The Winners (and Losers) of Hidden Cup 3 - Tournament Review

An amazing tournament that provided countless hours and incredible entertainment at a time when the world needed it. My hats off to all of the organizers, casters, players and spectators who made this tournament such an unforgettable experience.

Now in the aftermath, I wanted to take the time to express who I felt the biggest winners and losers from the tournament were.

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The Winners of Hidden Cup 3

Viper

A truly dominant performance. There is no doubt been a rise in skill from all other pro players recently which makes the tournaments far more interesting to watch. However, the crown of Age of Empires still rests firmly on the Viper’s head. His strategy, skill and execution was incredible and the 4-0 result in the Grand Final was a poignant reminder that while the Age of Empires 2 ladder is more competitive than ever, The Viper remains firmly on top.

His post tournament interview gave us what we have come to expect from the Viper. Gracious in victory, appreciative for the work put in by the tournament organisers and some cheeky humour. The top player of Age of Empires 2 having such a likeable personality is great for the growth of the game and while I might occasionally wish someone could dethrone him, ultimately I’m pleased to see him get the victory and continue being a great ambassador for the community.

Hera

Although he took a bad beating in the Grand Final, no one denies that Hera is a deadly force to be reckoned with. His strong showing in yet another tournament gives him the greatest weight to make the claim that currently, he is the world #2.

His Q & A stream after the tournament shows that he has developed a strong and loyal following. This is unsurprising because perhaps more than any other pro player, Hera has used the release of DE to establish a strong online presence. Whether his fans are drawn to him by his undeniable skill or his friendly personality while streaming, whatever way you look at it, with his result in HC3, Hera’s profile continues to rise.

T90

Thousands of new twitch subs, countless donations and a shattering of previous view records, Hidden Cup 3 was a huge success for T90. In order to put on such an event, you need to have skills in lots of different areas and HC3 confirmed that T90 was a master at all of them.

The audience loves him for his seemingly effortless ability to balance expert analysis of the games with humour and memes with his chat and co-casters. On top of that, T90 treats this seriously, like a business and this is exactly the kind of professionalism that the community needs to make Age of Empires 2 a genuine E-sport. Of course, on a personal level he has made himself wildly successful but when he has done so much for the community, especially bringing new people into the game, his success is greatly deserved.

Co operation within the Age2 Community

One of the nicest parts of NAC3 was the cooperative spirit on display. Lots of different casters, sharing of donations and of course, it’s where HC3 was announced. It was nice to see this cooperative energy continue on into HC3 with an open streaming policy and co-casting by other prominent members of the community like ZeroEmpires, Nili and Age2 benefactor Matt Salsa (who was a great caster btw!).

As the game gets larger, there will be an increase in the number of individuals who are trying to make a full time living from the game. Hopefully we continue to see co operation, rather than competition, as the predominant force guiding future events.

The Behind the Scenes Team

It is hard to imagine all of the work that goes into an event like this. We get hints of the number of hours people have put in but still, it is difficult for an audience member to truly appreciate how much work they must put in.

Without a doubt, Robo, Overlay guy, DuxtheSaviour and the entire Capture Age team did a magnificent job.

Team Secret

Before the tournament, there were definitely questions over how the clan would perform in this 1v1 setting. Hidden Cup 1 and 2 were not great for Tatoh and DauT narrowly missed out on a guaranteed spot in Hidden Cup 3. With Jordan_23 missing and both Slam and Nili failing to qualify, Tatoh and DauT were definitely keen to post strong performances for their clan.

Evidently, they did a lot of preparation for the tournament and came ready to play. They did not disappoint. Tatoh’s skills were on full display, besting both Vivi and Lierrey before ultimately falling before Hera in the Semi Finals. Aside from the Viper, Hera actually said DauT was his toughest opponent, only narrowly beating him 3-2 in the Quarter Finals and calling him an absolute beast. Team Secret definitely emerged from the tournament as the only clan that boated strong results across multiple players.

Qualifications

There have been ongoing discussions about who can participate in tournaments, how to encourage new players to break into the top tiers and whether or not it is boring to see the same names compete again and again. Arguably, the qualification stage of Hidden Cup 3 was one of the biggest successes of the entire tournament.

Not only did it give audiences many more hours of high stakes, high strategy gameplay but it also opened the field for lesser known players to take a shot at the big time. Ultimately, the final 16 spots were largely filled by well known names but this is not the point. In order for the Age2 community to stay healthy and growing, it needs to encourage new players to work and improve. Open qualifications do this and reminds us all of the depth of talent that exists beyond the top 20.

It was also great to get casting from players like Daniel and Project Belgium. Though casting is a particular skill that players don’t necessarily excel at, hearing the opinions of pro players is so valuable for an audience wanting to see the game through their eyes. MbL’s super hyped casting remains the tournament highlight for me. I’ve never laughed so much during an Age of Empires stream!!!

Honourable Mentions

Dogao – Amazing performance, he went further than any other player from the qualification stage. Though many may have been surprised to see his name in the reveal, a strong result like this guarantees they won’t be surprised next time.

Dave – The synergy between Dave and T90 is always fantastic and HC3 was no exception. While it is great to have alternate casters, it’s good to know that when it comes to the big matches, T90 still looks to his long time friend, Dave.

Quarter Finals – Without a doubt, the most exciting 4 matches of the entire tournament. To get them all in a row was incredible. The strategy and skill from the players was only matched by the hype of the audience. Wouldn’t be surprising if the days of the quarter finals went down in Age2 history as the most exciting day ever.

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The Losers of Hidden Cup 3

Civilization Variety

T90 felt it was important to encourage the players to train for the tournament so that the audience could enjoy matches with maximum skill on display. He felt that too much civ banning and drafting would discourage the players from practising and without a doubt, he is correct. The quality of games cannot be denied and the players all looked thoroughly prepared.

However, seeing pro’s play at their top form isn’t the only thing that makes a match exciting. The audience wants to see different strategies and different matchups. They want to see pro’s play the same civilisations they play in the ranked ladder and see how they compare with each other.

By the end of the tournament, it had become too predictable. 90% of the matches were played with the same 7 civilizations and too many games were played as mirrors. This is not an easy problem to solve without creating new problems but for future tournaments, the community may have to get creative in order to keep games from becoming stale.

Maps with Fixed Resources

While most people have grudgingly accepted that the game needs to evolve beyond endless Arabia wars, there is always the danger of over-correcting and forgetting why Arabia was the most popular map for so many years. It’s because every map is different and the players have to scout and adapt based on where the resources generate.

No one can deny that maps like Cup are highly entertaining. The ability to use demolition ships on groups of 15 archers will always be a crowd pleaser but the map is always the same. Slopes, El Dorado, Bay etc all have the same problem and give the game a boxed in sort of feeling. They are great for occasional variety but if the map pool becomes over saturated with these types of maps, it can start to become predictable. Arabia is the bread and butter for a reason and we best not stray too far from it.

Just my thoughts, happy to hear yours. All in all, amazing tournament. Well done to everyone involved!