People who wouldn't know Hera would think he's arrogant, but he's being really humble, while so much ahead of the field in elo and most tournaments. He really deserves to give himself the gold medal and a pat on the back. Congrats Hera!
Great list Hera. I would like to have seen an honorable mention part of the list at the end where you list out a handful of players who maybe came close to the top 10 or at least crossed your mind when you were thinking about this video.
@@andresperedo1275 Yea, that's fair I guess. If people don't follow every tournament though, they might not be as up to date on who those people are and their tournament results.
Great list, the top 3 really just feel very clear at least from my perspective. 2 and 3 could be swapped as you mentioned, it all comes down to small things between them on the day. The scene feels so healthy with so many young talents, including yourself, coming in and showing up. Love to see it as a long term fan. Congrats with all your success both on and off of RUclips, hope you luck into some A tier victories this year!
How about a tournament where the players have to pick one single civilization for the whole set? That way we'll get to see some weird civs on different maps we don't usually see.
In terms of best player, i am pretty sure Lierrey has the highest natural talent, he just seems to be occupied with school. Like the amount that other top 10 players play, should make it so they never lose to him, but hes actually putting up great results
Also if u consider the fact that he played ranked the LEAST, his rise is even more impressive. Lierrey is a player who plays great with very little prep / experience.
@@taowroland8697 Well Viper and Hera also have full time job. Just happens to be Aoe2 content creating. Playing lot for streams can be double edge sword. You can get burned out. Depends on personality I guess.
it's not a given that an X amount of more effort on Lierry's side will lead to better gameplay. The parts where he struggles are actually very hard to learn by just practicing a lot, namely his late game strategy/macro and generally his transition from a castle age lead into an imperial age setup. In the past his go to was X bow into faster imp Arb then just wreck through the base right through the middle. But given the meta shifts that doesnt work anymore. Perfect case in point was the Liths (Hera) vs Persians (Lierry) match in the finals.
Aoe2 pro scene is very classy and respectful. I've always appreciated Viper speaking well of the other players when he the undisputed #1 and I'm glad you have a similar attitude
What a year for Hera, wp! Also Viper had solid results as a dad. That's not to be underestimated! I'm also glad Liereyy got back in shape ❤ Have a great 2025 all together!
3:33 You said only 6 players have won an S-Tier tournament in Aoe2De. If Death Match World Cup and FreakinAndy doesn't count, aren't there still 7 players? Daut won RBW III.
From my perspective, even though I have only watched a few years, I always pictured the top 5 as on a different level. Basically the “no surprise here” winners. This is mostly because I started watching around when Lierry was first getting bigger results. However, I LOVED watching ACCM this year. I remember him basically defining the meta in some tournaments but being out-executed as the tourney went on. I think he learned to maybe hide strats a bit in WWC and he ended up winning. I think he’s setting up to make it a Top 6 instead of a Top 5.
hera you understand marketing and yt business and lift the scene so hard, we need an endboss to keep moving, before ranting i just want to say hera makes the "others" (even a good viper/larry oida) feel like childs wanting to play with their pro uncle. lets make aoe2 the n1 rst. hera has the drive to do a lot for the scene. stay humble
I am really excited what Sitaux & Nicov can bring to the table. I am sad that Villese has dropped out in form lately. But if you think of Sebastian - I think everyone on this list is a deserving olayer
Congrats for the content Hera, you really make this game way more interesting for beginner players. Before watching your videos, I could not even know there is so much to it. Good luck ahead of you!
I am not following pro scene for years, but Daut still being in top 10 and rising? Damn, praise the Lord. Just little sad MBL is not there, few years back he was one of top players in Vipers era.
MBL is better than he's ever been, he's just a sloppy player and the rest of the scene is good enough to punish that now. His micro and resource awareness are both arguable for top 1 and, in fairness to him, his builds have tightened up a bit.
Hera talking about himself in third person is something that I enjoyed! 😄 Same reason why I liked "The Rock" as a wrestler 😅 Also, Hera being #1 is not even debatable at this point. So, no need to feed weird about it.
Hera is not only the most skilled AoE2 player, but is also the all-time most dominant AoE2 of player comparatively speaking to his peers. Hera is playing the best AoE2 ever seen, by a large margin - and that margin is growing faster than ever. The skill gap between Hera and the next top 2-4 players is massive. Yes, Viper has a longer history of being the top player by duration, but in terms of being unmatched in level and consistency of play, Hera is the GOAT. No one in the last 15 years of AoE2 history has outclassed their competition more than Hera does. Cheers to the Hera Era!!!
I feel like liereyys only weakness is late castle age and early imp with civs that don’t get bracer. He’s mastered the early imp with bracer civs but it feels like he doesn’t really know what to do here when his civ doesn’t get bracer.
even with bracer civs it has dropped off simply because Xbow is less viable in the current meta. Basically civs like Britons, Vikings and Ethiopians have become less viable. Lierry used to be knife slashing through the middle of a base, that strat works less well nowadays with a higher focus on mobility and map control.
Hera, great video! Im curious, in noble apartment cup, do you think if Liereyy drafted a bit better he could have won? The Goths and Cumans pick just seemed weird to me and not his playstyle.
3:06 the result could have been shown more intuitively and easier to read. Important information such as which place the player end up, is hard to read (you have to go into each tournament and see which place it is and also lower number is better performance we have to keep keeping that in mind) only circling in green. while less relevant information such as tournament being S or A tier, is popping up in our eyes. the presentation is like writing a newspaper with the title in tiny font hiding in the corner and the less-important texts are big and full of color being all over the place. You cannot read the screen in 1 sec and get the information that you wanted to convey then it is not a good presentation, this screen is showing unprocessed information as if it is a script in google doc and just brutally copy-paste everything on the screen and let the reader processes those raw information.
As always DauT is underrated, he only missed top 8 in red bull, top 6 NaC 5, top 8 warlords, top 8 hidden cup, good performance in A Tier events, he is consistent
Regardless of the video, I would like to say that there are so many “ major” tournaments and so often that it is impossible to follow or get hyped anymore. Every time I look there is a tournament match between two very famous people and I don't enjoy watching tournaments or finals anymore.
Like many of us who came back to AoE because of ZeroEmpires, Viper or T90, i think you are with your time investment in content creation just as big as an ‘ambassador’ for the game as them. 2024 was your year, congrats
How about a tournament with a set of maps where a monster lives in the resources and gobbles up villagers at random intervals and you can give gaia gold or send villagers to worship a statue of Gaia in the middle of the map in order to make the monsters appear more often in your opponents resources... Forget it that sounds dumb as hell
I gotta respect the self awareness that this does seem like a major pat on the back... But he has been making these a long time, do you just stop a series because you're winning everything? Fair play.
The only reason why Hera is the top player in 2024 because he’s the only player who won the most important tournament for us which is road to 3K. Honorable mention would be Sitaux/MBL because they gave you a really hard time to reach 3K.
Got excited to see dogao back in a tournament, as a brazilian, but talk about getting the ice bucket. Shame he is past his prime, and I hope a brazilian player start standing out again. I sadly wasn't keeping track of AoE II during RiuT's era.
That image of Hera giving the medal to Hera had me rolling 😂
12:53
Yes, and the bad photoshop to boot.
The avengers music too😂 editor deserves a raise
The overbaked bass boosting 11
11, agreed. I 100 percent laughed out loud there.
So Daut climbed from #10 2023 to #9 2024
at this pace the Lord will be coming for the #1 spot 2032
😂
He is trying
he will show everyone that age doesn't matter when he wins an S tier tourney when he's 60 years old
The Lord.
People who wouldn't know Hera would think he's arrogant, but he's being really humble, while so much ahead of the field in elo and most tournaments. He really deserves to give himself the gold medal and a pat on the back. Congrats Hera!
umble
he didnt even mention the 3K elo
@@agustinfranco0 Because it went down :(
@SenatorAri but he still made it
A person can be both and by being both he is neither one.
I absolutely enjoy The Viper. Watching him play with his commentary and comments "BAM BAM" "OH SHEEET" is just hilarious. "BABIE IS MAKING NOISES!"
Great list Hera. I would like to have seen an honorable mention part of the list at the end where you list out a handful of players who maybe came close to the top 10 or at least crossed your mind when you were thinking about this video.
I think everybody knows which players will be there: dogao, sitaux, mbl, barles, nicov...
@@andresperedo1275 Yea, that's fair I guess. If people don't follow every tournament though, they might not be as up to date on who those people are and their tournament results.
Great list, the top 3 really just feel very clear at least from my perspective. 2 and 3 could be swapped as you mentioned, it all comes down to small things between them on the day.
The scene feels so healthy with so many young talents, including yourself, coming in and showing up. Love to see it as a long term fan.
Congrats with all your success both on and off of RUclips, hope you luck into some A tier victories this year!
How about a tournament where the players have to pick one single civilization for the whole set? That way we'll get to see some weird civs on different maps we don't usually see.
I like that idea !
there already was one
they would pick bizantines or some other civ that is well-rounded.
its been done before and was very fun! a nice weekend tourney
Wouldnt that just make byzantines, saracens and chinese even more powerfull?
Did you not notice Tristan Berry I think his name is, attends everey s tier tournaments?
hmm never heard of him i wonder who he could be. 🤔
Hi, could you make a list of promising young talents to keep an eye on in 2025? Thank you very much for everything you do, Hera.
In terms of best player, i am pretty sure Lierrey has the highest natural talent, he just seems to be occupied with school. Like the amount that other top 10 players play, should make it so they never lose to him, but hes actually putting up great results
He's not in school, he has a full time job.
@@unflushablepoo8243 even more impressive then
Also if u consider the fact that he played ranked the LEAST, his rise is even more impressive. Lierrey is a player who plays great with very little prep / experience.
@@taowroland8697 Well Viper and Hera also have full time job. Just happens to be Aoe2 content creating. Playing lot for streams can be double edge sword. You can get burned out. Depends on personality I guess.
it's not a given that an X amount of more effort on Lierry's side will lead to better gameplay. The parts where he struggles are actually very hard to learn by just practicing a lot, namely his late game strategy/macro and generally his transition from a castle age lead into an imperial age setup. In the past his go to was X bow into faster imp Arb then just wreck through the base right through the middle. But given the meta shifts that doesnt work anymore.
Perfect case in point was the Liths (Hera) vs Persians (Lierry) match in the finals.
Aoe2 pro scene is very classy and respectful. I've always appreciated Viper speaking well of the other players when he the undisputed #1 and I'm glad you have a similar attitude
What a year for Hera, wp!
Also Viper had solid results as a dad. That's not to be underestimated! I'm also glad Liereyy got back in shape ❤
Have a great 2025 all together!
3:33 You said only 6 players have won an S-Tier tournament in Aoe2De. If Death Match World Cup and FreakinAndy doesn't count, aren't there still 7 players? Daut won RBW III.
ahh maybe 7 yes
From my perspective, even though I have only watched a few years, I always pictured the top 5 as on a different level. Basically the “no surprise here” winners. This is mostly because I started watching around when Lierry was first getting bigger results. However, I LOVED watching ACCM this year. I remember him basically defining the meta in some tournaments but being out-executed as the tourney went on. I think he learned to maybe hide strats a bit in WWC and he ended up winning. I think he’s setting up to make it a Top 6 instead of a Top 5.
I saw that 12:51 pic comming from the very beginning of the video. Totally deserved!
hera you understand marketing and yt business and lift the scene so hard, we need an endboss to keep moving, before ranting i just want to say hera makes the "others" (even a good viper/larry oida) feel like childs wanting to play with their pro uncle. lets make aoe2 the n1 rst. hera has the drive to do a lot for the scene. stay humble
You should do a updated list of the most fun players to watch. Always a great vi of you Hera
I am really excited what Sitaux & Nicov can bring to the table. I am sad that Villese has dropped out in form lately. But if you think of Sebastian - I think everyone on this list is a deserving olayer
Congrats for the content Hera, you really make this game way more interesting for beginner players. Before watching your videos, I could not even know there is so much to it. Good luck ahead of you!
Winning all the S-tier tournaments is reason enough to rank yourself first.
Hera is next level really good. Good job Mr Hera. I used to play this game 20 years ago. And now I’m getting back into it and love your videos
So excited for more new names to come up O.O the bigger price pools make it more viable for players to try and contest for the tourney spots
Great to see AOE2 still going well. Are there any places you can download recorded game files by AOE2 experts that work with the current version?
feels like MbL could also be interchangeable for #9/#10 spot, did not have too bad results this year
12:51 1111 the goat!
I am not following pro scene for years, but Daut still being in top 10 and rising? Damn, praise the Lord. Just little sad MBL is not there, few years back he was one of top players in Vipers era.
This is based on tournament perfomance. But in the ladder MBL is totally a top player even when he has a full time job (less time to practice).
MbL is in good shape, it's just that competition is fierce
MBL is better than he's ever been, he's just a sloppy player and the rest of the scene is good enough to punish that now. His micro and resource awareness are both arguable for top 1 and, in fairness to him, his builds have tightened up a bit.
Hera talking about himself in third person is something that I enjoyed! 😄 Same reason why I liked "The Rock" as a wrestler 😅 Also, Hera being #1 is not even debatable at this point. So, no need to feed weird about it.
I would love to see a tournament where you pick the civiliation for your opponent.
I was just waiting for you at the end😂
Congrats on 151.000 abos here on youtube dude!
Hera is not only the most skilled AoE2 player, but is also the all-time most dominant AoE2 of player comparatively speaking to his peers. Hera is playing the best AoE2 ever seen, by a large margin - and that margin is growing faster than ever. The skill gap between Hera and the next top 2-4 players is massive. Yes, Viper has a longer history of being the top player by duration, but in terms of being unmatched in level and consistency of play, Hera is the GOAT. No one in the last 15 years of AoE2 history has outclassed their competition more than Hera does. Cheers to the Hera Era!!!
I'm still in shock about that tournament that Lierrey got like 10/10 spot and the following one he got second place.
Viper can produce some radical surprises ,,,,,,
lol love it. Keep up the good work Hera!
I feel like liereyys only weakness is late castle age and early imp with civs that don’t get bracer. He’s mastered the early imp with bracer civs but it feels like he doesn’t really know what to do here when his civ doesn’t get bracer.
even with bracer civs it has dropped off simply because Xbow is less viable in the current meta. Basically civs like Britons, Vikings and Ethiopians have become less viable.
Lierry used to be knife slashing through the middle of a base, that strat works less well nowadays with a higher focus on mobility and map control.
I love age of the empires 2
still better than the new ones microsoft releases
i watch HERA when i cant play or dont have time
ALSO First comment
2:43 Finishing 2nd place in *what* cup!??
11
Hera, great video! Im curious, in noble apartment cup, do you think if Liereyy drafted a bit better he could have won? The Goths and Cumans pick just seemed weird to me and not his playstyle.
3:06 the result could have been shown more intuitively and easier to read. Important information such as which place the player end up, is hard to read (you have to go into each tournament and see which place it is and also lower number is better performance we have to keep keeping that in mind) only circling in green.
while less relevant information such as tournament being S or A tier, is popping up in our eyes.
the presentation is like writing a newspaper with the title in tiny font hiding in the corner and the less-important texts are big and full of color being all over the place.
You cannot read the screen in 1 sec and get the information that you wanted to convey then it is not a good presentation, this screen is showing unprocessed information as if it is a script in google doc and just brutally copy-paste everything on the screen and let the reader processes those raw information.
How come "the smallest maps ever" showmatches from T90 and T-west are not in Stier group of tournaments???
As always DauT is underrated, he only missed top 8 in red bull, top 6 NaC 5, top 8 warlords, top 8 hidden cup, good performance in A Tier events, he is consistent
Great list Hera, very logical :)
MBL not in top10. Props to Sebastian, breaking top8 and probably getting an even better spot in 2025.
I think MBL has a very good shot to become top 10 in 2025
Vinch has been that "watch out" for many years already. Seems to top out as 5-10.
I would say vinch over the lord. Liereyy over Viper, it’s splitting hairs though. Can’t argue with #1 though. Bring on 2025
Can you and t90 please collab to make a top 10 jank strat video for ACCM?
Regardless of the video, I would like to say that there are so many “ major” tournaments and so often that it is impossible to follow or get hyped anymore. Every time I look there is a tournament match between two very famous people and I don't enjoy watching tournaments or finals anymore.
Like many of us who came back to AoE because of ZeroEmpires, Viper or T90, i think you are with your time investment in content creation just as big as an ‘ambassador’ for the game as them.
2024 was your year, congrats
How about a tournament with a set of maps where a monster lives in the resources and gobbles up villagers at random intervals and you can give gaia gold or send villagers to worship a statue of Gaia in the middle of the map in order to make the monsters appear more often in your opponents resources... Forget it that sounds dumb as hell
Hera is undisputed GOAT and it’s not close the results speak for themselves
We should rename Daut from The Lord to Lord Merlot because he's only getting better with age
Viper, hera, lierrey, yo, tatoh, vinchester, daut at least 7 have won S tiers, right?
No mbl seems so weird
Are the A tier tournaments harder and why?
Nice video ! do a top 8 now..wait.
Dang it, I didn't make the list again...
I gotta respect the self awareness that this does seem like a major pat on the back... But he has been making these a long time, do you just stop a series because you're winning everything? Fair play.
Jajaja me dio risa la partida de fondo del final del video, esos explotonazos😂
I know Jordan stoped pro gaming, but what hapened to Villese this year? He used to be a real threat to top 10.
he went full time engineering studies and part time aoe2
Congratulations for place one.
Of course Viper still has it.
I mean its kinda undeniable you were the top player in 2024!
Another coronación de gloria!
Whats going in with MBL 😮
All hail the 3K king 👑 🙌😊
I haven't watched the video yet, but if DauT isn't #1 we riot
You said 2024 when referring to vipers future success and strats
Lierry is obviously levels ahead of Viper atm.
RIP Jordan
I can't believe Hoang has been snubbed yet again 😡 #Justice4Hoang #HeraIsAFraud
congrats!
thats so weird, i had myself as the best player on my own list
hera is a rich men now.
the AUDACITY 💀💀💀
What about MbL?
Hera making this video to low key glaze himself lol
😂😂😂😂😂 nice hera giving medal to hera
“Top micro and (awkward pause) economy player” 😂😂😂
5:42 I guessed “Hera”
The only reason why Hera is the top player in 2024 because he’s the only player who won the most important tournament for us which is road to 3K.
Honorable mention would be Sitaux/MBL because they gave you a really hard time to reach 3K.
Got excited to see dogao back in a tournament, as a brazilian, but talk about getting the ice bucket. Shame he is past his prime, and I hope a brazilian player start standing out again. I sadly wasn't keeping track of AoE II during RiuT's era.
Is heartt really better than sebastian ?
Nice list by the way
He beat him 3-0 in redbull when they matched up and has slightly better results overall
you have forgotten Empiio
Where does Villese go?
What about Hoang?!?!? Why is he not in top3 players?
Those bragging rights were well deserved.
Where is mbl
Nachov??
wtf no barles?
Hera was just playing the long game all those years ago to brag now.
Man, Hera, stop doing that. If anything make it a collaboration with some casters or so
The overview for each player is great though!
I thing Liereyy>Viper.
#humblebrag
As a humble ranked player I see myself within the top 10, just getting hold back by my mates dragging my elo down in soloq.
Vululuu!
Davie should be number 1 imo
Nice meme bro 11111111111
ACCM FANS RISE UP
Very subjective and conflict of interest to name Hera the number 1 player of the year…😂
no mbl is this a troll list?
hes prolly top 11-15, his results just arent there consistently
Hera let the other dogs eat, you dont have to win any A tier tourneys.