Last weekend, HoN Tour Season 4 Cycle 4 came to a conclusion and we saw [ECx]Evil Corporation finally becoming the Champion of a Cycle after some hard work. Now they finally made good on the role of favourite they are in this Season and it might just be the beginning for them, as plenty of more Cycles await. To get some in depth information about how the team feels, [ECx]Imbaboy, Captain of Evil Corporation, was nice enough to give us an interview about the Cycle, the game, and the future.
Hey, thanks alot. It feels great to finally win a cycle after so many tries in this season and previous seasons. I remember when I watched Honcast back in the days and I always thought about how awesome it would be if I could be in the position of the winning team. And here we are finally winning a Hontour Cycle, so yes its a really good feeling for all of us.
BlahC: You've been in the Playoffs as the favourite several times, but never quite made it. Was there a lot of frustration among your team?
Well I think it would be more frustrating to not make it to the playoffs but I mean all of us had pretty high expectations the previous cycles so there was a bit of frustration when we didn’t even reach the finals once. Usually when we lose, it just helps us get better. Sometimes we just sit there after the games and discuss every single mistake, be it draft or plays and what we can do better in the future just to improve as a team. Its also a great boost of motivation for the next cycle, to do better than the previous one and hopefully get a better placement as well or actually win the cycle.
BlahC: After the Group Phase this Cycle, which went rather mediocre compared to earlier Cycles, did you expect to win this time?
Unfortunately we didn’t play our A-game in the group stages, so we lost some important games to the #4-8 Diamond teams. We haven’t lost a bo2 this cycle but drawing 4 times cost us 8 points, which made it a close call in the end. I’m glad it worked out and we made it to the playoffs in the end. As for expecting to win the cycle, we knew that since coL and BMG didn’t make it to the playoffs, so we hoped that it would be easier to atleast make it to finals or win the whole thing. I think all of us thought that we had a good shot at winning this cycle.
BlahC: The style of your team's play has also changed, from carry focussed to a more teamplay oriented style. Is that the secret to success in the current meta?
In this current meta is all about getting kills or pushing towers. Strats like split push usually don’t work anymore because as soon as one guy gets picked off it results in a 2-4k gold swing and the split pushing team will actually fall behind. So what we did is also kind of transition our gameplay. We usually still do the 4-1 Strat (for example our infamous Klanx) but I’m not going to keep farming when there’s a teamfight about to happen. Even if I don’t have my items I will help out my team to win the team fights or get important kills. Otherwise we would fall to far behind and I think it’s currently the right thing to do.
BlahC: What did you think about the unexpected guest [2ero]TwoZero in the Playoffs in Cycle 4?
We knew that if we underestimate them we were going to lose, but they still did better than we expected and ultimately almost beat us. I'm honestly not sure if we played better than them in game 2 (of the Loser bracket finals) or if they threw the game by making mistakes. I believe it was a mix of both, but after winning that close game 2 we were all really pumped and carried our momentum into game 3 and even the grand finals. They really improved since the first cycles and I believe they can even do better than they already did.
BlahC: New Cycle is starting soon, will we see Evil Corporation do it again? And how do you think your chances are to become international Champions?
We will do our best to defend the title but the competition is definitely there with [coL]compLexity Gaming, [BMG]BadMonkeyGaming, the new [xSy]Ex-Sync eSports, [Mint]Fresh and TwoZero. You can never really tell who is going to win since all the teams are pretty much won a cycle. As for international championship, I think it comes down to the strategy, we prepared Klanx for dreamhack, before all the other teams first picked or banned him. I don’t think the thai teams necessarily played a lot of Klanx or played against it, so we also beat them in game 1 in the finals with it but as soon as they banned it, we kind of ran out of strategies and they beat us in the end. So I think there is potential as long as the right strategies are prepared beforehand, the skill level isn’t that much apart from NA/EU.
BlahC: Speaking of international HoN, the south east asian scene has become quite impressive, with them even winning Dreamhack Summer. Do you follow the scene, maybe see what the future competition?
I don’t follow the scene a whole lot, only some games here and there but the thai teams are definitely up there with the NA/EU scene. Teams suchs as DDog, Neo.MRR and MiTH also have a chance to win HonTour Finals, but I hope that a NA/EU team will reclaim title and win the LAN. We will try our best to go to thailand and get revenge for dreamhack.
BlahC: Any shoutouts?
Shoutout to my team Nir, Z4ne, tankafett, mbrei and Buch, TPSPriceless, Mathias, Massera, DeathGr0wl and NoVa for getting me into the competitive scene with his QsQ Project.
Once more congrats to the whole Evil Corporation crew and good luck with defending the title next Cycle. And speaking of the next Cycle, only a few more days until the weekend, so check back in two days for more info on that.
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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