The beginnings of the South-east Asia server’s King of the Hill bracket appeared on this weeks stream unfortunately, because of time zones, the matches were played prior to the livestream and sent to The Lair. At the time of the stream though, only one game had finished sending.
They also detailed the newest “Why I Play Vainglory” Video Contest. Where users can submit short videos explaining why they play Vainglory with the chance to win a large variety of prizes.
The also announced a special “South-east Asia Appreciation Stream,” on May 8th (May 9th in Singapore) for all the players who’ve been with the game since it was called Kindred: Asunder (yes, the game used to be called that).
They mentioned some special streaming events like how they’d be hosting the popular Twitch streamer, Koopa, after the stream and that ShinKaigan would be doing a twenty-four hour livestream this weekend.
Then they hoped into the pre-recorded match between CVG and Phobia. CVG ran a Ringo, Koshka, Catherine comp against a Joule, Catherine, Vox comp. Interesting to see both teams running Catherine given how she’s fallen out of favor in North America. The game start is somewhat passive, but around three minutes in Phobia claims two kills and then suffers a death, while pulling slightly ahead in gold. Just a short minute later, CVG claims an early game ace. Phobia claims a lossless ace in the next fight, with their Vox barely surviving. They push down two turrets tanks to the ace. Phobia ganks CVG from the lane bush on CVG’s side, they immediately take down Koshka and Catherine and dive straight into the enemy base to finish their ace. Unfortunately for Phobia, Vox dies in the dive. In the pushback from CVG, Phobia kites the enemies down to the center of the jungle in a 2v3 and turn it into a 1-1 trade thanks to a Rocket Leap from Joule. Phobia pushes CVG back to their turret and dives into to grab another ace without suffering any deaths. CVG pushes Phobia out of the base and grabs an ace after losing their Koshka. In the next fight CVG grabs two kills and loses their Ringo. Phobia catches themselves and swings the game back in their favor with another lossless ace. Phobia takes the upper-hand in the next fight grabbing two kills in exchange for their Vox and leveraging it to take Kraken. Phobia distracts CVG while the Kraken pounds down the turrets, after everyone dies Joule finishes of the Vain with a Thunder Strike. Final score 17.3k to 22.3k in gold and 14-40 in kills both in favor of Phobia. Phobia is the first SEA King of the Hill!
One little tidbit mentioned, something that had been teased on one of the PAX East lifestreams, was that Adagio’s original name was Waren. Previously mentioned was that he was going to be a part of some secret society called The Gentlemen of the Black, which was some inspiration for his Dark Parade Adagio skin.
The next King of the Hill match was definitely worth watching. Nemesis and Gankstars, the top two guilds in North America, squared off against one another! Gank ran Vox, Taka, Koshka vs. Ringo, Ardan, Koshka. Aside from the Taka, these teams seemed very typical of the current meta. Both Koshka’s went tank, showing that the build is still extremely viable. Likely more-so than CP Koshka. The match start was been surprisingly passive given how aggressive the two team play. First Blood! IraqiZorro (Ringo) gets taken down in a 1v3 while shopping. Nemesis is slightly behind in gold despite the kill advantage. 2v3 on Nemesis with FooJee joining in late! Nemesis managed to take the upper hand losing Ardan for Vox and Koshka. Gankstars pick off FooJee and go for Gold Mine. Despite an attempted steal, Gankstars takes it. The also take down Ardan. Nemesis turns it around as FooJee (Ringo) returns they turn around and snag two kills! Score is 3-5 in favor of Nem. FooJee went WP Ringo with TB. Dorm (Ardan) went traditional protector with a crucible. Ice4Ever went Tankshka. Iraqi went CP Vox with AC, Eve, and Armor. Gabe (Taka) went CP Taka with an Aftershock and Piercing Shard. Koshka went Tank-Aftershock. 18.2k to 9.4k in gold. 16-6. Game goes to Gankstars. Gankstars went full CP with some early Shield Pierce. Nemesis went mostly tank. Gankstars has the first win of two that they need in order to claim King of the Hill.
For the skin reveal everyone’s favorite rocket-wielding cat got some love! Glaive’s first skin, the fifth skin to be revealed so far, Prehistoric Glaive was revealed!
Really loving this skin so far, I think it fits really well with the character.
Next up was the second match between Gankstars and Nemesis. Nemesis ran Ringo, Glaive, Koshka against Gankstars’ Vox, Ardan, Koshka. CullTheMeek (Koshka) went down in the first blood. FooJee (Glaive) and Ice (Ringo) were isolated and taken down in a short fight. Ice and hardek (Koshka) end up dying because of one of Koshka’s flying-around-the-map bugs. CullTheMeek and hardek trade deaths and Ice is taken down with them. Despite Iraqi (Vox) hanging onto life through a the burn of a Hellfire Brew throughout the fight, Gankstars takes an ace without a single death. After pushing down two turrets, an excellent Gauntlet allows Gankstars to take out Ice and hardek. As the Kraken emerges from the pit, Gankstars claims it and pushes down the lane killing hardek and destroying the third turret; then beginning one of the two inner turrets. Nemesis surrenders as their last turret is chunked away. Final score is 9.7k to 17.9k and 3-12 in favor of Gankstars. Gankstars is the new NA King of the Hill.
CaptainNeato confirms the fix of the Catherine stun bug (also the SAW Roadie Run bug) and that simultaneous match start will work simply through everyone waiting on the load screen. He also confirms that dances will be coming back in a more interesting way.
Finally they showed off some updates to the SAWborg skin:
This was a fairly juicy week news-wise I wouldn’t be surprised if next week we got a full-update reveal or at least an increase in the number of skins revealed on stream. Excited to see this ramp up, what are you guys expecting from the stream next week?