Carries are one of the most traditional roles in the genre. It's the player who the team tries to focus as much farm as possible and hopefully deliver the killing blow to the opposing team. This was especially true during beta when turtling was the primary strategy favoured by top teams along with attack modifiers being stackable. The metagame has shifted significantly from that era with the introduction of massive ganker items like Striders and Blood Chalice and heroes like The Chipper and Bombardier.
Aside from good ricing skills, a good carry will have good instincts to know when to farm and when to help out his team. He will know when to back off from a lost battle even if it means sacrificing majority of his team. He will be able to perform well under a lot of pressure, especially when his opponents are trying their best to shut out every opportunity for him to farm. Finally, what's most important would be his positioning and targeting in team fights. Having that much DPS (usually) it is vital that he shuts down the correct heroes.
Without further ado, here are your nominees for the best carry player of 2010.
Nominees for Beat Carry 2010:
[EG] Jae-Hyung "chu" Park Specialty:
In an interview with us, chu himself claimed that while it would be sweet to be able to clone himself to go up against his own team, it would still be a problem to convince one of his clones to play support. chu is always at the core of EG, often playing as their solo mid. Many teams have in the past abused this fact and dual laned mid, but even then sometimes he would emerge victorious.
He has an innate ability to find farm. Even in games where he gets completely wrecked in lane like the game vs Phe`V's Night Hound, he somehow manages to farm up about 300 GPM and get his core items. What truly sets him apart from the rest is his ability to carry a team that's completely being dominated to victory. Although, the need for that is not very often given the calibre of his teammates.
[SK] Nick "Testie" Perenthesis Specialty:
Testie was more known for his carrying prowess back in the old days. In beta he was widely seen as an arch-rival to WHP counterpart chu, as the result of a game would often be affected by his farm vs chu's. Both took a break from HoN for different reasons mid year, and have made their comebacks respectively.
While chu has already recovered his form, it still remains to be seen how Testie will perform. While he seems to be making a transition to gankers like Tundra and Pharoah, no doubt he'll be remembered for his ricing prowess in 2010.
[DskB] Marc "zekaykay" Parasdas Specialty:
Also goes by the name Mr.Swish in International HoN. Zekaykay was arguably the player who restarted the hype around Defiler towards the end of the year with his trademark play which nearly brought down the mighty EG that had to come back from being 0-1 down to get past the round of 8. His ability to win a solo lane is also very refined and consistent.
One of DskB's worst losses in 2010, a match against the now disbanded Tease em [tSm] was a result of zekaykay's Soulstealer getting utterly harassed by Pharoah + Flint Beastwood from 2k range away. Basically, no game against DuskBin is ever over as long as this guy possesses a hero with good farm.
[MSI] Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen Specialty:
The final remaining member of Fnatic's 1st class, Trixi remains a key figure in the much evolved lineup. While his Corrupted Disciple and Forsaken Archer produced very solid and respectable solo mid performances back in the day, Slither and Valkyrie remain the heroes he's best known to do well with. Who could forget his Valkyrie from DreamHack Summer and his Slither which was probably the 1st ever semi-carry Slither to feature in competitive play?
His role has changed a lot ever since the iLx trio joined Fnatic. With N0tail holding the middle lane Trixi has featured in both solo lanes and trilanes and as a result had phases where he would be seen playing a Bubbles or Voodoo Jester. Tournament results certainly back up this addition of extra variety and hopefully Trixi will continue to find success with Fnatic's current lineup.
