Hera Is the Lebron of AOE 2
The final NAC tournament crystalized the greatness of Hera
This is like if Michael Jordan played Lebron James in a best of nine series of 1-1 games.
That is how I described the Hera vs. Viper semi-final series in the NAC 5 tournament to my wife. This description was met with a look as if to say, “Are you really comparing Age of Empires players to MJ and Lebron?”
Your damn right I am!
This comparison is a hill I am prepared to die on, like a failed DAUT castle drop.
The Viper as MJ
This is the more obvious comparison.
The Viper-MJ comparison is best laid out in this phenomenal YouTube video titled ‘Has the GOAT fallen off his throne'
Much like MJ’s run of six straight championships in the 90s, The Viper’s seven-year run of utter dominance in the AOE 2 professional scene was so singular, that he is considered by most AOE 2 fans as the Greatest of all time (GOAT).
The trouble in declaring a GOAT in any sport is that there is no objective measure of what makes someone the GOAT.
When people point to MJ’s six rings as the primary evidence that he’s the GOAT, they conveniently overlook the fact that Bill Russell has 11 championships—although nobody outside of Boston would argue Russell is the GOAT.
Russell often gets dismissed as the GOAT because people point to the level of competition, he played against in the 1950s and 60s—A time when professional basketball players smoked cigarettes, had never been in a weight room, and were often under six feet tall.
Russell can’t be the GOAT because he beat up on a bunch of guys who would be playing at the YMCA today.
But the truth is that compared to today, NBA players in the 90s were not nearly as strong, athletic, and knowledgeable about the game as players are today. Sure, Bill Lamber was “scrappy,” but Joel Embiid would completely demolish him in the post.
Much like MJ in the 90s, you could argue that the competition when The Viper won every tournament was not as strong as it is today Something Hera commented on in this video.)
That is not a shot at The Viper, you have to play the competition in front of you.
If Michael Jordan had to go through Lebron, KD, Jokic, and Steph Curry every season instead of Charles Barkley and John Stockton, he probably would not have won six straight rings.
That doesn’t diminish MJ as a player, but the easier the competition, the more dominant an all-time great player like Viper will be.
Like MJ, Viper has a legion of fans who will probably always regard him as the GOAT—which he deserves as an all-time great player.
Hera as Lebron
Watch this clip of Charles Barkley comparing Lebron James to MJ and swap in Hera for Lebron and Viper for MJ:
“He’s just bigger, stronger, faster.”
That is how Charles Barkley (long-time friend and rival of MJ) described Lebron in comparison to MJ.
In many ways, Lebron is MJ 2.0. He does everything that MJ could do, except he could do it even better.
Many people say MJ is the greatest scorer of all time—But Lebron James is the all-time leader in scoring. He has more rebounds, assists, and blocks than MJ. Lebron has more career games played and more career wins—both regular season and playoffs.
The only thing holding Lebron back from being the universally accepted GOAT is his four championships compared to MJ’s 6.
Full disclosure: I am no fan of Lebron. I am a lifelong Toronto Raptors fan and have been forced to watch Lebron absolutely shred the Raptors year after year in the playoffs. It got so bad that one of his nicknames is LeBronto because he owns Toronto. Even I, someone who has rooted against Lebron most of his career am finding it hard to deny his greatness.
When I think about how HERA plays AOE 2, it’s impossible not to think of him as Lebron.
He’s the modern-day version of the greatest AOE 2 player.
His ability to maintain composure in the face of extreme pressure is singular. During the most recent NAC 5 tournament (I believe during the finals against Yo) Hera’s main base was opened up and Yo had troops streaming into Hera’s Eco.
99% of players would have called the GG at that point.
Not only did Hera clear out the raids in his base—with what seemed like 10% of his army— he was simultaneously pushing Yo’s castles on the opposite end of the map.
Within ten minutes it was Yo calling the GG.
It feels like to beat Hera right now, pro-players need to play a perfect game. Hera will capitalize on mistakes like no one else.
The Hera-Viper set at NAC 5 was a passing of the torch moment: Hera is unarguably the best player AOE 2 player in the world in 2024.
I was expecting Hea to win that series, but I did not expect a 5-0 sweep.
Even the way Hera talks about and analyzes the game reminds me a lot of Lebron— He wants to push the game forward both with his play on the field and the commercial aspect of the game.
AOE 2 still has a long way to go, and if it’s to reach its full potential it needs more pro players who are full-time playing AOE 2 and treat their training with the same level of seriousness that a professional athlete does.
If you want to gain an insight into how serious Hera is about AOE 2, just listen to this interview he gave during the Town Center Podcast:
Like with any discussion about the GOAT, there is no clear-cut answer. Everyone has their own personal definition of what makes a player the greatest to ever do it.
Some people will always believe The Viper is the GOAT, and you can’t convince them otherwise (Like MJ fans), others look at what Hera is doing now and think that if he continues this level for another few years, he will be the GOAT…if he’s not already.
I’ll finish by saying that the point of this article was not to pit these two players and their fans against each other—but to celebrate the greatness of these two legends.
Everyone in the AOE 2 community needs to appreciate how both The Viper and Hera have kept this game thriving 25 years after its release.
Love it! Team Hera. I want to battle him….. with lots of help.