Hidden Cup 4 Qualifiers

[robo]

Brackets are out. Scheduling threads for the Ro64 will be created tomorrow, along with more information for casters.

Hidden Cup 4 Qualifier - Challonge

Explore this tournament hosted by robo_boro

challonge.com

Hidden Cup 4: Qualifier

Hidden Cup is a tournament series created by T90Official where, after qualifiers are done, players are "hidden" until the end of the tournament. Neither the commentators, the audience, or the top 16 competitors know the real identity of the players in each match.

liquipedia.net

You can see the final seeding list here.

If you are interested you can also predict the bracket on challonge for funsies, Predictions will close once the first match is scheduled.

 

[Lightysword]

Wouf, pretty interesting brackets. I see some tough and interesting matches coming up. Nicov kinda getting shafted a bit, having probably to face fire and miguel. The bracket with Villese, Zuppi and Laaaan is pretty packed as well. Max, Jordan and Capoch together as well (and NIli, not to forget about him).
Guess the hype is on for the qualifier

 

[Compieuter]

I'm excited. A bit sad that many of the Brazilians and Germans might have to play eachother but thats kind of unavoidable, it's going to be great I think.

 

[zuviss]

BacT and Heart have the 'easiest' ones, Nicov got screwed up facing f1re and miguel

Capoch, Jordan and Max is a tossup

 

[Michaerbse]

I don't really think Nicov is getting "screwed" or anything. F1Re has been quite a bit away from his top shape for some time now and I don't think he has a real chance against Nicov. miguel is a tough opponent of course, but you can't really expect easy opponents in the final round in such a stacked field, particularly if you are "only" seed 8.
I rather feel bad for slam, who got such a high rating and gets rewarded by facing Vinchester.

 

[Miral]

Modri screwing the bracket with his beautiful arena elo :/

Anyway, so excited for these qualifiers!

 

[AtTheGates_]

The brackets are so stacked!

ACCM, Daniel, Riut should go to ACCM but Daniel has been looking strong lately and we all know how good RiuT is. Question is whether he has time to practice.

Nicov, F1re, Miguel, Lyx and St4rk is arguably the toughest group. Nicov should win vs F1re although F1re could have a real chance if only he was in top shape, which he doesn't seem to be.
Miguel should win fairly easy vs Pike who just got back from his hiatus. And Pike was never really a strong 1v1 player to begin with.
Lyx is also at his strongest in TG:s but should win vs St4rk who also seems to not be playing much.
The final should be Nicov vs Miguel which could go either way.

The third group is also very tough imo. Villese, Zuppi, Bruh and Laaaan are all contenders. I think Villese is so strong atm though. So he should take it. I think 1-2 years ago Laaaan would have won but he seems to have fallen off a bit. He has had some DE problems, no?

The fourth group is between TheMax, Jordan and Capoch. Also very hard to predict. TheMax is the best on paper but hasn't been playing as good as before lately. I think the winner between Jordan and Capoch takes it. And there is a small chance Nili takes it vs Capoch too. Nili going full tryhard without any casting before HC4 can make him improve a lot. It remains to be seen.

The fifth group is between Slam and Vinchester. Bugum is good but won't have any chance vs Vinch imo. I think Slam is better than Vinchester but Slam has had some problems with nerves in 1v1 tournaments before. If he is able to play up to his potential level I think he wins vs Vinchester.

The sixth group should be easy for BacT.

Similarily, the seventh group should be easy for Vivi unless chart follows up his KOTD3 performance with an equally strong performance here. If so, Vivi might be in for a rough set.

The eight group is once again hard to predict. Hearttt should win but I could see both Barles or Tim challenging him. Should be interesting.

 

[Tarsiz]

First group should be dominated by ACCM but has a few names that definitely should not be counted out: CL, RiuT and saymyname are veterans of the game, while Kasva and Daniel have improved a lot recently. Daniel ends up facing another Brazilian legend a year after losing to St4rk in the first round of the Hidden Cup 3 qualifiers... could be a tricky match for him even though he should be in better shape. Then we have a potential saymyname/RiuT (a classic, didn't they face multiple times in recent tourneys?). Nobody will want to go against CL but I think ACCM should win this group convincingly.

The second group is potentially the one with the highest average level. On paper it should be a clash between Nicov and miguel for the qualifying spot but miguel will have a tough task ahead of him: Pike first and then whoever emerges victorious of Lyx vs St4rk - probably THE clash of the first round in the whole bracket. It would be interesting to see how GodOfTheGodless fares against F1Re but F1Re should be favorite on this map pool. I expect Nicov to qualify, he is too solid not to.

In the third round we have what will probably be the most lopsided match in the first round where Villese should demolish Salicum. It should there be between Villese, Zuppi, Bruh and LaaaaaN although I would keep an eye out for classicpro in the first round as he can do interesting things. I believe Villese is now playing on a higher level than the other three favorites of the group and see him qualifying comfortably... but you should never rule out Zuppi.

The fourth group is really interesting as we see two, maybe even three, players with a realistic shot at qualifying. A year ago Max would have been a runaway favorite but he has seemed to fall back a bit in recent times. He should nevertheless advance to the qualifying match (after a potential blockbuster set vs Hoang) to face either JorDan or Capoch. Capoch has done quite well in Empire Wars last year but hasn't had great results in RM tournaments since his come back yet. JorDan does well on the ladder, but did not have tourney results yet. It will be a toss-up between the two, but I see JorDan emerge victorious. I feel like Max should still be a slight favorite but I would not be surprised if JorDan won the group.

The fifth group should be between slam and Vinchester with Bugum potentially playing trouble-maker. Vinchester and slam actually played in KotD 3 with Vinch winning. However I think the map pool favors slam as he is a more complete player than Vinchester. PROject_Belgium and Vodka are also solid opponents (Vodka beat slam during Clown Cup 4) but I don't see them at the level where they could take the spot yet. slam and Vinchester is then a very close match where I see slam as a tiny favorite.

The sixth group should be the most straight-forward bracket of the qualifiers, with BacT the overwhelming favorite. I think we will have an almost all-Vietnamese Ro32 as SongSong and Fish should beat AJ and Dark. Modri vs Overtaken is actually a very interesting set; on paper Modri should be the heavy favorite but he is an Arena expert. Will he be able to compete on the hybrid map pool of Hidden Cup to beat his opponent? The qualifying match should be BacT vs Fish or maybe Modri, but either way I think BacT takes this convincingly.

The seventh group is super open: Vivi is, on paper, the heavy favorite, but the Hidden Cup map pool definitely does not favor him. He has played all Hidden Cups before and never done really well in the tournament. While he should be favorite chart, BadBoy, Sitaux or even DracKeN all have a shot. chart proved his talent on Arabia during KotD 3 but I am not sure how well he plays mixed maps. DracKeN is known as an Arena clown but knows how to play all maps and Sitaux excels on hybrid maps. I think Vivi will play against Sitaux for the qualification and that is a very open match. Vivi should still be slightly favorite but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if chart, BadBoy or Sitaux qualified.

The final group is also quite open as well. Hearttt is the favorite on paper but his latest tournament participation is quite far in the past. He is doing quite well on the ladder but the first test vs Rubenstock or Valas could go either way. At the bottom of the bracket I see Barles emerge victorious and he could definitely beat Hearttt as well. Interestingly, unless Tim wins this group - which feels extremely unlikely -, whoever qualifies will make their Hidden Cup debut which should be exciting to watch in the main event.

 

[Duke Thomson]

The spots were purely given by ranked points (Elo)?? By looking on aoe2.net it seems they were some exceptions...

 

[robo]

The spots were purely given by ranked points (Elo)?? By looking on aoe2.net it seems they were some exceptions...

Purely by highest rating as can be seen in the seeding sheet in the OP.

 

[Duke Thomson]

Purely by highest rating as can be seen in the seeding sheet in the OP.

Nice, my mistake

 

[WakoTabacco]

Purely by highest rating as can be seen in the seeding sheet in the OP.

Aw man..

How it was written I had thought the first 64 players to sign up would then face in qualifiers based on their highest DE rating. Example being the lowest elo player signed up at 1800 elo would vs in qualifiers against the next lowest player, say 1900 elo, etc.

If I had of known to secure a spot it was just the highest elo achieved based amongst all the players to sign up I would of played a lot more to secure a spot. :L


"Hidden Cup 4 has 64 Qualification spots available for players to sign-up for. After the sign-ups are closed the players will be ranked according to their highest rating achieved on the AoE2 DE 1v1 ladder at the end of signups."

 

[willdbeast]

Aw man..

How it was written I had thought the first 64 players to sign up would then face in qualifiers based on their highest DE rating. Example being the lowest elo player signed up at 1800 elo would vs in qualifiers against the next lowest player, say 1900 elo, etc.

If I had of known to secure a spot it was just the highest elo achieved based amongst all the players to sign up I would of played a lot more to secure a spot. :L


"Hidden Cup 4 has 64 Qualification spots available for players to sign-up for. After the sign-ups are closed the players will be ranked according to their highest rating achieved on the AoE2 DE 1v1 ladder at the end of signups."

I, too, was robbed of a qualifier position.

If only it were more clearly worded I would have gained those few 800 Elo needed...

 

[Oli King]

Aw man..

How it was written I had thought the first 64 players to sign up would then face in qualifiers based on their highest DE rating. Example being the lowest elo player signed up at 1800 elo would vs in qualifiers against the next lowest player, say 1900 elo, etc.

If I had of known to secure a spot it was just the highest elo achieved based amongst all the players to sign up I would of played a lot more to secure a spot. :L


"Hidden Cup 4 has 64 Qualification spots available for players to sign-up for. After the sign-ups are closed the players will be ranked according to their highest rating achieved on the AoE2 DE 1v1 ladder at the end of signups."

U didn't even sign up in the first 64 if I see it correctly...

But yeah can be clearer wording by robo, even though it is the most logical way for qualifiers