| SBHL Qualifier Final: SEA vs. CIS | ||
 Cats Gaming | 2-1 |  nxl Focus eSports |
It was the clash of the two Garena client regions and it was the battle of the CIS region to get at least one participant into the prestigious Championship Bracket of the SoundBlaster Heroes League. With Orange eSports the SEA region will be already represented in that upcoming big event, but the CIS region was still looking for their spot in the lime light. Now that Cats Gaming secured that final spot, the entire hopes of that HoN union is resting on the shoulders of the fierce Russian team.
It was not an easy way to that final spot for the Russians though, who had to overcome the best team that Indonesia has to offer. Although nxl Focus eSports has not gained a huge publicity in the western HoN region so far, the team is a staple on the South East Asian market. The team did win the Indonesian DreamHack Winter 2012 qualifier, they were able to win the SEA bracket to even get to this Grand Final against Cats and they also have won the Indonesian National Championship - a similar tournament to the $160,000 USD tournament that was held in Malaysia back in January.
Still the Russians of Cats Gaming had a little bit of a better day today and so they were able to clinch that spot in a tough and tightly contested match between the best CIS team and a great SEA team. Unusual hero pickups like Predator and unknown entities like the players from nxl Focus eSports made the match interesting and exciting, but in the end the DreamHack Winter 2012 participants and representatives for the CIS region prevailed. That means that they will have the chance to compete for the $30,000 USD prize pool against the 15 best teams of the entire world.
Roster of Cats Gaming:
Shylastylez Room`409 Reoborot Scorp1on
FFThe last team that was invited to the tournament directly has been Pikachu. The Danish team among well-known players like SemiJew, Buch and TPSpriceless have been through some struggles in the last couple of HoN Tour Cycles. In Cycle 3 the team suffered a demotion and then failed to jump back into Diamond right away. They had to make another run at the Gold Championship and accomplished that goal in the fifth Cycle.
After that they played a couple of tough opponents in the sixth Cycle, back in the Premier League of HoN Tour, and went down to Lions eSports and Tt eSports. Before those defeats they still managed to defeat QsQ 777 and Mistral Gaming to avoid demotion and secure a single digit placement in their comeback Cycle.
Now the team can prove their worth against the Crème de la Crème of competitive Heroes of Newerth. They will be one of 16 teams clashing and competing for the illustrious prize pool of $30,000 USD.
Roster of Pikachu:
TPSpriceless Buch Nir SemiJew
MisterPParticipants for the Championship Bracket
compLexity Gaming (Invite)
Trademark eSports (Invite) Stay Green (Invite) QsQ (Invite) Tt eSports (Invite) Lions eSports (Invite)
Orange eSports (Invite) Pikachu (Invite) One Trick Pony (First Qualifier) Mistral Gaming (Second Qualifier)
Dendis jungledevos (Third Qualifier) CutForBieber (Fourth Qualifier) We Are Spies (Fifth Qualifier) Bye Team (Sixth Qualifier) Pencils (Seventh Qualifier) Cats Gaming (Eighth Qualifier)On top of the completed participant list, the organizers of the SoundBlaster Heroes League also announced the schedule of the Championship Brackets. Every single match in the tournament will get streamed by either Honcast with BreakyCPK and Emperor or by coLcast featuring Beef. Due to the second GSL Qualifier the Championship Bracket will be moved back one week back and will kick off on Monday, March, 4th with the first Round of 16 match up.
