After 3 quick series' on todays plate, we are looking forward to the final set of the day. 2 legends of the game are facing each other for the option to instantly qualify for the semifinals, securing another $5.000 prizepool money as well as a free day to prepare.

Stonefront

Yo opens with extremely wide-range walls, countering potential early aggression. Hera still tries some early aggression and also goes for a really early castle age push including eco updates. Yo forgot to click up for castle age during the push.

Hera keeps the pressure up and with a triple town center boom behind, Hera slowly masses an economic advantage of 15 villagers after just 12 minutes. Yo knew he had to try something different and tried to counter push and get rid of Heras mangonels. Yo is still only on a single town center, so he definitely needed that little push to stay in the game.

Hera tried the offensive castle push against Yo's third town center which rendered it useless. While Yo originally had the better army, the eco difference of 30 villagers slowly shows. Castle after Castle he pushes Yo back into his own base, without him managing to deal proper damage against him. Hera trabsitions into imperial age in minute 27 with Yo being nowhere close. After the initial confrontation, Yo did not have any chance of coming back. GG after Imperial Age, 1-0 for Viper.

Loch Ness

After an initial push of Yo killing 3 villagers, he walled of the middle to prevent Hera from countering. Both players are going into castle age extremely early around 5 minutes. By going all around the map with crossbows, hera got another 4 villagers and forced Yo into a defensive tower.

Yo transitioned into cavalary archers, now driving the aggression towards Heras base, especially taking control over his gold without any instant answer. Yo keeps up with gthe aggression, turning the eco k/d in a whopping 20 to 4.

Aggressive castle by Yo which was denied by Hera, he's bringing in over additional villagers. Both players having all their units and villagers to fight and Hera calls the GG. 1-1, great game by Yo.

Dorothea Quarry

Yo opens up with double stable and bloodlines, while Hera goes for an extremely defensive approach with wide walls. Yo tried to find an oppening but got quickwalled by Hera, losing all of his 11 scouts in return for 5 villager kills. Economy of Hera was thrown back.

After that initial aggression, Hera went towards fast castle age and Yo also kept up. This time, Hera is the one massing the cavalary archers. Both players aiming for CA, but Hera has reached the massed number of 25, basically decimating any number of units Yo brings up. He is now upping the speed, rushing towards Yo's base who was required to defensively tower his base.

50/27 K/D for Hera. His micro looks amazing today. Both players keep raiding each other, evening out eco damage between both of them. 22 minutes, Imperial Age nowhere in sight.

Hera is slowly cleaning up Yo's upper town center, but both players still completely even from an economic and update perspective. Yo tried to go for a defensive castle around that town center, and both players are fighting a crazy fight around that castle. Unfortunately, the castle did not get up and Hera managed to deny it. Minute 33, both still in castle age and Hera slowly pushing Yo out of his own base.

With triple town centers built, Hera is now aiming towards imperial age and a 20 villager eco lead. Yo on the other hand took complete control over the water. Minute 39 and hera is the first one who transitions into Imperial Age. Yo is slightly behind him. Remember: At 1:15, the game is automatically decided by score.

Hera goes into the extreme aggression after getting heavy cavalary archers and turning up the speed, but Yo counter raids one of his opponents side-bases. The game at this point is essentially at a stalemate, both utilizing trebuchets to slowly push forward, but no closer winner. We are approach minute 55. We are in full post-imperial age.

Another failed castle by Yo gives Hera the opportunity to push a bit further now. Hera is slowly gaining a point advantage of 2000 now, paving the way for a potential time limit win in 15 minutes, both players constantly raiding each other. Yo is pushing forward with 4 trebuchets now and both players adding additional castles. Yo is raiding at the same time while he tries to push against his castles, but Hera is completely focusing on army now, 80 vs. 80 military. 10 minutes left before time limit hits. Hera extends his score by another 1000, with now a total of 3k score advantage.

Yo got caught off guard, with a majority of his army, leading to another additional score lead from Yo. The score is getting closer, only 1500 score difference 1 minute before ending it. This is the first time a map has ended on time limit this tournament with only a 1000 score difference. This means he qualified for the semifinals.

Stonedrift

After an extremely long last game, Hera is now upping the speed. An early 3 MAA rush with a transport ship opens up opportunities for him on Yo's island. However, Vikings are known to be a perfect civilization for this map. Yo went for a fast castle which does not do to much for him at the start as he was missing ressources due to Heras push.

He slowly managed to transition towards enough wood to be able to push out longboats. Vikings have an extremely good economy, and a massed amount of longboats almost beats any other navy. Yo managed to snipe a monk and tries to counter villagers on his island, but Hera quickwalled fast enough. A longsword monk combination is now taking the fight from the water towards his island. At the same time Hera is slowly transitioning into water and going for an all-in, only single town center from Hera. Multiple quickwalls of Yo have failed, Hera slowly taking control over the situation and pushing Yo onto a single side of his island.

Yo lost complete control at water and built up his triple town center as well and Yo is basically only on 2, as he has to constantly repairs his 3rd TC. Hera has a 40-10 military lead. Hera is now diving the town centers with those masses, moving into his base, essentially rendering his eco useless and Yo calls the GG! Hera taking the match 3-1, going straight to the semifinals.