By quincy0191

The first cycle of HoN Tour Season 3 is complete, and we have a new king of the Diamond hill. SynC eSports knocked off Bad Monkey Gaming in the Grand Finals to take first place for the first time. BMG haven’t lost much in the last few months, but SynC were clearly hungry and managed to come out ahead in a tight series that went the distance.

But the first cycle wasn’t just about SynC vs. BMG, there were a few other games as well. Let’s look at some of the best and worst of Cycle 1.

Cycle MVP – KheZu
KheZu really performed fantastically in Cycle 1, and was no doubt critical to SynC’s success. He led all players in K+A:D ratio, and finished second in pure K:D. With an excellent 8.1/3.1/9.1 average line and 437 GPM, the only suicide player to come close to his performance was of course BMG’s Jonassonfam.

A huge chunk of KheZu’s damage came during his time on Swiftblade, which he played five times - more than any other hero. He spun his way to a 10.2/2.0/7.8, 481 GPM average performance, and a perfect 5-0 record. That included three instances of a pure suicide Swiftblade, where he not only didn’t suffer, but actually improved, jumping to 12.0/2.3/11.0, and a matching 481 GPM.

Best Hero – Swiftblade
And we’re back to this guy again. Before the start of HTS3 I labeled Swiftblade as “on the decline”. Oops. Of all heroes with at least five games played, Swifty finished first in XPM and GPM, second in (lowest) deaths, CK, and K:D, and third in kills and K+A:D. The only other heroes who occasionally bested him were Chipper (6 games) and Doctor Repulsor (5 games) who barely qualify. Meanwhile Swift’s 14 games tied him for the fourth-most played hero this cycle, and his 64.3% win rate placed him fourth as well.

The best Swiftblade performance did not actually belong to KheZu, but Dawn carry sertas. Against Ogr in Game 3, he managed 615 GPM and went 13/1/11, leading his team to a 43-minute victory. With his team on the verge of being relegated to the Gold Division, those numbers certainly count as clutch.

Worst Hero – Blood Hunter
Blood Hunter did not have a good time. He was played five times by five different teams – KNX, tree, BMG, Rea, and Dawn. He did not win a single game. Overall he finished at 4.8/5.0/7.0 and just 380 GPM, not exactly what you want to see from a hero that was consistently given priority farm and is supposed to specialize in killing heroes.

Even when BigArlong of REXXARS went 10/4/12 and managed 460 GPM, he couldn’t pull out a win over Reason Gaming, and that was the best we saw from BH. It was his only 400 GPM performance, and just one of two times he had a positive K:D, the other belonging to tree’s baltazar` at 8/4/3, 389 GPM.

Best Single Game Performance – Grand Finals Game 4, iNsania on Glacius
There are obviously a lot of contenders for this spot, but the crown goes to iNsania, because his 3/2/27 line and 324 GPM were the right numbers at the right time. With the Grand Finals tied at two games apiece, SynC needed all of their players to step up, and he absolutely did. 27 assists were the second-highest total of the entire cycle (m`ICKe on Magmus put up 31 in the Winner’s Bracket Finals, but he took nearly an hour), at 15 his K+A:D was tied for the 8th-highest of any single player game, as well as the highest for any support hero, excluding 0 death games. A 31 minute victory and cycle crown for SynC was helped along quite a lot by a truly outstanding game from their support player.

Best Single Game K/D/A – Winner’s Bracket Finals Game 2, KheZu on Swiftblade
Go away, KheZu! I’ve had enough of you! We get it, you’re good at HoN and you know how to play Swiftblade. Going 17/4/19 with 516 GPM and 322 CK on a suicide Swiftblade in the decisive Game 2 of the Winner’s Bracket Finals is just showing off. In case you’re wondering, that’s the third-highest kill total, 8th-highest XPM, and the 9th-highest assist total, all in the same game. It also led the pack in K+A-D and sent BMG to the Loser’s Bracket, which was critical, given SynC used their one-game advantage to eventually take the cycle championship. KheZu stahp!

Best Single Game Farm – Round of 8 Game 2, probusk on Drunken Master
This was the only time in the entire cycle that a player crossed 700 GPM. probusk managed not only a strong 5/1/4 line, but a whopping 226 CK in just under 23 minutes. Unsurprisingly, that is the highest creep kill per minute performance so far, and not only was he the only player to exceed 9 CK/minute, he nearly beat 10 at 9.93. Drunken Master isn’t exactly known for his flash-farming capability, either. Even with this game he averaged just 409 GPM across all DM games, while all other players averaged 373 GPM. In other words, probusk’s Drunken farmed twice as well as everyone else, which is a pretty impressive achievement.

Best Single Game CK+CD – Winner’s Bracket Semifinals Game 1, ImbaBoy on Moon Queen
The best single game CK score was Flensmeister’s Puppet Master in that insane Game 2 of the Grand Finals at 591 CK. Considering how he started, that’s pretty awesome. But in terms of overall last hitting, ImbaBoy takes the cake in much more impressive fashion considering this game lasted just over an hour instead of nearly 80 minutes.

Not only did he manage 577 CK, but another 46 denies, the largest single-game total, for a total of 623 creeps dead at his hands, and just one of three 600+ CS games. Hilariously enough, that CK total finished third overall, behind an opponent from the same game, m`ICKe on Monkey King at 589 CK. But with just 18 denies he was 16 CS behind Reason Gaming’s captain.

We’ll close it out with a few leaders from Cycle 1 of HoN Tour Season 3 (all appeared in at least five games):

Highest Win% – Pebbles, 71.4%
Lowest Win% – Blood Hunter, 0%
Most Picked – Rhapsody, 23 games
Executioner (Most Kills) – The Chipper, 10.8
Cautious (Least Deaths) – Cthuluphant, 1.7
Savior (Most Assists) – Parasite, 10.8
Best Farmer – Swiftblade, 477.2 GPM
Best Experience – Swiftblade, 576.9 XPM
Best Ricer – Doctor Repulsor, 278 CK
Best Denier – Doctor Repulsor, 25 CD
Highest K:D – The Chipper, 3.18
Highest K+A:D – The Chipper, 6.0