The $3,000 GosuCup HoN #1 Group Stage is this weekend, where 16 teams will be facing off within their groups to determine who advances to the playoffs.

This week, leading up to the Group Stage matches, we'll be taking a look at each group individually and interviewing some of the players. We'll focus especially on the teams that are non-sponsored or that you may not know much about. In this tournament preview, we examine Group D and talk with Asway from Take it to the house.

Group D has a lot of great North American players in particular, which should make for some familiar encounters. It is one of the harder groups to predict, even with having one match played already.

  GosuCup HoN #1 Group Stage  Group D(4) Finale
(5) Jokes on You so Deal With It
(q) Take it to the house
(q) unZ
Team: Finale
Tag: [xFin]
How they got in: Invited - #4 on GosuGamers Rankings

The status of Finale's roster is a bit unknown at the moment, but their core line-up from the past includes strong players like Sneyking and wAyToSeXy, who were on the team when they won GameReplays Tournament Season 3. Due to rescheduling, they have already played their match against unZ and won 2-0. That puts them in a good position heading into this weekend, but they need to continue winning to respond to the lingering uncertainty about their new roster.

Team: Jokes on You so Deal With It
Tag: [EHH]/[DWi]
How they got in: Invited - #5 on GosuGamers Rankings

The combination of players from EHH and DWi, who hail from the United States, Canada, and Australia, have recently won the first qualifier in GameReplays Tournament Season 4. They've also just added Korok to their roster, who could play a big factor in their success this weekend.

Team: Take it to the house
Tag: [T7H]
How they got in: Qualified - Won US Qualifier #3

The least-known team in Group D, T7H has not participated in a major event for quite some time. They expect to make a surprising return in this GosuCup; make sure to continue reading for our interview with Asway.

Team: unZ
Tag: [unZ]
How they got in: Qualified - Won EU Qualifier #3

Swedish team unZ have had many tournament appearances, are going strong in the HoN Super Series Round of 32, and are currently ranked 16th in the GosuGamers Rankings. They have already lost to Finale; can they rebound in their matches against the other two teams?

Team Profile: Interview with T7H's Asway

We were very happy to have Asway from T7H take the time to speak with us about his team. He's involved with many organizations in the HoN community, and, in regards to him as a player, we got the full story on Take it to the house and their newfound success thus far in GosuCup HoN #1.

Most people know who you are already; but for those who don't, give us an introduction.

My name is Joshua "Asway" Ouellette, and I am a team manager, HoN player, and a news poster. I've been playing Heroes of Newerth since early beta, and I don't really have any plans on stopping. Right now, I am the manager for Infused Tt eSPORTS and T7H. I am also one of the three admins for the GameReplays Tournament Season 4.

Take it to the house is a name that goes way back. Could you give us a history of the team and its members?

Take it to the house, aka The Seven Horses, was a early beta competitive team. At the time, we competed against teams like PhB, ButtonBashers, Fnatic, and WHP (now EG). Our former members were Amingo, Bleek, Secksy, Dewiz, Kitofans, and Nonvidius. We mainly competed in the GameReplays tournaments (Seasons 1 and 2), and we came in the top two in a few of the qualifiers. When we were doing really well, we came close to a sponsorship, but, unfortunately, it fell through.

Tell us about your current roster, how difficult it was to win GosuCup US Qualifier #3, and whether or not you are looking for a sponsorship now.

Our current roster is as follows: Asway, Bleek, Secksy, Lalond, and Dewiz. Lalond, Bleek, and I will most likely be in the tri-lane. Secksy and Dewiz will be our two solos. The GosuCup qualifier that we played in was pretty interesting. The first game we played in, one of our players showed up late, so we ended up playing 4v5. We really only had one difficult match, and that was versus a team called By8. They put Swiftblade mid, and that was, at the time, really hard to deal with. The game lasted about 70 minutes; apparently, these guys had no idea what Puppet Master with a crazy amount of farm did. As of right now, finding a sponsor is out of the question. Until we start winning stuff and doing well, there's no need for a sponsor.

“We have a few things up our sleeves that might catch some people off-guard.” - AswayIn the GosuCup Group Stage this weekend, T7H is in Group D along with xFin, EHH/DWi, and unZ. How do you like your chances to move on?

I think our chance of advancing out of the group stage is really high. The only team I really see us having some problems against is EHH/DWi; sLickz and Tarano are very talented and can take over the game within minutes. From what I can tell, xFin does not have a stable roster, and that might end up hurting them this weekend. unZ will be out of town this weekend, so I'm not really sure if we will end up playing them. But if we do end up playing them, we're not really scared of them. We have a few things up our sleeves that might catch some people off-guard. Even though we've been out of the competitive scene for a long time, we've still been following it and have been keeping up with the top teams and what heroes and strategies they excel at.

Alright, thanks a lot, and good luck to both T7H and Infs! Any shout-outs?

Shoutout to Natalie` and the GameReplays crew! ^_^

Links
gosugamers.net - GosuCup HoN #1: Group Stage schedule