| SBHL Grand Finals | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  compLexity Gaming |  Lions eSports |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | bkid | | | Superkge   Haxxeren Flensmeister  Riser_ Handsken   MoonMeander Krebsen   Franzzii Sealkid  | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
An Unexpected Final
Lions against compLexity in the Grand Final of a tournament featuring Stay Green, Trademark eSports, Orange eSports and QsQ - who would have thought? Both teams are considered among the elite teams in Heroes of Newerth, but did not have the biggest achievements lately.
With compLexity Gaming the success dropped dramatically after their dominant streak was broken at the DreamHack Winter 2012. They lost the finals against Trademark eSports and never could recover back to a major title. It was close a couple of times in the HoN Tour Cycles 1,2 and 6, but in the end those Cycles only display a runner-up position for the glamour team of HoN. Still their resurgence back to power was undeniable in the last couple of weeks after Riser_ was fully integrated into the roster.
All of a sudden they jumped up from the worst placement in their HoN Tour history to a Grand Finals appearance against Stay Green - even marching through the Upper Bracket straight into the Finals. In the GSL Qualifiers the team around drafter bkid played well and now the run through the SoundBlaster Heroes League without dropping a single map so far. The boys are back.
Lions eSports on the other side is getting a lot of reputation from the success and achievements of the past with an NASL Championship and a third place finish at DreamHack Winter 2011. Still a new squad has formed and they are on the way to achieving their first title, stepping out of the shadow of the past.
With their run through the tournament defeating top tier competitors like QsQ and Stay Green yesterday, they upset the HoN world immensely. No one saw the team from Sweden walk out there and take care of business in the way they did. In the end it wasn't a fluke that they won against Stay Green, but it was well deserved. Now the pressure is on in their first ever Heroes of Newerth Grand Final against one of the best squads of the recent history.
The fight is on!
The History
Not only the fact that the final is a rarity in Heroes of Newerth tournaments, but also the extensive history of the two teams is adding extra fuel to it. In their five HoN Tour meetings Lions eSports has the edge with a 3-2 series score. Interesting on this stat is that Lions did win the last three consecutive battles in HoN Tour, sometimes even with a clear 2-0 sweep. Their last clash was in the first GSL Qualifier with Lions playing out of a LAN Cafe and mismanaging the time. Ultimately coL took the first map against the Swedish team quite dominant and then received the forfeit in Game 2, due to Lions eSports needing to leave the LAN Cafe in which they played in - with the games original schedule at 22 CET.
Now the numbers are not clearly in favor of one team or the other team, but even compLexity Gaming players have acknowledged the rivalry match against the roaring Lions. Asked about their deep runs into the HoN Tour Brackets lately their response was quick and a bit jokingly:"We avoided Lions!"
Respect is the name of the game, but both teams will have a big chance of going home with the prestigious SoundBlaster Heroes League Championship and the $12,000 USD. For Lions the victory could give them valuable momentum towards their next big tournament that will determine whether the Swedish team will earn a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada or not. For compLexity Gaming it would be their first major title after more than 4 month absence from the throne of HoN. In addition to that coL will most likely be thrilled to win their "home tournament", organized and sponsored by their own sponsor SoundBlaster.
Who will write history and become the first ever SoundBlaster Heroes League Champion? Tune in when BreakyCPK and Emperor deliver you the action from the Honcast studios. Lions eSports or compLexity Gaming - only one will reign supreme.
