LIONS eSports winning first HoN Invitational

The first ever HoN Invitational brought three and a half day of great action to three streams and ended today with the clash between LIONS eSportsKlubb and Internet Gangsters - two teams that fought their way through fierce competition.

Four days of high-level HoN competition are behind us with LIONS eSportsKlubb reigning surpreme over the current 9 top teams of the NA/EU scene with only dropping one single match in the entire tournament. That loss occurred back in the Group Stage when the roaring LIONS gave away a giant lead against the squad of Justice League and ended up losing as a result.

The rest of the matches and games the Swedish roster was in total control and showcased an impressive early shape heading into the second season of HoN Tour, especially with main rivals like Stay Green struggling heavily without a single victory in the tournament. As a matter of fact the reigning GSL, HoN Tour and DreamHack Champion around captain Swindlemelonzz was the only team in the tournament that was not able to score a victory in the entire tournament.

With the old top dogs out early in the competition it was up to new teams and the second line of teams to step up and clinch the lion share of the $500 USD community money. The playoffs saw new teams like the improved Team Excellent, the new Internet Gangsters, the new squad of Locomotive and the three more "veteran" teams with the all-star squad of Too Much Sugar, the joint venture of former coL and tdM playing under the name of Team USA and of course the strong Lions. A special advantage presented itself to the winners of the Group Stage with Lions and Internet Gangsters getting a free pass all the way to the Semifinals, while the other four teams competed in the Quarterfinals to get to the Final Four.

After excellent matches with Too Much Sugar overpowering Locomotives and Team USA edging out Pew's squad of Team Excellent in a very tight competition on all three maps of that series. It was down to the Final Four, down to Lions against their old nemesis of Team USA, while Internet Gangsters had to take on sLiCKz, KheZu, Moonmeander and their boys from Too Much Sugar. In the end the Champs from the two groups made it through, but the Semifinals were highly contested with Team USA pushing Lions to the limit and Internet Gangsters and Too Much Sugar putting out three great matches themselves.

The finals unfortunately presented themselves a little bit anticlimactic with LIONS clawing through the tight first contest, but then pulling out a uncontested Level 1 Kongor on Map 2, giving them a huge advantage and deciding the game early. Still both teams showcased a lot of good plays, plenty of talents and a lot to look forward to with the sight set on HoN Tour Season 2. Both the winner Lions and the runner-up Internet Gangsters are seeded directly into the Diamond Division and judged by the performance of the last four days, those invites are highly deserved.

Last note of this event is, that Jonassomfan was awarded with MVP honors for his outstanding performance throughout the tournament and in the Grand Finals. The talented Swedish player of QsQ fame has been the newest acquisition of the Swedish team after they lost Krebsen after HoN Tour and seems to fit in quite well. As one of the premier suicide players Jonassomfan once again showed his amazing skill in the game and deservedly received the MVP award with 30 percent of the votes. Second in the MVP race was Lion's captain Handsken, barely edging out teammate Flensmeister with 16 and 15 percent of the votes respectively.