With hidden cup 3 being almost upon us, here are some....

Guaranteed tips to mislead!!!

The Viper

The Viper is the best player in the world, therefore any player who wins a string of matches in a row is ViperConfirmed^TM. Especially if they save any exposed villagers with Disgusting Quickwalls, a 9th level spell only snakes can perform. If this player, once identified as Viper, loses a subsequent match, it will be because he was Just Trolling. And definitely not because he was actually TaTOH or Villese.

Viper is known to be the best water player in the world (in addition to being the best land player), so he will pick water maps such as Islands, High Tide, where he can reliably grind out wins. He will then pick Koreans on Water and execute a Mastapiece, even though Hera is the player who recently did precisely that in the show matches not so long ago.

Viper tends to play in a safe style in tournaments, never over extending. He goes for safe pickoffs to establish villager lead, and then hides behind the safety of his housewalls and quickwalls to prevent any comebacks.

Hera

Hera is the second best player in the world, and the reason for this is he Always Plays Meta. Water map? Italians. Slopes? Indians. Cross? Persians. Cup? Japanese. Expect Hera to pick Land Maps where he abuses his Mega APM, microing his starting scout to snipe villagers Weakened by Boar, which are never safe against Hera, even if they are right under the TC. Because Hera will Dive Under the TC and sidestep all arrows, surviving to live another day, and even win the Scout War.

Hera is known for his heavy military commitments, excelling against OK Boomers with Full Feudal or Full Castle play. He ages up once he has established a safe military lead. So if someone makes a surprising comeback vs a Castle Age player using nothing but All In Scouts, it's not Daut, it's Hera.

Like Viper, Hera is a Disgusting Quickwaller, observed not just to wall opponents out but also to trap them with Palisade Gates. Although he has never been a committed Water player, Hera will still beat Water pros like TaTOH and Nicov on them, simply because he is the second best player in the world, appearing in the last 5 finals in recent tournaments.

TaTOH

Tatoh, while not top 2, is somewhere in the top 8. He is known for inventing Unusual Build Orders, such as his Back Dock into Fast Castle Italians. He also tries to Break the Meta with his civ picks. If anyone picks Saracens on a land map we have TaTOHConfirmed^TM.

Tatoh plays standard pro meta pretty well but tends to struggle in Messy Games. He loves Water maps because those are far more predictable. But he will do unexpected things on those maps like a Landing. And once he lands, he won't drop military, but it will be something silly like Stealing A Relic. T90 will get all excited seeing it, and then the actual game will be won or lost by some other unrelated reason.

MBL

MBL stands for Master Boar Lamer. He will pick Aztecs and then he will steal your boar early. If you try to block his eagle you will fail. He is a Boar Whisperer and will always bring the Boar home. Even if you force MBL to run in a circle for 10 minutes he will still Bring the Boar Home.

MBL unlike TaTOH thrives in Messy Games, especially Balls to the Walls Post Imp. He is an excellent spammer in the late game and will win games past 1 hour. Other pros get tired but not MBL. MBL will also use Single Queue instead of Multiqueue and never turn on Auto Farm Reseed. Because he doesn't need those, he's MBL.

However, MBL has a big weakness known as Houses. He will Always Get Housed. And recently he has been possessed by a Hoang Spirit. So expect him to pick Celts, man@a, go forward and then Hoang you in Castle Age with Pikemen + Mangonel all in. MBL will also pick Vikings on Cup because he believes longboats are overpowered. And who's to say he's not correct?

Yo

Yo is an old time player so old habits die hard. He still believes in using Stone Gates. Unlike the earlier four he tends to play very standard so it is hard to Identify the Yo. Therefore you have to identify him by identifying his opponent. If a player is somehow good enough to keep up with the likes of confirmed Viper, Hera, MBL, TaTOH sightings, he's probably Yo.

The style that Yo uses tries to anticipate it like a chess game, so he will build Counters to the Counters. Otherwise he likes to boom. He will usually get a villager lead but it's 50:50 if he can keep it.

TheMax

Max is one of the most dangerous of the top 8 in a match such as Hidden Cup. Because of his Unpredictable Finnish Openings. When you know you're playing Max you'll immediately Check the Corners for Forward Buildings. But when you don't know you're playing Max, you don't check - and therefore Scouts will stream into your base and ruin your Fully Walled Base.

Despite those wacky openings, Max is an OK Boomer, so what he really wants to do is flood your base with Ten Thousand Knights. If you give him Untouched Eco you will get smashed by Paladins.

On Hybrid maps Max will try strange things like Tower Your Fish. If someone picks Incas and goes Boxing he is Max. Finnish through and through, and even harder to guess, because another Finnish player, Villese, is in the tournament. But luckily, Rubenstock didn't qualify, or else we wouldnt know who executed a TC Drop.

Lierrey

Back in the heyday Lierrey was known for having the Best Micro In the World. He would regularly fight unwinnable fights and then win somehow. Like using 9 archers to defeat 15 skirmishers while micro-ing uphill. These days he isn't playing at his peak anymore, but perhaps his form will return in Hidden Cup 3?

Lierrey is a gentleman so he will always RESIGGGGNNNN when he is defeated. He will not play out the match which is Obviously Potato. You will know such a position is reached whenever T90 announces he will Gift 5 Subs if there is a comeback. Lierrey will never reach such a position because he will Resigggnnnnnn beforehand.

Vivi

AKA Fat Dragon, this one is a fan favorite, and probably easy to spot. Vivi loves Towers. Not only that, he will only send a Single Villager Forward. This Villager will drop to 1 HP after getting attacked by Woo-Woo-Woolfs. And after that she (it's always a she) will single handedly win the game.

Because Vivi forwards with so little military commitment, expect him to have a much better eco than normal Scrub Trushers. You're looking at someone hiding behind Three TC Boom while towering All your Woodlines. The chaos is even harder to counter because of it. Not only do you have to clear the Mess from Your Base, you have to do it versus someone with a Ten Villager Lead.

And then he will Stonewall his base, as well as your gold pile.

Nicov

The strongest player who had to sit through the extra step of Qualifiers, Nicov is a strong water player as well as an OK Boomer. However, at the last minute you will realize he Forgot His Eco Upgrades. Did someone only research Wheelbarrow once he has 140 villagers? Then you have NicovConfirmed^TM.

Nicov also likes to QuickWall, which is normal for a pro, but what is not so normal is he will QuickWall with Stone Gates. I guess he doesn't trust wooden piles. Nicov loves water maps. You can predict 3 Neutral Range Islands to be a part of his Map Selection.

Nicov is known to have prepared very strongly for HC3, so he might excel in Hidden Cup 3 new maps such as Slopes and High Tide.

DauT

Also known as God, Daut is one of the last remaining Low APM Pros, he will never execute a quickwall (even if there's recent video evidence he can totally do so now), and all his castles will be Daut Castles. Note that these Daut Castles never appear when he is winning but will only appear when he's in lost positions. So maybe not all his castles but only some of them.

Daut wins games by pure macro so therefore you can expect him to play Safe Maps like Hideout. He will go for civs that don't need enormous micro so it won't be Britons, but Something Like Celts or Khmer. He will try to bait his opponents into making too many of one unit and then surprising them with the counter.

Other Players

Villese is the Responsible Guy among the Finnish team so it's very hard to get a read on him, but he will Tower Your Fish because he's still a Finnish player.

ACCM has been playing in good form recently, he even beat MBL in a showmatch but we don't know how this will hold up in the real Hidden Cup 3. Don't really know enough about his style.

Antagonist / F1re / Dogao / BacT don't know much about their style.