Read more of Diamonds Shine Through in Part 1, featuring a recap of Cycle 4.

Diamond Division

After Cycle 4, the power ranking of the teams has shifted a little in Diamond Division. The mighty [SynC]Sync eSports lost their first Grand Finals this Season and the newcomer team of [Dawn]Dawn managed to kick several good teams out of the tournament and score themselves the third place. Sure, they were in Diamond before, but since then they changed several players and their playstyle, making them a pretty good contender for the top spots now. So eyes will be on Sync and Dawn this Cycle and to start that, Sync will have the pleasure of playing against the [KNX]REXXARS, who just came back from Gold Division, while Dawn faces [Null]Nullstone Gaming, an encounter they mastered before in the previous Cycle. Sync will probably have no problems against the REXXARS, but the Nullstonies are pretty motivated to have some payback against Dawn for Cycle 4, so expect a lot of action there.

On the other side of the bracket we have a team that can be pretty happy right now: [BMG]BadMonkeyGaming had a rough time ever since they regrouped and had been struggling to find their true strength. This changed last Cycle when they beat Sync eSports not once but twice, first in the Winners Bracket Finals and then in the Grand Finals. Now all they have to do is prove that they are consistent in their performance and they will start by playing against the second Gold team that made it here, [Ogr]Shrek is Love. The Ogres had a pretty good run themselves last Cycle and feel confident that they can survive the Cycle in Diamond. They may not be strong enough to defeat BMG, but even just taking a game off of them can be considered a success and will boost their morale for then first round in the Losers Bracket, which will be their most important match this Cycle.

Last but not least, two teams that are eager to undo the humiliaton they suffered last Cycle are set to play against each other: [NR]Night Raid and [tree]willowkeeper. Night Raid came pretty far last Cycle but in the end lost to the newcomers of Dawn, which was very unexpected and must have frustrated this strong US team to no end. And willowkeeper - the once powerhouse, who brought us several new heroes for the competitive scene, had a really terrible Cycle with more losses than wins and just barely made it to round 2 of the Losers Bracket. For a team as skilled and with as much ambition as willowkeeper, this cannot happen again and they will now do whatever is needed to get to at least one of the Finals this time.
So all in all we have BMG vs Shrek is Love, Night Raid vs willowkeeper, Sync eSports vs REXXARS and Dawn vs Nullstone Gaming. Two seemingly easy matches for the HoN powerhouses of BMG and Sync and two games that will be pretty close and intense, a good mix to start things off. Personally I will watch Dawn playing against the Nullstonies, as I really like both teams and think that there will be some interesting strategies, but it will also be a lot of fun to see willowkeeper dealing with their current situation and to find out what they came up with to remedy it.


Gold Division

Plenty of good teams here once again. In the first round we will only have a few really good matchups though, the Diamond dropouts will face Silver Division winners, so they probably won't have too much of a problem here. Other matches will be far more interesting, for example [DoCa]Dont Care and [TZP]TangZangPang meeting in the first round. Both teams did well and came pretty far last Cycle and will do everything to stay in the Winners Bracket this Cycle for as long as they can. Another interesting match will be [Kkkk]Nice versus [WoG]Wake of Gods (if Nice can get their team together). Plenty of experienced players in both teams will make for a good challenge and interesting match in round 1, and only one of these two teams can go on to the next round in the WB.

Of the teams to watch out for, we have several this Cycle. [Rea]Reason Gaming are in Gold Division for this Cycle and they are the most likely candidate to win Gold Division and make it back to Diamond, anything else would be a disaster for them. Eyes will also be on [SolC]The Solaire Club. They certainly impressed last Cycle when they placed #4 overall after several really good matches. These guys have come a long way since Carnage in Caldavar and seem to be in a good spot to get some Diamond taste in the near future.And then there are [TF]Twisted Fuzion and [PI]Prime Icarus. Both teams are veterans of Gold, have visited Diamond Division at least once, are very ambitious and have some interesting and unique strategies, as well as their own charm. They certainly want to get back to Diamond again to see if they improved enough to survive there, so watching their struggle in this Cycle will be quite interesting.

Who knows, maybe both teams have improved so much that they will defeat all the other teams and go to Diamond together, the bracket offers that possibility, now it's up to them to make it happen. Twisted Fuzion seemingly has the easier task today, as they go up against the [Huss]Hussars, while Prime Icarus has to deal with [SpH]SuperHeroesPlayinHon, which includes Cursen along with several other good players. My personal choice for a match of the day would be this match, but there are indeed several good choices, and it is only going to be better, the further up the bracket we go.

Looks like a very promising Cycle 5 indeed. So stock up on snacks and beverages, tune in to Honcast and monitor your friends playing ingame, four rounds of excellent HoN are waiting for us this weekend! It will start as always this Saturday at 12:00 EST | 18:00 CET[/URL]. Good Luck and Have Fun to all teams!

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