[KotD3] Official Announcement

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Official Announcement
It is with great excitement and joy that we present to you, the third and biggest instalment of King of the Desert. Once again, we will experience the best players in the world fight on the map we all love - Arabia.

The tournament features an incredible 50,000$ prize pool brought to you by PinzTec and Microsoft - this will undoubtedly motivate the players to perform at their very best.

$50,000.00 PRIZE POOL

King of the Desert 3 will span across six weeks from the 14th of September to the 25th of October. In the previous instalments, the tournaments have been purely single-elimination, but to spice things up and create more content for you, we’ll be running this year’s instalment also using the GSL style format. All games from the group stage and onwards will be streamed live - so you can expect to be sitting at the edge of your seat as you experience some of the best Age of Empires 2 as of yet.

You will find all relevant information in the official handbook.
All games will be cast by MembTV on https://www.twitch.tv/membtv - furthermore, the tournament offers open streaming. If you're interested in streaming this event, make sure to check this thread or the last page of the handbook.

We hope you are all as excited about this tournament as we are; we simply cannot wait to get started. We hope to see you all on stream for some of the best Age of Empires 2 ever.

WE LOVE THIS GAME!​

 

[HeavenlyChorus]

 

[Foxxys856]

come here from watching T90 and honestly watching this game/final was fantastic im happy to see a next final and i have work off during this time to so a big thank you from the uk *respect to all the players

 

[AguaSucia]

Hermoso torneo. En el cual se define el numero 1

 

[Sekigahara1]

The best year in the history of Aoe2. Masters of Arabia with 50k prizepool. The world championship with the gold standard settings, it's going to be special.

 

[nimanoe]

I think this will be the best KotD so far, it couldn't be at a better time. The title for 1st place is quite up in the air, so hopefully this tournament will clear up if TheViper still is the best on the most conventional settings or if the Red Bull tournaments were just an anomaly. Meanwhile Hera, Yo and Liereyy had good performances in the Red Bull tournament, but can they do the same here?

And outside the top 4 there's a lot of competition as well: MbL hasn't really played up to his standard lately, but can he turn the tide? Nicov seems solid, but lately always meets a very tough opponent in the first rounds, so will he finally get a chance to prove himself? And will Capoch continue his resurgence with a solid performance?

Of course we still have to wait and see how the games turn out, but this tournament has all the signs of being one for the history books.

 

[dogao]

I think the prizepool could have been splitted better, like giving a bit of money to top 32 players, and a bit more to top 16, it's really hard to achieve that.

 

[GhostOfYoda]

I think the prizepool could have been splitted better, like giving a bit of money to top 32 players, and a bit more to top 16, it's really hard to achieve that.

I think the guidebook is written a little confusingly, but the top-32 get $125, and the top-16 get $750. [It calls these 8th finalists, and 16th-finalists - but the subscript makes clear these are those who lose the RO16 and RO32 respectively].

 

[dogao]

Oh if that's the case then my bad, I thought top 32 would get $0 and top 16 $125.

 

[Tendo]

Of course we still have to wait and see how the games turn out, but this tournament has all the signs of being one for the history books.

Atleast it should be the one were it's the hardest to predict the outcome with standard settings since a long time, especially now that aM discovered the secret of the former secret team called "preparation".

 

[RobChang]

Oh if that's the case then my bad, I thought top 32 would get $0 and top 16 $125.

Indeed, $14000 alone will be given in the qualifiers. 16x125 for Top 32, 16x750 for Top 16.

 

[T90Official]

That’s a big Pog from me. Let’s go!

 

[edu2008]

The biggest aoe event this year indeed. well, KOD3 is arab map only, so many good players out there, expecting to see more and more underdogs to play. hype. !!!!!!

 

[Lankbouv]

As much as hybrid maps are interesting, Arabia is where it's at for skill!

 

[Mouttie]

I'm hyped already especially with the recent results.

 

[windbirdie]

This "complex" format is diamond here, through which all the players have sufficient chance to prove themselves through multiple games against multiple opponents, largely avoiding conditions where a player has a bad/ill day.

 

[The Taxman]

POGGERS

 

[MembTV]

Well im not only excited with KOTD, that for me is something special more than any other tournament, for several reasons, also this time with the level the players are showing, we are all more and more exciting to see how can be the perform and who will be the winner, probably the 1st time that many people do not know what to answer!!!!!

what would be that answer for you now???

 

[The Bloodless]

Well im not only excited with KOTD, that for me is something special more than any other tournament, for several reasons, also this time with the level the players are showing, we are all more and more exciting to see how can be the perform and who will be the winner, probably the 1st time that many people do not know what to answer!!!!!

what would be that answer for you now???

Lierrey imo. When he is dedicated he is the most skilled (and viper has groomed him as his successor :P how many times has he said lierrey is the number two player and the one with the most potential).

 

[NkoDragas]

I would like to talk a little about the banner now that redbull has ended, since day one I thought in the colors I wanted for this edition to be absolutely different to the ones in the second one blue the night with yellow and orange perfect dunes, so I tought into making this desert in the middle of a raze on one side trebs, in the other the city and not just smoke, something like a sandtorm (haboob if you prefer that word) and Im talking of a decision made months ago.

Now with the recent results this decisions have a different meaning, like, we have to wait to this smoke and dust that make the sky so dark and red to disappear to finally see if certain player is still number one o still the king in this case, and everything with an enourmous battle just in front of us.

 

[marco47]

I think Hera is the favorite, but Liereyy is a close second. Liereyy's micro has no rival but his gameplay in imperial is lacking imo. With standard settings, more games should reach the late stages and I think Hera's been outplaying everyone for months there.

 

[Elvaenor]

I think the Viper is still the clear favorite to win the tournament. The biggest tournaments past year, if you exclude red bull wololo, still had viper victorious, or runner up with the smaller ones.
Nice to see that his recent performance last (few) month(s) has people hyped though! Certainly interesting to see how things will go from here. I think if he loses this tournament it's clear the top 5 are getting closer to each other since this tournament is on par for me with HC and NAC.

 

[Hunyadi_]

Well im not only excited with KOTD, that for me is something special more than any other tournament, for several reasons, also this time with the level the players are showing, we are all more and more exciting to see how can be the perform and who will be the winner, probably the 1st time that many people do not know what to answer!!!!!

what would be that answer for you now???

Man I don't know. It's as close as it's ever been and that's so amazing. I can't wait!

 

[chacotanlines]

Just curious, since big tournaments have become open streaming now which is nice for the community, how does that play out for the tournament organizer? If there are more popular casters they will pull in more viewers and more subs/donations than the organizer. Do those casters gift subs or a donation to say thanks to the organizer or does the tournament just benefit the most popular streamers more than the organizer? Not trying to start drama just genuinely curious. As a viewer I want all casters to do well if that is their goal. It’s good for the community. Thanks memb for organizing this.

Also viper is still #1 in everything except EW until proven otherwise although the gap has seemed to close more now than it has in a long time. Mr. Yo and liereyy are big threats.

 

[Miral]

Just curious, since big tournaments have become open streaming now which is nice for the community, how does that play out for the tournament organizer? If there are more popular casters they will pull in more viewers and more subs/donations than the organizer. Do those casters gift subs or a donation to say thanks to the organizer or does the tournament just benefit the most popular streamers more than the organizer? Not trying to start drama just genuinely curious. As a viewer I want all casters to do well if that is their goal. It’s good for the community. Thanks memb for organizing this.

Also viper is still #1 in everything except EW until proven otherwise although the gap has seemed to close more now than it has in a long time. Mr. Yo and liereyy are big threats.

This is definitly a question to raise. No bad feeling but there is a reality: when T90 organize Hidden cup most of viewers are on his channel. When Memb organized BO2, he did not fully benefit from it. Maybe less than T90. It sounds quite unfair.
I wish Memb (and the KOTD team) will largely benefit from KOTD. Honnestly a donation % going to Memb and its team would sound very fair to me.