coL.HoN Weekly Breakdown
coL.HoN Weekly Breakdown
by Kyle "Beef" Bautista
It's that time again! The coL.HoN weekly breakdown returns with another recap of whats going on in the world of compLexity Gaming and Heroes of Newerth. While it's been a little more than a week since the last Weekly (sorry, out of state trip and holidays are over now!) there is no shortage of events to talk about, so here's the Breakdown:
Saturday, December 15th 12:00EST – Winners Round 1
Fresh off yet another loss to tdM in the Diamond Grand Finals #2 ranked team compLexity Gaming was eager for redemption target was #15 Pikachu. The European team had always hovered in the top 10 teams but hadn't quite managed to have a true breakout performance and a run for a finals, so this was their chance to make a big splash.
If Pikachu was looking to make a statement then they certainly chose to do it in an odd way. The Pikachu lineup consisted of heroes like e271828183's Armadon and Zhichi's Martyr and focused on farming a strong start on their tank and keeping him healed. Unfortunately for the Europeans compLexity's standard lineup was having none of that and destroyed Pikachu in all respects, ending the game up 22-3 in hero skills in a 16 minute game. If Pikachu was going to contend with the big boys they would need to show a lot more than they did in game 1.
Game 2 certainly started better for Pikachu, going with a less 'original' lineup, this time putting Buch in the suicide lane on Keeper of the Forest and sending MisterP short lane on Draconis. [coL]bkid on Hammerstorm soaked up much of the early farm for the Hellbourne team and quickly finished a Hand of Midas and a Shrunken Head to get pretty fearsome but even his Mighty Swing wasn't enough to get his team out of a big Tempest Elemental Void from [Pika]Nir. coL lost a big fight on the back of that Tempest ult and dropped a set of barracks at 23 minutes. Even with super creeps in the middle lane coL managed to outfarm their opponents but after multiple strong defenses Pika took a fight on the back of the dragon and took game 2 in 44 minutes.
With their status in the Winner's Bracket on the line compLexity wasn't about to give up the series easily and went into game 3 with an extremely aggressive lineup. With the sixth man [coL]Shamsz filling in for absent teammate Chessie picking up Deadwood and [coL]bkid on Pharoah coL had a lot of initiation potential but unfortunately wasn't able to take the early game. [Pika]MisterP was the first to hit 500 gold per minute on Moon Queen and carried his team into the late game with his strong farm but at 52 minutes into the game takes a 4 for nothing team fight and forces a buyback to take a substantial lead. compLexity capitalized by taking down the melee barracks in the middle lane but lost four players in a team fight trying to push the bottom and had to blow multiple buybacks to save their own middle lane. At 72 minutes into the game compLexity caught Pika with their pants down and took a decisive team fight with no buybacks available on Moon Queen and finished the sacrificial Shrine.
Saturday, December 15th 15:30EST – Winners Round 2
After a long early series I talked to the coL team before their next game and asked if they were tired and the response was completely the opposite; they were all warmed up and ready to kick ass. Their next target was the #10 team, and the Gold league runners-up, Fack You Kurdi (FyKu). After FyKu dropped their Finals the previous week 0-2 to Call it Karma they scored retribution earlier on day 1 of cycle 2 as they knocked Call it Karma into the Loser's Bracket with a 2-0 victory and built some momentum for themselves.
In game 1 of the previous series compLexity absolutely dominated their opponents and forced a 16 minute concede. At 16 minutes in during game 1 of this series coL once again found themselves up an incredible amount after shutting down [FyKu]Pewe` on Monkey King and managing to farm 4 heroes to near 400 GPM. The FyKu team drew the game out to 31 minutes but with a 25k Gold and 33k exp deficit and down 25 kills they finally threw in the towel.
In the last series against Pika it seemed like coL might make a real quick series of it, but Pika made a series come back. If FyKu wanted to do the same they were going to have to make some serious improvements. Unfortunately for them, they didn't. compLexity Gaming gave them the bird as [coL]Haxxeren picked up a Frostburn wielding Zephyr and quickly ascended to 600 gold per minute. After nearly nothing went their way at FyKu called for a final fight at 15 minutes and gave up the series after being down 16k gold and 9k experience. With momentum on their side compLexity would finish out the day and prepare for their next opponents, Stay Green.
Thursday, December 20th, 12:00EST – Winners Semi-Finals
After some delays due to a technical issue with the game the Semi-Finals between #2 compLexity Gaming and #3 Stay Green (Gary Johnson/V0TE) was pushed back to Thursday. In their previous meetings compLexity had dominated swindlemelonzz' team but with the recent addition of the former Tt eSPORTS player sLiCKz to the sG roster they were looking more formidable than ever. CoL was just one series away from yet another rematch against their rivals, the top ranked Trademark eSports.
After multiple remakes trying to get proper servers to allow for minimal latency for both Oceanic players and Europeans the game finally settled and sG took an early lead with captain [sG]swindlemelonzz getting big early on Pebbles. As the game progressed Pebbles continued to dominate the coL team and [sG]sLiCKz hit the 500 GPM mark as both sLiCKz and Moon Queens tend to do. Although coL had signs of life with a well farmed Warbeast being played by [coL]Chessie and teammate Haxxeren on Wretched Hag they fell hard during a team fight at 40 minutes and chose to concede the first game.
Once again coL.HoN found themselves only one game away from a trip to the Loser's Bracket the coL.HoN squad would have to put it all on the line and bring it to even. Captain [coL]bkid went with a relatively farm intensive lineup, sporting a suicide Wildsoul, short lane Hag, and a Legionaire being played by Chessie in the jungle. Despite the somewhat passive lineup the coL team kept even in terms of kills and by 20 minutes had taken a substantial gold and experience advantage. [sG]swindlemelonzz' midgame lineup wasn't able to secure a mid game advantage and at 27 minutes in he raised the white flag, evening up the series and 1 each.
Game 3 would be the decider. Who would be going on to face Trademark eSports for a chance to go to the cycle 2 Grand Finals and who would be dropping down to try to climb back up. Chessie once again took up his axe on Legionnaire and [coL]Haxxeren farmed extremely well on one of his signature carry heroes, Silhouette. Despite a slow and even early game and good farm on two heroes for the coL.HoN lineup fell behind the strong farm of Electrician, Forsaken Archer, and Tempest on the sG side and at 25 minutes were at a substantial gold and experience deficit. At 30 minutes in the coL team got caught out in the jungle, took a poor engagement, got caught out again by a massive Elemental Void from [sG]Zfreek ending with a massive teamfight for sG.Less than 10 minutes later the Stay Green team emerged victorious and compLexity Gaming would drop their first best of 3 tournament series to a team other than Trademark eSports in over 5 months.
Saturday, December 22th, 12:00EST – Losers Round 4
After dropping a hard fought series only 48 hours before the compLexity Gaming squad seemed demoralized going into the series against the #14 ranked My Revenge (One Trick Pony) but they also knew they needed to win to move on and have a shot of making the top 3. My Revenge similarly had dropped into the Loser's by hands of sG but after consecutive victories over Q Squad 777, Dendi's Jungldevos, and Pikachu the recently acquired myR team had a lot of momentum going into the series.
The round of 6 started off with a very standard coL.HoN line up but the My Revenge team went with no jungle, a Deadwood, and a carry Maliken being played by [myR]Fuzi. With cautious play early and then strong push at about 15 minutes the coL.HoN squad was able to secure a tenuous early lead with incredible farm on [coL]Chessie playing the bird. Despite aggressive pushes throughout the mid game the kill score remained 3-1 in favor of compLexity Gaming until 35 minutes into the game where My Revenge lost a team fight and the game. With a very, very passive game 1 coL.HoN shirked any doubt about their patience and put themselves just one game from the top 4.
Game 2 gave My Revenge an opportunity to try something a little bit different, so they went for something a little bit more conventional. Putting [myR]Streufutter on the Warbeast and teammate Fuzi on Forsaken Archer gave the My Revenge team some push that they desperately needed but they still found themselves outpushed by the coL.HoN team. The early push showed up once again as compLexity knocked down all 6 outer towers by 30 minutes but despite an enormous gold and experience lead team fights at 31 and 35 minutes went the way of My Revenge. The consequence was a lost middle barracks and although coL took a 3 for nothing team fight shortly after the 500 GPM myR War Beast crushed the coL squad with his first hit bash Brutalizer in two subsequent engagements finishing off the barracks and evening up the series.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. I can't know for certain, but I like to think that journalism major and literature enthusiast [coL]Franzzii utters those timeless words to rally his team every time that the coL.HoN squad finds themselves face to face with the black visage of defeat. It seems more and more common recently, but still they persevere . Game 3 started with a decisive War Beast ban by bkid, sure not to be taken by the same trick twice. Instead myR went with a push heavy lineup including Torturer, Pollywog Priest, and [myR]ArchiTigeR on Ophelia. Despite an aggressive early game lineup the standard coL.HoN picks crushed in the laning phase and took towers of their own. Oh yeah, did I mention a level one Kongor? Yeah, so that a thing. With early levels over their opponents and a Token of Life on Moraxus the coL.HoN team took their 0 minute lead and and never let go, snowballing to a 13 minute 20k gold and 15k experience lead. 2 minutes before the concede could even be called the myR team called “gg” and the coL.HoN squad felt they needed to apologize. Once more, dear friends, once more.
Saturday, December 22th, 15:30EST – Losers Round 5
coL.HoN had taken a road filled with speed bumps and detours, but still they made it to the top 4, and they didn't show any signs of stopping. Their opponents however, the #4 ranked Q Squad 357, had taken a substantially easier route, taking forfeit wins over both Duel and TteS, only defeating the #6 ranked LIONS eSportsKlubb before falling victim to the top ranked Trademark eSports. One of these teams would go on to face Stay Green the next day for the right to seek revenge against Trademark in the Grand Finals.
Game 1 showed an aggressive Pebbles, Parasite, and Bubbles lineup from the coL.HoN squad with standout performances by both [coL]MoonMeander and [coL]Chessie securing early kills and farm. QsQ ran an unconventional Devourer pick and together with Moraxus gave them a nice early mid game threat but unfortunately for the Q Squad they couldn't secure farm on their Silhouette carry being played by NoX. By 20 minutes into the game the coL.HoN team had secured multiple towers, found themselves up 12 kills and nearly 15k gold and experience. [coL]Chessie on Parasite was the top farmer, finishing a 18 minute Hellflower and although Haxxeren farmed well his carry potential wasn't even needed as NoVa threw in the towel at 22 minutes.
Game 2 started off better for the QsQ team with a strong start for both Tremble, being played by [QsQ]Style and teammate NoX on Forsaken Archer. Although NoVa and his team were able to maintain a nice lead until just after 30 minutes eventually coL found an opening and evened up the hero kill score and took a gold and experience advantage for the first time. From 31 minutes when the gold and experience gap tilted in their favor coL.HoN extended their lead to over 25k gold and experience at 37 minutes forcing the concede from QsQ at the mere sight of 4 farmed coL players. With this victory coL.HoN secured a top 3 finish and set themselves up for revenge against not just sG, but Trademark as well.
Sunday December 23rd, 12:00EST – Losers Finals
When you have 16 top teams fighting for dominance every two weeks you expect to see rematches, you expect to see some of the similar teams over and over, but the ability of Stay Green, compLexity Gaming, and Trademark eSports to consistently find one another in these grudge match game is nothing short of uncanny. With Stay Green falling in a close 1-2 series against tdM coL.HoN was given their shot at revenge and a chance to make it to the Grand Finals.
The first game showed compLexity returning to some signature heroes. [coL]MoonMeander picked up Tundra and Haxxeren grabbed Draconis, but captain and initiator bkid picked up Plague Rider, a somewhat unusual player hero combination. After an extremely passive early game favoring neither team first blood and the early advantage was taken by compLexity Gaming at 13 minutes in. After taking this advantage coL, as they so often do, compounded that advantage and maintained it through the rest of the passive game. Finally some excitement was injected into the game as coL won some excellent team fights and eventually caught their opponents on a Kongor attempt and Haxxeren took back to back hat tricks and with them, the game. 46 minutes in swindlemelonzz called it quits and coL.HoN took a 1-0 advantage in the series.
Game 2 showed Stay Green showing a slightly unconventional pick of their own as [sG]KheZu picked up Jeriziah instead of his normal hard carry role, instead leaving that to teammate sLiCKz with Draconis. coL played it cool and ran their standard lineup, this time picking up The Dark Lady as their own carry and despite early kills and a small lead for the sG team coL played safe and brought the gold and experience back to their side. Unfortunately for compLexity gold and experience doesn't always dictate a true advantage and a 600 GPM dragon kind of supercedes everything else. With Riftshards, a Savage Mace, Demonic Breastplate, and standard defensive items [sG]sLiCKz crushed the coL.HoN team in multiple teamfights and crit his way to victory in game 2. With just one game between either of these teams and a rematch versus Trademark eSports both squads would put it all on the line in game 3.
Game 3 started off in a very bad way for the compLexity Gaming Squad. [coL]MoonMeander on the suicide Keeper of the Forest struggled in a great way against [sG]swindlemelonzz on Pebbles in the short lane. Despite the sG captain's success in his top lane the mid went very well for coL.HoN, taking multiple early kills against sLiCKz on Forsaken Archer. All the while [coL]Haxxeren free farmed the bottom lane on Draconis and coL took a minor lead by 20 minutes. By 30 minutes coL had extended that lead to something more moderate at 3k gold and 5k experience but the majority of the farm was on Draconis, whereas the sG team had spread farm equally on Pebbles and FA. The kill score remained equal throughout the mid game and both teams traded towers and kills evenly until at 40 minutes coL took a decisive fight and capitalized by taking a melee barracks in the mid lane. After losses in the last team fight the sG team tried to take a crafty Kongor kill behind the backs of coL but great ward vision from Franzzii allowed the coL.HoN squad to take the fight, the Kongor, and the game. With victory assured in the loser's bracket compLexity Gaming had successfully climbed their way back up to yet another Grand Finals against Trademark eSports.
Sunday December 23rd, 15:30EST – Losers Finals
If you've read anything that I've written in the past you know just what a rivalry there is between compLexity Gaming and Trademark eSports. It can sometimes go past healthy competition to straight up malice and in recent history Trademark has come out on top 4 times in a row. I would normally write a lot more flourish right here, but frankly we all expected great things from this series and from this match up but unfortunately it didn't live up to expectations and doesn't deserve any more time than is necessary.
*Trademark eSports started the best of 5 series with a 1 game advantage due to their success in the Winner's Bracket.
Game 2* had compLexity coming off a long series against Stay Green but once again the players seemed to be invigorated rather than drained. coL went with something very different in this game, going without a jungle, instead opting for double support via [coL]Franzzii on Andromeda and teammate Chessie on Aluna supporting Hag in the long lane and Moraxus in the mid lane. On the Legion team Trademark had picked up Flux, being played by [tdM]Limmp to contend with the coL lineup and by 15 minutes tdM had succeeded in multiple lanes securing a substantial lead. At 24 minutes the lead had been extended from substantial to major with 10k gold and 13k experience leaning toward the Trademark squad. Throughout the next 25 minutes kills and towers were traded but tdM held onto their lead and even extended it slightly and coL tried to find vulnerabilities in the tdM armor but opportunities were never presented. Eventually the frusturated coL.HoN team tried for initiation in the base but the Flux, Engineer, Tempest, Plague Rider combo proved to much for the coL.HoN Squad and at 55 minutes in despite base race attempts Draconis was caught in the Tempest ult twice and bkid threw in the towel.
After game 2 technical difficulties and lag by both teams necessitated a reschedule of the rest of the series. After multiple attempts throughout the next week and a half the teams could not come to an agreement for a mutually acceptable time and eventually coL.HoN, down 0-2, forfeit the series.
With Trademark taking yet another first place victory, a total of four in 2 months, coL.HoN would taste the bitter flavor of silver once more.
Saturday, January 5th, 12:00EST – Winners Round 1
After 2 weeks of rest the coL.HoN squad emerges from training this Saturday, rejuvenated and ready to prove themselves once more. When I asked support player Peter “coL.Franzzii” Dager about his team's expectations going into cycle 3 he had this to say:
“Even though second place in the first two cycles of HoN Tour is quite the accomplishment, we are confident in our ability to be the best and beat the rest.”
With expectations for the compLexity team riding high their first test comes this Saturday as they take on the Swedish team, Pencils in the first round. Just this week Pencils lost Flensmeister, one of their primary 5 players to fellow Swedish team LIONS eSportsKLUBB. The new Pencils roster is untested and though they were recently able to take second place in the Gold division for cycle 2 they lost 4 straight to We Are Spies, formerly known as The Big Boys. The #2 ranked compLexity Gaming squad is favored heavily over their #15 opponents and should welcome this opportunity to demonstrate their resilience and continued dominance in the Heroes of Newerth Competitive scene. Will they make another deep run into HoN Tour Diamond, will they drop out early to unexpected adversity, or will they find themselves once more thrust against arch nemesis Trademark eSports. Will they win it all? Find out!
HoN Tour Cycle 3 Coverage
The action starts Saturday, January, 5th at 12:00 EST with coL vs Pencils and will continue throughout the weekend. HoN Tour coverage will be provided by compLexity's own coLcast with Beef and by Honcast. Check out hontour.com for more information and of course stay tuned right here to compLexityGaming.com for all your coverage of coL.HoN and HoN Tour Season 1.
