Interview with the Defending Double Cup Champion bruh

[Huehuecoyotl22]

Welcome to this interview, BruH, as the defending Double Cup champion. We will talk about your tournament experiences, some things outside of the AoE world and Double Cup (2) specially.

Introduction​

Let’s first introduce yourself shortly. Who are you? How old are you and what do you usually do when you are not playing AoE II?
My name is Bruno, I’m 30, I’m currently living off of AoE, when I’m not streaming I like to go to the beach (in summer), go hiking and sometimes drink with my friends.

What does your username mean and why did you choose it? Any reason why the way the 4 letters were written differently from time to time (Bruh, bruh, BruH) - which way do you prefer it?
Bru is a cute way to call someone who is called Bruno in Portuguese. Usually it’s used more for females, so using it for me was kinda funny. Now I realize it’s also an American slang and I kinda regret picking it. The upper case/lower case varied over time with my self-esteem until I finished adopting the full lowercase version. lol.

What is your association with the ostrich?
Have you ever tried to be as random as you can? Back in 2013 or so, I had never made a smurf account and I was trying to create the most random nickname I could. That’s where the AssassinOstrich came from. What happened after, is that I beat Edie’s famous Aztec build at the time (super all-in, which made him 2k4 on Arena) after an incredible comeback (think I lost my base).
Then I remember him trying to guess who it was and all the players he guessed were way better than me. Also, lots of people started doing the same, that’s when I started liking to use this nickname.

Since when do you play AoE II? Have you played AoE I/III? What are your hopes for AoE IV?
My first contact with AoE was when I was 8 years old, right after it was released. I used to play campaigns and 1v1s with my brother. Then, after a long gap, I was back to playing online in 2006. I guess we all stop sometimes, but we always end up coming back, because we love this game.
I’ve never played AoE 1 or 3, and I’m hyped for AoE 4 and what it can bring to our AoE community, although I don’t think it will ever replace AoE 2.

What are your biggest successes in AoE 2? In which teams have you played? What was your favourite tournament experience (not only based on winning or money)?
I’ve played for RVK, LoS, Quendi and bK. Don’t think I’ve had much success in AoE. My favorite tournament experiences are all about when I perform at a level above my skill level. Lately beating TheCode in the DMWC 4 was really an amazing experience. It was one of the sharpest performances I’ve ever had, and the feeling behind performing like that is priceless.
Even before I remember some tournaments I used to beat stronger players than me, just by being able to perform better in tournaments than in ranked games. I think this boost in performance only applies when I’m vs. an opponent I consider stronger than me though.
But those kinds of experiences are very motivating for me.
Visible Cup 4 ended with a second place for you.

• In the semifinal, you were 0:3 behind against Saymyname, but won 4:3 in the end. Were you better on the later maps? Did he have a disadvantage, because it was much past midnight for him?

He had lots of merits in making me struggle for it. He’s a known solid player and recently has been making lots of very good players have a lot of trouble dealing with him at tournaments.
I offered him to play at 11 am his time and even to go as far as a 2 am start for me, he said he prefered to play at night. So I had to wake up a little bit earlier than I was used to, and you know, we are all a bit slow when we wake up. Still I believe I was at a civ disadvantage in 4 games (perhaps I lost the draft war).
G1 – Turks vs. Indians – his civ is better on that map, but still I feel I would have a decent chance if I stopped having huge micro fails.
G2 – Khmer vs. Berbers – I think I had the advantage at some point then I just threw it away, by some bad decisions.
G3 – Huns vs. Japanese – This one he just played better.
At this point it’s 3-0 and I know almost for sure the civs he’s going to use.
G4 – Vikings vs. Ethiopians on Slopes. This one was shaky, I got very close to losing 4-0, but ended up heating the motors after this.
G5 – Lithuanians vs. Italians on Bay.
G7 – Mayans vs. Persians on Arabia.
In those games I had better civs, so I was very likely to win, since we are both similar level players.
Then it all came down to the Cross game where he had Byzantines and I had Mongols. Winning there was definitely the point I felt I would win the series.
So it looks like the civilisations were an important part in most game results. Recently almost all bigger tournaments have a civ draft where every civ can only be picked once between players. Do you think this is the best way and/or this set would have gone differently, if it just had been a draft, where both players could have had overlaps (e. g. both players could have had Vikings, Ethiopians, Mayans in their draft)?
I think there’s ways to play different matchups, and there’s not a definitive winner in each one of them. I like to see them as probabilities. Like Vikings vs. Ethiopians, I’d give let’s say 60 % to Vikings and 40 % to Ethiopians, for example (Liereyy and Viper were 1-1 in RBW playing this same matchup twice). Also, there are more % plays and less % plays that can give you a bigger chance. In Vikings vs. Ethiopians again, the Ethiopians player will always be forced to be the aggressor, given that Vikings have an important economic advantage.
Allowing free civilization pick makes sometimes players pick the same civ in the same match, making games boring and less strategical, so I really do like the draft system.
Usually a more skilled player will beat a weaker player when the civilization matchup has not a very wide percentage gap anyway, so it makes this system very interesting.

• The final went much less in your favour. Do you want to say a few words what went wrong this time?

Babaorum played a very solid tournament and he had a lot of merits on winning the finals as well as the rounds before it, so he deserved the win.
About me, I have a lot to learn in regards to playing in a way without so many ups and downs.
What is your stream link, how often do you stream and what is special about your stream?
https://www.twitch.tv/bruh_aoe
My plan is to stream almost daily. We are under-delivering a little bit for the moment though.
On my stream I try to be very analytical of the game and teach you one thing or two every stream.

Private Life​

Which country/city do you come from? Where would you like to live?
I was born in Porto Alegre, in the extreme south of Brazil. Right now I’m currently living in Florianópolis, which is the capital of Santa Catarina, one state above the one I was born in. I’m enjoying living here and I am not planning to move anytime soon. The place is surrounded by beautiful nature, is one of the best in terms of quality of living in Brazil and the people here are warm and beautiful.
The only reason that makes me question leaving is the current political drama and how poorly everything is administered in Brazil. But I don’t think I would change this place anytime soon.

I don’t want to discuss politics or Covid. But in the recent years those 2 kind of where the only things about Brazil in international news in the last 2 years, maybe sometimes about football matches. I was in Brazil in 2014, which now already is 7 years ago? How has life and life quality (independent of Covid) changed in the last years in Brazil?
Brazil has been living in a deep political crisis for the past decade or so. Most Brazilians see politics basically like football, they choose a side and root for it independently of what happens.
My perception after 2014 is that life quality didn’t get much better. In fact, after the COVID crisis it’s getting worse as we are facing inflation in the price of basic products, something which hadn’t happened since the 90’s.

What’s your favourite...
Food and drink?
I love Tapioca, which is a common food in the North of Brazil.

I do it almost every day, filled with cheese, tomatoes, and lots of seasoning. Regarding drinks, my friends use to say the I’m always drinking “Gay” drinks.
My favorite drink is Moscow Mule, but I love almost anything you can do with gin.
Animal? (And why?)
Love for my two doggos, wouldn’t change them for anything. Dogs are so warm, and they seem to always be in love with you no matter how bad you are with them sometimes. I think we all could learn a lesson or two from them. Only downside is sometimes I want to chill and they keep wanting attention, and it’s so difficult to say no to them, haha. Still, they are amazing little creatures.

Place?
Don’t think I can live in a better place than where I’m living right now. So Florianópolis.
Colour?
Green in game. Black in life.
Movie, actor and book?
My favorite movie is Before the Sunrise.
My favorite actor is Di Caprio.
My favorite book is Ham on Rye from Bukowski.
Musician/band and song (can be multiple)?
Out of the top of my head probably the top 3 bands/musicians I’ve listened to in my life are Nirvana, Eminem and Avril Lavigne.
Athlete/sports team?
Ronaldinho Gaúcho was my favorite soccer player ever, by the happiness he could make all of us feel every time he stepped onto the field. I only watch soccer and root for Grêmio.

What do you like to cook the most (and best) and how often do you cook it?
Wouldn’t change my tapiocas and crepiocas of every day for nothing. I cook it almost daily and I never get tired of it.

What would you put on top of a pizza?
I like pepperoni pizza, i’m pretty simple in that regard, lol.

Which languages can you speak and which would you like to learn?
I can speak Portuguese and English fluently, and like most Brazilians I can speak broken Spanish. I’d like to maybe learn French because it sounds very cool, but i’d prolly only be motivated to learn some language I would actually make use of.

Which countries have you visited and where would you like to go? Why?
I’ve never left Brazil, would love to travel to many places in South America, like Patagonia, Machu Picchu and many others. Well, I’m a n00b when it comes to travelling. It’s something I would love to do more but I feel the right time hasn’t come yet. So, when I’m ready, mentally and especially financially, I’ll do my research.
Which places did you go to and like in Brazil? I would love to go back, because I enjoyed nature and food a lot when I was there; and although I already saw a lot (including Amazon Rainforest, Pantanal, cerrado/mountains in Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul with Atlantic Rainforest/araucaria forest, Ilha do Mel, Curitiba, São Paulo), I would definitely like to see some more places.
I’m a gamer, I barely leave my house. I was born in Rio Grande do Sul and I live in Florianopolis now. Other than that I have been in Rio de Janeiro a couple times. Really enjoyed being in Rio and would love to see other places. Hope I’ll have the opportunity soon.

When do you usually go to sleep?
Are we supposed to sleep? HAHA!
I’m always struggling with my sleep schedule. I usually sleep whenever my monkey brain allows me to.
I wish I could be more flexible. When I was in the last 3 years of school, it was common to do homework multiple nights per week until 2-3-4 am and then get up at 6 am again, but later I became worried about negative health impacts, so I almost never go to sleep after ~1 am and if I can’t sleep ~6 hours, I get a headache. Just too many necessary and interesting things to do to sleep a lot, so I wish it could be healthy with 3-4 h of sleep per night.
Same, lately I’ve managed to regulate my sleep. Hopefully it will last. Working from home makes it extra difficult

More AoE-related questions:​

Who would you like to meet once, who you have not met? One AoE player and one other person.
I have met dozens of amazing people over the years in Age of Empires, and there’s probably a lot of them I would love to meet. I think the one experience I would most like to have is a QuEnDi/DM players meeting. After so many years chatting on the internet with those guys I’m sure we would have an amazing time together.

Do you have an AoE idol?
It would be heresy not to say DauT. He’s a legend both in personality and performance for more than 20 years now. Definitely a guy that helped to make this community survive for so long, and helps many people fall in love with the game even more.
Still some honorable mention for some guys with distinct play styles that were very fun to watch, like RiuT with the micro, IORI with the forward and the list could still go on.

What is your favourite civilisation, map and unit?
My favorite civilization are the Huns, cause they are so dynamic, mobile and strong. My favorite map used to be Megarandom, but the current version I dislike. Used to love Full Random as well as UltraRandom, maps we don’t get to play anymore. So my favorite maps of lately are the Hidden Cup maps, like Cross (having less fish on the lakes make the game way more aggressive than on Four Lakes, Bay, and High Tides.

What is your favourite in-game sound?
Nothing better than a pack of Mangudai machine-gun shooting.

Which addition to AoE II: DE (compared to Voobly/HD versions) do you like the most and the least?
Less lag, and matchmaking way into getting fast games are pretty cool.
The map pool system is the one I hate the most since we barely get to play maps we really like, especially when they are not in rotation. Also, some maps just fell into oblivion like Full Random. Also, I’m still dissatisfied with how water games play out with the current fire ship meta.
Not having the save and exit possibility, and the restore system being a fail are disappointing.
Also, I liked that on Voobly you could see everyone who was online in the lobby and simply chat with whoever you felt like. It used to make interaction much easier.
Guess it is way easier to find things to be sad than things to be grateful for, although I’m enjoying the DE experience a lot.
I fully agree on your second-to last point. Flaws with ranking and map pool are there and could potentially be fixed, but the community feeling and random chatting in lobbies, just asking someone for advice or a game in the same client is lost and I don’t see it coming to DE ever.

What kind of tournament would you like to participate in that did not exist ever or not for a long time (3+ years)?
Master of Full Random, Feudal fire ships banned.

Make a ranking of the 10 best current Brazilian players based on RM 1v1 skills.
Thanks for throwing me into the fire.
Dogao
Bruh
Miguel
F1re
Stark
RiuT
Goku
Alive
FeAge
Martinhs

The real question here is between me, Miguel and F1re. I placed myself higher here because of the Visible Cup performance which was the last tournament the 3 of us competed in. Still in a match between us, any player could take the win, so even that we are.

Fortunately, this question might be better answered in October, since we are having a major Brazilian tournament organized by Obathegreatt with a U$1000 prize pool.
Hopefully all the players will be able to participate and we will have a healthy dispute for the Brazilian throne .
Good to hear that. I have checked his stream a few times already and I quite like him as a caster: https://www.twitch.tv/obathegreatt.

If we had 4v4 Nations Cup again in 2022, who do you think would be in the A team and B team? Would it still rather be based on friendship, or do you think the top 5-6 (based on 1v1 skills) who are available would just be the A team?
Our Brazilian experts are pretty complicated, it will probably be based on friendship. The thing is, we are all friends, but there’s always something happening close to tournaments that makes the top players split into separate teams. Haha.
I think we are just too dramatic to make a super-strong team to compete. Still, Brazil won the last NC even though the best players were splitting, so I guess it’s not too bad that we play with our closest mates.
Nowadays, RiuT and FeAge being pretty inactive, Alive being Alive and everything, I don’t really know how teams would be, I would bet on 2 balanced and strong teams.

Which 4-5 players would you like to form a team? (can include inactive players)
Sitaux, Running, Kasva and BlinG (who seems to be retired now) are some of the people I’ve been practising and chatting with the most, also, Vodka and Rise seem to be really nice guys. Although I don’t talk much to the Italians, those are really cool and helpful guys when you are looking for practising

Which players would you invite for Nili’s Apartment Cup 4?
For the sake of competitiveness the best performing players at the time. I don’t see any other way around it.
If there were for example 8 spots, I’d like to see 2 to 4 qualified, and 4 to 6 invites based on recent past tourney performances.
Also, I’d like to know about it at least one month in advance.
Dunno if I got the exact point of the question though.
The answer is really up to you. Some people have 1 or 2 favourite players they want to see and usually after anywhere around rank 3-4, there are a lot of people on very close level, so if people want to invite 6 (or more), there are different ways of deciding.
I would obviously like to see myself there. But in my opinion the top 5 performing players right now are:
Liereyy
TheViper
Hera
Mr Yo
Jordan
There are like 5-6 players fighting for a spot after that given they are at a really similar level and it would be really hard choosing one.

What is the funniest thing you have experienced because of AoE II?
I remember when I was a noob and would play overnight on Brazilian servers like mIRC. So many funny people there, I remember tear up laughing for the most stupid things. I can’t really remember them specifically. One of them I can remember was when Brother_Leo lost to a TC rush from a player called Toninho (FWD_Bope_XR). Fun days in Brazil. 11 (Sorry Leo.).

About the Double Cup:​

9 months ago you won the Double Cup, while on paper before the tournament not being the favourite. Beating ACCM and then Vinchester both in the Winners Bracket Final and the Grand Final, both times convincingly. How were you able to play that dominantly?
Being a top tier DM player definitely puts my macro as one of the best in the game. Also, the maps were really fun and I enjoyed prepping some sharp plays at that time.
I guess it was a combination of my main strengths being featured in the tournament settings and preparation.

So do you think if a top DM player like for example TheCode, I2aGe or True were in Double Cup, they had good chances to go far? They all know how to play RM on a good level (don’t know their exact ratings, but maybe 1k8-2k?). Would their DM experience even out the lower RM experience/skill compared to for example ACCM, Kasva or JorDan who do really well in RM and EW?
A DMer might have enough macro to deal with the chaos of starting with multiple TCs and everything, but I still think you need solid RM decisions to be able to do well in this tournament, and in that I think they would lack.
FreakinAndy is a top DMer and 2200+ RMer, curious to see how he will do in the tourney.
I think Double Cup involves various different skills, macro being the most important in my opinion, but still there’s a giant RM component that takes place in decision making, reading the many different maps and picking the right strategy for each of them that you can’t miss when evaluating the players possibilities.

How do you like game 1 being Empire Wars in every set now?
Being very honest, I dislike it. The more developed you start in double TC games, the less room there is for you to prepare and make new different strategies work.. I think Empires Wars is a mode of gaming less rich in strategy and decision making. Sorry if I was too harsh.
The same goes for Triple TC. It’s fine to have one per round, cause it’s different, but the rate at which you develop forces players to play in a similar style, without much variation, making the game more of a battle for mechanics, a small decision than one of reading the map well and coming up with the best strategies.
Definitely not too harsh. Doing it is more experimental, so having feedback from players and viewers is good. The main pro arguments are 1) EW has become much more popular, so some players might like that and 2) starting the first game in EW makes the set start faster in general. Viewers have often said that watching Dark Age over and over again feels boring, so having the first game EW starts with action, while then having slightly slower game 2 and 3 is in balance with finishing with a potential triple map and another EW map.

What do you think about the change from random map pack games to home maps?
I like it a lot. The coolest part of tournaments is when two players think about a map and prepare something for the opponents to deal with, and then seeing who had the better idea on how to play it is very entertaining.

This time the goal with the map pool was to decrease the map amount and to include the most popular maps from last time and a few 2-tc start versions of popular maps from recent tournaments. Some people might say the map pool is too big, as recent tournaments have had much smaller map pools compared to some years ago. However, we definitely wanted to stay with the aspect to both feature the work of many different map creators and test players on every aspect of the game.
I love how rich the map pool is, and all the possibilities you can go into when preparing for a match. Really amazing work from the creators to put up such an awesome collection of the maps. Glancing at them there are very few maps I dislike, which is great for a tournament with so many.
Small things like that are still very tricky. Starting with trading donkeys on Double Bazaar War, for example, hmmm, I’m not sure of that. It makes the map seem more gimmicky in my opinion, because it makes it more luck dependent (finding and sniping enemy donkeys, finding more camels on the map to block enemy resources and forces him into wasting his limited APM in dealing with that, etc). Will still have to take a look at other ones to see if they have stuff like that.
Sorry if I was too harsh again. Think I am not very good in toning down my opinions when asked and it might sound like I’m hating the tournament. Still love the settings and the work you guys put into making it possible. <3

No problem. I see that the donkeys are unusual, but if a player has read the map description and played the map once, I personally don’t think it is too confusing anymore. One thing I noticed though after watching multiple games on the map: If the market placement could be more balanced, that would remove some luck. Because if you have both markets in the back, that is a big advantage, because you can’t let the donkeys just walk through the tc.
Yeah, I agree with that. Some players can sometimes trade easily while others can’t.

Your next opponent will be TaToH, who is very creative, one of the best RM players as well as a top DM player. He was not in the Double Cup last year, so he might be the least predictable player of the Ro8 players. How do you see your chances against him? And if you win, you would face the winner of classicpro and most likely Vinchester. So the semifinal could be a repetition of last year’s final already. On the other side of the bracket ACCM and JorDan look like the strongest candidates. What are your predictions for the Ro8 and top 5 of the whole tournament?
If you ask me, TaToH is the favorite to win this tournament. TaToH is very creative with his plans and once he picks a strategy he really commits to it. So, yeah, I’ll have to play really sharp if I want to have a chance to advance to the next stage.
In the bottom bracket, I’d predict Jordan going to the WB finals.
My top 5 prediction would be:
TaToH
Jordan
ACCM
bruh
Vinchester

Thank you for the interview and good luck in your upcoming matches!

 

[iViktorius]

Make a ranking of the 10 best current Brazilian players based on RM 1v1 skills.
Thanks for throwing me into the fire.
Dogao
Bruh
Miguel
F1re
Stark
RiuT
Goku
Alive
FeAge
Martinhs

11

You got the no 1 correct though, thats all that matters

 

[Breakfast]

Before Sunrise is such an excellent movie. Possibly the best choice I've seen in any of these interviews!

 

[Clemensor]

QuEnDi/DM players meeting

That would be so awesome indeed. Hopefully one time.

 

[Running]

Great interview. This interview series is truly the biggest treasure of aoezone.

 

[Ayase_Chihaya]

Great interview. Often in interviews it feels that the interviewee doesn't want to be there, gives super short answers... Here we actually got to know him a bit