Post Game

The best of five series had high stakes. $20,000 was on the line as well as the title of the Sound Blaster Heroes League Season 1 Champion. Both teams were eager for a win, coL.HoN for the first time in six months, and the LIONS for the first time since NASL Season 2 Finals 16 months ago

Game 1

The first game started off quite slow, with both teams farming aggressively on heroes like Wretched Hag and Pebbles for compLexity while LIONS got their signature Soul Reaper + Monkey King combination nice and big. While the kill score wasn’t high through most of the game the coL.HoN team maintained a sizable gold and experience advantage, breaching the 500 GPM mark on Haxx’s Hag. coL.HoN had the lead they needed, but some strong team fights gave LIONS some breathing room, and eventually set up a genocide, leaving compLexity without buybacks, and defenseless against the World Tree push.

Game 2

LIONS eSportsKlubb decided that with a one game advantage they could afford to take a risk. The Devourer pick that was so successful against stayGreen in yesterday’s semi-finals returned, but coL.HoN was prepared for it. The compLexity squad took a mental lead when the LIONS captain dropped his Alchemist Bones early on, leaving Wildsoul naked. Franzzii capitalized by destroying the farming tool and from there coL.HoN didn’t let go of their lead. With the wombo-combo heroes of Tempest, Keeper of the Forest, Magmus, and Pebbles the predominantly North American squad took team fight after team fight, eventually culminating in Mega Creeps at the 1 hour mark. And just like that, we’re at a best of 3.

Game 3

By the third game it appeared the Swedes felt that standard hero picks were no way to win a series, and a Berserker pick by Flensmeister confirmed this notion. The melee strength carry did quite well in the early game, farming early tank items yet still dealing enough punishment to make the Dragon-based team fear the team fight. When the team fights eventually did occur coL relied on their farmed carry and Tempest ults to pull them through but the LIONS squad had other plans. Utilizing a bugged mechanic on Empath they were able to interrupt Tempest ultimate through magic immunity, requiring admin intervention. After the players were told to game on with no further use of the bug coL.HoN made quick work of the team, closing it out and bringing themselves within one game of the championship.

Game 4

In game four the LIONS team had their backs against a wall, but still that didn’t prevent them from trying something crazy. In this case, it was an Armadon pick. coL.HoN with a standard aggressive team anchored around the hard carry of Wretched Hag. While both teams played aggressive in the early game, the lead did not sway one way or the other until just after 20 minutes in. Despite the moderate lead that the LIONS gained they still had trouble finishing off the coL.HoN squad. Until Aramadon turned his back. With a Behemoth’s Heart and Barrier Idol the tanky hero was able to soak up everything compLexity threw at him and more. On the spined back of Flensmeister LIONS evened the series once more and forced a final game.

Game 5

The LIONS tried to repeat their lineup from game one, bringing out Monkey King and Soul Reaper once more, but unfortunately compLexity countered with the bird himself, Zephyr. By just 10 minutes in coL.HoN had taken a substantial lead after a won major team fight, but the LIONS persevered. Despite the insurmountable lead the Swedes turtled on their SR carry for as long as possible before having to take team fights. When the dark horsemen of compLexity came knocking the score was already heavily in their favor, and by the time that coL.HoN left the base the game, series, and tournament were secured. The final game was heavily in compLexity’s favor the entire time, but when the last set of rax fell at 46 minutes in [coL]Franzzii had the final say with a “SHOUTOUT TO SOUNDBLASTER”.

Wrap Up

The compLexity Gaming Heroes of Newerth Squad walks away with their first championship in six months, $12,000 richer and on their way to reclaiming their throne as the top dogs of the HoN scene. With the upcoming HoN Tour cycle 8 just 2 days away and HoN Tour Finals 4 weeks out the coL.HoN squad is looking to refine their proven strategies, train up, and prepare to take even more finals.

The Sound Blaster Heroes League wraps up as a four month event featuring over 200 teams in the qualifying stage and a final 16 team bracket boasting teams from 4 continents. The two weeks that it took to narrow those 16 teams to one champion yielded some of the greatest HoN matches in recent memory. Intense matches like Orange Esports Malaysia vs Afraid, stayGreen vs Orange EsportsMalaysia, LIONS vs stayGreen and of course compLexity Gaming vs LIONS eSportsKlubb will go a long way to making this event stand out in the minds of HoN fans and players alike. Good game; well played.

——

4 months, 8 qualifiers, 4 continents, 16 teams, and a $30,000 prize pool. It all comes down to this. Two teams are all that remains of the hundreds of hopefuls, and we’re only one best of 5 series from crowning the first Sound Blaster Heroes League Champion.

The compLexity Gaming squad and the team from LIONS eSportsKlubb are no strangers to one another. Despite coL.HoN’s early dominance in their HoN Tour meetings the last 3 consecutive series have gone to the Swedish powerhouse. The predominantly North American team around captain bkid gained momentum with a win over LIONS in the recent Garena Star League qualifiers, but that W is accompanied with an asterisk, resulting from a forfeit after the first game when LIONS was kicked out of their LAN center. The series score between these teams is tied up at 3-3 and the Sound Blaster finals today will settle the score in the biggest possible way.

compLexity Gaming as a team is still recovering from a slump after losing jungle player Chessie in early January. Despite making it back to the HoN Tour Finals in cycle 6 and facing off against Trademark eSports in the finals of the second Garena Star League qualifiers coL.HoN is still looking for their first championship in 6 months. The revitalized team is looking strong, taking series off of every top team and making each game look stronger than the last with a combination of highly aggressive lineups and strong carry based play. Consecutive 2-0 victories this week over Tt eSPORTS and Trademark eSports in the Sound Blaster Heroes League championship bracket have given the compLexity squad a serious confidence boost.

compLexity Gaming support player Peter “Franzzii” Dager had this to say about his teams appearance in yet another finals:

“Contrary to popular belief our team is incredibly focused on winning this tournament. We expected/prepared for sG but are looking forward to versing LIONS after their big upset yesterday. We’ve had trouble with LIONS in the past but we believe today we are a different team and will prove so in this Bo5.”

LIONS eSPortsKlubb is still a young roster, but in the months since HoN Tour has started they have emerged as not just a top 10 team, not just a top 5 team, but a serious contender for best team in the world. Despite the overall youth of the roster the team centered around front man Superkge shows not just skill, but great decision making in their play. While they were on the edge of being knocked out of HoN Tour Diamond and have not placed top 3 in over a month the LIONS are on a roll, taking out Q sQuad 357 twice in a row. In their match against stayGreen yesterday in the SBHL Semi-Finals the Swedes showed innovation and confidence against the best team in the world, upsetting the Miami Powerhouse and earning a trip to the Grand Finals.

LIONS eSportsKlubb captain Emil “Superkge” Karlsson had this to say about the Sound Blaster Heroes League Finals:

“As for this match we are all really glad that we made it to the finals and we also think we will be able to beat coL as we have a really good streak against them, even though we had to forfeit the GSL event. But as for my team I really think we can take this match home if we just play like we did vs sG. Just go “yolo” as we say when we draft “

The action kicks off at 1pm EDT/1800 CET with Honcast, the premier casting team in Heroes of Newerth, covering the Sound Blaster Heroes League Finals. One team will walk away a champion, with $12,000 more in their moneybag, the other will have to try again next time (though the $8,000 USD consolation prize doesnt hurt). Tune in for the Bo5 series for some incredible HoN and of course your chance to win some awesome hardware courtesy of Sound Blaster and the Sound Blaster Heroes League!

About Sound Blaster Heroes League

The Sound Blaster Heroes League celebrates the launch of the Sound Blaster Z-Series high-performance sound cards and the Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage gaming headsets. Both products were unveiled for the first time at Gamescom 2012 and are shipping now. Featuring Creative’s proprietary SBX ProStudio™ and Crystal Voice technologies, the new Sound Blaster products boast cutting-edge designs and industry-leading performance capabilities.

To find out more information about the Sound Blaster Heroes League and Sound Blaster audio solutions, visit Soundblaster.com/hon/. Follow Sound Blaster Gaming at Facebook.com/SoundBlaster.

About Creative

Creative is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products. Famous for its Sound Blaster® sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment with cutting edge audio solutions, premium wireless speakers, wireless head-phones and portable media devices. Today, Creative re-invents the Sound Blaster, which has a user base of over 400 million, with its ground-breaking Sound BlasterAxx that aims at the new mobile networked generation by bridging the multi-worlds of the computer, smartphones, and tablets. Creative’s proprietary technologies, innovative hardware, applications and services leverage the Internet, enabling anytime, anywhere consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment.

The compLexity family would like to wish our Head of Staff Andrew “aMies” Miesner a very Happy Birthday as he turns 24 today!

aMies is one of the oldest members of compLexity. He started out with the team by helping with general website upkeep. As a member of compLexity, aMies proved to be an essential asset and quickly rose to his current position. Always working in the background, aMies may not be the most recognizable member of the compLexity family. However, his hard work is essential to the success of the organization.

Once again, we’d like to wish a very Happy 24th Birthday to Andrew “aMies” Miesner!

On the other hand Tyler “Lautemortis” Nicholls is a relatively new member to the compLexity family, joining in February this year. In that short time Lautemortis has proven to be an essential part of coL.LoL. 

On the team he takes on the role of Jungler and is considered by his teammate to be the most experienced player. As such, he often provides guidance to both his teammates on coL.LoL and the compLexity family.

The compLexity family would like to wish Tyler “Lautemortis” Nicholls a very happy birthday.

After a grueling month of competition in the Champions Series of League Play, compLexity’s Call of Duty team bested several thousand other United States Black Ops II players and earned the right to participate in the $1,000,000 Call of Duty Championship from April 5-7 in Hollywood, California.

Joining compLexity in what is being billed as the “ultimate high-stakes Call of Duty competition” are fellow Champions Series qualifiers RAGE, Tva, Vintage, Phoenix, Curse, Quantic, and Awe Sports.

During the Champions Series, compLexity amassed an impressive 800-30 (.964) record across more than 125 hours of play highlighted by win streaks of 73, 87, and their final 120 games.  Along the way compLexity employed an open door policy where they would play any team at any time, a strategy team captain Patrick “ACHES” Price said several of the other top contenders avoided.

In a heated race for the eight Championship qualifying spots, compLexity spent the final two days of the season playing without rest.  Price described the experience as “fighting to stay awake during a 48 hour grind session” where the team had to “stay hydrated… play well and maintain wins.” 

When asked his thoughts on the $1,000,000 Championship Price said, “The Championship will be the biggest stage we have ever played on… it’s on another level given we’ve always played tournaments with a max first place prize of $10,000 – $15,000.”  “I think we’re the best in the world under pressure, so the environment will favor us far more than any other team.”

In addition to the eight Champions Series online qualifiers, the Call of Duty Championship will host eight teams from Major League Gaming’s Winter Championship, eight teams from Electronic Sports League’s European Championship, and two teams from The Australian Cyber League.  The qualification process for the tournament’s six remaining spots has yet to be announced, however tournaments are planned for South America and Asia.

For more information visit: https://elite.callofduty.com/esports

With week one in the books competitors and fans alike look forward to the upcoming week, taking us from 8 teams, to one champion. Four months of qualifiers and competition in the Sound Blaster Heroes League have led us to this, and with teams of this caliber things will certainly end on a high note.

The Sound Blaster Heroes League quarterfinals feature 8 of the best teams in Heroes of Newerth squaring off for their share of the $30,000 prize pool and of course, the right for to be called the Champion of SBHL Season 1.

Trademark eSports vs Pikachu

If you had asked a month ago who would take this match the answer would be a resounding tdM, but unfortunately for the former champions it’s quite hard to stay on top. The #1 ranked HoN Tour team is in a slump, finishing 7/8th in the most recent cycle and struggling to defeat up and coming teams like Team Excellent and Absolute Legends. Pikachu on the other hand is looking significantly stronger than their #11 HoN Tour ranking suggests. While tdM did recently eliminate the Danish team from HoN Tour Cycle 7 Pikachu looked strong in a 2-1 win over the top CIS team Cats Gaming in the SBHL round of 16. In the end Trademark eSports is still favored in this match, but Pika has a unique opportunity to kick the kings while they’re down and hope to come away with a victory.

stayGreen vs Orange Esports Malaysia

Perhaps the most highly anticipated match of the SBHL quarterfinals features the top Heroes of Newerth team in the international scene and the top dogs of the SEA region. Orange narrowly wiggled by AfraiD in the round of 16, showing off their unique play style, but leaving questions surrounding their skill compared to their NA/EU counterparts. On the other hand, stayGreen has never looked stronger. After their recent qualification for the Garena Star League and back to back HoN Tour championships the Miami Powerhouse is the team to beat in any event. After an early exit at the DreamHoN Winter event 4 months ago stayGreen has been looking for revenge, and the Sound Blaster Heroes League has finally provided the battleground.

compLexity Gaming vs Tt eSPORTS

compLexity Gaming versus Tt eSPORTS; could you ask for a better match? The high octane agression of TteS meets the refined and calculated strategy of the #3 ranked HoN Tour team. Tt eSPORTS is always a bit of an engima, bringing unique heroes, strategies, and players to the table. After recent roster shake-ups in the TteS team they have had strong days and not so strong ones so it will be interesting to see which team shows up on Tuesday. compLexity Gaming on the other hand has been on the upswing after an extended slump. With a recent trip to the finals of both the GSL qualifiers and HoN Tour Cycle 6 the coL.HoN team is looking for their first championship in months. With two more evenly matched teams rounding out the final 8 the first two days of Sound Blaster Heroes League week two are sure to be an action packed and intense time.

Q sQuad 357 vs LIONS eSportsKlubb

QsQ and LIONS, traditionally the number four and five teams in Heroes of Newerth are both wavering slightly as they approach the SBHL round of 8. After both teams fell into the loser’s bracket in the first round of HoN Tour Cycle 7 fate dealt and even more cruel hand, forcing one to fall out of the Diamond division completely. In the end LIONS eSpotsKlubb was able to take the 2-1 victory, climbing their way back into a 5/6th finish, but Q sQuad was left bloodied and bruised. While the team’s spirit is intact, as demonstrated by their strong victory over Indonesian champions nxl>Focus eSports last week, Q sQuad 357 will still need to bring everything they have to take down their Swedish adversaries this week. The LIONS team is a bit of a question mark; they advanced with the only forfeit in the SBHL Ro16 and were eliminated by up and comers AfraiD in HoN Tour this weekend. Will the Swedes show they’ve still got it, or will NoVa and the newest Gold team prove that they are right where they belong? 

The second week of coverage for the Sound Blaster Heroes League Finals begins Monday with coLcast coverage of Pika vs tdM and continues with the remainder of the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Be sure to tune in for the most competitive action in all of Heroes of Newerth and your chance to win awesome Sound Blaster hardware.

Stay tuned to compLexityGaming.com for more information about the Sound Blaster Heroes League and competitive Heroes of Newerth.

About Sound Blaster Heroes League

The Sound Blaster Heroes League celebrates the launch of the Sound Blaster Z-Series high-performance sound cards and the Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage gaming headsets. Both products were unveiled for the first time at Gamescom 2012 and are shipping now. Featuring Creative’s proprietary SBX ProStudio™ and Crystal Voice technologies, the new Sound Blaster products boast cutting-edge designs and industry-leading performance capabilities.

To find out more information about the Sound Blaster Heroes League and Sound Blaster audio solutions, visit Soundblaster.com/hon/. Follow Sound Blaster Gaming at Facebook.com/SoundBlaster.

About Creative

Creative is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products. Famous for its Sound Blaster® sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment with cutting edge audio solutions, premium wireless speakers, wireless head-phones and portable media devices. Today, Creative re-invents the Sound Blaster, which has a user base of over 400 million, with its ground-breaking Sound BlasterAxx that aims at the new mobile networked generation by bridging the multi-worlds of the computer, smartphones, and tablets. Creative’s proprietary technologies, innovative hardware, applications and services leverage the Internet, enabling anytime, anywhere consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment.

Today, compLexity HoN kicks off their run through the finals bracket of the Sound Blaster Heroes of Newerth League as they take on BYE Team. This will be the final match in the first round of play, with the winner progressing to take on Tt eSports on Tuesday, March 12th. The Sound Blaster Heroes League is kicking it into high gear with 16 teams from North America, Europe, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the CIS Region will compete in a global tournament for pride and their share of the $40,000 cash and prize pool.

The match begins today at 2PM EST / 11AM PST.

The Sound Blaster Heroes League schedule was designed so that every single match will be broadcast live, around the world. The first week of March will be dedicated exclusively to the Round of 16 matches while the following week will clean up the Round of 8, semi-finals, and final match. Coverage of the SBHL will provided by the biggest names in Heroes of Newerth casting,Honcast, and compLexity Gaming’s very own Heroes of Newerth casting team at coLcast.

The bracket can be found here. More information about the SBHL can be found here.

On March 4th IGN ProLeague 6 (IPL6), one of the year’s premier StarCraft II events, was officially cancelled. CompLexity Chief Operating Officer Jason Bass called the cancellation a “step backward for the industry.”

With the announcement coming merely 3 weeks prior to the tournament’s March 28th start date, numerous teams, players and spectators were left scrambling to adjust their travel itineraries. In IPL’s official statement, refunds were promised to everyone that purchased an event ticket and/or reserved a room at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. No mention was made about those that may have booked a flight, car, or room at another hotel; however, IPL was apologetic to their “biggest fans who planned to be out in Vegas.”

Thankfully, compLexity’s StarCraft II players, who were scheduled to attend IPL 6, had not made any travel arrangements prior to the announcement.

compLexity StarCraft II player Joshua “TriMaster” Niven competing in last year’s WCG USA Finals

Complexity SC2 players Joshua “TriMaster” Niven and Gage “Sasquatch” DuBose shared their disappointment.

“Besides gambling and enjoying Vegas in general, I was actually looking forward to visiting with a lot of friends I haven’t seen in a while,” said Niven, “including my ex-teammate SangHo and several other players as well as the coach from IPTL finalists team MVP.”

DuBose added, “I’ve seen some people who have to change their flights and plans because of this. Personally I’m just really disappointed because now I have very little to look forward to or practice for in terms of upcoming events. The next event I actually know of, online or offline, is MLG Anaheim in late June.”

Despite their current sentiments, both players were quick to point out that the IPL events they had attended in the past were extremely well run and player friendly. DuBose went as far as saying that IPL5 was his “favorite event that [he’d] ever been to.”

With the future of IPL looking bleak, a hole now exists in the esports tournament landscape.

For additional information about IPL6’s cancellation, email [email protected].

—

Full statement from Complexity Chief Operating Officer Jason Bass

The cancellation of IPL is a step backward for the industry. Competition is good and the more events we have is good for this budding scene. Thankfully we still have many of the major events still running tournaments and leagues so I don’t view this as the kind of setback North American eSports saw when The CGS shut its doors but it is a set back none the less. On a personal note with MLG not having an open SC2 bracket, IPL was set to be an event that had all of our SC2 members in presence and for that I am very disappointed and I know they are too.

compLexity Gaming: YOUR source for professional gaming news and entertainment!

Tonight, compLexity Call of Duty captain, Patrick “ACHES” Price, will be on Live on Three to dicuss the upcoming MLG Dallas event, as well as the network issues that have plagued the qualfication process over the past few weeks.

Live on Three is dedicated to bringing you the professional gaming coverage and commentary you want every week. Join the hosts djWHEAT and Slasher for a behind-the-scenes look and in-depth discussion on the state of pro-gaming. Featuring interviews with the pros, calls from the fans, and discussion with some of the best in the business. Sometimes insightful, sometimes inciting, and always passionate – Live On Three is exactly what you’d want it to be: pro-gaming without the fluff.

Live on Three is set to begin at 12AM UTC / 7PM EST / 4PM PST and can be viewed live via the following stream.

Stream

compLexity CoD takes on EnVyUs on Slums (Hardpoint) in our next episode of “Listen In!’, a new series where we give you, the fans, a chance to listen in to the team as they play, unfiltered and uncensored.

compLexity Gaming: YOUR source for professional gaming news and entertainment!

A few days ago it was revealed that compLexity SC2’s Kevin ‘qxc’ Riley will be attending the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Hanover, Germany, not as a player but rather as an expert providing commentary and analysis of the games. Kicking off on Tuesday, March 5th and lasting until Saturday the 9th, IEM will see some of the best players from around the globe playing in one of the first major StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm tournaments.

The rest of the IEM presentation staff includes:
Host – Rachel ‘SeltzerPlease’ Quirico
Co-Host – Paul ‘ReDeYe’ Chaloner
Caster – James ‘Kaelaris’ Carrol
Caster – Shaun ‘Apollo’ Clark
Caster – Yoan ‘ToD’ Merlo
Analysis Host – John ‘JoRoSaR’ Sargent
Expert – Kevin ‘Harstem’ de Koning
Observer – Michael ‘Adebisi’ Van Driel

Tune in to the IEM World Championship on twitch.tv here. While you’re watching let qxc know how he’s doing by sending him a message on Twitter.

compLexity CoD takes on EnVyUs on Raid (Hardpoint) in our next episode of “Listen In!’, a new series where we give you, the fans, a chance to listen in to the team as they play, unfiltered and uncensored.

compLexity Gaming: YOUR source for professional gaming news and entertainment!