Saturday's grand finals brought a stunning conclusion to the 300,000 SEK DreamHack MSI BEAT IT HoN Tournament.
Fnatic's Heroes of Newerth team is quite familiar with the DreamArena Extreme stage. It's where they played against KD Gaming in the finals of DreamHack Summer 2010, defeated Druidz Qpad at DreamHack Winter 2010, and took down Reason Gaming at DreamHack Summer 2011.
So was it any surprise that FnaticMSI found themselves in front of the DreamArena crowd again in the finals of DreamHack Winter 2011?
Going into the tournament, it was hardly a foregone conclusion that MSI would hold on to their DreamHack title. The defending champs had suffered losses online to Reason Gaming and Trademark eSports in NASL Season 2, and were denied the HoN Super Series championship by Online Kingdom. On top of that, it was clear that DHW '11 would be the most competitive DreamHack tournament yet, with international qualifiers yielding a fierce gauntlet of competition.
Day 1 of the event brought an unexpected loss for FnaticMSI in Group A of the group stage: defeat at the hands of first-time DreamHack attendees Frenetic Array from Australia. Meanwhile, Swedish team Lions eSportklubb tore through Group B with a perfect 5-0 record, looking like a sure bet to make the finals. But the loss to Frenetic Array ended up being MSI's only blemish on their 4-1 record in group play.
In the quarterfinals at the end of Day 2, MSI snuffed out Team EZ, who were hot off of their back-to-back wins in an exciting three-way tiebreaker. MSI went on to sweep Lions in the semifinals, while Frenetic Array earned a bye for winning Group A and defeated Trademark 2-1 to face MSI in the finals.
Frenetic Array were still underdogs in the match-up. They had certainly made a breakout international performance after beating many great teams and making it to the finals, and they intended to cap it all off with a win. The Aussies had shown that they could beat MSI previously in the tournament. Yet, MSI was returning to the DreamArena stage for the fourth time in as many DreamHack tournaments.
As the two teams set up on stage and were introduced, it was apparent from the cheers that FnaticMSI had somewhat of a home field advantage in front of the European crowd. The fans roared in unison, however, when the countdown for Game 1 began.
| Game 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 FnaticMSI |  Frenetic Array | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bans (Legion first) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
    |     | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Picks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 /   /   |   /   /  | |||||||||||||||||||||||
MSI banned Ophelia, Jeraziah, and The Dark Lady for Game 1, taking away three of fray's heroes that were used in the group stage match. MSI's Magebane first-pick got a reaction from the crowd, and fray responded with a rather interesting Tremble pick.
Both teams sent two heroes mid, Magebane and Nymphora for MSI versus Tremble and Glacius for fray. Pharaoh was matched up against Torturer in the top lane, while Midas had to deal with Valkyrie and Plague Rider at the bottom lane, with Tempest jungling.
The game started slow for the first 10 minutes, but soon after, the first real action happened with fray getting the Bloodlust and a tower deny. They turned around a gank attempt on Torturer and were up 3 to 0 in hero kills. The passive play continued, and fray took a Kongor kill unnoticed. The first actual teamfight finally broke out around 24 minutes, and fray added to their lead with 5 kills and a tower for 1 death.
A slow, methodical push by fray began after their second Kongor kill, and they proceeded to take down all of the Legion's outer towers. Both Torturer and Tremble picked up late Portal Keys, allowing them to breach the ramp into MSI's base and destroy the middle barracks, despite a great Tempest ultimate. MSI put up a decent fight, and they started to gain a bit of momentum after stealing the next Kongor kill. But it was clear how far behind they were when Magebane was dropped twice within seconds, and MSI was forced to spend some buybacks. There was some nice backdooring from [MSI] Trixi on Magebane to stall fray from pushing, but MSI was eventually Genocided and conceded at 54 minutes to make the match 1-0 in favor of Frenetic Array.
| Game 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Frenetic Array | FnaticMSI | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bans (Legion first) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Picks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
/ /  | /  /  | |||||||||||||||||||||||
MSI took no risk in banning Tremble for Game 2. Once again, Magebane was first-picked, this time by fray. MSI looked to shut down the opposing carry with Emerald Warden's single-target silence.
Again, each team ended up dual-laning middle, with a jungling hero per side. MSI struck first with a kill on Pharaoh, and Wildsoul and Tempest quickly pushed the first top tower afterwards. Their tower-pushing ability reached full power during the mid-game, and 4 of fray's towers fell in the first 15 minutes.
A teamfight was initiated by fray at 18 minutes, but MSI responded well with a 3-for-1 exchange and a Kongor kill soon after. It was a reversal of roles from Game 1, this time with fray on the back foot and MSI threatening the Legion base. MSI faltered a bit when trying to push in, but eventually were able to take both middle barracks and the top melee barracks. They continued to terrorize fray's base and drew a concede vote at 38 minutes, tying up the series, 1-1.
| Game 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FnaticMSI | Frenetic Array | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bans (Legion first) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Picks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
/ /  | /  / | |||||||||||||||||||||||
There weren't any huge surprises in the bans and picks for Game 3, with [MSI] N0tail on the Pollywog Priest that he is well-known for and [fray] sLiCKz making a return on The Dark Lady. The lane setups were symmetrical, this time with solos in the middle lane and 1v2 match-ups in each of the side lanes.
A ward-trap executed by Pollywog Priest yielded MSI the Bloodlust, but fray responded immediately with a kill of their own. The teams were content to trade as the first of each of their towers fell, but MSI continued to push and were able to get a second and third tower kill. Pollywog Priest upgraded to Post Haste before 12 minutes, and several kills were traded at a blistering pace.
A huge teamfight at the top lane ended in a 4-for-0 victory for MSI, swinging the game heavily in their favor. After all of fray's outer towers had fallen, two hero pick-offs allowed MSI to go to work on the middle base tower. The Dark Lady spent an early buyback to try and help defend, but fray could not hold on to their middle barracks. MSI backed off for a bit before returning for the bottom barracks, and fray's last-ditch effort was met with a Genocide. Just before 28 minutes, fray sent out their congratulatory "gg's," and the crowd cheered wildly for the repeat DreamHack champions, FnaticMSI!
DreamHack MSI BEAT IT 2011 Heroes of Newerth Tournament
1st Place:
FnaticMSI, 150,000 SEK + 5x MSI GT780DX Laptops2nd Place:
Frenetic Array, 90,000 SEK + 5x N560GTX-Ti Hawk graphics cards3rd Place:
Lions eSportklubb, 35,000 SEK + 5x Z68A-GD65 (G3) mainboards4th Place:
Trademark eSports, 25,000 SEK It was an impressive performance by Frenetic Array up to and in the finals, and an incredible feat by FnaticMSI to win three DreamHack tournaments in a row. Lions and Trademark also placed at DreamHack, and, along with ex-Online Kingdom, will be looking to stop FnaticMSI from winning yet another LAN event at this weekend's NASL Season 2 Grand Finals.
