Age Royale - Battle Royale Preview

Battle Royale is coming to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition in the upcoming November Anniversary Update, and we’ve planned a massive launch tournament to celebrate! Battle Royale pits up to 8 players against each other in a free-for-all contest fought to the last combatant standing.

The Contest Begins​

Sixteen players & casters will enter the battlefield with only a few units under their control, but as they explore the map they will find and capture supply and military buildings. The supply buildings begin a resource trickle, the more under their control the faster they will gain resources. Military buildings allow the training of units and to rally your forces onto the battlefield. The more you control, the faster you can bolster and replenish your armies.
However, be vigilant – these buildings may not be yours forever. Any other player can take those away by eliminating your defenses and defending units. Your opponents aren’t the only danger in Battle Royale. The map will slowly constrict, destroying anything caught in its way.

You’ll see a mix of casting and gameplay as players alternate between casting and playing their heats, with the champions continuing to the final showdown and a shot at the title of Battle Royale Champion.

The Contenders​

• DauT
• Debbie (German / Deutsche)
• dogao (Portuguese / Português)
• Hera
• Lyx (Chinese)
• Mario Ovalle (Spanish / Español)
• MembTV
• Mr_Yo (Chinese)
• Nacho AoE (Spanish / Español)
• Nicov
• Nili_AoE
• Odette
• OGN_Empires (French / Français)
• T90Official
• TaToH (Spanish / Español)
• TheViper

Expert players that we know and cheer for will battle it out alongside community favorites to see who is the last player standing and earn a share of the $10,000 prize pool!

1st = $2,700
2nd = $2,000
3rd = $1,500
4th = $1,250
5th = $1,000
6th = $750
7th = $500
8th = $300

Spoiler: Format & Settings

Participants will be split into 2 groups of eight players, and after playing four games the top four players with the most points scored will advance to the Final!

There they will play a further two rounds to decide the overall placement & crown a winner!


Players will earn points based on their placement in each round: 1 point for 8th, 2 pts for 7th, up to 8 points for 1st place. See the score sheet here.

In the case of a tie between 2 or more players, they will be ranked on the number of high placings they have. The player with the most 1st placements would be ranked ahead. If it is still a tie, the player with the most 2nd placements, continuing down until most 4th placements. If it is still a tie the players will play a further FFA round among themselves to determine placements.
Example: Two players have a score of 22, split as P1 = 8+6+7+1 & P2 = 7+8+5+2. Both players have the same number of 1sts (8 pts) & 2nds (7 pts), but P1 has a 3rd place (6 pts) while P2 does not. Therefore P1 will be ranked ahead of P2.

Watch Live!​

You can watch the entirety of the Age Royale this Saturday at 15:00 UTC / 8 am PT / 11 am ET. Watch any of the competitor's streams and cheer them on their way to be crowned as the Battle Royale Champion!

 

Which is strange considering the relative non-involvement in AOE II over the past few years except for high-vis bits during tournaments (a few not involving microsoft.)

All just more pointing to everyone will have their preferences, and at the day none of those really matter since those with the $ make the rules -- fair or not need not even be debated.

I don't understand what is unfair about Microsoft having a preferred spokesperson for their product. That seems like standard PR to me.

 

I don't understand what is unfair about Microsoft having a preferred spokesperson for their product. That seems like standard PR to me.

In general, the point I made was lost from a couple pages ago -- I am in complete agreeance those who have the $ make the rules, regardless of if they're appropriate or the best -- which in some circumstances in our community is quite obvious happens in more than one aspect.

Debating otherwise is an exercise in futility.

 

In general, the point I made was lost from a couple pages ago -- I am in complete agreeance those who have the $ make the rules, regardless of if they're appropriate or the best -- which in some circumstances in our community is quite obvious happens in more than one aspect.

Debating otherwise is an exercise in futility.

I don't think it's fair simply because Microsoft makes the rules. What is instead of ZeroEmpires it was another Microsoft employee; let's say the original lead developer of Age of Empires. Would you think it's unfair for the original lead dev to do what Zero Empires does?

 

I don't think it's fair simply because Microsoft makes the rules. What is instead of ZeroEmpires it was another Microsoft employee; let's say the original lead developer of Age of Empires. Would you think it's unfair for the original lead dev to do what Zero Empires does?

That would indeed seem appropriate. Just seems to be a lack of variety and I'm happy to hope and advocate for diversity.

 

Which is strange considering the relative non-involvement in AOE II over the past few years except for high-vis bits during tournaments (a few not involving microsoft.)

His relative non involvement ? So to you, creating an esport company for tournament organization in AoE in 2017, keeping it up for several years with high prize pool tournaments, then following it up in 2019 with a full time AoE streaming studio, is not getting involved in AoE2 ?

I wish more of us could be non involved like Zak has been for the past 4 years.

 

His relative non involvement ? So to you, creating an esport company for tournament organization in AoE in 2017, keeping it up for several years with high prize pool tournaments, then following it up in 2019 with a full time AoE streaming studio, is not getting involved in AoE2 ?

I wish more of us could be non involved like Zak has been for the past 4 years.

You missed the word recently, -- which has certainly not been the case. 2014, yes. 2016, sure. Last VOD I see is 2018....so...2020...?

Just like this event, there are real-world $ impacts to folks and I personally would rather those spots go to full-time active, current streamers/players.

 

Moving goal posts as always... ECL lan final happened in September 2019.

 

You missed the word recently, -- which has certainly not been the case. 2014, yes. 2016, sure. Last VOD I see is 2018....so...2020...?

Just like this event, there are real-world $ impacts to folks and I personally would rather those spots go to full-time active, current streamers/players.

ECL ended barely a year ago. During his time with Escape Gaming Zak didn't do much with his own channel as he was working full time for the studio. After ECL ended they couldn't move forward with the project but Zak landed a job at Microsoft not much later, he's been active behind the scenes a lot but active nonetheless.

 

Obviously can't afford to have a male-only lineup in 2020. But sure, it's about covering all the languages!

ikr there are like 5 german streamers who play aoe 2, who have actually streamed in german before and who can reagularily pull 5k viewers. Think about Handofblood, Bonjwa, Rocketbeans, Freaks4You gaming. But unfortunately for them they were born with a penis.

 

Unfortunately due to technical issues with the pre-release build, TheSniper will be replaced by Hera for the event.

 

Unfortunately due to technical issues with the pre-release build, TheSniper will be replaced by Hera for the event.

Will Hera stream in French then?

 

Strange, why no Vietnamese invited, given VNS has been so active in the AOE scene.
And i cannot help but yell out, why the hell Debbie?! She's nobody in the AOE scene.

 

Strange, why no Vietnamese invited, given VNS has been so active in the AOE scene.
And i cannot help but yell out, why the hell Debbie?! She's nobody in the AOE scene.

I actually was about to say, I feel very bad for the Vietnamese, seems like the only big market missing and I always feel like these medium sized prize moneys go so much further there (as in, in comparison to cost of living) than e.g. in Germany, Norway or Canada so there is a lot more seriousness and effort involved which is always nice to see. Kinda sad seeing they are number 2 at the AoElympics and the amount of work they put in B-Tier tourneys - e.g. all Vietnamese final of RMS happening just now.

Would have loved to have e.g. BacT in there instead of this amount of English speaking streamers with largely overlapping viewership (or is anyone gonna tell me Hera, Viper+Debbie, Nili and Daut don't have 90% overlap in viewer base?).

Edit: Also the overlap in language. I'd argue it makes more sense not to include German as most Germans watching AoE do so in English anyhow, a number that is a lot smaller for Vietnam. Same case why Portuguese and Spanish make so much sense as opposed to say Norwegian or Finnish.

 

And i cannot help but yell out, why the hell Debbie?! She's nobody in the AOE scene.

So who else do you see streaming the event in german? Its not on a monday, so Nili will stream in english, Jordan never showed any interest in streaming in german, and the big variety streamers mentioned earlier (Honor from Bonjwa, HandofBlood, RocketbeansTV) didnt touch the game in at least 6 months except for 1 single event with a combined stream time of about 6 hours, so they are not really an option. And without them Debbie has the biggest german-speaking AoE2-channel on twitch, so it makes a lot of sense to invite her.

 

Sounds like fun, I look forward to it.

 

The real reason debbie is invited so that viper and her can 2v these FFA noobs and take the $$$$$ home. Which in turn will contribute towards them buying an AC for viper to feel like norway so that he can start winning again /s....

Long live the lord daut

 

Strange, why no Vietnamese invited, given VNS has been so active in the AOE scene.
And i cannot help but yell out, why the hell Debbie?! She's nobody in the AOE scene.

https://aoe2.club/leaderboard/
Despite having some very good players, aoe2 isnt quite popular in Vietnam.

 

The real reason debbie is invited so that viper and her can 2v these FFA noobs and take the $$$$$ home. Which in turn will contribute towards them buying an AC for viper to feel like norway so that he can start winning again /s....

Long live the lord daut

You are taken for granted that Viper will reach the finals ? We all do mistakes here :P

 

So who else do you see streaming the event in german? Its not on a monday, so Nili will stream in english, Jordan never showed any interest in streaming in german,

[...]

And without them Debbie has the biggest german-speaking AoE2-channel on twitch, so it makes a lot of sense to invite her.

As pointed out by various people earlier, there is really no reason to have a dedicated German stream. We all know that 99% of her ~75 viewers are also regulars on the English speaking GL channels. Why? Because no German below age 40 hasn't learned English in school. So why do we need a German stream whilst more native language orientated communities like Russia and Vietnam are completely left out.

I have no animosity towards her or any of the other participants, yet you cannot seriously say the lineup is picked without a certain favoritism. I welcome the apparent focus on diversity, but this is by design an event for the AOE community and i do not see why yet another channel from the GL bubble would be picked over the many other content creators we have in our community.

Anyhow I will probably watch the stream(s) and for me the main takeaway is that MS keeps on investing into the game which we should all be happy about.

 

As pointed out by various people earlier, there is really no reason to have a dedicated German stream. We all know that 99% of her ~75 viewers are also regulars on the English speaking GL channels. Why? Because no German below age 40 hasn't learned English in school. So why do we need a German stream whilst more native language orientated communities like Russia and Vietnam are completely left out.

https://aoe2.club/leaderboard/
Gernmany ranked #1 (6127), while Russia and Vietnam ranked #28 (303) and #33 (213) respectively in player numbers on DE.

Also in regards to the "should have invited other more popular variety streamers instead" topic, imo there are more things to consider:
-Can the person keep the secret? I bet the organisers know invited players better than the variety streamers.
-Is the prizepool worth their time? Do they ask for extra pay? I mean the chance of them winning is low tbh.
-Will there be banters / alliance between the players? Thats also a huge part of the content.

 

Despite having some very good players, aoe2 isnt quite popular in Vietnam.

You shouldnt forget that DE is too heavy of a game for large parts of the community especially from not as rich countries. Voobly is still full of vietnamese players and AOE 1 is the biggest game in vietnam.

 

You shouldnt forget that DE is too heavy of a game for large parts of the community especially from not as rich countries. Voobly is still full of vietnamese players and AOE 1 is the biggest game in vietnam.

-Then maybe wait until significant amount of Viets have better PCs?
-Indeed, then why would you expect them to move to aoe2 after all these years?
-Also, afaik a lot of the aoe1 tourneys are still being played on the original.

 

https://aoe2.club/leaderboard/
Gernmany ranked #1 (6127), while Russia and Vietnam ranked #28 (303) and #33 (213) respectively in player numbers on DE.

Also in regards to the "should have invited other more popular variety streamers instead" topic, imo there are more things to consider:
-Can the person keep the secret? I bet the organisers know invited players better than the variety streamers.
-Is the prizepool worth their time? Do they ask for extra pay? I mean the chance of them winning is low tbh.
-Will there be banters / alliance between the players? Thats also a huge part of the content.

As I pointed out prior, Germans are not the target group that requires a native language stream. Just check out the country most viewers are from on any English stream. Also how will you increase interest in your game if you leave out the highly populated countries in which you currently lack numbers?

Can the person keep the secret? - What makes you think that content creators who streamed this game for years out of mere passion would just blow it up for giggles? Where we are at right now you are either in the top 20 or someone of the "inner circle" vouches for you. Nepotism 1x1.

Is the prizepool worth their time? - Even the last place gets money. Most streamers out there would do it just for the exposure.

Banter & alliances? - If people are teaming up the whole concept of the game mode is literally dead.

 

As pointed out by various people earlier, there is really no reason to have a dedicated German stream. We all know that 99% of her ~75 viewers are also regulars on the English speaking GL channels. Why? Because no German below age 40 hasn't learned English in school. So why do we need a German stream whilst more native language orientated communities like Russia and Vietnam are completely left out.

I have no animosity towards her or any of the other participants, yet you cannot seriously say the lineup is picked without a certain favoritism. I welcome the apparent focus on diversity, but this is by design an event for the AOE community and i do not see why yet another channel from the GL bubble would be picked over the many other content creators we have in our community.

Anyhow I will probably watch the stream(s) and for me the main takeaway is that MS keeps on investing into the game which we should all be happy about.

Your application as marketing manager for MS was sadly misdirected into this forum. But nevermind, I dont think MS would accept someone that wants to waste money on marketing without knowing the market anyhow. Maybe the local bakery wants to help you, but even they know what buns are sold better than others.

It is funny how people here deliberately accept to have a less successful event just to have another form of nepotism established :D But that is ok, because this form of nepotism and relations are within people you personally accept, while you cannot accept Debbie because she is only some random GF of someone. As much as you cant accept OdetteYour problem and showing of your lack of very many skills. I mean if you dont understand the mere concept of the event, then its really hard to convince you.

As I pointed out prior, Germans are not the target group that requires a native language stream. Just check out the country most viewers are from on any English stream. Also how will you increase interest in your game if you leave out the highly populated countries in which you currently lack numbers?

Can the person keep the secret? - What makes you think that content creators who streamed this game for years out of mere passion would just blow it up for giggles? Where we are at right now you are either in the top 20 or someone of the "inner circle" vouches for you. Nepotism 1x1.

Is the prizepool worth their time? - Even the last place gets money. Most streamers out there would do it just for the exposure.

Banter & alliances? - If people are teaming up the whole concept of the game mode is literally dead.

You not only need markting classes but also logic classes. Oh boy. Just because germans make out the largest portion of english speaking streamers, they dont need a stream in their language... LOL. You know its not about the portion of german viewers that can english but the portion of potential viewers. And this potential is at 150k not at 2k or whatever german viewership we have on a regular day...

You know what video was the biggest video in the NAC spehere ? The event at RocketBeans which had thrice the viewer numbers of the NAC finals. A purely german speaking format showing the potential of people being attached to the game but not involved into the community.

Please if you think that your the world bestest marketing manager please send your application to MS so they can have something to laugh... Actively refusing to have a successfull event speaking directly to the biggest market of the game just because you dont have any silly arguments left will surely convince someone there, that you are best to burn their money.

 

It's a friend and family gala with 10k thrown in by MS. Enjoy !!