DreamHoN Winter '12: coL & ORGE, tdM & TTeS to semis

check for more day 2 pictures

Extra seats were in demand for the second day of the group stage that has been wrapped up and we have our four semifinalists. Complexity Gaming and Orange eSports topped Group A, while Trademark eSports and Tt eSports proceed to the playoffs from Group B.

Complexity and Orange defend their placement



Group A

Place Team W/D/L Score Points

1. compLexity Gaming 3/1/0 +7 10

2. Orange eSports 2/2/0 +4 8

3. Gary Johnson 2012 +2/1/1 2 7

4. Cats Gaming 1/0/3 -4 3

5. paiN Gaming 0/0/4 -6 0



Rise of the underdogs



Group b

Place Team W/D/L Score Points

1. Trademark eSports 2/2/0 +4 8

2. Tt eSports 2/2/0 +4 8

3. Team MRR 1/2/1 0 5

4. Q sQuad 0/2/2 -4 2

4. vTi.Dynasty 0/2/2 -4 2



The second day of competition started with a fairly unimportant match between Cats Gaming and paiN Gaming (2-0), only to be immediately continued by the highlight of the day. Gary Johnson 2012 desperately needed a win against the Malaysians of Orange eSports and they managed to get halfway there after a spirited performance in the first map of the series, spearheaded by KheZu's Moon Queen. The second encountered started very similarly, but this time dabeliuteef managed to keep his team in the game until a crucial teamfight near the ancients about 25 minutes into the game, after which they grabbed a quick Kongor kill and proceeded to trample their opponents.After a quick and painless 2-0 victory over the Brazilian team, Gary Johnson's faith was out of their hands at this point as they needed their fierce rivals, Complexity, to win without a map lost against Orange eSports. A slow, farm oriented first game (only 11 kills in first 30 minutes) started to see some action when bkid decided it's time to turn the tide with his Bubbles and Complexity once again provided proof of their late-game execution by taking the lead one to nil. The last match of the series started somewhat on the same note, but this time around it was dabeliuteef who was having none of it and literally carried the game on his Moon Queen back to even the score at 1-1 and send Gary Johnson 2012 out of the competition. Later in the evening Complexity won the last match of Group A with a 2-0 over Cats Gaming.What were anticipated to be two fairly easy matches for the international favorites, turned out to complicate the situation in Group B immensely. It seemed like the expected will happen when Limmp and NoobG of Trademark eSports with Pebbles and Torturer respectively dumped on Thai team MRR in the first match. However, just half an hour later the Heroes of Newerth scene was witnessing a heroic performance by `Chitawan and DiOrz (playing Bubbles and Magmus) who kept picking off their opponents mercilessly and were ultimately able to snatch a draw onto their tab. A marvel of equal magnitude happened later on as well, as the inspirational captain of vTi.MSI.Dynasty, Tale69 led his team with an immortal score to a win on the first map of their encounter against NoVa's Q sQuad project. They were unable to keep their cool and pull off an even bigger upset though, as the more experienced team sieged their base for more than 30 minutes before "starving" their defenses and tying the series 1-1.The results so far meant that Tt eSports was still within reach of the three teams trailing closely behind, before their match against Q sQuad. The Australian/American mix came off to a good start as sLiCKz was enjoying his time with Swiftblade and along LeonBlack's Aluna performance secured the very early lead for his team. Q sQuad, however, battled their way back with Stylo's Silhouette as the carry to a ginormous experience and gold lead. Tt eSports approached the situation at hand patiently and methodically and were eventually successful in pulling off one of the biggest comebacks of HoN history. This proved to be significant in the second map as well, as the European's spirit was crumbled and they conceded the match after 15 minutes of gruesome trampling, in which their Doctor Repulsor pick didn't pay of at all. Being now out of the tournament, Team MMR and Dynasty played for the pride of it and the match ended 2-0 in favor of the former.As the two semifinalists from Group B were now set in stone, the last match between Trademark eSports and Tt eSports would decide the placement of those two teams and thus their next opponent. tdM was largely in control of the match from the get-go and throughout, so the only thing TteS could do were creative attempts of backdoor via Nymphora's ultimate ability. However, this time it was not enough to surpise their opponents and come back from a certain loss. The second map of the series was no longer a deciding one, as Tt eSports needed to win with a 50+ kills difference in order to overtake the group leaders, so after 15 minutes of lighthearted fun and entertainment for the masses, the match was conceded and we came to the end of the second day.