NAC 4 - Trailer

[Springoftheking]

Brackets has much same than in the 1st qualifier. DauT, Nicov, Dogao and Capoch were also in same bracket in the 1st qualifier.

Seeding were accurately, when from the 1st qualifier seeds 1-3 qualified and seeds 4, 5, and 7 were in final round.

 

[LowEloNobody]

Oh boi! Super excited to see a $100k S-tier event from Nili on the same level as tOotS Grand Melee & RBW. Great to see a return to the Super-S tier event scene from Nili after a somewhat underwhelming N4C

 

[Zeev]

Nili has some financial problems with the tournament and he had to cut the prize pool to 50k.

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

Nili has some financial problems with the tournament and he had to cut the prize pool to 50k.

Flights in 2023 and hotels in Berlin definitely are expensive.
With 200 nights that could easily be $20k. Was it never considered to have people (at least players) sleep in the GL gaming house? That might have made a difference of between $10k and $20k.

 

[LeoMontero]

Oh boi! Super excited to see a $100k S-tier event from Nili on the same level as tOotS Grand Melee & RBW. Great to see a return to the Super-S tier event scene from Nili after a somewhat underwhelming N4C

nice timing

 

[Chanson]

I was critical of Nili elsewhere for other reasons but this latest news seems like the right (if unfortunate) decision. The $100K+ prize pool for a high production LAN event era didn’t seem very sustainable given the economic climate but it’s good he found a way to continue with the reduced prize pool.

 

[Springoftheking]

Sad news for Nili, but $50K is still a big prize pool.

 

[LowEloNobody]

Flights in 2023 and hotels in Berlin definitely are expensive.
With 200 nights that could easily be $20k. Was it never considered to have people (at least players) sleep in the GL gaming house? That might have made a difference of between $10k and $20k.

I'm guessing they need some or all of those rooms for production / observer / more computers etc.

 

[_Raiden_]

$50k with everything covered and great production is awesome to see. This might encourage players even more to compete. I believe you will have an amazing event and I hope our AoE2 community appreciates your effort.

 

[Belgawizard]

NAC1 & 2 are probably my favorites and they had low/no production cost I think.

Still extremely hyped for this!!!

 

[AguaSucia]

$50k with everything covered and great production is awesome to see. This might encourage players even more to compete. I believe you will have an amazing event and I hope our AoE2 community appreciates your effort.

the same community that abandoned by the AOEIV?? memory

 

[oozkan]

So he didn't sign sponsors he was chasing... he will check why they didn't sign up later.

I will give you a starting point, may be they watched n4c...

 

[_Raiden_]

the same community that abandoned by the AOEIV?? memory

Sure, but to blanket Nili as a detriment to AoE2 community because of metrics/goals he was expected to meet as part of his job is immature. The problem is most of us are as good as our last event. When looking at the entirety of AoE2 contributions from Nili, all I can say is Thank You.

 

[archxeon]

From a single viewer's perspective, the hype for a tournament doesn't scale linearly with the amount of prize pool. These days a prizepool of $20000 and $40000 seem to be feel not that different. Maybe the players feel it a lot more. If the tournament had been announced with a $50k prize pool from the start, I don't think I'd be any less hyped.

 

[Marteens]

I don't think there is a big issue per se , there is no money for more than 50k prizepool without him getting in red numbers. 50k is still a big prizepool considering the LAN costs!!

What's surprising is announcing a 100k tournament without sponsor moneys being committed. I honestly do not understand it. If you do not have the money just say 50k and then if sponsors add up increase the prizepool.

 

[XDDXOXO]

What's surprising is announcing a 100k tournament without sponsor moneys being committed. I honestly do not understand it. If you do not have the money just say 50k and then if sponsors add up increase the prizepool.

Exactly what I thought and coming from a person who always claims that AoE need to be more professional... Why not wait until any decision positive or negative is made? Did he want to this to be a 100k tournament so badly?

 

[malamadre]

Maybe he could have saved some bucks if he didnt host an aoe4 lan tournament... and maybe sponsors would still be on track if they had seen great viewers in his last tournament experience.
Anyways it should be fun tournament still

 

[Musashi]

I think Nili made the right call and as many point out already 50K is already super top-tier. But in a context where a lot of tech companies (usual sponsors of these type of things) are cutting costs big time it's (unfortunately) understandable that AOE $ has scaled back.

The AOE4 comments are bs. I don't like AOE4 but the N4C tournament was well organized and smooth. Sponsors look at THAT. They're not "Oh, wow, because the N4C didn't get viewers this for AOE2 won't get either".

 

[Springoftheking]

If I understand correctly, originally Microsoft gave $100.000 for prize pool and Nili negotiated with bigger sponsors for covering the event cost when NAC4 was announced. But then sponsor negotiations failed and Nili asked for Microsoft to use half of $100.000 for event cost instead prize pool.

 

[LowEloNobody]

If I understand correctly, originally Microsoft gave $100.000 for prize pool and Nili negotiated with bigger sponsors for covering the event cost when NAC4 was announced. But then sponsor negotiations failed and Nili asked for Microsoft to use half of $100.000 for event cost instead prize pool.

Yes.

 

[Snizl]

The AOE4 comments are bs. I don't like AOE4 but the N4C tournament was well organized and smooth. Sponsors look at THAT. They're not "Oh, wow, because the N4C didn't get viewers this for AOE2 won't get either".

I agree with that Statement. Organization was great, but bashing his own tournament and voicing his disapointment with the finalists sitting next to him right after the conclusion of the tournament was an unfortunate move that I would expect to make sponsors worry.
Couple that with a whole VOD of another Event being deleted due to a political comment from him, and i would not be surprised if Nili as a person was a contributing factor. He is a great tournament organizer and caster, but did slightly self sabotage his career after it was taking off really well.

 

[Giuseppe551]

Can we get Arabia as game 1 for the main event please? We're only seeing it in around 40% of sets during the qualifier and it's not great. It's the community's favorite map by far, the most played map, the most balanced map, and has been up until recently regarded as the signature competitive map in age of empires. Nili himself said last weekend that balance is designed around arabia and that it is "such a clean, skill-based map". Why then are we treating it like any common map that can be banned? I'd argue for arena (normal arena, not this hippo thing) to be a fixed map as well. It would make this mixed map nonsense so much more tolerable to at least have a guaranteed two classic maps per set.

 

[paradox303]

Can we get Arabia as game 1 for the main event please? We're only seeing it in around 40% of sets during the qualifier and it's not great. It's the community's favorite map by far, the most played map, the most balanced map, and has been up until recently regarded as the signature competitive map in age of empires. Nili himself said last weekend that balance is designed around arabia and that it is "such a clean, skill-based map". Why then are we treating it like any common map that can be banned? I'd argue for arena (normal arena, not this hippo thing) to be a fixed map as well. It would make this mixed map nonsense so much more tolerable to at least have a guaranteed two classic maps per set.

Fixed maps have their issues in competitive settings. Forcing a map that may favour one player is just completely unfair. Also, pro players have relied on this for far too long.

Having more and more tournaments utilize a "neutral" G1 map has become more and more common in the last 18 months in the competitive scene and it is a great change. It adds an extra layer to drafting, forces variety too, but most importantly you generally have two players meeting somewhere in the middle and compromising in the draft and playing on a map that neither should love/hate.

 

[Giuseppe551]

Arabia doesn't favor one player over another, it favors skill. This is a direct quote from Nili's right before last week's Duat vs Villese set:

"Arabia, typically, the generally better player wins because it’s such a clean, skilled map"

He also acknowledged that the game is balanced around Arabia.

forces variety too

11 it's the exact opposite of variety unless you think picking Japanese on every **** hybrid map is variety

 

[LowEloNobody]

Arabia doesn't favor one player over another, it favors skill. This is a direct quote from Nili's right before last week's Duat vs Villese set:

"Arabia, typically, the generally better player wins because it’s such a clean, skilled map"

He also acknowledged that the game is balanced around Arabia.

11 it's the exact opposite of variety unless you think picking Japanese on every **** hybrid map is variety

People also pick Dravidians and sometimes even Persians