win% Hero: Andromeda, 8-5 (61.5%)
Heroes Played: 11
Average K/D/A: 1.6/4.4/8.0
Average GPM: 162.8
Average XPM: 211.6
Average CK/CD: 19.8/1.7
baltazar`
Role: Carry
Most Played Hero: Puppet Master, 18 games (18.2%)
Highest Win% Hero: Klanx, 9-1 (90%)
Heroes Played: 19
Average K/D/A: 6.4/3.5/6.1
Average GPM: 502.8
Average XPM: 620.1
Average CK/CD: 289.3/23.6
Kracke
Role: Initiator
Most Played Hero: Kraken, 25 games (24.0%)
Highest Win% Hero: Flux, 11-2 (84.6%)
Heroes Played: 22
Average K/D/A: 4.6/4.4/9.5
Average GPM: 342.4
Average XPM: 469.3
Average CK/CD: 160.9/7.1
Boxi
Role: Suicide
Most Played Hero: Kinesis, 17 games (16.3%)
Highest Win% Hero: Kinesis, 13-4 (76.5%)
Heroes Played: 33
Average K/D/A: 6.2/4.1/7.7
Average GPM: 354.1
Average XPM: 479.4
Average CK/CD: 154.3/17.9
RootOf_z
Role: Second Support
Most Played Hero: Riftwalker, 20 games (19.2%)
Highest Win% Hero: Riftwalker, 16-4 (80.0%)
Heroes Played: 26
Average K/D/A: 2.5/4.0/8.8
Average GPM: 242.7
Average XPM: 345.4
Average CK/CD: 92.7/6.7
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.
