MSC 10.800$ 1v1 Event

I have the honor to announce that thanks to the Chinese sponsor AoE_ROTR with the invaluable assistance of the great Mr.YO , MembTV has been chosen to organize a 1v1 tournament of our beloved Age of Empires 2 with the WK expansion, which will bring us nothing more and nothing less than the best 16 players duking it out in the Mangrove Shallows Cup. The tournament will provide some special maps and settings including RM and a map per round in DM. The total prize of the tournament is 10,800 USD and will take place during a 5 weeks Swiss format to subsequently move to Single Elimination.

The tournament participants will be 16 players who are directly invited by the sponsor, the choice of the same has been conducted by polling some of the best players in our community for their opinion of the top 16 players. After collating and analyzing their votes the list of participants is as follows, in order:

1. TheViper
2.Liereyy
3. Mr.Yo
4. MbL
5. TaToH
6. TheMax
7. ViVi
8. Nicov
9. DauT
10. Dogao
11. BacT
12. Hera
13. Tim
14. Lyx
15. ACCM
16. Villese

You can find all the information HERE

Remember to join the GROUP to have full access.



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[SuperskinnyBLS]

Bery nice!

 

[_srini_IVIaIVIa_]

gogogogogo Memb <3

 

[Mangudied]

Gonna be aguasome!

 

[Gooner26]

Ay ay ay. Sick event!

 

[Bowserlord]

"... and a map per round in DM." - Love this!

 

[SILENTWARRIOR01]

Excellent Memb HYPE...

 

[vesnoimorskoi]

Wouldn't mini DM bo3 better than just one game?

 

[Mouttie]

sooo hyped... estay tunis

 

[LaaaaaN]

Great news for aoc but sad about the format.

I know its a sponsor decision to make it invitational or only 16 spots but this is sad for me and probably for the other players who cant play this and we are playing this game daily.
I'm not here to judge who deserves to play or who is rank 16, because as all we know, there are 3 kind of players. First, Viper and Lierey. Second, Tatoh, mbl, yo. And then, around 20-25 players. If we see the results of the tournaments of this year we can conclude that. In the 3rd group of players, anyone can lose to the others, there is no favourites because it depends in a lot of factors.

And about me, this makes me lose the motivation to keep playing. People have written me lately and they said i dont have enough experience or i am too new, and my answer is how am i suposed to win experience if i cant play tournaments. Talking about HC, same happened, 14 players get into the tournament just by rating and the others we have to play a qualification, only 2 spots. I like this but i would make more spots in the qualification. I had to face a dogao when he was in his peak, and im sure some players who were already into the tournament would have lost against him aswell (he almost wins lierey). Talking about Aspiring Experts, I couldnt even play because of my rating even im "new top" player in the scene.
We have seen the same players in tournaments for +5 years. I would say, only Villese could be considered as new top player (and he has been 2k2 for almost 3 years). So I dont know. I cant get "experience" because I can't play with the best and I can't play with the new 2k3 players. What should I do? Inflate my rating in voobly? When rating sucks and most of the random 1v1 games are civ wins. The only what matters is playing and being able to play tournaments. I feel like all the new tournaments are designed for old players (of course they are the best), but excluding the new top players just hurt the game, because eventually people will stop playing this.

Just wanted to share my opinion, no offense.

 

[Bowserlord]

This mappack is horrible...

 

[MembTV]

This mappack is horrible...

that what i thought when i saw 1st time, you will get surprised

 

[Hellrider_23]

adding a bit of DM into a tournament like this is amazing.
Crazy maps tho... should be interesting

Yo is top3, experts are on my side with this one Kappa

 

[King_Marv]

Great news for aoc but sad about the format.

I know its a sponsor decision to make it invitational or only 16 spots but this is sad for me and probably for the other players who cant play this and we are playing this game daily.
I'm not here to judge who deserves to play or who is rank 16, because as all we know, there are 3 kind of players. First, Viper and Lierey. Second, Tatoh, mbl, yo. And then, around 20-25 players. If we see the results of the tournaments of this year we can conclude that. In the 3rd group of players, anyone can lose to the others, there is no favourites because it depends in a lot of factors.

And about me, this makes me lose the motivation to keep playing. People have written me lately and they said i dont have enough experience or i am too new, and my answer is how am i suposed to win experience if i cant play tournaments. Talking about HC, same happened, 14 players get into the tournament just by rating and the others we have to play a qualification, only 2 spots. I like this but i would make more spots in the qualification. I had to face a dogao when he was in his peak, and im sure some players who were already into the tournament would have lost against him aswell (he almost wins lierey). Talking about Aspiring Experts, I couldnt even play because of my rating even im "new top" player in the scene.
We have seen the same players in tournaments for +5 years. I would say, only Villese could be considered as new top player (and he has been 2k2 for almost 3 years). So I dont know. I cant get "experience" because I can't play with the best and I can't play with the new 2k3 players. What should I do? Inflate my rating in voobly? When rating sucks and most of the random 1v1 games are civ wins. The only what matters is playing and being able to play tournaments. I feel like all the new tournaments are designed for old players (of course they are the best), but excluding the new top players just hurt the game, because eventually people will stop playing this.

Just wanted to share my opinion, no offense.

Agree with that. Sponsors should consider qualification more. Sure it takes longer but we’ll if you know in advance you can just start 2 weeks earlier or something.

 

[kalkkaro]

DM is super interesting although potentially a bit unfair for players not familiar with DM meta (the openings are very important there) especially when it's the deciding game. Well, those guys gotta do some practice and what could be better motivator than 10k prizepool

 

[Influenza]

Great news for aoc but sad about the format.

I know its a sponsor decision to make it invitational or only 16 spots but this is sad for me and probably for the other players who cant play this and we are playing this game daily.
I'm not here to judge who deserves to play or who is rank 16, because as all we know, there are 3 kind of players. First, Viper and Lierey. Second, Tatoh, mbl, yo. And then, around 20-25 players. If we see the results of the tournaments of this year we can conclude that. In the 3rd group of players, anyone can lose to the others, there is no favourites because it depends in a lot of factors.

And about me, this makes me lose the motivation to keep playing. People have written me lately and they said i dont have enough experience or i am too new, and my answer is how am i suposed to win experience if i cant play tournaments. Talking about HC, same happened, 14 players get into the tournament just by rating and the others we have to play a qualification, only 2 spots. I like this but i would make more spots in the qualification. I had to face a dogao when he was in his peak, and im sure some players who were already into the tournament would have lost against him aswell (he almost wins lierey). Talking about Aspiring Experts, I couldnt even play because of my rating even im "new top" player in the scene.
We have seen the same players in tournaments for +5 years. I would say, only Villese could be considered as new top player (and he has been 2k2 for almost 3 years). So I dont know. I cant get "experience" because I can't play with the best and I can't play with the new 2k3 players. What should I do? Inflate my rating in voobly? When rating sucks and most of the random 1v1 games are civ wins. The only what matters is playing and being able to play tournaments. I feel like all the new tournaments are designed for old players (of course they are the best), but excluding the new top players just hurt the game, because eventually people will stop playing this.

Just wanted to share my opinion, no offense.

100% agree. And it's also important to note why exactly, in recent years, there has been a gradual push towards the premier tournaments becoming more and more exclusive. It's the inevitable result of tournaments shifting from being managed by the community, for the community to both view and PLAY, to them being managed by private streams for whoever the streamer/donors want.

Streamers, understandably, will want to provide content that will attract the most viewers, and avoid content that their viewers will not want to watch. For some people, that's the top 5 players, for others, the top 16, top 32, etc. Since it is more simple for the admins to manage a tournament with fewer players, those individuals outside of that boundary who want to participate in the tournament will be quickly forgotten.

It's also one reason why 3v3 and 4v4 TG tournaments are becoming more rare (another big reason is ECL). What will get more viewers, a 3v3 between BzK and SY, or a 1v1 between RiuT and Yo? The answer is obvious, and it is very informative as to why the tournaments of the last couple years have the settings they do.

One way some tournament hosts try to navigate the problem of having little content for players/teams outside of the top 10/20/etc. is by hosting silver leagues in addition to their tournaments. While it doesn't sound so bad, I think it ultimately contributes very little, as long as these events are not organized as a recurring season. It's like a decent sized prize pool for the top 16, and then ~5% of that for the noobs below, who never even had a chance of playing with the big boys, having instantly been relegated to the silver league by being beyond the rating cut-off point.

While it is unreasonable to have an infinite amount of places in tournaments for just anyone to play (although some A level tournaments of the past did just that) Players and teams who have the ability to be competitive with the top teams should be given a chance to play. There are plenty examples of upsets that are unlikely to ever take place with how this current system operates, like melkor+feanor knocking out lierey+heart from Masters of Ara 2v2 2016, Lovecheng knocking Daut out of KotD 2, and many others that I don't remember. These are clearly very competitive players, capable of impressive results, being summarily excluded from many tournaments due to name recognition+a largely arbitrary number that exists on their voobly profile.

 

[KubanDud3]

100% agree. And it's also important to note why exactly, in recent years, there has been a gradual push towards the premier tournaments becoming more and more exclusive. It's the inevitable result of tournaments shifting from being managed by the community, for the community to both view and PLAY, to them being managed by private streams for whoever the streamer/donors want.

Streamers, understandably, will want to provide content that will attract the most viewers, and avoid content that their viewers will not want to watch. For some people, that's the top 5 players, for others, the top 16, top 32, etc. Since it is more simple for the admins to manage a tournament with fewer players, those individuals outside of that boundary who want to participate in the tournament will be quickly forgotten.

It's also one reason why 3v3 and 4v4 TG tournaments are becoming more rare (another big reason is ECL). What will get more viewers, a 3v3 between BzK and SY, or a 1v1 between RiuT and Yo? The answer is obvious, and it is very informative as to why the tournaments of the last couple years have the settings they do.

One way some tournament hosts try to navigate the problem of having little content for players/teams outside of the top 10/20/etc. is by hosting silver leagues in addition to their tournaments. While it doesn't sound so bad, I think it ultimately contributes very little, as long as these events are not organized as a recurring season. It's like a decent sized prize pool for the top 16, and then ~5% of that for the noobs below, who never even had a chance of playing with the big boys, having instantly been relegated to the silver league by being beyond the rating cut-off point.

While it is unreasonable to have an infinite amount of places in tournaments for just anyone to play (although some A level tournaments of the past did just that) Players and teams who have the ability to be competitive with the top teams should be given a chance to play. There are plenty examples of upsets that are unlikely to ever take place with how this current system operates, like melkor+feanor knocking out lierey+heart from Masters of Ara 2v2 2016, Lovecheng knocking Daut out of KotD 2, and many others that I don't remember. These are clearly very competitive players, capable of impressive results, being summarily excluded from many tournaments due to name recognition+a largely arbitrary number that exists on their voobly profile.

All good thoughts though the invitees this time around were selected by the players themselves, not some "largely arbitrary number that exists on their voobly profile."

 

[Nicov]

I hope mixing DM in a RM tournament is just an exception this time and not something to be considered in future tournaments. I still remember WiC back in the days.. Ugh

 

[Influenza]

All good thoughts though the invitees this time around were selected by the players themselves, not some "largely arbitrary number that exists on their voobly profile."

You are correct, however, name recognition plays a significant role as well, as I mentioned. i.e. a 2k3 inactive slam (who I believe was ranked #17) has a lot more precedence over other active 2k3-2k5 rated players who are unable to play in this tournament. My comments there are not about this tournament solely, but generally about the tournaments of the last 1-2 years. Might not be the best place for them, but I want to type them somewhere they will be read.

 

[Tarsiz]

Sounds really great, I'm hyped to see another high profile tournament!

I have a few questions:
- Are the balance changes that are supposed to make ships less strongs on mixed maps published somewhere already? Maybe I'm just blind but I couldn't find them
- I feel like this map has an unfair positioning of the players, is the generation always going to be like this?

I'm sure we'll see some great games regardless and the DM thing spices things up!

 

[nimanoe]

When I saw the title of the tournament I was pretty disappointed, because I'm not a big fan of maps that use the mangrove shallows, because ships are OP on those maps. However, now that all ships are nerfed, I'm actually looking forward to see how this will play out.

I also like that we can see some DM, as I have always enjoyed DM, although I fear that it might make the series a bit more one-sided, but we'll see.

So thanks for organizing this, looking forward to see who will adjust the best on these maps with the ship nerfs!

- Are the balance changes that are supposed to make ships less strongs on mixed maps published somewhere already? Maybe I'm just blind but I couldn't find them

They are published on the Mod on the Voobly Mod Center, although I agree they could be featured a bit more prominent on the Rules and Settings as well.

 

[Matatrader4]

I think Theviper will win the tournament because he proved himself again and again in RM.And dont forget that DM is also his advantage.

 

[MembTV]

When I saw the title of the tournament I was pretty disappointed, because I'm not a big fan of maps that use the mangrove shallows, because ships are OP on those maps. However, now that all ships are nerfed, I'm actually looking forward to see how this will play out.

I also like that we can see some DM, as I have always enjoyed DM, although I fear that it might make the series a bit more one-sided, but we'll see.

So thanks for organizing this, looking forward to see who will adjust the best on these maps with the ship nerfs!


They are published on the Mod on the Voobly Mod Center, although I agree they could be featured a bit more prominent on the Rules and Settings as well.

we are still working on it, for that reason we didn´t add the final version, when its 100% the one that will stay, then will be there too, is to not confuse people too much.

 

[kalkkaro]

I think Theviper will win the tournament because he proved himself again and again in RM.And dont forget that DM is also his advantage.

He will pretty much get free win in the finals against mbl/liereey/max/vivi. Maybe Tatoh stands some chances in DM since he played in 2v2 DM tourney with Viper some time ago.

 

[Matatrader4]

And i dont like the maps.The navies are toooo strong and we cant see any land army