Yo gave Hera the fight we wanted

The year of 2023 has taught us all one thing. Hera sits heavily on the throne of Age of Empires 2, and he is here to stay. While TheViper did not look to great doing NAC5, another player raised above the ashes: Mr_Yo.

He have been a part of the professional AoE2-scene for years and years, and have been seen worthy as a top4 player for ages. This continuous in 2024, where he was simply the best of the rest.

Many hoped to see the chinese legend beat Hera of his throne, but it was not at NAC5 that this would happen. Though did give Hera a fight worth remembering.

Game 1: Arena, Turks (Hera) vs Portuguese (Mr_Yo): 1-0

In the first game Mr_Yo tried out a castledrop on Heras face. He did get it up, and he could begin the production of those crazy damage outputting Organ Guns. Unfortunately for Yo, Heras defence was just good enough to hold, while going up to Imperial Age. From here Hera could go full cruise control, with bombard canons to make the castles fall again. Yo’s economy was not looking to well at this point, where a close match did come to an end. Nice try, though.

Game 2: Shoals, Lithuanians (Hera) vs Saracens (Mr_Yo): 1-1

Shoals is known to be a map for the strategians, and this was proven to be right, once again. Mr_Yo is not fastest player, but his knowledge about the games mechanics and his fantastic sense of strategy, is working well for him on Shoals. He started off by winning water comfortable, from where he could slowly get to Imp, and finish off the game from here. 1-1.

Game 3: Hippopotamus, Mongols (Hera) vs Romans (Mr_Yo): 1-2

Mr_Yo was fast to send two annoying villagers into Heras woodline, which ended up with two dead villagers from Hera. What a brilliant strategy, where the bases are so close up at each other. The two dead villagers from Hera was game changing. Now he was behind, and lost water in Castle Age, from where had to raise the white flag and surrender.

Game 4: Copenhagen, Bengalis (Hera) vs Malay (Mr_Yo): 2-2

Now it was looking very good for Yo, who was up 2-1 against the all mighty Hera. Fourth game, Heras second homemap. Copenhagen. Many might remember this map from the qualifiers, when MBL lost his king in the dicider.
In this matchup the players was more prepared.
Mr_Yo won the big sea very fast, which gave Hera the opportunity to think differently. He had fish in the small pond, which could provide him with all the food he needed. And food he needed. He ended up going Bengalis elephant archers, whom are just so strong and hard to kill, once getting massed. With light cavs to kill off the skirms, he could easily take this to game 5.

Game 5: Northern Crossings, Koreans (Hera) vs Byzantines (Mr_Yo): 3-2

In Nothern Crossings, Hera fastly won warter, and with a landing, from where Hera could make archers, Mr_Yo had to give up. After seeing those Korean Towers surround his base, it was it.

Game 6: African Reed Beds, Berbers (Hera) vs Dravidians (Mr_Yo): 4-2

Mr_Yo tried his best here with faster throwing skirms attacing Hera early. Hera is just so good defending, that it was impossible to manage from Yo. Hera trapped Yo’s MaA’s and killed all his fish. Mr_Yo tried to go all-in Feudal with alot of Men at Arms, with archers behind. A good attemp, but Yo had already lost so much, and Hera was up. With knights Hera could easily finish off the 6th game.

Game 7: Llanganati, Spanish (Hera) vs Burmese (Mr_Yo): 5-2

Now it was it. Mr_Yo HAD to win the rest of the games to win NAC5. Unfortunatly for him, Hera had other plans. Yo started well and won the little pond in the center of the map. Yo came to Castle 1,30 minutes before Hera, which gave him a perfect standground for the Castle-play. No damage was taken, though, and Hera got up to Castle Age, and dropped a safe castle in his own base. Now the Conquistadors was on the field, and with mangonels backing them up, there was nothing stopping Hera from winning NAC5.

Mr_Yo showed up to play, and played well in allmost every game. Unfortunatly for him, Hera is just so good at the moment, that he seems very hard to stop in future tournaments.

You can watch the whole game right here:

You can rewatch the semifinal between Hera and TheViper here, and TaToH vs Mr_Yo here.