With the biggest prize pool for a 1v1 event in almost twenty years, Hidden Cup 3, organized by T90Official, will feature 16 of the best players in the game. Eight of these spots are reserved – Hera, Liereyy, MbL, TaToH, TheMax, TheViper, Vivi and Yo. The other eight will be awarded to players who will emerge from an incredibly high-level single elimination qualification bracket. The matches will start on Monday and with the brackets now published, let’s review them!
The bracket is a 32-player event with two rounds of matches, played in Bo5 and Bo7 format. Every player who wins two rounds is in, so we can look at it as 8 cells of 4 players fighting for the spots.
You can find the brackets here.
Bracket 1
Nicov is in splendid shape – probably close to his level of early 2016 when he was arguably second only to TheViper – reaching 2k on DE in second position and maintaining his spot in the top 5. While he lost to Viper in both previous editions of Hidden Cup, I would not be surprised if he not only qualified easily, but also went far in the final bracket of HC3.
Bracket 2
However, considering the recent results of both players, I am not sure this match will be as close as the seeding suggests. LaaaaN became the first player to qualify to Nili’s Apartment Cup 3 after successively beating F1Re and Villese, and while he did not perform as well as he would have wanted during the lan event, definitely showed his prowess there. Vinchester, on the other hand, lost in the Fair Civs Cup against Sitaux in a match where he was heavily favorite. I am looking forward to this match, but my guess is that LaaaaN will qualify for HC3 relatively smoothly.
Bracket 3
F1Re’s first round opponent is the Italian revenant Vodka_L who pulled an upset of Cloud in NAC3 qualifiers. On the other end of the bracket, Barles faces slam in what promises to be the most exciting first round match of the qualifying event. A fan favorite, slam is not playing as much as his counterparts, but can take anyone on any day. His track record with 1v1 events is not as shiny as his incredible skillset would suggest but he is a force to be reckoned with. This bracket is incredibly open: considering slam's inactivity, F1Re should be favorite to take the spot, but all four of these guys have a real shot.
Bracket 4
On the other side, PROject_Belgium faces a dangerous opponent in the unpredictable Rubenstock. Both players had strong showings in FCC, with Belgium easily dispatching saymyname and Rubenstock going the distance against TaToH. Their clash should be one of the most exciting matches of the first round. I expect Villese to pull through as he seems a much more solid and experienced player than the other three.
Bracket 5
Old Chinese legend Tim takes on Dutch new blood AngelinaJolie on the other side of the bracket for another exciting match. While DauT should definitely have the upper hand over Hoang, I would expect a DauT-Tim match to offer another dose of thrilling excitement as these two veterans fight for a spot in the main event.
Bracket 6
The other match is another mouthwatering first-round clash, between legends of the game, Lyx and Zuppi. A couple years ago, Lyx was close to be a top 10 player, but fell slightly behind recently. He is still fully capable of taking out anyone, as he proved during KotD 2 where he eliminated BacT and TheMax. His match against Zuppi could go either way, and BacT, while he should defeat Fengxin, should be extremely wary in his second round, as both Lyx and Zuppi could pull an upset.
Bracket 7
Nili is attempting to qualify for Hidden Cup, and faces a player he could take, in the first round, in the person of KASVA. While this should be a good first-round match, I don’t expect the winner to stand a realistic chance against dogao in the qualifying set.
Bracket 8
Perhaps surprisingly, saymyname was upset by PROject_Belgium in the first round of FCC, which does not bode well for his chances in HC3. Facing Chilean star Noisick in his opening match, he should be the favorite, but how the match turns out will be a good indicator of his shape coming into the “high stakes” second round, where an exciting all-Vietnamese clash is to be expected.
What strikes me is how impressive the bracket is, with the lowest rated players, Inc and Ganji, having hit 2k-2k1 on Voobly and pretty much everyone else 2k3 or higher. There will not be a single “no-match”, and even the top seeds will need to be playing their best from the first round to take those valuable qualifying spots.
Prediction Contest
With all that in mind, here are my guesses for the 8 qualifiers:
Nicov
LaaaaaN
slam
Villese
DauT
Lyx
dogao
ACCM
Who do you think will qualify? Post below!
The bracket is a 32-player event with two rounds of matches, played in Bo5 and Bo7 format. Every player who wins two rounds is in, so we can look at it as 8 cells of 4 players fighting for the spots.
You can find the brackets here.
Bracket 1
- Nicov
- Inc
- St4rk
- Daniel
Nicov is in splendid shape – probably close to his level of early 2016 when he was arguably second only to TheViper – reaching 2k on DE in second position and maintaining his spot in the top 5. While he lost to Viper in both previous editions of Hidden Cup, I would not be surprised if he not only qualified easily, but also went far in the final bracket of HC3.
Bracket 2
- LaaaaaN aka Antagonist
- gkt_cloud
- Vinchester
- Fedex
However, considering the recent results of both players, I am not sure this match will be as close as the seeding suggests. LaaaaN became the first player to qualify to Nili’s Apartment Cup 3 after successively beating F1Re and Villese, and while he did not perform as well as he would have wanted during the lan event, definitely showed his prowess there. Vinchester, on the other hand, lost in the Fair Civs Cup against Sitaux in a match where he was heavily favorite. I am looking forward to this match, but my guess is that LaaaaN will qualify for HC3 relatively smoothly.
Bracket 3
- F1Re
- Vodka_L
- Barles
- slam
F1Re’s first round opponent is the Italian revenant Vodka_L who pulled an upset of Cloud in NAC3 qualifiers. On the other end of the bracket, Barles faces slam in what promises to be the most exciting first round match of the qualifying event. A fan favorite, slam is not playing as much as his counterparts, but can take anyone on any day. His track record with 1v1 events is not as shiny as his incredible skillset would suggest but he is a force to be reckoned with. This bracket is incredibly open: considering slam's inactivity, F1Re should be favorite to take the spot, but all four of these guys have a real shot.
Bracket 4
- Villese
- Sitaux
- PROject_Belgium
- Rubenstock
On the other side, PROject_Belgium faces a dangerous opponent in the unpredictable Rubenstock. Both players had strong showings in FCC, with Belgium easily dispatching saymyname and Rubenstock going the distance against TaToH. Their clash should be one of the most exciting matches of the first round. I expect Villese to pull through as he seems a much more solid and experienced player than the other three.
Bracket 5
- DauT
- Hoang
- Tim
- AngelinaJolie
Old Chinese legend Tim takes on Dutch new blood AngelinaJolie on the other side of the bracket for another exciting match. While DauT should definitely have the upper hand over Hoang, I would expect a DauT-Tim match to offer another dose of thrilling excitement as these two veterans fight for a spot in the main event.
Bracket 6
- BacT
- Fengxin aka Paladin
- Lyx
- Zuppi
The other match is another mouthwatering first-round clash, between legends of the game, Lyx and Zuppi. A couple years ago, Lyx was close to be a top 10 player, but fell slightly behind recently. He is still fully capable of taking out anyone, as he proved during KotD 2 where he eliminated BacT and TheMax. His match against Zuppi could go either way, and BacT, while he should defeat Fengxin, should be extremely wary in his second round, as both Lyx and Zuppi could pull an upset.
Bracket 7
- dogao
- Ganji
- KASVA
- Nili
Nili is attempting to qualify for Hidden Cup, and faces a player he could take, in the first round, in the person of KASVA. While this should be a good first-round match, I don’t expect the winner to stand a realistic chance against dogao in the qualifying set.
Bracket 8
- ACCM
- jibatong
- saymyname
- Noisick
Perhaps surprisingly, saymyname was upset by PROject_Belgium in the first round of FCC, which does not bode well for his chances in HC3. Facing Chilean star Noisick in his opening match, he should be the favorite, but how the match turns out will be a good indicator of his shape coming into the “high stakes” second round, where an exciting all-Vietnamese clash is to be expected.
What strikes me is how impressive the bracket is, with the lowest rated players, Inc and Ganji, having hit 2k-2k1 on Voobly and pretty much everyone else 2k3 or higher. There will not be a single “no-match”, and even the top seeds will need to be playing their best from the first round to take those valuable qualifying spots.
Prediction Contest
With all that in mind, here are my guesses for the 8 qualifiers:
Nicov
LaaaaaN
slam
Villese
DauT
Lyx
dogao
ACCM
Who do you think will qualify? Post below!
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