It took DreamHack a while to post the schedule and the groups of the upcoming HoN event at the DreamHack Winter 2013, but now they are finally released. sG will face iG, Denial and MiTH, while Lions eSports meets tmsR, Reason Gaming and The Law.
Every single time, tournament have a group stage to start off the festivities, the question for a possible "Group of Death" is raised. This time Group A fills that billing, with the reigning champion of stayGreen, the local heroes of Denial eSports and Internet Gangsters. The starting points and most recent results couldn't be more different though. Especially Denial eSports is riding into the Elmia on a massive wave of momentum, after the team led by Zlapped beat out stayGreen and Too Much Sugar in the most recent cycle. Ultimately their streak ran out in losses against Lions and a rematch against stayGreen, but the third place leading up to DreamHack is still a huge boost to their confidence.
stayGreen on the other side is coming in with the pressure of needing to defend the DreamHack title, while also looking for revenge for the most recent losses to Lions eSports. They can avoid their nemesis in the group stage, but need good performances against iG and dnL - two teams that beat them within this month already. The squad around swindle is still a very formidable one, despite the latest setbacks. The weakest push of momentum is with Internet Gangsters anyways, who didn't even make it into the second weekend of the most recent cycle. This obviously was a result of them facing off with sG very early in the Lower Bracket , but the lack of preparation under tournament circumstances might still be a disadvantage.
Joining those squads in the Group A is the Thai champion of Made in Thailand.Sorry Sorry and a BYOC team. Since the full list of BYOC squads is not yet released, the prediction of that tournament and possible teams emerging out of it is quite sketchy.
That is not just a problem for Group A though, since Group B also has a BYOC member joining them on the second day of the competition. That BYOC team will get the distinct, but questionable honor to meet one of the top favorites in Lions eSports right away in the group stage. The Swedish home team is not only the winner of the last two HoN Tour cycles, but also the favorite to win this whole event. The group in which they are placed might not be easy, but it's definitely more manageable for the team, than Group A would have been.
Too Much Sugar is a top contender though, The Law could provide some upsets, while Reason Gaming turned into Ringer Gaming with none of the original qualified players being at the event and representing the "REA"-Tag. TPSPriceless, Mbrei and OwnedMe had already announced their absence from the event, but the non-show of ImbaBoy and Z4NE on short notice is hitting the team even harder. Znoowy and Saintrox are going to fill in for the two twins, making this team into partially the squad that tried to win the Nordic qualifier and ultimately got ousted by Reason Gaming in the deciding match. ArchiTiger, Znoowy and Saint were all a part of that, now they join up with Reason Gaming featuring Malle and Buch in addition.
Under those changed circumstances, Group B looks a bit weaker, but still like a lot of competition for everyone underneath Lions. It's hard to imagine the pride losing, after the dominant outings they posted in the recent history.
The action kicks off tomorrow at 12:30 CET with Lions eSports against Too Much Sugar and stayGreen taking on Internet Gangsters to start the eighth installment of Heroes of Newerth in Jönköping,Sweden - as part of the legendary DreamHack event.
