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Lions stays on top of HoN Tour in Cycle 7

Seven cycles down, three left to go and the race for the first spot in the rankings gets tighter and tighter. Lions eSports was able to retain their Diamond Division crown after Cycle 7, applying pressure on stayGreen to fight back to get on the throne again.
 
Right before HoN Tour takes a break and all the attention of the HoN scene shifts to Jönköping, Sweden, a Swedish team already delivered an early present to the proud HoN nation. For the first time in the history of Lions eSports, the team was able to successfully defend a title. This is another milestone in the stellar rise of the Swedish powerhouse in the lasts couple of weeks, that started with them snapping the winning streak of stayGreen in the third cycle. After that the team became a fixture to the Diamond Grand Finals and added titles in Cycle 4 and Cycle 6 to their resume. 
 
The team around Handsken had shown sparks of brilliance during the offseason, but failed to transport that form into the first cycles of HoN Tour. Suddenly they flipped a switch and are now well on their way to become the new #1 team in HoN - heading into the DreamHack Winter 2013 event with the biggest momentum. Not only are they a three-time Diamond Champion now, but they can also look at an impressive 12 game winning streak with a map score of 23-2. That is not only winning against mediocre opponents, but ousting the best teams in the world and direct DreamHack opponents like stayGreen, Denial eSports, Internet Gangsters and Reason Gaming. stayGreen as the returning champion and with the benefit of a Triple Crown and four Diamond Division titles of their own might still be the front-runner, but Lions is not far off if not on an even keel. 
 
The squad anchored by swindlemelonzz has shown some weaknesses ever since the "Invincible Aura" dropped in Cycle 3, caused by Lions eSports. Since then they dropped matches against the Internet Gangsters, Too Much Sugar and most recently even Denial eSports. Especially the drought against Lions eSports might be critical, when DreamHack is most likely boiling down to those two teams facing off at some point late in the tournament. The three meetings of them all went to Lions eSports, even manhandling the reigning DreamHack Champion with two clean sweeps in Cycle 6. This time stayGreen could at least take a map off the Swedish team, but overall it wasn't enough. 
 
Bright spot of the tournament still remains Denial eSports, who clearly lobbied for greater things and bigger consideration as a contender for their home tournament DreamHack as well. The team with the new captain Zlapped leading a young and hungry team has caught HoN Tour by storm with a run from Bronze to Diamond and then getting top three in the second campaign in Diamond. They might not be the absolute favorite and might not even showcased enough to get above Too Much Sugar, Internet Gangsters or even Reason Gaming, but they sure are not to be trifled with.
 
 
HoN Tour Diamond Division Cycle 7: Top 6
PlaceTeamRanking PointsEarnings
1.Sweden Lions eSports3,500$ 5,000 USD
2.UnitedStates stayGreen2,700$ 3,000 USD
3.Sweden Denial eSports2,300$ 1,000 USD
4.Other Too Much Sugar2,000$ 500 USD
5.-6.Europe Reason Gaming1,750$ 250 USD
5.-6.Europe Team Excellent1,750$ 250 USD

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