Battle of Africa 3 - Official Announcement

Announcement | Handbook | Maps | Discussion | Questions & Answers | Registrations | Discord
​

Official Announcement​

The biggest and most prestigious team game tournament of Age of Empires II is finally making its return. It is long overdue, but we cannot be more excited to share with you that Battle of Africa will once again be happening, and we are incredibly excited to share the details with you.

All games from the main event will be broadcast live starting from Thursday the 2nd of June and ending with the grand final on Sunday the 26th of June. During this time, sixteen teams will be playing in a group stage for the initial three rounds while finishing it off in the last weeks in an exciting single-elimination final stage with everything on the line and a chance to win a significant portion of the $30,000.00 prize pool.

Up to eight teams will immediately qualify for the main event based on previous tournament performances, while everyone else will have time prior to the main event. Two weeks of qualification will occur from Monday the 16th of May to Sunday the 29th of May - allowing up to eight teams to qualify.

As a viewer, you will catch the face of every player in the tournament, experience professional casting, see the player's point of view during intense moments as well as get insights into what goes on in the voice communication during games.
We can practically guarantee that we will see every single civilisation in the game, even the ones from the brand new Dynasties of India.

Prize Pool​

Huge thank you to our sponsor, Microsoft, who made this event possible by sponsoring the event's prize pool of $30,000.00. Another $2,500.00 was provided by MsHuggah, to help cover the tournament costs.

1st place: $10,000.00
2nd place: $5,000.00
3rd and 4th place: $2,500.00
5th to 8th place: $1,250.00
9th to 12th place: $750.00
13th to 16th place: $500.00

Map Pool​

The list of maps is available and shown below; however, the map pack is still being developed and will be released in the upcoming week. Watch out for the three brand new maps, as well as one first-timer featured in this instalment of Battle of Africa 3.

• African Springs (new)
• Beachfight
• Boulder Forest (new)
• Canyon Lake
• Colosseum
• Desert Slope
• Donut
• Dry Socotra
• Grand Bara
• Haboob
• Mahgreb (new)

The map pack are created and maintained by Chrazini.

---

All further information, rules and settings will soon be published in the official handbook. Signing up is already possible here, under the assumption that the handbook will be read once released. Up to five players can be registered per team.

The event will offer entirely open streaming, given that the streaming rules and conditions are respected and adhered to.

 

Disagreed, in this case you should definitely not have put that into the announcement imo.

I was under the impression that "practically guarantee" was something very close to guaranteed. Perhaps that is "virtually guarantee" instead. Perhaps it's a slight exaggeration, perhaps it's just bad English or perhaps we're some dirty liars. Personally leaning towards the latter.

 

It is just one line in annoucement, give him a break. What matters is intention, I feel guilty now bringing it up, if we see 3/4 of civs, that's even OK for me.

I don't understand people, sometimes they defend 100K money transfer to pocket, sometimes make a fuss about one sentence.

 

So the real question is if aM is competing in BoA as a team? Or is MbL just jebaiting us again.

 

I was under the impression that "practically guarantee" was something very close to guaranteed. Perhaps that is "virtually guarantee" instead. Perhaps it's a slight exaggeration, perhaps it's just bad English or perhaps we're some dirty liars. Personally leaning towards the latter.

No, I just meant that the Tournament doesn't need such exaggerations which are just there to "sound good" and the announcement looks imo definitely better without them

I don't understand people, sometimes they defend 100K money transfer to pocket, sometimes make a fuss about one sentence.

Aren't you overreacting a bit?^^

 

Aren't you overreacting a bit?^^

Yeah could be, let's calm things down and celebrate and enjoy the tournament.

 

I am super hyped about this, BoA is perhaps my favorite tournament of all as I tend to enjoy team games more than 1v1 events.

I have some concerns about the recording of the team conversations though. While this would certainly be a treat to watch and listen to as a viewer (I am a big fan of teams recording their POVs with their "tryhard mode" on), I cannot help but worry this may distract the teams themselves from their performance. There could be some strage fright, teams who do not want external ears to listen to what they say while playing games, and simply a lot of additional things players need to do outside the games (preparing all the recording stuff). This might in turn have a negative impact on the quality of the games.

Not to mention there is some unfairness in the language - teams that communicate in English will be under tighter scrutiny that others (although this could be the occasion for me to finally make good on my 2020 resolutions and start learning Vietnamese...).

I'm sure it will be an awesome show, just a bit worried about setting this precedent. Feels a bit like an invasion of privacy as well, as Barles noted.

 

Haso you ready

 

I am super hyped about this, BoA is perhaps my favorite tournament of all as I tend to enjoy team games more than 1v1 events.

I have some concerns about the recording of the team conversations though. While this would certainly be a treat to watch and listen to as a viewer (I am a big fan of teams recording their POVs with their "tryhard mode" on), I cannot help but worry this may distract the teams themselves from their performance. There could be some strage fright, teams who do not want external ears to listen to what they say while playing games, and simply a lot of additional things players need to do outside the games (preparing all the recording stuff). This might in turn have a negative impact on the quality of the games.

Not to mention there is some unfairness in the language - teams that communicate in English will be under tighter scrutiny that others (although this could be the occasion for me to finally make good on my 2020 resolutions and start learning Vietnamese...).

I'm sure it will be an awesome show, just a bit worried about setting this precedent. Feels a bit like an invasion of privacy as well, as Barles noted.

I want to clarify that no one is being directly recorded, other than the snippets that will appear on stream, since they will appear in VODs. The voice chat is also in place as an anti-cheat measure, but only the administration will be able to hear the players when they're not used on stream, and nothing is being saved.
I think it is unfair to categorise it as invasive. The players know what they're signing up for, and it's not an unusual practice.

 

Pretty sure Arabia will be included in some sense. Either as renamed version, or simply more open version of the map (didn't check the maps in the map pool yet).

Is standard TG Arabia being so closed part of the reason it devolves into the exact same game every time? People find no interest in TG Arabia because there is not even the littlest bit of suspense about how things will look.

 

Everything sounds great, the voice, the cams and production so far (trailer) looks really high quality. My only drawback is the support, IMO this is the biggest team tournament AOE2 has, I though it deserves more than 30k.

If there is a draft I hope we can do a virtual table, similar to Redbull but online, maybe put players in a big group call? 2 calls for the 2 teams so they can't hear each other, pre-record the draft so no live cheating by tuning into the stream, allow players the freedom to mute themselves should they want to discuss private strategies they don't want to show in case they decide against using it.

 

My only drawback is the support, IMO this is the biggest team tournament AOE2 has, I though it deserves more than 30k.

I think Memb explained that lovely, do we want single bigger Tournaments or more Tournaments overall?
Most would proly prefer the second option.

Last BoA was in May/June 2020 and the first one was in March/April 2018 so no BoA in 2019/2021.
If this prizepool means we might get BoA every year by all means please do it!

Also let's not forget that f.e KotD4 was in big part sponsored by Pinztec, this time (except for what MsHuggah sponsored for the Tournament costs) it seems to be only MS (based on what we know so far) so it's actually pretty much for a Tournament without any other big sponsor.

 

I am super hyped about this, BoA is perhaps my favorite tournament of all as I tend to enjoy team games more than 1v1 events.

I have some concerns about the recording of the team conversations though. While this would certainly be a treat to watch and listen to as a viewer (I am a big fan of teams recording their POVs with their "tryhard mode" on), I cannot help but worry this may distract the teams themselves from their performance. There could be some strage fright, teams who do not want external ears to listen to what they say while playing games, and simply a lot of additional things players need to do outside the games (preparing all the recording stuff). This might in turn have a negative impact on the quality of the games.

Not to mention there is some unfairness in the language - teams that communicate in English will be under tighter scrutiny that others (although this could be the occasion for me to finally make good on my 2020 resolutions and start learning Vietnamese...).

I'm sure it will be an awesome show, just a bit worried about setting this precedent. Feels a bit like an invasion of privacy as well, as Barles noted.

in other games, they record everything. i dont think there is an invasion of privacy.
LANs tournaments are all recorded, videos, chats, voices, etc, and is real good to the show and after to edit videos and everything.

 

I think face cams/ voice should never be mandatory and only up to the players

Face cam, why not?

Voice, yeah I agree

 

Finally No Arabia…worst TG map for viewers ever…

 

Face cam, why not?

Voice, yeah I agree

Because its not a prerequisite to show your face in order to play the game at the high level; most of these gamers are introverts, they don't like doing that; some got used to it, very few were not introverts to begin with; i believe any requirement to show something personal is too personal and should not be used as blackmail in order to be able to participate;
If it's a LAN, it's a whole different thing and player who goes there automatically knows and agrees he will be seen

 

If it's a LAN, it's a whole different thing and player who goes there automatically knows and agrees he will be seen

In this case People also know before that they will be seen, no one signs up for this Tournament without knowing (except for those wo don't pay attention to what they sign up for but that's obv. theyre own mistake).

I see your point that introverts don't want that, but I don't see why it's okay for a Lan but not for an online Tournament.

 

In this case People also know before that they will be seen, no one signs up for this Tournament without knowing (except for those wo don't pay attention to what they sign up for but that's obv. theyre own mistake).

I see your point that introverts don't want that, but I don't see why it's okay for a Lan but not for an online Tournament.

Online, you can play without being seen; On LAN, that is physically impossible; where is the question? people know since they are 4 years old(12 for you) that they cannot be invisible

 

Online, you can play without being seen; On LAN, that is physically impossible; where is the question? people know since they are 4 years old(12 for you) that they cannot be invisible

on LAN you can choose to not film players too. Also facecam can be considered as another anti-cheat measurement too.

 

I personally like the idea of voicechat highlights.

But if only one good team decides to not attend because of this I would prefer to have the team attending rather than having this nice to have feature. And I can fully understand why you could be unconfortable with it.

That being said memb is a good guy, I am sure he will find solutions for those who are not ok with it and still deliver a sick tournament as always.

 

So Good

 

Everything sounds great, the voice, the cams and production so far (trailer) looks really high quality. My only drawback is the support, IMO this is the biggest team tournament AOE2 has, I though it deserves more than 30k

We have to thank @Nili_AoE for that. He allocated so much to aoe4 and to his own tournament there is barely anything left.

 

We have to thank @Nili_AoE for that. He allocated so much to aoe4 and his own tournament there is barely anything left.

the hate towards nili is not welcome in our tournament thread, posts like this from now on will be deleted, so for everyone that keep with this kind of behave, plz just stop.

Thanks in advance.

 

View attachment 200041

Announcement | Handbook | Maps | Discussion | Questions & Answers | Registrations | Discord
​

Official Announcement​

The biggest and most prestigious team game tournament of Age of Empires II is finally making its return. It is long overdue, but we cannot be more excited to share with you that Battle of Africa will once again be happening, and we are incredibly excited to share the details with you.

All games from the main event will be broadcast live starting from Thursday the 2nd of June and ending with the grand final on Sunday the 26th of June. During this time, sixteen teams will be playing in a group stage for the initial three rounds while finishing it off in the last weeks in an exciting single-elimination final stage with everything on the line and a chance to win a significant portion of the $30,000.00 prize pool.

Up to eight teams will immediately qualify for the main event based on previous tournament performances, while everyone else will have time prior to the main event. Two weeks of qualification will occur from Monday the 16th of May to Sunday the 29th of May - allowing up to eight teams to qualify.

As a viewer, you will catch the face of every player in the tournament, experience professional casting, see the player's point of view during intense moments as well as get insights into what goes on in the voice communication during games.
We can practically guarantee that we will see every single civilisation in the game, even the ones from the brand new Dynasties of India.

Prize Pool​

Huge thank you to our sponsor, Microsoft, who made this event possible by sponsoring the event's prize pool of $30,000.00. Another $2,500.00 was provided by MsHuggah, to help cover the tournament costs.

1st place: $10,000.00
2nd place: $5,000.00
3rd and 4th place: $2,500.00
5th to 8th place: $1,250.00
9th to 12th place: $750.00
13th to 16th place: $500.00

Map Pool​

The list of maps is available and shown below; however, the map pack is still being developed and will be released in the upcoming week. Watch out for the three brand new maps, as well as one first-timer featured in this instalment of Battle of Africa 3.

• African Springs (new)
• Beachfight
• Boulder Forest (new)
• Canyon Lake
• Colosseum
• Desert Slope
• Donut
• Dry Socotra
• Grand Bara
• Haboob
• Mahgreb (new)

The map pack are created and maintained by Chrazini.

---

All further information, rules and settings will soon be published in the official handbook. Signing up is already possible here, under the assumption that the handbook will be read once released. Up to five players can be registered per team.

The event will offer entirely open streaming, given that the streaming rules and conditions are respected and adhered to.

Amazing

 

View attachment 200041

Announcement | Handbook | Maps | Discussion | Questions & Answers | Registrations | Discord
​

Official Announcement​

The biggest and most prestigious team game tournament of Age of Empires II is finally making its return. It is long overdue, but we cannot be more excited to share with you that Battle of Africa will once again be happening, and we are incredibly excited to share the details with you.

All games from the main event will be broadcast live starting from Thursday the 2nd of June and ending with the grand final on Sunday the 26th of June. During this time, sixteen teams will be playing in a group stage for the initial three rounds while finishing it off in the last weeks in an exciting single-elimination final stage with everything on the line and a chance to win a significant portion of the $30,000.00 prize pool.

Up to eight teams will immediately qualify for the main event based on previous tournament performances, while everyone else will have time prior to the main event. Two weeks of qualification will occur from Monday the 16th of May to Sunday the 29th of May - allowing up to eight teams to qualify.

As a viewer, you will catch the face of every player in the tournament, experience professional casting, see the player's point of view during intense moments as well as get insights into what goes on in the voice communication during games.
We can practically guarantee that we will see every single civilisation in the game, even the ones from the brand new Dynasties of India.

Prize Pool​

Huge thank you to our sponsor, Microsoft, who made this event possible by sponsoring the event's prize pool of $30,000.00. Another $2,500.00 was provided by MsHuggah, to help cover the tournament costs.

1st place: $10,000.00
2nd place: $5,000.00
3rd and 4th place: $2,500.00
5th to 8th place: $1,250.00
9th to 12th place: $750.00
13th to 16th place: $500.00

Map Pool​

The list of maps is available and shown below; however, the map pack is still being developed and will be released in the upcoming week. Watch out for the three brand new maps, as well as one first-timer featured in this instalment of Battle of Africa 3.

• African Springs (new)
• Beachfight
• Boulder Forest (new)
• Canyon Lake
• Colosseum
• Desert Slope
• Donut
• Dry Socotra
• Grand Bara
• Haboob
• Mahgreb (new)

The map pack are created and maintained by Chrazini.

---

All further information, rules and settings will soon be published in the official handbook. Signing up is already possible here, under the assumption that the handbook will be read once released. Up to five players can be registered per team.

The event will offer entirely open streaming, given that the streaming rules and conditions are respected and adhered to.

Thank you MEMB for all the hard work you put into this I cannot wait to see the incredible plays and casting in this event.

 

None of the African civs (Berbers eth or Malians) have eles just saying