By Blaze

HoN Tour Season 4 Cycle 1 started off big last weekend and after 12 matches in the new format of Diamond Division, we got plenty of results as well as winners and losers of the weekend. But of course nothing has been decided and every team still has a chance to gain the upper hand and make up for past mistakes in the coming weekdays and the second weekend. And the best thing about it: there is still way more to come in Cycle 1 after the group matches, Relegation and the Playoffs await and will force the teams participating to work and play even harder.

Clear Winners of the weekend were [Rea]Reason Gaming. They were set for three matches on Saturday and won all three of them with seemingly little effort, netting them a total of 9 points right on the first day. It is worth noting, however, that all these wins were against the newly qualified teams and the real challenges are still ahead of Reason, still a 9 point gain on the first day will most certainly boost their confidence and allowed them to rest easy for a while. Another team that had a whole day of work, this time on Sunday, was [coL]compLexity Gaming. They also had three matches to play and were the center of attention, because nobody knew just what to expect from the Season 3 Champion who suffered from a bad streak during the Offseason. As it turns out, BMG is doing pretty well and they used all the time away from tournaments to practice, which resulted in two sound wins and a draw, taking out the Chopsticks and complexity while getting a draw against Fresh. Seven points is the second highest score so far and has shown the competition that BMG are far from over and will have an active say in who gets to be in the Playoffs after next weekend. The third of the big teams, Ex-[SynC]Sync eSports, only had to play twice this weekend, but they did so with the results that their fans expected from them, two clean wins against the new Revolution team and against Fresh. All in all, the three top teams did what was expected of them and then some, putting them in the top with few matches played so far, yet plenty of points.
[coL]compLexity Gaming and [Mint]Fresh have settled for the mid-field for now, with only two matched played and meager results of 1 draw and 1 loss each. They still have plenty of matches to play and it could go very well for them in the end, but having a rather slow start is a tough challenge for most teams and the guys will now have to show that they have what it takes to make it through and score some good wins during the next days.

The competition is right on their heels with [AZN]Chopstick Gaming who scored a total of 5 points, which is almost as much as Ex-Sync has. Sure, they needed a total of 5 matches to get those points, a win, two draws and two losses, but still, nobody can take those points away from them, also Chopstick Gaming has won a match against their direct competition, Sauna eSports, and forced a draw against Revolution, another competitor, and against complexity, which is pretty worrysome for the Americans. If Chopstick Gaming can score another win they will very likely remain in Diamond, and anything beyond that may even threaten the established teams fighting over Playoff spots.
The not so sunny side of the bracket consists of [HOT]Sauna eSports and [REVO]Revolution right now. Both teams had several matches and only managed to get a few draws, no win to their names yet. They still have half their matches to play and anything is still possible, but it must be a tough spot to be in right now and they might already be looking at the Gold Division, checking out possible opponents for the Relegation Matches next week. They did not go down easily by any means last weekend, they fought and worked hard, it's just that their opponents were often more than a bit stronger. Then again most of these opponents were the top teams in NA/EU and it was kind of to be expected.


Will the current top teams make it to the Playoffs and who will be the fourth team to join them? And who gets a week off and does not have to go into relegation? These questions and many others will be answered this week on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as Saturday and Sunday at the usual times, starting at 12:00 EDT | 18:00 CEST, covered live by Honcast. So make sure to tune in on time, nothing is lost, everyting is to be gained and with all the heroes making their debut and comeback on the competitive scene right now, it's going to be incredibly entertaining! Good Luck and Have Fun to all teams!

Standings And More Info



BlahC
BlahC 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, BlahC has focused on the less known teams, bringing their name to the forefront. When he isn’t writing about HoN, BlahC enjoys playing RPGs, writing fiction, and listening to Metal, Avantgarde, and Neofolk music.

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