HT Finals Day 1 - I Laughed, I Cried, I Came..hngggg

Like most HoN lovers, I have been waiting for the HoN Tour Finals since October. Having been one of the major persons involved with the planning (I was the person who suggested the Hardwood Suite once upper management decided on Vegas, though I lobbied for Orlando, FL for the Finals since Vegas offers more for the 21+ crowd than say a trip to Disney World or Universal Studios or something along those lines) I wanted to see what was going to happen when S2 had over half a year to plan and execute their first ever official LAN tournament.

Now, the first thing I'm about to say is going to make me look stupid, but in the interest of fairness I should disclose it: I wasn't sure exactly what time the first game was supposed to start. Sure, I should have checked Hontour.com or even /r/heroesofnewerth but instead at around 12:30 I went to Honcast.com at which point I read that the next upcoming match was scheduled for 6:00PM EST. Luckily, I was going to watch some FPV streaming of HoN for a bit while getting ready for the day when I went to the main Twitch page and saw that Honcast was live. While this isn't directly the point of this post, why is the Honcast site still a pile of shit? I mean, Tralf hasn't been with the company for what.. over 2 months now? Yet he's still listed on the Staff section of Honcast and his name is all over the descriptions of stuff. That's not even that important, but why is it when I go to Honcast.com and Honcast is live is the "Featured Video" section not automatically replaced with the Honcast Live Stream? Am I blind? But I didn't notice a "Honcast is Live" message either. Even the old balls python Honcast.com site had a Honcast Live button that you could click on.

Whatever.


I Laughed:

So I tuned into the Live stream and watched Breaky and Emperor chatting back and forth about the upcoming matches. First thing I noticed is that the step-and-repeat was really wrinkled. I mean it looks like it was sloppily packed, and then it was the last thing they unwrapped before going live and just hung it up as a backdrop. A similar thing happened at Dreamhack Summer 2012 when we wanted to reuse this big ass Monkey King backdrop and it looked like complete shit so we hung it on the back of our booth in a dark room to avoid total embarrassment. Then they said the words I was waiting for "The game is underway, let's jump on in" at which point I asked myself  "what's going to be fucked up this time."

I must have laughed for a solid 30 seconds without stopping. It was a genuine laugh, not because I was happy that Honcast's production crew has screwed up for the 5th event in a row, but because S2's employees had spent the previous two weeks talking about how the production was going to be top notch:

https://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?489797-Hontour-Finals-in-Vegas-open-for-public&p=15642093&viewfull=1#post15642093

And it reminded me of the shit I used to talk about when I was the Director of eSports. The truth is Milkfat knows about as much as I did when it comes to streaming/production/etc: Absolutely fuck-all. We're coordinators, event planners, and tournament organizers. When we make plans, we plan for the people put into their positions to execute their jobs properly. The issue with this is we always waiting until the last minute to start testing the streams. So I figured this time, having heard that certain members of the Honcast team were in Vegas a few days prior to the event, that the stream would be mostly flawless, at least the in-game portion. Man was I wrong.

How does this keep happening? I was in the competitors skype sharing a good laugh with the rest of the players who didn't get to go to Vegas and Beefpotpie said:

[4/17/2013 1:00:57 PM] Kyle "Beef" Bautista: they did test it
[4/17/2013 1:01:04 PM] Kyle "Beef" Bautista: theyve been in here for 40 hours straight
[4/17/2013 1:01:09 PM] Kyle "Beef" Bautista: but mistakes are happening =/

How is it that after 40 hours straight they were unable to reliably say "This looks good." What kind of "mistakes" happen that make a game look like this:

While the Garena stream looks like this:

Just awful.


I Cried:

So what else went wrong?

1. AceJR 

- I don't know why they chose to let this guy host the Finals. I see some people saying they should have hired a professional, but that's also pretty stupid considering whoever hosts this event needs to have an intimate understanding of this specific game. My problem with AceJR is he has absolutely nothing prepared for his interviews, he seems extremely nervous on camera, and is in general an awful public speaker. I would have rather seen S2 bring in someone like Tralfamadore or Zyori to host the Finals. Hell, I would have done it for free (although S2 would never let that happen) if they paid for the plane ticket and hotel.

2. Opening Ceremony

- I have seen Iraqi prison cells with better lightning. They called in the players and teams who came in through a fog machine but there was no one around them to welcome them in or anything like that. On top of this, they played VTZ music during the intro. Just what I wanted to hear, the same shit that Honcast plays nonstop already. This cherry on the top of this awkward ceremony was AceJR's horrendous announcing.

3. Interviews

- A good interview is done with the interviewer facing the interviewee at a slight angle in two separate chairs. See any talk show ever for confirmation of this. Having two dudes sit awkwardly next to one another on a couch that was no doubt used in a budget pornographic casting couch film with all the lights turned out was terrible. Again, AceJR showed his speaking prowess in these interview sessions. I mean, why would get you someone who very obviously understands little to nothing about competitive HoN to interview competitive players? Again, having someone like Tralf or hell, even Beefpotpie (who was already there) would have been a major improvement.

4. Delays Between Games

- It goes without saying that you have to plan for 5-6 hours between scheduled series when you have a Best of Five planned. But you also have to take into consideration that there's a possibility, especially between the #1 and #4 seed game, that a game is going to end early. So why not have content, or at least planned content, ready for the longer breaks. I don't have an issue with Honcast sticking to their schedule because that means reliability, but going to a screen with VTZ Beats music on for nearly 2 hours is just plain unacceptable, especially when you have 20 of the worlds best HoN players at your disposal. You should be asking questions, having [intelligent] interviews, and showing off what is supposed to be an amazing venue. Bringing me to my final point...

5. No Venue Cameras

- I supported HoN having a private/VIP event for the HoN Tour Season 1 Finals. But at least make me jealous that I'm not there. Aside from seeing half of the half court in the Opening Ceremony and the rape couch in the interviews, where are the other shots? I know there's a sweet social area in the Hardwood Suite with TV's and a full bar and all kinds of seating... so why aren't we getting to see that? Especially during downtime I would like to see people mingling with each other, pro players having a good time and the S2 staff that is in attendance enjoying themselves. Instead I get to see a motion version of the background graphic from Hontour.com and listen to VTZ Beats! WOOOOOO!

I guess it's to be expected though. No matter how hard people seem to be working, something is always fucked up with Honcast. It's kind of sad because I know people who were planning on tuning in for these matches who are DOTA 2 players just to watch a game they used to play (like SUNSfan, DetonatR and others) to support how far they've come and messaged me with a simple "LOL" and "How have things actually gotten worse?" It's gotta be embarrassing for S2 that hundred of thousands of dollars in production gear, employee salaries and event costs over the past year has yielded this result. Sure, the production of the HoN Tour online events was decent, but if you can't pull off a live event, you're never going to garner the respect of any third party who is invested in eSports (team sponsors, event sponsors, tournament organizers, etc).


I Came:

I do want to say there were some things that went well. Emperor looks much better wearing his blazer and button up than he did with a wife beater on during the GSL stream. Breaky continues to be as energetic as always and actually seems to be genuinely having a good time casting these games. I feel bad for Breaky because when we used to do shit like Dreamhack Summer 2010, DYA and Dreamhack Summer 2011 we had the time of our lives sitting there with a webcam and casting off two laptops, and he was so obviously frustrated at the technical difficulties his production team caused him once again. I thought the games themselves were extremely entertaining and even the games with few hero kills were intense all throughout. I bet the will to win is palpable in that Suite from the teams who are there, especially Stay Green who are on their way to winning the first ever Triple Crown in HoN (GSL, HoN Tour Finals, Dreamhack Summer 2013) and shattering any questions on whether or not they are the undisputed world champions of Heroes of Newerth.

I'm looking forward to Day Two.

Is Stay Green better than Fnatic?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Bella/Savannnah and Clan Epoch involved in Juicy Drama

So I got some fuckin SWEET drama today that has to be posted.

http://icylog.blogspot.ca/2013/03/icy-leaves-epoch.html

This site is a copy and paste of private IRC logs between high ranking members of the S2 Games backed clan Project Epoch, a circle of turds dedicated toward "mentoring" players. While some of these people are stand up guys, the vast majority of Epoch members are no better (skillwise or attitude wise) that any other 1500 level rager. This specific topic has to do with a girl who has been hanging out with Khezu and the sG gang in Miami. The topic of discussion? Whether the girl is a whore or homeless. Icy, who dislikes the way that high level community members who are supposed to be "above flaming/drama and setting an example" resigns from his position after witnessing what he calls "corruption."

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/554916_4826943466068_326750850_n.jpg

That is a picture of said Andrea who they are talking about.

Then, I get another link to a private forum:

http://z13.invisionfree.com/savannahlogs/index.php?showtopic=7&st=0&#last

I won't go into details on this because it's short and worth it for you to read on your own; but here's a little picture to get your loins on fire:

Now, I have also heard people are getting banned for talking about this information. I will let you all know if I get banned from HoN for reporting this drama.

VEGAS PLAYOFF BABY!

It's fucking MARCH MADNESS for Heroes of Newerth. It's UNBELIEVABLE BABY!

With the regular season of HoN Tour finally over we're moving into the HT Finals Playoffs to determine who is gonna move on to the big show and which teams are gonna be stuck sitting at home waiting for Season 2 details to be announced. So let's go over the teams and brackets:

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Q sQuad 357 vs Pikachu

QsQ (now without a clan name at all) comes in at the 1st seed having met with some success earlier in the tournament then fizzling out in the middle. QsQ also had the most shocking results of any Diamond Division team as they were knocked back to Gold in Cycle 7 and even found themselves in a rough patch there as they were knocked into the Losers Bracket in the 3rd round by Bloodbath N Beyond (+1 for creative name/pun). Still QsQ has a good team with solid players on it. My issue with Nova's drafting is not that he drafts poorly, it's that he lets other teams draft extremely powerfully. I don't think he takes enough preventative measures against other top teams to make sure they aren't getting "God Comps". I also think QsQ struggles with good decisions on where to lane their heroes as well as putting the free farm onto the wrong heroes. NoX misses a lot more last hits than he should when given the safe lane free farm. The strongest skill QsQ has is their unpredictability in hero drafting, where they have many times made the best out of underplayed heroes (Voodoo Jester, Bombardier, etc)

Pikachu has a very under the radar season ans only comes into this tournament due to Absolute Legends dropping out. Pika has been around in some form or another for over 2 years, first as a pub clan, then making their way into the competitive scene after picking up former Infused player Buch. Despite them hovering around in Gold for the majority of the first seasons of HoN Tour, Pika has some solid players who have been together for a long time, but not always on Pika. Recently I believe fUzi and Xibbe from OTP joined the squad. Rounding out the long timers Buch, OwnedMe, Nir, Bassets (?) and TPSPriceless. Though this team has met with only the most mediocre level of success their players are mostly mechanically solid. My concerns lie with the lack of time this team has played together, questionable drafting and sub-par individual performances. 

The Match: QsQ should ban Chipper if they want to increase their chances of winning. Recent games show that Xibbe continues to be a real force when playing that hero specifically. Conversely, Pika should keep in mind that QsQ is one of a few teams who really favor melee carries still and watch out for The Dark Lady and Monkey King specifically. QsQ runs a similar strategy to Trademark, which focuses of farming up 4/5 players to around the 300+ gpm mark. Pika runs more jungling strats than QsQ does but QsQ runs Malle on Parasite pretty much anytime the hero is available.

Winner: My gut tells me that QsQ is gonna pull through, but this match could be very tough for them if they let Pika dictate the drafting phase. The key players in this matchup will be Jonassomfan, Style, Xibbe and Buch. I'm gonna go with an upset here and choose Pika over QsQ, but a 2-0 victory for QsQ wouldn't surprise me in the least.

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We Are Spies vs Afraid

We Are Spies received a little bit of attention shortly before the GSL Qualifiers kicked off when Tralf began practicing/scrimming with the team. While they have never had any real amount of success in Diamond, they secured enough victories in Gold division to stay as part of the Top 11 teams. I don't really know TOO much about them aside from their records but I know that Cakes (from CM) plays for them. I was gonna do a bunch of research into this team, but the truth of the matter is they don't belong in this tournament, and only got here because winning Gold is worth way too much.

Afraid started off under a lot of people radar but quickly proved that they are a team to not be taken lightly. They've gone about halfway through Diamond division in Cycle's 6, 7 and 8 and are, in my respected opinion, one of the favorites of this tournament. During this last cycle they even took down Stay Green in 2 games in the Winner Bracket, before being knocked down by Tt eSPORTS and then out by Absolute Legends. With aL out of the tournament before it begins and being on the opposite side of the brackets as TteS, this team stands a very good shot at making it into the Grand Finals. Afraid is captained by Jollem (formerly of FIT) who does the drafting for the team. He drafts pretty well for his team, but suffers from some of the same problems QsQ does, which is by not taking enough preventative measures in allowing their opponents to pick up strong lineups. Additionally, Afraid recently added MrLing to their roster, which as a last minute addition could lend to some instability for the team.

The Match: If We Are Spies wants to have any shot at all in this match they are going to need to pray that Afraid makes some serious drafting mistakes and then makes some serious in game mistakes. Afraid favors heroes like Artillery, Aluna, Rally and Master of Arms (in both the Carry and Support role) so expect to see some combination of those. Afraid doesn't always just out to the best starts, so if oo7 can come through in the laning phase they might be able to ride into mid game and sneak away a victory with the proper heroes.

Winner: Afraid should dominate We Are Spies in 2 games.

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LION eSportklubb vs Team Excellent

LIONS has been a tough team to beat all season and their most recent performance in the Sound Blaster Heroes League showed that they are a strong contender for the #4 spot in the overall rankings for competitive HoN.

****************BREAKING NEWS WILL CONTINUE THIS IN A SECOND*****************

HoN Forums: They are complete shit

A few months ago everyone was up in arms about Leyst moderating the forums super strictly. Now, I understand some of the complains because there was all kinds of shit getting locked that didn't need to be. But how is it these fucking morons like RO_PRO_KID and BR_PRO_KID are allowed to continue making threads. No one wants to go to the forums anymore because it just gets flooded with hundreds of retards making multiple threads about the same shit, starting topics about clans disbanding when they have lose a single game, and all kinds of morons "confirming" things (which is akin to planking on the forums).

Today I missed the coL vs tdM matchup so I wanted to check the forums to win. What did I find? People arguing about Haxxeren's ability to farm 680 gpm on Armadon. sG vs QsQ scrim topic: cool what happened? Oh nothing about the actual game in here folks, just talking about how sG is disbanding while TheRetardMikey "confirms" and offers some 9 year old shitkid fake explanation. I truly miss the days of old CD when forum trolls just got outright banned. When people had to have all their topics approved before they would go up on the forum.

Milkfat/Chavo/S2/Whoever. I will moderated every topic that comes to CD and approve every post. I will do it for free. Please, consider it, so that we may end the reign of dipshits on the only subforum I read.

I am banned from Twitch

A few of you readers enjoy my stream from time to time. Mostly because I am bad at the game and instead of you having to only watch my shit plays, I stream youtube videos and sometimes even full movies. Of course, this is against the ToS, but I didn't think we were gonna be seeing a full out ban from Twitch in general. As of this moment, I can't even watch Honcast on my IP :E

Anyway, just letting you guys know that I am AFK from streaming for a bit until this gets sorted.

Real Talk: Beefpotpie is not a good caster

So, I know I am gonna take a LOT of shit for this post but it's been on my mind for awhile, and since I've mostly just been reporting on drama and news stories lately I wanted to take a break and write about something that I have had on my mind for awhile.

Most of you who read this know that before I worked for S2 as the Director of eSports I was one of the four influential members of Honcast (Breaky, xanderK, and HunteR being the other 3) and one of the first two (simultaneously with Breaky) to be hired by S2. During my time with Honcast I functioned as the primary co-caster and had a lot of fun doing events like DreamHack and NASL and other online tournaments, and even though a lot of people didn't like me for being an asshole, not having enough insight, etc... I was successful at what I did. Of course, when I started with Honcast I was just a lowly, EM player who pretty much regurgitated what I had heard from other casters. But as I continued casting I made friends with pro players (like Zetpro who was known as Piratkuk then) and they let me scrim and even play some matches with them as I began to get better at HoN, and was able to pick up some first hand knowledge as well as having people like HenryD, Grace, and a few others who would give me great tips during and after my casts.

Additionally, this was during the time when there were multiple casting groups: GameReplays, Gamestah, GosuGamers, CybernetixTV, and NevaTV were all rival organizations who we constantly had to battle it out with for viewers. I don't think it's being too arrogant to say that, while Breaky was the main driving factor for Honcast, I played a large part in Honcast becoming the dominant casting organization. True, HunteR did have good contacts within S2 Games that helped Honcast on its way, but Honcast would have never become what it is today without Breaky, myself and xanderK committing thousands of hours of unpaid time to the project. People often talk about the "Honcast Monopoly" but the truth is, we were just better than everyone else. We had more content, better casters, bigger tournaments, and a better website than any of the other guys and we did it with less people. Over time, people lost the drive to compete with Honcast because we had basically cornered the market. This led to a lot of false accusations from people at HoNReplays.org and a few others who claimed that S2 Games showed favoritism to Honcast over other casting organizations, but if you think about it, what did you expect? For S2 to promote streams that were bad just to give everyone their fair shake? I don't know what people were thinking back then, all I knew is that I was on top back then and I wasn't afraid to admit it, and I'm still not. But this post isn't about a trip back to the glory days when I was still a relevant fixture in the HoN community. This is a post about Beefpotpie and coLcast (by extension) and why I don't think it's up to par.

A lot of people really love Beefpotpie, and what's not to love? He's got a jovial personality and look about him, he's extremely friendly to everyone, he's legitimately passionate about HoN and he's got a pretty good sounding voice that suits casting (he sounds exactly like Ayesee who, along with Draskyll, are my favorite DOTA 2 casters). So what's my problem? Well, to be honest I don't think he has enough talent. He's just not good enough.

I was talking with someone else about this the other day (from the pro HoN scene) and they said:

"He's very eager and driven, but I just don't think he has it in him to be what he wants to be."

And I couldn't put it any better than that. It's not that I question his dedication, passion, loyalty or desire in any way. I think he's sincerely wants to be an amazing caster, but if the talent isn't there.. well it's just not there. I'm not gonna harp on his lack of competitive insight, or somewhat shoddy camera control. As a main/head caster those are things that I find the lack of as being acceptable. What I don't find as being acceptable is the inability to control the cast. Ever listen to Beefpotpie do a solo cast? Someone on my blog put it perfectly once in a comment when he said it's like listening to a Monty Python skit. I don't have a problem with taking breaks from talking, sometimes there's nothing interesting to talk about. But don't just babble on and jump from one topic to another like a crackhead with ADHD. When he does have a co-caster the cast seems to flow a little more smoothly, but then you still have to deal with his play-by-play, which is incredibly hit or miss (often times more miss than hit). He tells the most awkward jokes and laughs at things that I just don't find any humor in. And finally, he has no edge at all. There's not a single bad bone in this guys body, and often times the co-caster becomes the "star" of the show because Beef has such little range of emotions. It's either nice and cheery or nice and cheery.

The worst part about all of this is that Beef is going to be the main caster of the 8 team HoN Tour Finals Qualifier, and it's pretty much the tournament I'd been looking forward to since the beginning of HoN Tour. Now I'll be forced to either endure cringe inducing casting or just watch the replays. Hopefully he takes this and the criticism that recently popped up on the forums as a sign that he hasn't made it quite yet and really needs to work on his craft.