HONT #6

Hammer Cup III

The third edition of the Hammer Cup was held from April 8th to April 12th 2024. Farm flights were abandoned after the second hammer cup, meaning that a single tournament was created instead of two. The 5 flights to compete in the tournament were Thor, Claw, Maul, Smite and Forge.

Trophy for the champions

HC III teaser video

Qualifiers

Smite finished 1st, followed by Maul, Forge, Claw and Thor. Thor was thus eliminated from the tournament. This caused quite a commotion since the Hammer Cup II champions were among the strongest flights on paper. Thor leader's 3clipse was fantastic with 272 races but support from his teammates proved to be lacking. Flashyio completed 50 races, followed by ChoppaChad (42 races) and Tropic (32 races). These numbers were simply not enough to qualify. 3clipse was hoping for a miracle in the eventual return of A R E S. Unfortunately for the yellow flight, the miracle never happened.

Semifinals

Smite took on Claw for a second time in a row. Once again, Vytrail was pretty much left alone against the mighty purple flight. We could all appreciate Vytrail's determination. The green flight was still in the race after the first day of competition. In the end however, Smite didn't panic and managed to counter Claw's leader with some splendid team work. Vytrail managed to complete an outstanding 619 races, while Brave, Godlovesusall, Epic, Believer and Blaze combined their efforts to win the battle with 1105 races.

With Ashes and Last week of Racing among its ranks, Forge emerged as a mighty flight prepared to challenge Maul. Meanwhile, the blue flight boasted a top-performing Nusakan, the powerhouse racer Cycix, and the dedicated and resilient Lou. The battle was fiercely contested, with both flights neck and neck throughout the match. Nusakan, Cycix, and Lou delivered remarkable performances. As the hours passed, Forge began gaining ground and eventually surged ahead of Maul. In a final, extraordinary effort, Ashes and IwillPayYouIfYouRace maintained their lead until the end, finishing ahead of Maul by only 36 races. In the closing moments, DestroyerHammer joined Forge as reinforcements, securing their victory.

Finals

Against all odds, the red flight managed to come on top and beat the Smite powerhouse. The teaser video said "Make your flight famous". The least we could say is that Ashes took these words to heart! The new Forge superstar completed 1000 races! You read that correctly: we're talking a 1K session from 7AM to 9PM. He was followed by his teammates IwillPayyouIfYouRace (130 races), Destroyer Hammer (66 races) and HyperHammer (20 races).

This was a heartbreaking defeat for Smite who, for the second time in a row, missed their chance to put their hands on the prestigious trophy. The purple flight was solid, with amazing performances from godlovesusall (304 races), Brave (300 races), Believer (151 races), Blaze (107 races) and Epic (84 races). However, the out of this world performance from Ashes put some incredible pressure on the Smite crew and the guys unfortunately did not manage to regroup and stop the Forge's steamroller.

Participation

Hammer Cup III was the edition that generated the most participation from HONT members at the time. It achieved a total of 9044 races, surpassing HC2 (6835 races) and HC1 (6059 races). The third edition broke records for races both in the semi-finals and the final. As of its conclusion, the only record remaining unbroken was the activity level during the qualification round, which still held for the inaugural edition of the Hammer Cup.

Qualifiers

HC1: 3586 races
HC2: 1916 races
HC3: 3004 races

Semifinals (combined)

HC1: 2084 races
HC2: 3175 races
HC3: 3878 races (NEW RECORD)

Finals

HC1: 389 races
HC2: 1744 races
HC3: 2162 races (NEW RECORD)

Total

HC1: 6059 races
HC2: 6835 races
HC3: 9044 races (NEW RECORD)

Comp links

• Qualifiers
• Smite Vs Claw (semifinals)
• Maul Vs Forge (semifinals)
• Smite Vs Forge (finals)