Following the announcement on February 4^th, Honcast and S2 Games proudly presents their first ever $1000 “HoNor” Tournament Invitationals. With that said, our very own DuskBin.HoN were fortunate enough to be invited and are set to make an impact!

The format follows a double elimination style with 8 teams exclusively invited and an additional 8 top teams from an open qualifier held right before the tournament. Overall with 16 teams battling out in the main tournament.

The prize pool is as follows:

First Place: $600 + 2000 Goblin Coins

Second Place: $300 + 1000 Goblin Coins

Third Place: $100 + 500 Goblin Coins

Starting lineup consists of:

 Capt`Mike (ninjaboogie)

 Ismification (iskaputski)

 Lutan (justawluts)

 Dragon (jojoflow)

 Polwiders (polwilders)

The current bracket can be found here.

(Source)

In DuskBin’s first matchup, they faced Team Royalty. Being a bo3 double elimination tournament, below is a recap of all three games.

Game 1 (Match ID 30411884)

Right off the bat, the real stand out pick was DskB’s Puppet Master; a rarely seen hero in tournament play. TmRy, on the other hand, drafted a gank heavy setup with Andromeda, Gauntlet and Wretched Hag. Not to mention their Demented Shaman pick with his change in the recent patch that replaced his Arcane Hide ability with Unbreakable (now much akin to DotA’s Shadow Priest).

The most interesting part of the match was TmRy going for a level 1 Kongor. Considering the hero lineup on TmRy’s side, it wasn’t exactly an ideal setup for an early Kongor and that took DskB by surprise. This enabled TmRy to fly by their radar and took Kongor without any trouble from DskB.

DskB were then forced to deal with an obvious level disadvantage, especially in their trilane with two kills handed to TmRy by the 3^rd minute. Mid was doing fairly decent being a range versus melee matchup but when Gauntlet got to level 6, the tides were drastically turned as he took out Corrupted Disciple with ease. Likewise, bottom was also a fairly even fight with both heroes on par in terms of creep kills and harassment.

With most of their lanes lost, the game quickly became one sided as TmRy gained momentum by constantly setting up ganks and putting pressure on DskB. It worked well for them as DskB’s carries had little to no opportunity to farm safely while TmRy’s Swiftblade was farming up a storm.

By the 13^th minute, TmRy gathered near Kongor once again but was quickly spotted by DskB and a full out clash ensued. TmRy eventually came out on top without anyone on their side going down. DskB’s destiny was then sealed when a Runed Axe was completed on TmRy’s Swiftblade by the 15^th minute mark and they conceded not long after.

“Well during game 1 everything went wrong in the drafting and everything went downhill when they did a level 1 Kongor. Due to their level advantage they won every lane quite easy and the bad draft by me didn't help either. By 15 minutes we already knew it was impossible to come back but since we knew it was best out of 3 we stayed calm and went to game 2.” -[DskB] Capt`Mike

Game 2 (Match ID 30419748)

Picks wise, DskB went for their straightforward approach. Gank, gank, gank and gank while spotting a Defiler for that Asian factor. TmRy responded with their previous strategy consisting of a number of gank heavy heroes and a hard carry for good measure, swapping their melee ganker with Moraxus.

“The pressure was on us since we were playing on a USE server which gives us 330 ping but after the drafting stage, I felt confident in our picks.” –[DskB] Capt`Mike

Lanes were pretty much expected from both sides with a touch of déjà vu from the first game as Wretched Hag and Bubbles were once again pitted against each other in a solo lane. A clutch play by Hag in the 2^nd minute drew first blood on Bubbles while escaping with a sliver of health with the first defensive tower claiming Bubble’s life.

Meanwhile in middle, Defiler had Soulstealer wrapped around her fingers right from the first few levels due to an amazingly aggressive play from Dragon which resulted in a level and creep kill advantage. The bottom trilane however was a very balanced matchup with both sides equally in the number of creep kills and experience.

Reaching the mid game phase, the game could have gone either way. Skirmishes were taking place mostly in the bottom lane with both teams exchanging one for another. Unfortunately Soulstealer faced some difficulty in recovering after being dominated by Defiler earlier on and this took a toll on TmRy as the trades began to favor DskB by mid game with Defiler becoming tougher to bring down and Pestilence acquiring a Portal Key.

The turning point then came at the 21^st minute mark with a Kongor attempt by DskB. Hag made a costly mistake by initiating prematurely without adequate follow up which DskB then took advantage of and proceeded to roll over them. The end result was a near genocide on TmRy leaving Moraxus behind while DskB only lost Glacius and Pestilence.

The gold and experience gap between both teams began to widen in favor of DskB as they continued their dominance over the map forcing TmRy to play defensively. Momentum was on their side and the game was then decidedly over when TmRy lost another teamfight after Defiler completed her Frostwolf Skull. TmRy conceded by the 30^th minute mark.

“We played well in all lanes except for the fact that Wretched Hag was able to get the bloodlust kill on Polwilders. Dragon dominated in mid lane and the tri-lane at bottom was 50/50. For me the turning point would be when Polwilders (Bubbles) and Dragon (Defiler) started moving around and helped us win small clashes. We played like a team which gave us the victory.”

–[DskB] Capt`Mike

Game 3 (Match ID 30424792)

Once again DskB picked up Bubbles, making it the only hero played by Polwilders throughout this bo3 while TmRy drafted a theoretically fearsome Behemoth Myrmidon combo and another melee ganker (this time Pharaoh). Beyond that the picks were nothing out of the ordinary.

The lanes on the other hand, were a different story.

The mid lane was a total dominance by Wretched Hag that started from a gank supported by Hammerstorm and Andromeda at 35 seconds into the game. The dominance kept rolling on solely due to Hammerstorm and Andromeda camping out in mid while Forsaken Archer stood her ground against a solo Slither on top. TmRy initially ran their Corrupted Disciple trilane at bottom against a solo Bubbles but things did not work well for them as they had nothing against the Bubble’s mobility and opted to not engage but instead swap lanes with their solo Slither on top.

This was a risky decision that resulted in not much a change because the map presence was contunially dominated by a roaming Andromeda and Hammerstorm combo. That put TmRy into a defensive position that made them constantly hesitate with engaging against DskB without sight of their roaming heroes.

As the game progresses on, Wretched hag continues her dominance over Pharaoh while Forsaken Archer maintains a steady gold farm on top and their roamers constantly setting up ganks.

The game then gradually became a land slide advantage for DskB with the score of 20 to 8, 4 towers down on TmRy’s side and a 380 gpm farm on Forsaken Archer near the 20^th minute mark. A Kongor kill by DskB at the 27^th minute sealed their fate and TmRy then conceded.

“Game 3 was a stomp due to the roaming of Lutan (Hammerstorm) and Ismification (Andro) helping Dragon dominate in mid lane and giving him a 4-0 lead over his opponent.” –[DskB] Capt`Mike

With that said we are proud to announce that DuskBin.HoN has made it through the first round and are currently in the winner bracket quaterfinals!

“Every game will be tough in this tournament. Our next opponent will be Imperial Gaming, a team that came out of nowhere, who defeated Infused Gaming. So I’m not sure how our the matches will go since it will be our first encounter. But I'm looking forward in facing Evil Geniuses in the semi finals (HOPEFULLY). I expect us to reach the finals.” –[DskB] Capt`Mike

We at DuskBin are super excited and wishes them all the best!