Hidden Cup 2 | Announcement

After the incredible success of the first AoE2 Hidden Cup, I am proud to announce Hidden Cup 2! Together with Microsoft, the event has a prizepool of $10,200, and will include 16 of the best players in the world.

In the Hidden Cup 2 casters, players, and viewers will be unaware of player identities until the tournament is completed. Players can no longer prepare for who their opponent will be in the next round. Instead, they have to be on their "A game" and adapt to their unknown challenger's playstyle. Higher skilled players no longer have an easy ride to the 2nd and 3rd rounds. There is no knowing how difficult a task each round will be as their opponents are completely random. This puts greater emphasis on preparation, strategy and of course... mind games!

Hidden Cup 2 Rules & Settings
Hidden Cup 2 Sign Ups

Hidden Cup 1 certainly provided some amazing games and results ( See the results here.) Shockingly, TaToH, DauT, Yo, and Vivi all lost in Round 1! Miguel had an insane showing, beating DauT in Round 1 and Liereyy in Round 2. Riut played fantastic, beating Yo in R1 and losing to MbL in the final game of their semi-final series. Then in an exciting finish, TheViper and MbL gave us a fantastic finals! Hidden Cup #2 will feature 16 players this time. The top 14 sign-ups are guaranteed a spot, and the 15th-30th rated sign ups will compete in a 16 man qualifier for the final position. The event promises even more excitement and upsets!

Hidden Cup 2 participants will randomly be given accounts to mask their identity throughout the tournament. This identity will be kept to themselves until the users are revealed at the conclusion of the event. The usernames will be: BledaTheHun, GodsOwnSling, HrolfTheGanger, JoanOfArc, KingAlfonso, Nobunuga, Tamerlane, WillyWallace, AttilaTheHun, El_Cid, ErikTheRed, GenghisKhan, LaHire, OrnluTheWolf, RobinHood, Subotai. For TheViper's sake, let's hope he doesn't get the Joan account!

Additionally, players will play using a custom Userpatch (https://www.voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1139/v15-RC-Anonymous) which will do the following:

- no multiplayer game setup ping display
- no save/vote panel ping display
- no yellow/red/turtle lag indicators

This will further mask the identity of each player, and add to the confusion contestants might experience. Thanks so much to scripter for working on this masterpiece!

Prizepool & Contributors

Total Prize Pool - $10,200

1st - $3,000
2nd - $2,000
3rd/4th - $1,000
5-8th - $600
9-16th - $100

Contributors
Microsoft - $5,000
T90Official - $2,700
LeglessAlex - $2,500

Big thanks to Microsoft and LeglessAlex for the huge support! Anyone who would like to contribute to the prizepool will be credited and can do so here. Anyone who would like to contribute towards T90Official's costs towards prizepool, graphics, admins etc will also be credited and can do so here here. Pleasure ensure to write your username so you can be credited!


Streaming Policy

Due to the nature of this event players are not allowed to stream their POV on any streaming website. Failure to comply will result in potential ban and replacement. Players are also asked to refrain from streaming altogether on April 13th and 14th.

Hidden Cup 2 is completely open for casters. From casters to viewers, the goal is to have as many people enjoying Hidden Cup 2 as possible. Casters are expected to have the Hidden Cup 2 tournament banner visible on their overlays. However, in efforts to make this even easier for casters the tournament banner will be available in different color options. This is so channels can use a banner that matches their overlays, which will increase the production quality across the board for this event. This banner will slightly differ from the AoEZone banner and will be available soon. Additionally, all broadcasters of the event will be thanked publicly for their involvement on every day of the main event on T90Official's channel. Casters interested in being involved should PM robo on aoezone for access.

The event is streamed over four days at 13GMT every day. Days 1-3 use recorded games and the final day is live. Further info can be found in the settings for this tournament.

There will be prediction & guessing contests for this event. More info will be announced closer to the start of the event, so stay tuned!

Qualified Players

Mr_Yo​

MbL40C​

TheViper​

Liereyy​

TheMax​

Hera_​

Nicov​

DauT​

BacT​

TaToH​

Villese​

Tim​

Vivi​

ACCM​

 

[Bowserlord]

How can i cheer for my favorite players if i dont know who is playing? wtf? --> no tension at all...
Can u plz delete the "hidden" aspect, so we can see who is playing. Would be a much better tourney.

"Hidden Cup 2 is completely open for casters." - This is really nice!

 

[Viga_TCB]

T90: Riut lost in R1
Also T90: Riut beat Yo in R1

 

[T90Official]

Sorry @Viga_TCB

Sometimes my brain is hidden as well. Fixed :D

 

[dooog]

How are the "top 15 signups" decided? Purely ELO?

When does the 16-23 qualifier begin?

 

[T-West]

Hidden Cup 2 is completely open for casters.

Great to see this!

 

[T90Official]

How are the "top 15 signups" decided? Purely ELO?

When does the 16-23 qualifier begin?

§1 - Seeding and ParticipationHidden Cup 2 has 15 Main Event spots available for players to sign-up for. After the sign-ups are closed the players will be ranked according to their current & highest ratings on the Voobly RM 1v1 Ladder at the end of signups. The top 15 players will be allowed to participate in the tournament. This to ensure that the players that participate are truly motivated and competitive.The next 8 highest sign ups will participate in the Qualification Stage to decide the 16th Participant.

Qualification Stage: Single Elimination
Round of 8: 4th March - 10th march
Semi Finals: 11th March - 17th March
Final: 18th March - 24th March

You can find the rules & settings here - https://www.aoezone.net/threads/hidden-cup-2-rules-settings.152198/

I'll add an additional link in the announcement post for easier access.

 

[GmanStreams]

Sick prizepool, this gonn be gud

Edit: really nice to offer different color banners, usually the reason i hate the banner display rule is because it feels so out of touch on non-host channels. Lets see how this works out

 

[GmanStreams]

How can i cheer for my favorite players if i dont know who is playing? wtf? --> no tension at all...
Can u plz delete the "hidden" aspect, so we can see who is playing. Would be a much better tourney.

"Hidden Cup 2 is completely open for casters." - This is really nice!

Thats literally the whole gimmick to this tournament lmao. Also you probably havent watched HC1, hype was not a problem

 

[dux]

I would post a hype message but it's hidden. j/k

Bring it on!

 

[JaviS]

Only love 4 this tourney and T90, for sure it'll be a great tourney! Best of luck with it bud!

 

[AlphaAndOmega]

That's a nice bit of work from scripter! Of course, the perceived lag in game is still going to be there, and the pauses (BacT) but it is as hidden as possible now :P

 

[_5_]

Can always type /ping in game room.

 

[_Andrew]

Hope players can pick their own smurf names this time as the HiddenCup1, HiddenCup2 names made it very bland.

 

[dogao]

I'm sorry, I was away during the Hidden Cup 1, but how to deal with the aka rates shown in voobly?

 

[willworkforicecream]

Hope players can pick their own smurf names this time as the HiddenCup1, HiddenCup2 names made it very bland.

The usernames will be: BledaTheHun, GodsOwnSling, HrolfTheGanger, JoanOfArc, KingAlfonso, Nobunuga, Tamerlane, WillyWallace, AttilaTheHun, El_Cid, ErikTheRed, GenghisKhan, LaHire, OrnluTheWolf, RobinHood, Subotai. For TheViper's sake, let's hope he doesn't get the Joan account!

 

[willworkforicecream]

I've been really impressed with how LaHire has been playing recently. I mean, they've been being good, but I feel like they're on another level now. Hands down my favorite to win. I know there are a bunch of WillyWallace fanboys out there who are all saying "WillyWallace is unbeatable" and that "LaHire doesn't have the depth to compete", "WillyWallace numba wan now and forever". WillyWallace is overrated and yesterday's cold breakfast.

Y'all are chumps if you think that LaHire doesn't have the skills to pay the bills across all different maps. Have you seen my man LaHire on Rooster? He's like the Gordie ****ing Howe of Rooster. And Hideout? They may as well rename it LaHireout.

 

[Athasos]

Hope players can pick their own smurf names this time as the HiddenCup1, HiddenCup2 names made it very bland.

How are you never reading anything at all LUL

 

[Deathcounter]

Microsoft: We want to help this community with money
Me: Why you dont just offer HD + DLC's for free for in a one-time announced 24 12 6 3 Hour event so everyone, not only top 20, benefits and this community can be finally reunited?
Microsoft: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[iViktorius]

$5,000/20 = 250 free copies of the game
for a game that has over 5mil sales
makes super business sense

 

[T90Official]

I'm sorry, I was away during the Hidden Cup 1, but how to deal with the aka rates shown in voobly?

Excited to see you signed up Dogao. The account you are supplied will not have access to view aka rates. Obviously there are potential work-arounds but every precaution will be taken. If you qualify to participate you'll receive more info from Robo.

Can always type /ping in game room.

This is true. Even so, there is less information to go off of. I think it's realistic to say that players will have a general idea of where their opponent might live based off feel anyhow. The goal was to eliminate every bit of normalcy players have when it comes to playing opponents.

This event is especially interesting to the viewers as they don't have any real intel whatsoever. To give you an idea of how easy it was for people to guess, on average 2/12 identities were guessed correctly during the first Hidden Cup. I imagine it'll be even tougher this time with so more players!

 

[HelloBenjamin]

Good to see it. I hope it will be better than Hidden Cup 1 and I hope JoanofArc can not win this too.

 

[AlgernonR]

So hyped for this!

I do hope players arent communicating as much who they faced in previous rounds with their teammates - it is understandable given how much money is in the prizepool, but it makes it a bit unfair for the people not doing it and also kinda defeats the purpose.

 

[linetyReborn]

I'm sorry, I was away during the Hidden Cup 1, but how to deal with the aka rates shown in voobly?

i think this event needs to have its own lobby where no one can see aka rates and commands like /ping don't work , this of course needs work from voobly's side ( and it's ez to do , since it doesnt require elusive to be done and chris can do it alone ) .

 

[ChriSt]

Exciting!!

I got my t90woos ready.

Sleep schedule going to go to shit again.