Hidden Cup 3 - St4rk Guesses & Analysis

So guys, basically, today we'll have the Semi Finals and Finals of HC3, so i wanted to share some Analysis and my personal guesses for each Hero identity!

Before we start the Predictions, let's analyse who are the players:

We had 8 players invited to play this tourney:

Viper

Hera

Lierey

MBL

Tatoh

TheMax

Yo

Vivi

And them, we had 8 player who qualifired for the other 8 Spots

Nicov

Dogao

Fire

Antagonist

Daut

Bact

ACCM

Villese

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Between the two Qualifier rounds and the tourney, we also had 5 Showmatches, featuring some of the Qualifired, and some of the invited players!

We Had the following:

Villese winning over Dogao (4-2)

ACCM winning over MBL (4-3)

Hera winning over Fire (4-0)

Tatoh winning over Bact (4-1)

So we had some pre-tourney intel about those guys, specially the ones from the qualifier, including their Bans, their HomeMaps, some of their Strats... but there were 5 guys that played no qualifier, no showmatch, and we obviously don't know what their preparation was like.. so we can just speculate, those are:

Viper

Liereyy

TheMax

Yo

Vivi

(Tatoh, MBL and Hera all played showmatches ^^)

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Now that you know who we are talking about, l decided to place some "deathflags" over some of those Players, here's my deathflag list:

Dogao(Came from Qualifier, and lost showmatch vs another Qualifier Player)

Bact (Came from Qualifier, and lost showmatch vs Invited player)

Fire (Came from Qualifier, and lost showmatch vs Invited player)

So basically, i expect those 3 players, according to their previous results, to be out in Ro16

Their chance, was to either beat some of the invited players (which is not likely according to the results), or some of the Other Qualifier players, it's not a rule, but was highly likely for them to fall in the first round.

Also according to the Qualifier, and also the showmatch, we have some very consistent pattern over Home Maps, Map and Civ Ban from 2 Players, which could give us some more info:

Nicov: (Banned Mayans 3x, Picked Hideout, Bay and Islands as homemaps (in both Qualifier and Showmatch)

Fire: (Banned Aztecs 3x, banned the map Cross and picked Islands, Cup and Hightide)

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Starting from these 2 guys, Fire should be the easiest one to Spot, he had the "death flag", would ban Mayans, and probably pick the 3 Maps where Water had some high value (Islands, Cup and Hightide), guess who did it? Leif Erikson! this Hero followed the exact same pattern, and ended up losing by 3-1

so Fire = Leif Erikson

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We had only one guy banning Mayans in Ro16 and Ro8, and this guy was Emperor in a Barrel, he also picked Islands and Hideout during the series (and slopes aswell...), This guys is also already in the top4 of the tourney, so he was either invited, or was a very high seed in the Qualifier, or we have some great surprise here 11, by his performance, his current position on DE 1v1 Ladder and the expectations over him.. Nicov = Emperor in a Barrel

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Ro16 was truly interesting, there were two guys who advanced, Joan the Maid and Princess Yodit, who both banned Persian, both picked Cup (and had some very special strat for it 11) and also banned Gold Rush, i have the strong feeling those two players were practcing together, accm/bact maybe? themax/villese? dogao/fire? some of the aM guys? some of the Secret guys? There were very similar Picks between this guy and Yodit aswell, both went for Persian boom in Slopes, only to use Paladin + Ranged unit, vs two Mayan guys, it worked out for Joan, not for Yodit unfortunately... based on this assumption, i tried to see anything special about them individually, Joan The Maid, in both rounds was very confident in his use of Knights, controlled a lot of map, used Monks to heal his units and turn-on fights.. did some mind games like banning Mongols, which was a good civ for Bay, and tried to use Byzantines 11 (knowing his opponent would go Persian), so this guy had a plan, he tried to trick his Opponents, and he is also very strong, one of the Semi-Finalist, he is either a very high seed on the Qualifier, or a invited player, Tnx to his Strong Booms, the way he buildings on the corners/side of the map with his sneaky vills i have a very strong feeling this guy might be TheMax, and if that's so..

Joan the Maid = TheMax

PrincessYodit = Villese

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Another curious Fact, is that we had 3 Players banning both Islands and Aztecs, in the Ro16, so those guys do not want to play Water.. but are also not interested in playing with/vs Azt... But is curious how one of those guys, who also happen to play the Quarter Finals, picked two homemaps (Cup and Ravines), that a certain player picked on his showmatch 1 week before (that player also banned Azt and Islands!), by the way, in the Ro8 he didn't banned Islands.. it was the first homemap picked by his opponent so he didn't had a chance of doing it.. also watching his game, he was very effective in controlling specific ares of the map using Towers, not in early feudal, but mid game and so on.. I have some very bad memories of a player who is very good at doing this, this guy was also not in the semi-finals by only 1 game, which truly show he is very good, and could potentialy be on a semi-final or even a final, so my call is:

William the Conqueror = MBL

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Now i want to talk about a guy who doesn't want to play El Dorado, i don't know his reasons, but he banned El Dorado as a map!, in both Ro16 and Ro8, yes i'm talking about King Sancho, he also picked Ravines and Bay, a map with no water, other with some early water on.. so this guys is confident on both land, and water.. the fact that he advanced to the Ro8 with a solid 3-0 could potentially give us a high seed in the Qualifiers, or a invited one, i'll go with a invited one, some guy who also didn't want to play El Dorado in his showamtch... and also used Britons in those two rounds in Arabia and despite losing it, had a very good Cup Game vs Joan the Maid, at his first dock i realized, that his was someone with some weird signature 11, this guy was also barely in the top4, out by just 1 game, meaning that in a better day he coul've totally done it.. so considering all of this...:

King Sancho = Tatoh

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There are also some guys dragging out some special attention, one of them is Kotya Khan, it's difficult to analyse his patterns, he banned Malay and Inca 11 (civs that we haven't seen to be picked a lot...), banned two very different maps in both Ro16 and Ro8 (Hideout and Hightide), and on the top of that, picked 4 different homemaps in these two rounds (Bay, El Dorado, Ravines and Cup)... this guy doesn't know what he want, but he is already in the Top4 (not without struggling a bit vs Princess Yodit), he is also some very proficient player in quickwalling, using markets, houses.. making his enemy Paladins and Cavaliers to suffer a lot 11 (see that for example: https://clips.twitch.tv/EnergeticCautiousDinosaurSaltBae ) Well and makes my life easier, this guy will probably be on the Finals (if Joan, the supposed training partner of Yodit doesn't learn how to counter him), which leaves me very few Options, Larry? he played confident with only one range in Feud, and was also very profficient with scouts... very annoying aswell, fucking Micro Nerd..

Kotyan Khan = Hera

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If this guy takes a lot of attention, there's another one who just doest the same, i'm talking about Salah ad-Din, well, Saladin won Ro16 by 3-0, some others did aswell.. but he also won Ro8 by 3-1 (while all the other set went 3-2), we're talking about a strong Contender for the Title here, maybe someone we have no intel... he is always Banning Mongols and picking Cup, which is exactly what both Dogao and Daut did in the Qualifiers, Dogao has a "deathflag", and also banned different civ in the showmatch.. but DauT.. played no showmatch... and had to make some effort in the Qualifiers to beat Tim, Saladin is also having Fun 11, using Different civ for the same maps in different rounds, like if he's testing smtg, or like he is confident enough for it.. he plays calm.. build advantage, and later make some decision, avoiding risk, and coming back from very bad situations, such as his Hightide game vs Alaric in Ro8, this impressive guy, is probably someone we know very well, and ty for respecting color 3, like the campaign Saladin!

Saladin = TheViper

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8 Spotted, 8 to go... From here on things get shady

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The Opponent of King Sancho in Ro16 was Charlemagne, he banned Islands, and pick two Land Maps, well that talks about how he is not an Water fan, but rather confident in land... Agressive Arabia player most likely, went for a FW attempt.. later in second game, Hideout, went for Conqs! got good fights.. followed with Siege.. and even tried a FW Castle later on, in G3, he was very agressive, even open up some good vill advantage, but overinvested in Feud.. all this aggressiveness in those games.. kind of reminds me of mr Vivi, the FatDragon... he is also Chinese! so maybe....

Charlemagne = Vivi

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Let's talk about yet another guy! He lost 3-1 to Joan the Maid, he is the Bad_Neighbor, Chinese was his civ for Arabia (i know of some guy who was practicing this civ for Ara... His knight play was good, and he won the first game.. in G2, Cup, he went for Vikings... and apparently got surpised by the Strat Joan prepared.. G3, hideout.. he was Khmer, went for a full boom, but ended up being pressure a lot in Castle Age.. he also build houses in a way that reminds of some guy.. for those reasons, and the deathflag!

Bad_Neighbor = Dogao

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6 Heroes Left

Sheriff of Nothingham

Friar Tuck

Alaric the Goth

Vlad Dracula

Henry the Lion

Charles martel

6 Players Left

Bact

ACCM

Antagonist

Yo

Lierey

Daut

I'll try to finish later, but i'm truling having difficlt on these ones 11