GosuCups have been a tradition among the other sections of our site. It's time for Heroes of Newerth to join in. We've already told you a bit about our next major event, and finally, we're ready to reveal the full details of the HoN GosuCup #1.
16-04-11: Since posting, the details of this tournament have changed (dates). Qualifiers will run until April 23rd, the group stage will take place on May 7th, and the tournament will continue on from there.
We're proud to bring you the first ever GosuCup for Heroes of Newerth! This event will attempt to gather the best teams in the competitive scene and will undoubtedly result in some exciting match-ups from the group stages to the grand finals, covered by our own broadcasting crew.
We're also putting into effect a new set of rules that will hopefully provide for the most fair and balanced competition possible.
There are 16 slots in the tournament, 8 of which are reserved for the top 8 teams in the GosuGamers rankings, to be decided on Sunday after this week's Gosu4Fun Cup has concluded. The 8 remaining slots will be filled by winners of the upcoming qualifiers that we will run before the main event.
Qualifiers
We will be holding 1 EU qualifier and 1 US qualifier each week for the next 4 weeks. All of them will begin at 20:00 local time (CET for the EU qualifiers, EST for the US qualifiers).
 EU Qualifiers |  US Qualifiers |
|---|---|
| EU Qual. #1: Mar 26 @ 20:00 CET | US Qual. #1: Mar 26 @ 20:00 EST |
| EU Qual. #2: Apr 2 @ 20:00 CET | US Qual. #2: Apr 2 @ 20:00 EST |
| EU Qual. #3: Apr 9 @ 20:00 CET | US Qual. #3: Apr 9 @ 20:00 EST |
| EU Qual. #4: Apr 16 @ 20:00 CET | US Qual. #4: Apr 16 @ 20:00 EST |
Since the second US qualifiers were cancelled, an extra qualifier has been placed on saturday, april 23rd
Qualifiers are run as a best-of-1, single-elimination tournament with 16 slots, ending in a best-of-3 finals match. Only the winner of each qualifier moves on to the main event.
Teams can sign up for no more than 2 qualifiers.
Teams can sign up to any qualifier (EU or US), but we prefer EU teams stay in EU qualifiers and US teams stay in US qualifiers. We retain the right to select the teams that are accepted into the qualifiers.
Teams from outside the US and EU can sign up, but these teams should expect to play on servers that may not be favorable to them in terms of ping. We won’t allow any discussion on this part.
Should a team not show up to a qualifier they have signed up for (and were placed in), they will be disqualified from any and all future qualifiers for this event.
Main Event
Once the teams have been decided, group stages will commence. There will be 4 groups of 4, with matches being played on May 7th (Saturday, April 30th is reserved for a special tournament we plan to run).
Teams will play the other teams in their group in best-of-three series. The top 2 of each group will continue on to the playoffs. In case of a draw, the teams in question will play each other in a decisive best-of-1 match.
Playoff rounds for the 8 remaining teams will be held on May 14th, May 21th, May 28th and 29th (finals and 3rd place match). One round a week will be played in a single-elimination, best-of-three format. The grand finals will be a best-of-five.
Seeding for the tournament will be based on the GosuGamers rankings.
Match times will be set by the admins in advance, based on both teams' time zones, and are final. With the exceptions of wide-scale disaster, we will not allow rescheduling (this is what the spare slots in your rosters are for, folks).
Prizes
1st place: $1500
2nd place: $1000
3rd place: $500
Sign-ups
Sign-ups for the first qualifier round will open on Tuesday, March 22nd, and close as soon as all spots are filled. Each subsequent round will have sign-ups open on the Tuesday prior to the round, and close when full. Sign-ups will be announced on the website with a small news post.
Rules
GosuGamers events will be following new rules that take effect for GosuCup #1 and will be maintained thereafter. They can be found at https://www.gosugamers.net/hon/facts.php?id=174, or by navigating to HoN -> Tournaments -> Rules.
For this tournament, backdooring rules do not apply and thus backdooring is allowed.
Anyone who wishes to make suggestions for these rules (edits, rewrites, additions, or whatever) may do so by mailing us at [email protected] (please mention "Rules" in the subject). We will take them into consideration and update the rules as necessary.
