ESL's HoN Opening Cup

image: HoN
With more than 16 teams welcome to participate in the first ESL cup starting at 26th October for the widely accepted Heroes of Newerth BETA the competitive scene for the game will open its doors and therefor crossfire starts its coverage. With only a few premium accounts to be won in the tournament the much more important thing should be the title to win the very first major HoN tournament held by the ESL.

Timetable
26.10.2009 20:00 h - Winner bracket Round #1
29.10.2009 20:00 h - Winner bracket Round #2
29.10.2009 20:00 h - Loser bracket Round #1
02.11.2009 20:00 h - Loser bracket Round #2
02.11.2009 20:00 h - Winner bracket Round #3
05.11.2009 20:00 h - Loser bracket Round #3
05.11.2009 20:00 h - Winner bracket Round #4
09.11.2009 20:00 h - Loser bracket Round #4
12.11.2009 20:00 h - Loser bracket Round #5

Final
16.11.2009 20:00 h - Lower bracket Final
19.11.2009 20:00 h - Grand Final
______________________________________________
Details
Team size: 5on5
Max Teams: 16
Map: Forests of Calvadar
Match mode: Best of 1 map
Meeting place: #esl.heroesofnewerth

Participate
Sign up here
View all participants
Rules
Official announcement



_______________________________
If more teams sign up additional slots might be available, the cup and the timetable will be adapted to the amount of teams.

Statement

I caught up with ESL's admin and n!faculty dota player BobdeBre for a short statement on the new game, the cup and DotA. He has been casting both games on ESL TV in the past:

What do you expect from the cup?
- I hope the cup will be entirely filled with many teams soon to have a cup with competitive sense coming up so we are able to show a nice final match on ESL TV to give the viewers over there a preview on the game and it's game play before it's released.

Is the game attractive for bigger clans and events? Especially compared to DotA.
- I think HoN has great potential. Unfortunately the ESL didn't have a proper timing for DotA, this mistake won't happened with this brand new game. HoN is still beta, but the game is already playable and you can already see their sense in useful changes with a few items and balancing adapted compared to DotA.
Also, compared to icefrog, they earn money with it as S2 Games - that's a very important fact to look forward for some support by them to become one of the bigger esports titles in the near future.

About the game

Heroes of Newerth is a stand-alone game for the Warcraft map DotA. You can find most heroes and items ported into the game already. Also the creator of the game, S2 Games, is adding brand new content with their very own ideas.
Gameplay trailer:

More details, pictures and screenshots are on the official website.

Raffle

For those interested in giving HoN a try I will pick one user out of the comments to receive a Beta invite. Just start your comment with "I love HoN" but also add a few words to it.
Comments
46
Great idea !
GJ

Which game-mode?
yeah :DDDDDDD
goodluck :)
nice1, hopefully we ( Sweden dispo ) will sign up :O)
NEED A TEAM!
I guess this game might flourish for a while, but with Valve setting up a team around the guy who made DotA, I think they will come up with a "HoN killer" before it will get the chance to become a major eSports game.
i think it will take a while before icefrog gets the game done with his team. Though, supporting HoN on a new community and not with the old dota veterans it has potential to succeed. Also it's about how the users will accept a dota they need to pay for.
Parent
i love hon gimme invite dude
it's -> its (except for the last it's obviously)

Looks awesome. image: Splashimage: kraken
hm but how will they select hero's?
need team, highskill
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Parent
image: zephyr

Fly away on my zephyr
I feel it more then ever
And in this perfect weather
Well find a place together
Fly on my wing
image: magmus

Magmus here to, re-re-re-represent,
shoutout to all my bitches and hos on vent,
don't try and gank me 'less you wanna get spent.
i got a lava surge that provides me a stun
but sometimes its a blink if im on the run
just chilling in the lane with my volcanic touch
fuck with me? rot op jonge i'll end you in dutch
cause i just dinged eleven and my ultis level two
i got less time for you than a dog in my shoe
and pebbles over there, he just grew
went for the chuck and threw me at you.

you try make stun on me? not gonna work
shrunken head in your face, greasy turk
dribbling lava on the floor as i chase you down
activate my frostfield plate and run around
my face is rolling all over the keys
you try and escape through the motherfucking trees
but you know its hopeless and you know its futile
i just unleashed a genocide and it was fucking brutal

cos im Magmus. volcanic rock creation
when my ultis down i go on vacation.
do some farming in the neutral creeps;
earning dollar and XP when a zephyr leaps.
oh fuck whats this? is it the ropeadope?
five man gank, not dying is my hope
but ive got lots of strength and lots of hp
towards my teammates i run in the chat i plea
but im not gonna make it im dead for sure
theres not much more which i can endure
i think ive solved it, i did the math
you can't kill me in the motherfucking steam bath!

MAGMUS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
Parent
how to get this game?
public beta atm
Parent
i dont think u can call it "closed" with that amount of players :p
Parent
QuoteWelcome to the Heroes of Newerth Beta Account website. Heroes of Newerth is currently in a CLOSED testing phase. To participate in the beta test, you must have received a beta key.


there was big key give-away , but still its closed , so we can call it closed-beta tbh.
Parent
HoN merc avi :o)
MERC AVI
that youtube vid is noob footage
awesome!
hf SNB nerds
I love HoN as much as I have loved Dota.
Merc avi (300+ games)
mid skilled
YES HON!!

Posted this newspost on the TEK9 forums too, so hopefully it will get loads signed up :)
I will own HoNerds
The Dave&Dean show will be involved!

Scout and Swift AMA ROLLIN

If you ain't got a ticket, you ain't coming in!!!!
vegeta mama asdino ryu lothar, scelgo voi!!1
It sucks. Just like dota, it's not balanced, therefore - it sucks ass.

Seriously, think about it. I'm not saying anything about random heroes mode (cause that's it - you know who's gonna win when you see the hero pick screen). All pick? Seriously. Everyone is going to pick scout or swiftblade or any other imba character of their choice,
it's no fun getting your ass kicked by someone just because they picked the most imba hero first.

I know that 'every hero has it's own strenghts' but how about the weaknesses? You're going against a swiftblade - he knows how to press Q on the keyboard - chances are you're visiting your spawn very often. You're playing against scout? You're practically non-existent in the lategame, you're getting raped again and again cause you can't run from him. Buy wards or some items that allow you to see invisible heroes you say - sit down son. You can see him but he's going to catch you anyway and rape you easily (522 movement speed in the early stage of the game? ..the fuck?). Same with predator, he doesn't even need the invisibility, he'll just jump you and you're done. If you want to play a 'fair' game, you would have to play with the same heroes for every team.

For the guys that are going to say that you can easily counter the opponents hero - you can't, Heroes are usually chosen at the end of the countdown and there's no chance to counter them then, and if the heroes chosen by the opposite team are not relying on magic damage then you better pray that they don't know how yo play or you're fucked.


And I'm probably going to participate. Then I'll rage over someone raping me with a swiftblade on the first match and call it a day. I'll never learn.


Just remember my words when you play - you see hero picks - you know what the score will be (unless you're playing some first-timers which probably isn't gonna happen in a competition. these guys may be making clans with 'scary' names and fronting themselves as some internet tough guys - but if they do - i have a feeling that they're not coming from ESL or crossfire).
So here - It's random, just like picking a blacksmith and hoping for a multicast - you either get it or you die. It doesn't rely on your skill (at least in the 'fps-skill' department), it's going to leave you on the street after getting raped - you get raped once - you get raped for the rest of the game.

Heroes picked, not skill. Everyone can press q w e and r. Not everyone can time it right but they're going to get it after a few tries. And then - you lose.

I don't even know why I'm writing this shit. It's pointless and noone will listen to me, except for some bitter butthurt hon players. And by the way - I'm doing pretty good at it myself - and i still think that it's 80% because of hero I random. 20% because I'm not braindead and I don't have ADD or my cat doesn't spontaneously combust while i play.

If you're wondering -' why the fuck is this guy writing that much shit, I'm not even going to read this' - I'm drunk as fuck and chick I've been messaging for over a half an hour turned out to be a fucking whale - what the shit? How did she get my number anyway. So yeah, I don't know why the fuck I'm telling you this but hey - I'm not even going to remember that i wrote it in the first place and I'm not going to visit crossfire for some time (till someone posts a link on a irc channel i usually am on).

tl;dr
Playing all pick competitively is bullshit. Playing HoN competitively is bullshit, unless there's some all random mode which picks same heroes for both teams.

tl;dr2
It's going to be full of fail and whine.

tl;dr3
screw you guys, i'm going home
whiner :)

* some heroes are indeed better than others but both teams can pick them so whats your problem?
* you dont wanna play against some hero? ban him! each side bans 3 heroes before you start picking the ones you'll use
* countering heroes is easy since picking will be like rd (1-2-2-2-2-1) just with all characters available
* blacksmith's multicast is indeed random but that's just the way it is. You have the percentage written down for every level so what's your problem? Just expect the worst and you won't be suprised :P
* you claim you are drunk but you type quite accurately so i'm guessing you're just making this up (maybe not the whale girl part and i feel sorry for you) and even if you drank something there's not chance you will forget that you wrote that post :)
* screw you
* twice
Parent
I made it up? How do you explain not reading the rules before posting? >:D
And I double check my posts, so they don't look like work of some drunk hobo, that's why there's no typo's and shit. I don't even have to correct that much.
Still - i don't understand the '* countering heroes is easy since picking will be like rd (1-2-2-2-2-1) just with all characters available' thing. I didn't really play dota cause it was full of 14 year olds and i wasn't patient enough to find a decent game.

I'm just saying what I think after playing like 300~ pub games, and that's how it looks like for me - i hope I'm wrong but i don't think so.

Also - I don't whine (at least if the other team doesn't say anything - just get me started and i won't shut up) in the game. I just rage over the comms.

>understnad

Well, i didn't double check this time.

And the screw you guys was a south park reference. Just so we're clear on that. >:S

I can't fall asleep. Shitsux. Well, i guess I have to keep ranting about HoN being unbalanced.



Going to watch an episode of The Wire which I'm not going to understand. Good times.

'And then he dropped the bracelets' motherfucker.
Why do they have to put some quote in every episode? It's confusing right now.

Tom Waits is the man
Parent
So after playing a few public games, you've decided the competitive side of the game is bullshit as it is completely imbalanced?

You said you hope you're wrong, and you are. Mowl.
Parent
Mr. 5000+ games has spoken! :O
Parent
Yes, I think i know how it will look because I see everyday exactly how it works.
It's not about how it is unfair, because it is fair. It's just not balanced. And it will never be.

Well, actually - it could be
Two ways.
-random mirrored characters (that would defeat the whole purpose of countering heroes, but hey, whatever works)
-'stopwatch' mode, two games, first - ap, second - changing sides, team one has heroes team two had in the first game and team two has the heroes team one had in the first game

The second one would work.

I know that I'm ~month late with this response but I just don't visit crossfire that often.
Parent
how to get the game?
closed beta atm, raffle for 1 invite above :d
Parent
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