Battle of Africa 2 - Announcement (Prize: $20.000+)

Announcement | Registration (closed) | Handbook | Questions & Answers | Maps | Brackets | Discord

It is a great pleasure to finally announce the return of Battle of Africa.
Two years after the first instalment - Battle of Africa 2 will help set the standard as the first major team game tournament on Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. The teams will be competing over multiple weeks to earn a portion of the fantastic 20.000$ prize pool thanks to the amazing sponsors that helped make this event happen:
Microsoft (11.000$)
Oracle455 (4.000$)
PkZ (1.000$)
MembTV (4.000$)

Once the event is concluded, MembTV will add 1$ per current subscriber to the total prize pool

Battle of Africa 2 will take place between 10th of May and 7th of June. It will feature an extended qualification stage with 24 teams - and the main stage, which will include the best eight teams in the world. In terms of maps, you will get to experience some great old classics from the original Battle of Africa, as well as some new exciting environments to shake things up.

An extensive thread with a full timeframe, rules and settings will be created very soon - but for now, the most important details are - all the games will be played as 3v3, fixed positions will be enabled and slinging will be banned until the slinging player has reached the Imperial Age. A general timeframe can be seen below:

Streaming is open for everyone - check the official handbook for more details.​

 

[Naraic]

Very excited for this, high-level team-games are always so fun to watch.

I don't follow a lot of AOE2 teams, what other high-level teams are out there? Is there a big discrepancy between the top 5 teams and everyone else?

There was 8 teams in ecl. The big 5 you may have figured out are competing in the TeTe Cup from tomorrow.

Then in ecl there was a second Chinese team Frantic (Vivi played for them instead of the first Chinese team) BZK(Brazil) and Heresy. Dogao (hc3 semifinalist) and Miguel left Brazil half way through ecl and moved to Heresy.

A reunited Brazil team could threaten the big 5 so too could Heresy with Dogao and Miguel.

Outside of there will be some thrown together teams and some nationallity based teams that we are currently seeing play in Euro Rumble.

 

[Filipus]

There was 8 teams in ecl. The big 5 you may have figured out are competing in the TeTe Cup from tomorrow.

Then in ecl there was a second Chinese team Frantic (Vivi played for them instead of the first Chinese team) BZK(Brazil) and Heresy. Dogao (hc3 semifinalist) and Miguel left Brazil half way through ecl and moved to Heresy.

A reunited Brazil team could threaten the big 5 so too could Heresy with Dogao and Miguel.

Outside of there will be some thrown together teams and some nationallity based teams that we are currently seeing play in Euro Rumble.

Awesome, thank you!
What are the chances we see some members from teams making their own teams just for this tournament (since it's 3 vs 3 and a lot of teams have 4 members)?

 

[Naraic]

Awesome, thank you!
What are the chances we see some members from teams making their own teams just for this tournament (since it's 3 vs 3 and a lot of teams have 4 members)?

It's best to have a bench in this type of event. Scheduling sucks if you are trying to coordinate 6 people who are full time aoe so sometimes you just have to go with 6 out of 8.

I'll wait to see the settings. If it's a 4 man team ie room for one on the bench whoever out of secret (for example) doesn't line up with secret will be in high demand elsewhere. Similarly with whoever doesn't make the main Chinese team will be wanted on whatever b Chinese is around.

 

[BFuu]

What are the chances we see some members from teams making their own teams just for this tournament (since it's 3 vs 3 and a lot of teams have 4 members)?

I'm expecting Nicov to form a team called "bench A", maybe slam will join.. Kappa

 

[Rorarimbo]

I'm expecting Nicov to form a team called "bench A", maybe slam will join.. Kappa

Actually if dogao/miguel decide to play for herecy with Laaan for exmple. Than it opens up ta a team like Nicov, Slam and Fire who could challenge everyone.

 

[Naraic]

Actually if dogao/miguel decide to play for herecy with Laaan for exmple. Than it opens up ta a team like Nicov, Slam and Fire who could challenge everyone.

Ive been wondering if RiuT (who has played de teamgames with fire and goku recently) 'socially to keep busy during quarantine' might actually be back now. Perhaps people were under playing his return because they couldn't come out and say there's a teamgame tournament that looks like fun.

 

[Lord_patito]

This is gonna be lit. With some more balance, we could see literally every civ in a 3 vs 3 tournament

Gracias Memb!

 

[RodriiO]

Im so happy to hear that!! Personally this is a tournament very important for me. Because it was the 1st tourney I've seen of AoE on Twitch. Very excited for BoA after 2 years!

 

[Rorarimbo]

Ive been wondering if RiuT (who has played de teamgames with fire and goku recently) 'socially to keep busy during quarantine' might actually be back now. Perhaps people were under playing his return because they couldn't come out and say there's a teamgame tournament that looks like fun.

I would love to have a team like that. I know Goku is active and fire loves playing with him. If Riut is around well here is a nice tem already. Also Stark is active. Could have a nice full brazilian team even with Dogao and Miguel playing for Herecy.

 

[zuviss]

I would love to have a team like that. I know Goku is active and fire loves playing with him. If Riut is around well here is a nice tem already. Also Stark is active. Could have a nice full brazilian team even with Dogao and Miguel playing for Herecy.

gl forming that team... need to catch up in ur brazilian drama man

 

[Spring_]

GJ memb! I really appreciate the attitude of asking for community feedback prior to the event and being flexible. I hope your event goes great

 

[Rey_Fer]

3v3 is much more thrilling than 4v4 as we could see in BOA and ECL. It's better for casting and more difficult, as the pocket's decisions impact the game much more. It is much more linear when every flank gets a pocket.

Finally, all of you are joking that Nicov will get beched in AM. ¿????? Nicov is for sure top 2 TG player in that team and for sure the best pocker they have. Of course the fpur of them are amazing and could win in any combination, but really...

 

[mogers87]

+1 for 3v3

More high level teams. More strategy with what side the pocket goes. Games are easier to follow and cast. Games are shorter. Etc etc.

 

[Springoftheking]

Great news! First Battle of Africa was great tournament. I hope too that we will see donut again.

 

[MembTV]

Hello guys, so hyped and hype with the reactions, we might do a Q&A thread probably but for now, i can track some of the things commented here and in some streams as well.

First i want to say big thanks to people that contribute to the prize pool, microsoft ofc, @Oracle455 and @_PkZ_.

Big thanks to @TheViper for showing the announcement live on his stream.

Thanks to @Nili_AoE for also showing it live on his stream, but wanted to say according to some comments there that @Chrazini and myself got full freedoom to create this tournament, no restrictions or conditions for any of the sponsors.

About format and details it will be posted very soon by @Chrazini since he running the event with me, so yeah, he will be the admin.

I wanted to check with community what they wanted and ofc they were willing for a TG and that why we were here, i just waited as much as possible because wanted to have some strong prize pool, even more after those big 1v1 sponsored tournaments, the prize can increase if others contributors want to add, and if others streamers want to support it.

Why 3v3? well BOA was 3v3 originally so wanted to keep that format, also there is few more reasons.
* I think 4v4 still has more problems in terms of performance.
* More difficult to create competitive teams, since there is not that many players sadly, so gap btw teams would be even bigger, since getting 4 strong players is harder.
* we must think in everyone and also for spectators i think 4v4 is harder to follow.
* Also i have to admit that my favourite format is 3v3, even in 4v4 can be huge and great games for sure.
* Sheduling is also more complicated in 4v4, everything is more complicated if you involve more and more people.
* With 3v3 is easier to get 16 teams than with 4v4, at least as competitive as possible.

Maybe i forget something but i think that is the most reasons for it.

Also been checking about everything and suggestions, anything is 100% closed??? Nop, so we still checking everything to make best tournament possible.

 

[Lanchi]

Can there be a silver league for Qual losers to compete? same format is good

 

[MembTV]

Can there be a silver league for Qual losers to compete? same format is good

good one, we had planned pay money to every participant for the tournament, so we will use 1k for silver league (maybe more if more contributors), that way probably not all teams get money, but the winner silver league, 2nd, 3rd and 4th would get higher amount, more competition and more games for them.

Thanks for feedback, we will do it

 

[Senjuodama]

MembTV with another event!! another BOA tournament! on another Lebel!! Stay Tunis, let's support the Channel, Memb is there since forever doing his best to move the community forward!!

 

[Halleju]

Finally the pros have a reason to play and practice team games. Since the launch of DE, the only focus was 1v1 so far, mostly because of poor game performance which is getting better every patch so far. A huge part of aoe competitive scene was always team games. I'm looking forward to watching those revived once again, starting with BoA2. Thank you for that Memb.

I'd also love to see some showmatches as a teaser before the tournament on those maps, but I also understand the difficulty of finding a sponsor for this ofc.

 

[ThePr0phet]

It is great to have a TG tournament. Especially after the sad end of ECL it is obvious that a lot of organizers have doubts about it.

I hope this probably like always well organized tournament will also show in viewer numbers that TG in aoe2 has a future. also makes it more interesting because the winner isnt already determined from the very beginning

In addition I hope that the organizers get benefited with high viewer numbers

 

[Crawsack]

So excited for this tournament, big thanks to Memb and others putting this together. I know a lot of people like 1v1's but I honestly think TG's is where pro AoE2 is at its absolute best- big battles, high level strategy and execution, and teamwork.

I hope that some new teams are formed as others have mentioned, even if only just for this tournament- it'd be great to see a new team really surprise us and perform better than expected, and maybe upset a more established team.

 

[Manu]

Just read this. HYPE HYPE HYPE !!

 

[Gooner26]

Thank you Memb, thank you Chrazini and thank you sponsors! BOA was my best AOE 2 tournament experience till date, so can't wait for BOA2!

 

[pumukel]

chrazini <3

 

[BFuu]

.Finally, all of you are joking that Nicov will get beched in AM. ¿????? Nicov is for sure top 2 TG player in that team and for sure the best pocker they have. Of course the fpur of them are amazing and could win in any combination, but really...

We might have been joking, indeed. Everyone knows that Nicov is easily a top tier player, even without eco upgrades. Not sure about your ranking though. I remember that legendary Oasis game in ECL finals with aM vs suomi, who would have you switched for Nicov there? It's obviously difficult and sad if you have 4 top players of which only 3 can participate. I really hope there will be a place for everyone, maybe bench rotation, maybe a temporary team instead. We'll see.