Neva beats Druidz to get final HonCast Invitational spot

Honcast Tournament VIII Finals - Druidz vs Neva game 1
Match ID: 5630741

Bans are Engineer, Zephyr, Fayde, Soulstealer, Soul Reaper and Hellbringer. As usual, no surprises. Zephyr's farm has been nerfed, but he's still as lethal as always once he goes get that farm.



Chipper was picked first, a worthy firstpick in my opinion, he's such a strong ganker hero, and a great mid choice with Soulstealer banned. Predator is a personal favorite of mine, and I'm hoping I can see some great play from MejH. Pandamonium is of course always awesome every time, every where. Period.

Druidz start out bringing four of their heroes down to the legion forest, and easily catches panda, giving Predator the bloodlust kill.
Druidz ends up putting Predator and Glacius mid up against Chipper, who play it aggressively, Predator leaping in and towerdiving to get the Chipper kill, which he succeeds in, but he dies to the tower shortly after.

Pandamonium and Andromeda lanes bottom against Pestilence and Plague Rider. The Andromeda stun leads to a kill combined with Panda's flick, Pestilence going down, a result of playing a bit too passively, which just doesn't work when you can get flicked back if you try to escape.

Valkyrie solos top against Magmus and Forsaken Archer, doing decently, even managing to get a kill on Forsaken Archer with a hasted Glacius's help. She does die to Magmus after doing so, though.

The first big teamfight happens in mid at the 9-minute mark, with Plague Rider coming to help out Glacius and Predator, successfully killing three heroes without losing any at all. Predator's leap and powerful melee attacks annihilate the opposition. They are a bit too greedy and aggressive though, and end up losing Predator and Glacius a minute later when they were still on the other side of the river.

Neva is outmatched early game, failing to gank Valkyrie up top, and simultaneously losing both Panda and Chipper down bottom - and as FA, Magmus up top stay for another try, Druidz teleport in and annihilate four Legion heroes, as Chipper and Panda try to help their doomed teammates. Even after that, Legion keeps up the aggressiveness, comes back and initiates the fight again - they get a few kill, but lose too many themselves. The hero score is 10-15 at the 16 minute mark.

The action doesn't let up, with Predator leading the way, unstoppable with balls of steel, leaping and killing everything he sees, using beautiful Stone Hides in mid-tar or stun, etc. He seems absolutely fearless, and his numbers speak of his success. 11-3 at the 20-minute mark, savage sick, hat trick, 380 gold per minute. MejH is showing people how powerful a Predator can be. Neva actually ask for a concede after that rampage, although the vote fails.

Druidz is dominating, and they show no sign of letting up, Predator and Valkyrie getting kills left and right. He is fearless enough to jump in on a low-HP Pandamonium surrounded by three allies, which ends up finally getting him killed. It doesn't stop him for long, and Predator continues the domination until Neva finally gives up. Final Predator score, 15-4.

Druidz leads 1-0.

Neva vs Druidz game 2
Match ID: 5635446

Bans are Engineer, Zephyr, Fayde, Hellbringer, Soul Reaper and Accursed.



With Soulstealer unbanned, he is immediately picked up by Neva. Pharaoh is an interesting choice. Druidz pick up Predator again, being played by Mejh. Neva goes triple ranged carries, with Arachna, Valkyrie and Soulstealer - Druidz relying on Forsaken Archer and Predator.

The start of the game again defies normal lane setups, as Predator and Slither go mid, only to face off against THREE heroes in Pharaoh, Plague Rider and Valkyrie. Plague Rider shortly moves down bottom to support Arachna, who is up against FA and Glacius, while Wretched Hag is 1v1ing Soulstealer up top.

The bloodlust kill comes goes to Druidz, as they pick off Arachna down bottom with FA's skeletons diving the tower to put the poison on their target. Not long after they do the very same thing to Plague Rider - they are clearly winning bottom lane right now.

Slither and Predator initiate on Pharaoh and Valkyrie in mid to mixed success, with Valkyrie dropping to Predator, but both Slither and Predator dying thanks to a nice Wall of Mummies from Pharaoh.



All the action is happening at bottom and mid, meanwhile Soulstealer is dominating Wretched Hag up top in terms of last hits and denies, near doubling both. He's stacking creeps and clearing the lane, getting some great farm, sitting at 346 g/m at the 9 minute mark. Druidz realize this is a problem, so bring up Predator up top to successfully gank Soulstealer.

The most entertaining part about this game, is just like the previous one - with MejH's predator playing absolutely fearlessly, leaping in everywhere and doing some great damage. He hasn't gotten as many kills so far, but he's at 2-2 with three assists.

The danger still lies in that Soulstealer, who except from one gank has been left completely alone, and an undisturbed Soulstealer who can get farm is incredibly dangerous. At the 14-minute mark, Druidz try to go up to the Hellbourne jungle to stop him, but fail miserably as Neva teleports in to support their carry, and do so admirably, even getting Soulstealer a hero kill along with his team getting two kills.

At the 16-minute mark, Predator shows his lack of fear yet again, leaping in towards Pharaoh, surviving after putting out some good damage, retreating while being chased, Stone Hiding in mid-Valk-arrow cast, juking Pharaoh's ultimate in the trees, escaping with next to no-HP just around the time his teammates come to help him out. Forsaken Archer and Wretched Hag start fighting Plague Rider as well as Pharaoh and Valkyrie. Predator leaps in at almost no health to finish off Pharaoh, and then Hag and Forsaken Archer mops up the remains of Neva's heroes. Great teamfight for Druidz down in the bottom lane.

Meanwhile, Soulstealer is farming. A lot. 390 gold per minute. If Druidz doesn't stop him soon, and stop him decisively, there's only one way this game can go.

Legion's mid tower go down at the 19-minute mark, Arachna getting it down half a second before Predator, Slither and Wretched Hag port in to defend it, and Arachna runs for her life, but manages to take out Wretched Hag with her ultimate before she pops her Carapace and runs for dear life. For a second it seems like she is going to manage to get away from there, with a beautiful juke in the jungle and popping a Homecoming Stone, but Slither's poison kill her before it activates.


Arguably the play of the day goes to Cakes and a beautiful Valkyrie arrow that catches a Glacius in the midst of using a Homecoming Stone at the 22:50 mark. It hits for the full 5 second stun, and Glacius is easily picked off.

Shortly after, Neva has their entire team down the Legion forest, trying to pick off Predator, but a few teleports in and some great use of Stone Hide again saves Predator's life, and not only that, they turn the entire teamfight around killing off every single Neva hero - the best part of the fight being when Predator Stone Hided just before a Soulstealer ultimate, making it completely useless. GENOCIDE.


As soon as he respawns though, Soulstealer goes back to farming. A lot. Shrunken Head and Portal Key now, level 17. 410 g/m.

Neva pushes the bottom lane, and a teamfight breaks out. Everyone joins in on the fun, and this time, Soulstealer lands his ultimate much better, as Predator is taking out early in the fight, and the raw damage output from him is too much to withstand. Druidz drop one by one, and eventually Soulstealer walks away with a Genocide, having lost only one hero. He's level 19 now, with 11-3 in hero kills.

Slither gets caught in mid by Pharaoh's ultimate initiation, but even as he goes down, he unleashes his ultimate in return, and the combined DoT damage from Slither and Wretched Hag ends up taking out Pharaoh even as he stands in his own well.


This is a much more even game than the first one, the hero kills at 32-32 at the 32 minute mark. It's a definite entertaining game with some great plays from both teams. We get a Kongor kill from at the 33-minute mark, and Neva follows that up with a few ganks and strong push down mid, taking out the tower. The hero kills are fairly even, but the team experience and team gold tells the real story. Neva is leading with well over 12k on both.

Neva pushes top lane at the 37 minute mark, successfully taking out a tower and a barracks. At this point in the game, some heroes just flat-out outpace others. A level 11 Glacius is near-useless against a level 23 Soulstealer - it's more or less free kills. Predator still remains very dangerous, and so is Forsaken Archer, and there is no denying Slither's ultimate. In fact, his dots on Valkyrie leads to a nice moment as Valkyrie teleports back at sub-100 health, with Toxicity still on him, which stops HP-regen, so even though he lands safely in the well, he dies. He gets denied from newly resurrected Arachna, unnecessarily so, as there was only one tick of Toxicity left, and Valkyrie would have survived it.


Soulstealer's token of life still have 1:25 left on it, and he just finishes a Frostwolf Skull, and at level 24, there is nothing they can do against `TC` now. And indeed, a genocide in Legion's own base brings the concede vote at 43 minutes.

Neva's Soulstealer was the deciding gamebreaker in this entertaining game, and the score is now 1-1.