By Fantasy
Grinex
One of the most unorthodox fellas in Heroes of Newerth is now the Most Entertaining Hero of the fifth HoN Tour Cycle: Grinex. Not utilized or even appreciated for the most part of his tenure in the eligible hero pool, the crazy fella is getting more and more attention in the new age of HoN. Originally, in the old days, teams and players tried to run him as a carry presence, nowadays the escapability of Grinex makes him a strong contender for the offlane role.
Differentguy from Fresh proved that the hero is legit, making Evil Corporation dread going anywhere close the offlane and Grinex. With his ability to cause havoc in fights and bring chaos to any engagement, Grinex is a hero no one really wants to play against. In the blink of an eye he can be right next to you, pin you against a tree and take you out of a game. His Ultimate makes fighting into an opponent difficult, makes retreating for the enemy team easy and just creates a different element of confusion and disarray as only The Dark Lady’s powerful ultimate could do as well.
Whether it’s just a flavor of the month thing or not, Grinex is a hero opponents of Fresh have to look out for at least. Not that the fans really mind, since having the enigmatic hero in the game usually makes it action packed.
- Grinex
- Salomon
- Magebane
Groups Day 6 - coL vs. Mint Game 2
In the nomination post the thrilling nature of Fresh as a team was discussed at length. The team around veteran Probusk is always putting on a show when going out there on the battleground of Newerth, earning them the most “Best Game” nominations this season and this cycle. Unfortunately for them, most of the games that win this awards have them losing, making it a bittersweet moment constantly.
This cycle it was no different, as compLexity Gaming got the better of them in the second game of the group stages. Still, in Fresh’s case a lot of positive things can be mentioned about that bout between the two teams. The lineup choices with a Gladiator and Blitz were inspired, going up against an equally unorthodox lineup with a coL flavor hero War Beast and the return of the Voodoo Jester - an almost forgotten support option since QsQ left the scene. The clash between two of the brightest and best teams in the HoN scene was even and competitive, while Formless on Silhouette was slightly but surely scaling out of control. In the end it was him hitting the Rax constantly on bottom lane, while Fresh tried to sustain the onslaught and fight their way out of a sticky situation. For the longest part it looked like the hold was successful, especially with a quick pick-off on Oscar and a wiffed Behemoth ultimate by the Americans. Regardless of those blunders, Silhouette was playing objective-based HoN, killing the barracks, getting his team mega creeps and winning due to that advantage. A tied series, two of the best teams, unorthodox heroes, a one-hour game, mega creeps: Your Best Game of Cycle 5.
- Groups Day 6 - coL vs. Mint Game 2
- Groups Day 2 - coL vs. Sync Game 2
- LB Round 1 - BMG vs. Mint Game 2
Fuzzysloth vs. Sync Hellbringer 15/5/10 521.5
Infernals rained from the sky! Hellbringer might not be the most meta pick in the history of HoN, but in the hands of an amazingly skilled player like compLexity’s FuzzySloth, he can do wonders. The old age the hero was often neglected for his weak laning presence, paired with the fact that he needed levels to really get something going. compLexity Gaming circumvented that by putting him into the hands of their skilled midlaner, fixing everything but the weak laning presence. All the experience was his though, getting him to a quick level 11 with a stronger buddy in Malphas standing by his side.
With Hellbringer in the team fights, compLexity Gaming had a massive advantage to fight anyways. An advantage that FuzzySloth exploited in full force and magnificent fashion. With him commanding his Hellbringer and the Infernals in the fight, he was the key factor in almost all engagements. With ten assists, FuzzySloth was a team player, with five deaths he was not all too invested in creating space and with fifteen kills he was either trying to audition as a carry or secured plenty of kills along the way. Whatever story you prefer here is the bottom line: FuzzySloth played one hell of an amazing game.
What should not go unnoticed here though is the fact that the race for this award was as close as it gets. The expert panel was split on the “Best Individual Performance” over FuzzySloth’s Hellbringer or Differentguy’s Grinex, making the community vote the deciding part of this equation. Not even the third and fourth place finishes were really that far behind, showing once more how high the competition in the Diamond Division is these days.
- [coL]Fuzzysloth vs Sync as Hellbringer (15/5/10 521.5 GPM)
- [Mint]Differentguy vs ECx as Grinex (12/2/3 470 GPM)
- [coL]Formless vs. Sync as Salomon (7/0/4 1002 GPM)
- [Sync]Zlapped vs. Mint as Doctor Repulsor (14/0/14 541.5 GPM)
The second most important individual award this time goes to a newcomer in the professional HoN scene. Mint’s offlaner Differentguy took little to no time to establish himself and even get a trademark hero attached to himself. His Grinex earned him plenty of recognition, almost making him a two-time winner on his first Award cycle.
Not a whole lot of people have gone through such a career, going from zero to hero in no time. With a strong team by his side, a good set of skills at his disposal and one of the most popular positions played in the game, Differentguy is poised to become an instant star in the HoN scene. The first two award nominations and the win here are already proving his worth inside the competitive scene, now it’s on to bigger and better. For his team the chance to return to the Diamond Division throne after their Cycle 2 victory must be the biggest priority, for him personally it’s growth, improvement and maybe that MVP award.
Just like the “Best Individual Performance” award though, the “Most Improved Player” title was also highly contested with the community being the swing vote pushing Differentguy over the top. Professional player turned caster turned professional player against Shorkan, as well as compLexity’s support player `love were getting an equal amount of votes from the expert panel than Differentguy. In the end it was the community gathering behind the rising star on the offlane, giving him credit and the prestigious award.
- Differentguy
- Shorkan
- `love
- CatLoMein
- Teltook
- pexu
Not. Even. Close. Compared to the other two previous awards, the Most Valuable Player discussion was short, sweet and decisive. As the award post this week is not only a celebration of compLexity Gaming and Fresh as teams, it’s also a celebration of the solo lane specialists. A midlaner getting the best performance award, an offlaner becoming the Most Improved Player of the cycle, now an offlaner in Oscar becoming the Most Valuable Player of the fifth HoN Tour Cycle.
And it doesn’t even really come as a surprise, as the South American prodigy is regarded one of the premier talents in the North American scene for a while. Going all the way back to DreamHack Summer, the hype and buzz of the coL team was mostly centered around Oscar. The talk was similar to what Frenetic Array and sLiCKz were going through back in the days, being beast online, but even better offline without a ping disadvantage. The LAN debut of Oscar went well, but not spectacular, pushing the hype around the offlaner down a peck once more.
That’s all bound to change now again with the MVP honors given to Oscar. Playing on awful ping, playing in one of the most demanding positions in all of HoN, delivering constantly. With his play this cycle Oscar helped his team win a third HoN Tour Diamond Division cycle, as well as securing himself a spot in the Tobakaz archive of amazing videos. The highlight clip shows in under ten minutes what Oscar has been doing since coming onto the scene. The offlaner, mostly on initiating heroes like Behemoth is a big play waiting to happen, always dangerous, always ready to pounce on the slightest mistake of his opponents.
Now he pounced on the MVP award, leaving Boxi, Zlapped, Probusk and teammate Formless behind in a race that really never was a tight race.
- Oscar
- Boxi
- Zlapped
- Formless
- Probusk
Fantasy is a journalist with four years of experience working in various eSports. He is currently the HoN Tour correspondent for the CIS and SEA regions, as well as an editor for both ESL Gaming and compLexity Gaming. In addition to his online endeavors, he studies Publicity and Communication, plays American football, and loves movies.
