The messy style, siege workshops, extra spears, sq usage, not re-seeded farms, extremely good arabia play...What is the basis of William the Conqueror being MbL? By the amount of pauses I was leaning towards BacT, and he too uses towers quite a bit.
Mangonel micro was a big one. Also how he moved units together (for example pikes and mangonels together instead of separately so pikes can move faster), generally love to pikes and skirmishers. BBT and Towers also very mbl style. Basically everything fits to him and honestly, compared to BacT, all respect to him, but I wouldn't expect BacT perform that well.What is the basis of William the Conqueror being MbL? By the amount of pauses I was leaning towards BacT, and he too uses towers quite a bit.
Oh yeah, this one is maybe the most telling detail. Mbl is the only pro that never uses auto-reseeding even in the late game.The messy style, siege workshops, extra spears, sq usage, not re-seeded farms, extremely good arabia play...
Question after that is, whether ACCM actually superceded BacT in shape so clearly. Tbh I am amazed at ACCM and Antagonist performance no matter if I am correct on both.Mangonel micro was a big one. Also how he moved units together (for example pikes and mangonels together instead of separately so pikes can move faster), generally love to pikes and skirmishers. BBT and Towers also very mbl style. Basically everything fits to him and honestly, compared to BacT, all respect to him, but I wouldn't expect BacT perform that well.
These are my guesses so far, Im certainly not sure of many of them, I didnt watch all games/series, so some are just guesses based on eliminating other players. But I just think its fun to speculate and would be fun if I turn out to be right and I want the bragging rights :P
King Sancho - hera
Charlemagne - laan
Joan the Maid - themax
Bad Neighbour - nicov
Princess Yodit - daut
Leif Ericsson - fire
Kotyan Khan - lierey
Sheriff of Nottingham - villese
Friar Tuck -accm
Saladin - viper
Vlad Dracula - vivi
Alaric the Goth - mr yo
Henry the Lion - bact
William the Conqueror - mbl
Charles Martel - dogao
Emperor in a Barrel - tatoh
It's also not unheard that Viper looks vulnerable in earlier rounds in tournaments. There also might be a case that he saved his best tools for the semis and especially for the finals which is live so after players have seen the earlier round games. Viper is the only player who can afford to do that.Viper is Saladin. The elite War Elephants in his very first game of the tournament were a bit of a troll/meme move. It was the very first game against an unknown opponent, and I don't think Tatoh would have risked being knocked out first round of HC again. Making such a huge investment into "elite" war elephants against Mayans who can easily take a game back with eagles indicates a high degree of confidence and control.
After some thought, I have changed some of my picks and tried to come with more explanations instead of being so lazy to add more to the discussion.
King Sancho - hera
sancho seems like a very strong player, Im doing a risky pick here to say hera is out of the tournament considering hes been finalst in last few events, but my guess is sancho is hera.
Charlemagne - laan
Joan the Maid - tatoh
I had themax here, but I believe I was wrong, this really seems like tatoh to me.
Bad Neighbour - dogao
bad neighbour played an amazing opening game on arabia, but lost on other maps. I thought he lost vs themax on mixed maps but I realize now it seems to be tatoh who beat dogao.
Princess Yodit - daut
This is one of my picks im most certain of
Leif Ericsson - fire
I believe fire lost vs daut and won his islands pick
Kotyan Khan - lierey
Some think this is hera, but I am pretty sure this is an in shape larry whos playing pretty strong
Sheriff of Nottingham - villese
Im guessing here based on my other picks
Friar Tuck -accm
Im not sure but my guess here is accm. That tc on hideout was really confusing to me, the tower def and so on smells old school vietnam player lol
Saladin - viper
I believe this is viper
Vlad Dracula - vivi
This playstyle seems like vivi to me, similar to mr yo but I believe he lost vs his fellow countryman
Alaric the Goth - mr yo
I was thinking of who has the skills to take a game from viper, I believe this is mr yo
Henry the Lion - bact
this is based on other picks but my guess is bact
William the Conqueror - mbl
This just screams mbl all over
Charles Martel - themax
Im really not sure about this pick, but based on my other picks my guess is themax here i guess, lol
Emperor in a Barrel - nicov
This has to be a very strong player, someone who has the strength to beat mbl in a bo5. Nicov seems to have been strong lately, this could be nicov. I used to think this was tatoh but after thinking more Im pretty sure joan is tatoh, so im gonna guess nicov.
Didn't watch everything but this seems the best guess. I have some doubts about who is Emperor and Saladin. Probably Viper was Sancho and TheMax was just amazing on his strategic plans. It's hard to be brave enough to say Viper lost in quarter final, so i still believe Saladin can probably be Viper if that isn't TatohThese are the ones I'm fairly certain of at the moment, in no particular order:
King Sancho - Viper: The play in the first set, especially the first game, was just so characteristic of him. I can't really see this being anyone else.
Kotyan Khan - Hera: The obvious pick really... His strats have matched the other AM players, just with slightly better execution.
Bad Neighbor - Liereyy - Bad Neighbor was a very fast player, easily top 3 in the event, and definitely a micro nerd with a lot of confidence - who else would sit a bunch of arbs/skirms right next to a siege workshop with a flag? He also played like the other AM players; it'd also be rather typical of Liereyy to forget eco upgrades because he was too focused on the micro (and most of the other AM players apparently, given that, if my guesses are right, this happened to all of them in at least one game). Kotyan could be Liereyy in top form, and Bad Neighbor could have been Hera on a sort of off day, but that seems less likely.
William the Conqueror - MBL
Emperor in a Barrel - Nicov
Joan the Maid - TheMax
Princess Yodit - Villese
Saladin - Tatoh
Alaric the Goth - Yo
Leif Erikson - F1re
For the rest, which I'm not as sure about, from most to least confident picks:
Friar Tuck - ACCM. The cumans pick in the last game and the Khmer pick on another map makes me think it's a Vietnamese player.
Henry the Lion - Vivi. The yolo forwards were rather characteristic. Banned a new map and Khmer. I just don't think any other players really fit for Henry's play.
Charles Martel - Dogao. The play and civ picks match what he did in the qualifiers. Meso/american civ, Japanese on cup, and Slavs on gold rush.
Sherriff of Nottingham - Daut is my first choice because of the Vikings Arabia pick, which he did in the qualifiers/showmatch; if not for that, I would have thought Dogao, but Dogao seems to always pick Aztecs or Mayans on Arabia if he has the choice. The play was also typical Daut with poor micro, but fantastic macro and generally solid play. Daut has the rep for "Daut castles" but he actually fails castles less than most of the other players.
Charlemagne - LaAntagonist? Nothing in the set was a huge tell.
Dracula - BacT? The Khmer pick on a map where most players wouldn't pick it, especially with hideout as one of the opponent's home maps, makes me think it could be a Vietnamese player. The problem with this being BacT is the Islands ban. BacT seemed pretty confident in his water play in the qualifiers. So this could easily have been Laan, and Charlemagne could be BacT.
If I'm right, Max will have knocked out Viper and Liereyy in his first two matches, which is insane.
I think Kotyan/Hera wins the tournament, unless he gets some bad maps vs Joan the Maid/TheMax; with the finals being vs Nicov/Emperor in a Barrel (Taking out MBL/William was super impressive, and I think Saladin/Tatoh would have almost certainly lost that set based on the play so far). The top of the bracket was stacked with what appears to be all of the favorites, and after he's already seen the strats of Joan/Yodit/TheMax/Villese, I don't think he's going to lose the set. He's also a bit more aggressive than Sancho was, and I think if Sancho was a bit more aggressive trying to push Joan off his stone/gold in the Cup Game, he might have won the set. There was a point where I'm certain he had enough knights to clean up the forward, and without that forward, I think Joan loses that game.
Tatoh/Saladin seems to be in great form, but he doesn't play at all like Viper in tournament mode, and I think the AM players just look a bit stronger; of those in the semis, he seems to have had the easiest bracket. Most of Saladin's games were pretty close as well, so despite having the least losses in the tournament, he looks like the weakest of the remaining players.
I would put down quite a lot of money that Saladin is Viper. Not because of the strategies but because of the small things. For me, the telltale things to figure out who's who are most visible in early game - how are players scouting, what they are doing with sheep, how the collect ressources, how they position buildings, what they do in general with vills (e.g. garrison/ungarrison).
And Saladin definitely shouts Viper in those categories which also fits together with all the rest (reading the game excepetionally well, planning ahead, knowing when to trade unit value etc.)
I wouldn't read too much into civ ban, home map picks or colours because well, that's easy to fake (or train).
Viper is considered (one of) the best water player(s).Would viper lose on Island tho?
Viper is considered (one of) the best water player(s).
Well after g1 of final is easy to say Viper is Viper
Well after g1 of final is easy to say Viper is Viper