There has been some people who claim that Viper meeting Hera in the finals is proof that the seeding was rigged. Conspiracy theorists say the random seeding was rigged to bring more viewers. Here's why the math proves them wrong.

For a Viper vs Hera final, they must win each of their other games. Well, this did happen in HC3. Secondly, Viper and Hera must be in different "halves". Now I understand math is a difficult topic, so I made this handy diagram:

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https://preview.redd.it/vubpu0xzylo41.png?width=322&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c36108d7148154bdf66beffb4d2331873dfa034

Viper being yellow and Hera being green. Once you have drawn Viper out of the pool of 16 contestants, the pool has shrunk to 15, which is why the odds in the bottom table are 15 instead of 16.

As you can see, the chances of Viper meeting Hera in the final are 6% higher than the chances of Viper not meeting Hera in the final. Therefore, it was always more likely to happen than not. Conspiracy DEBUNKED.

But now I've gotten started...lets answer even more questions that were never asked:

What is the probability that Viper meets Hera in the Semi Final?

For Viper to meet Hera in the Semi Final, Hera must not meet Viper in the Final. This sounds obvious, but it narrows the pie from 100% to just 47%. From this 47%, we get this second diagram:

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https://preview.redd.it/3lafzjuz0mo41.png?width=325&format=png&auto=webp&s=266525b90f7cdc6a287d87f865b150440ae62a4e

So the chances of Viper meeting Hera in the Semi Final have dropped to 25%. Our pie shrank to 47%, which is why we weren't able to give better odds than 25%.

What is the probability that Viper meets Hera in the Quarter Final?

For Viper to meet Hera in the Quarter Final, Hera must not meet Viper in either the Final or the Semi Final. This means our pie we can allocate is just 22%.

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https://preview.redd.it/bexjvszy1mo41.png?width=325&format=png&auto=webp&s=6d74d8c242a441b834efb000c711cf92c1edeff3

The odds of Viper meeting Hera in the Quarter Final are much higher than meeting him in the Round of 16.

To summarize:

Viper vs Hera Final = 53%

Viper vs Hera Semi Final = 25%

Viper vs Hera Quarter Final = 15%

^{Viper vs Hera Round of 16 = 7%}

If both players win their matches against other players, Hera was always destined to face Viper in the Finals, even with Random Seeding. There is no conspiracy.

Nicov on the other hand, yes, yes, T90 always wanted to knock him out early.