Dear AoE 2 community,
I know that many of you enjoyed the World Desert Championship last April-May, so I want to update you on the status of a second edition and involve you in the discussion.
There hasn't been any big multi-map 3v3 or 4v4 AoE 2 tournament since WDC and it looks like there won't be any at least in January and February of 2022.
(I know Battle of Africa 3 has been coming soon since February 2021, but that is another league (higher prize money and prestige), and of course I would coodinate with Memb to not have WDC 2 and BoA 3 at the same time or right after each other.)
1. So the first question is, how big is the interest in a second edition?
Key points:
2. If there is good interest - it is not priority that every top player can participate, because overlap with other events, especially from AoE 4 is unavoidable - the main difficulty is the budget.
Theoretically, I would host a TG tournament even for $1k, but since the first edition had a $9k budget, a second edition has to have a similar (or higher) prize pool.
So if anyone is interested in contributing or can connect me with potential sponsors, my team and I would be very thankful. You already know what the quality of the content would be.
If there won't be any significant progress regarding finances until February, I will plan a different TG event, but not aim for A or S tier.
I know that many of you enjoyed the World Desert Championship last April-May, so I want to update you on the status of a second edition and involve you in the discussion.
There hasn't been any big multi-map 3v3 or 4v4 AoE 2 tournament since WDC and it looks like there won't be any at least in January and February of 2022.
(I know Battle of Africa 3 has been coming soon since February 2021, but that is another league (higher prize money and prestige), and of course I would coodinate with Memb to not have WDC 2 and BoA 3 at the same time or right after each other.)
1. So the first question is, how big is the interest in a second edition?
Key points:
- would be good to finish the latest in June 2022, because after that I can't promise to host anything for the rest of 2022 because of personal reasons
- won't be sponsored by Microsoft if in the first half of 2022
- won't be sponsored by SeanT as far as I know, because it looks like it was a one-time investment, which is totally fine for a single private person; we're still very thankful for his $9100+ investment
- focus on involvement of map scripters (with contest) and inclusion of many teams have absolute priority, so the event won't include less teams than last time or be packed into 1-2 weeks and will include a Sand League; an environmental aspect is also a key aspect
- a team with admins, map creators, co-host, etc. are ready already (but would depend on the actual time when the tournament takes place)
New aspects/aspects to be changed:- 8 maps from WDC will remain in the map pool, some maps will be added by request and some via the map contest
- 2 1-weekend qualifiers similar to the RBW events to allow teams to have a 2nd chance if they don't pass the 1st qualifier
- potentially a group stage (4x4 teams) instead of Ro16 KO, Ro8-final remain single elimination; with 3rd placed teams going down to the Sand League Ro8 to have a motivation to win every single game
2. If there is good interest - it is not priority that every top player can participate, because overlap with other events, especially from AoE 4 is unavoidable - the main difficulty is the budget.
Theoretically, I would host a TG tournament even for $1k, but since the first edition had a $9k budget, a second edition has to have a similar (or higher) prize pool.
So if anyone is interested in contributing or can connect me with potential sponsors, my team and I would be very thankful. You already know what the quality of the content would be.
If there won't be any significant progress regarding finances until February, I will plan a different TG event, but not aim for A or S tier.