The two biggest international events for Heroes of Newerth are coming up with both Dream Hack Winter in Sweden and the Digital Youth Awards in Singapore taking place at the same time. The Digital Youth Awards Final, a culmination of a series of qualifiers all over the world, is set to take place at the GameFEST convention from November 25th to the 28th. After winning themselves the opportunity to compete, six of the best teams from each corner of the world (Evil Geniuses, Online Kingdom, TSoG, xtu, Kung Fu, and Impunity) will do battle. In addition to this, two other talented teams, ICE and PMS Girls, were selected to join them in competing for their part of the hefty $20,000 cash prize.
The Digital Youth Awards Final, which was originally planned to take place at Dream Hack Winter, was moved to Singapore after both CPL and SCOGA announced support of an additional $10,000 in prize money. On top of this, S2 Games has announced that they will be joining the Digital Youth Awards committee, Starhub, and WoLong Ventures, the company behind CPL, in donating $8,000 in the name of the participating teams to help fulfill Gabriel’s, a 10 year old will germ cell tumors, wish to go to Disneyland Honk Kong.
With all of this in the works, this is sure to be an exciting tournament. Making this that much more exciting, since this is one of the few LAN events these teams will have competed in for Heroes of Newerth just about anything could happen after the dust settles.
Prize Breakdown:
1st place: $10,000
2nd place: $4,000
3rd-8th: $1,000
Teams:
USA: Evil Geniuses (EG)
Bkid – Chu – Dodo – FujiApples – Se`Busca
Evil Geniuses, consistently one of the best teams in the world and right now the best team, will be the ones to beat in Singapore. They’ve been at the top spot for quite a while now and have not been showing signs of slowing down. Although, they did struggle in their match against DuskBin for the Gosu Gamers Steel Series World Cup which could have possibly revealed some weakness of this otherwise unstoppable team. Still, being as consistent as this team has been since the beta of the game I don’t see this as a sign of decline.
For teams to beat EG they will need to try and shut down their support players. On top of this, EG has three very good gankers who they tend to rely on quite a bit, which is something to definitely watch out for. Even so, we’ve seen this team bounce back countless number of times to win with amazing plays from each one of these players. It’ll be an upset if EG doesn’t come out of Singapore with at least a 2nd place finish.
Sweden: TS Gaming (TSoG)
Hyddae – PapaDrayich – Rus_agent007 – XoYnoZnU – Away
They might not be the best team around, but they definitely have the most team spirit. TS Gaming is a team that uses motivation and team spirit to win games, coupled with some great plays by players like PapaDrayich. The most recent example of this is their game against Sds in which PapaDrayich surprisingly picked up a Doombringer on Flint Eastwood to carry his team out of an hour long game, squashing Sds’ strong comeback.
If they can catch teams off guard with plays like this then they can definitely cause some upsets. However, they’ll have their work cut out for them as they face off against the likes of Online Kingdom and Evil Geniuses.
Germany: Online Kingdom (OK)
Akke – Black – SemiJew – Mag1x – Overpow
Online Kingdom, formally known as KD Gaming, has been a team that seems to always have a good showing and will always surprise you with what they are going to pull out of their hats in a game. Now flying the Online Kingdom flag, the team has a ton of strategies in their books and they are not afraid to run them. If their opponents manage to out pick them, they usually can manage to out play them on good days.
Their DotA and HoN experience have definitely helped them become a better team and is one of the main reasons why they are so good. If Online Kingdom plays to their full potential it will be very exciting to see how well they do.
Singapore: Impunity (iMp)
Capellzor – MissAir – Bakaben – Doudouwang – Ace.frozenflame
Impunity is a team that can either place very well or very poorly. What they do have working for them is the surprise factor. Being an Asian team, almost all of the other teams competing will not have a clue what Impunity could bring to the table. This will be very important for them to take advantage as the surprise factor is huge, especially at events like these. The American and European teams will need to make sure they do a ton of research beforehand to know what to expect, and I know that some teams are actually doing so now.
Impunity might be a very good team, but a recent loss to DDT and being knocked out of the Gosu Gamers World Cup tournament also shows that they’ll need to get it together if they want to compete in Singapore. If Impunity does not places top two, I see them most likely placing between 5-8.
USA: Epic (ICE)
Jah – TehGosu – JoshP – Swindlemelonzz – TBD
This is the team that has turned quite a few heads over the past few months. Winning the CAL Heroes of Newerth tournament to secure an all-expenses paid trip to compete here against teams like Dotally Rad and SK shows that this isn’t a team to think lightly of. If they can live up to their potential I see this team placing very well here and they could probably cause a few upsets along the way. However, this is assuming they play their best. Since this is still a relatively new team compared to the rest, one has to wonder if they’ll be able to do so when the pressure is on them.
There are two major factors that will play a huge role at DYA tournament for ICE. Most of the time ICE relies on JoshP getting insane farm. That means if they need to sacrifice a lane or two for JoshP to get the farm he needs to carry, then that’s what they do. If their opponents shut down JoshP and stop him from farming, ICE will most likely have a very hard time winning.
Their fifth player is currently marked as TBD. Ensoe was ICE’s fifth player, but unfortunately he is unable to attend the event. With that, ICE is currently looking for a fifth player that will fill Ensoe’s spot. Rumor has it they might be using Fogged from SK, but nothing is official on whether they are or whether they can even do so. If ICE does not find a good substitute, they’ll either end up doing poorly or not being able to play at all. I feel that if ICE finds a good fifth and plays wells they will be able to place top four or better.
Singapore: PMS| Asterisk (PMS)
PinkSheep – yen – furryfish – kaori – w4nderz
Not much is really known about this team, other than that they are a pro female team who recently made the switch to Heroes of Newerth from DotA. With having such a great DotA background and experience, I think they might be able to compete with ICE and TS Gaming, but I highly doubt they have enough experience in the game just yet to beat the likes of Evil Geniuses or Online Kingdom. I think PMS* might be able to play top 6 but that’s only if they get lucky. Still, it’s up in the air on whether they’ll be able to do well or not here as they haven’t really had the chance to play against these teams that I know of.
Either way, this will serve a few positive purposes for the team. It will be a good indicator of where they stand against some of the best in the game, and it will give them the experience of facing the best in the game.
Pictures from Heroes of Newerth
