Nili announces NC4 - $100K AoE4 LAN

[Fall]

I'm not going to mince words, I'm extremely disappointed that this is an AOE4 tournament. I watched Nili's video, and personally I still don't get the reason - it's like he's hoping AOE4 turns into a solid to good game, but AOE2 already is better than that. Like, even if AOE4 improves a lot, it's still worse than the alternative, so why not just choose the alternative?

Perhaps this $100K was available only for AOE4 and not AOE2, but I'll be sad regardless - NAC3 was incredible, can you imagine how good a NAC4 with this kind of prize pool for AOE2 would be? Especially after all the lockdowns etc, there is a huge appetite for another in-person AOE2 tournament.

A lot of what made NAC special was the community/relationships between the players and casters that had been built up over years and even decades, and the very open and candid way that Nili designed the event to allow that atmosphere to be shared with the viewers.

I don't know if a collection of players from various different communities who have moved over to AOE4 for various reasons will generate the same type of atmosphere, personally. I feel like the 'Unique Selling Point' of NAC is completely wasted on an AOE4 tournament.

Anyway, said my piece, I won't be watching but having spent a solid amount of time on Nili's channel over the years I do hope that the event is still successful for him personally.

 

[Zhengyisao]

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Nili saying it is absolutely conflict of interest, doesnt care
Disgusting.

 

[rmcoo]

Nili can't read the room.

Exclude AoEZone, go through the comments on his two Youtube videos on the announcement, look at his viewer numbers. What an objectively poor decision he has made.

Youtube removed the dislike bar just in time 11

 

[PROject_Belgium]

+1, this is pure curruption.

Also: Why is this a LAN? Normally, the great thing about a LAN is that people from a community that know each other for years can finally meet. Within AOE4 there is almost zero connection between the players (if not connected by previous games).

Well, obviously it's a LAN so that Nili can have all the viewer numbers for himself and support only his channcel (and noone else's)

This must be the joke of the century

I'll put my Simonsan hat on:

Firstly do you think aoe4 players are lesser than aoe2? Secondly: just because the game is new doesn't make it so people can't get to know eachother and don't deserve a lan. This will be a good opportunity to get to know other players of the aoe4 community. You have to step out of your bubble sometimes. At one point many of the aoe2 players didn't know eachother.

 

[rmcoo]

Bugum being controversial as usual <3

 

[bfish22090]

Nili is a traitor to aoe2

 

[amazing_knight]

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

I also see multiple problematic aspects, however, I don't see it controversial that it's AoE 4. I had been more surprised if it was AoE 2. The tournament might not be the most competitive settings, but NAC was always not just about the games, but also about the players being there together. So up to 7 people who were not there the last times can be interesting too.. I think it had to be different in some way than the last times (you can't really sell the same product over and over again) and this is the opportunity for Nili to have something completely new. Still NAC, but different players and the first big AoE 4 LAN event.
I don't know any of his further plans, and how the world will be in the summer, but from my POV, if there are enough people interested, he could host two NACs every year, one AOE 4 and one AoE 2.

 

[Funito]

You guys are missing the point. The 100k LAN is just part of MS training program to keep Nili as a top 500 profesional aoe4 player.

 

[Jarvin]

Youtube removed the dislike bar just in time 11

Is what the extension says, granted it might not be super accurate

 

[amazing_knight]

With his consistent hard work, I am sure Nili will soon be Top 50 in Aoe4 in a couple of months.

Ofcourse with the constant decline, only 50 players will be playing Aoe4 after a couple of months.

 

[huntskiki]

I wonder if GL is getting paid to "host" the event like a normal venue would. Unfortunately, this is one of the issues when you are in a conflict of interest, people don't know whether you are doing something because that is truly what is best or because of the conflict. However, that's the position Nili put himself in by taking the position and he fully acknowledges that, so I won't lose any sleep over raising questions.

My biggest issue with this whole is that they are trying to take the goodwill from NAC and transfer it over to aoe4. Why not just create an entirely different tournament series? Why does it have to be about the "apartment/chill" vibe or whatever? NAC was completely unique style of event that meshed perfectly with the grassroots nature of aoe2. It just feels icky to take that and then transfer it to a new game, new venue, etc.

Really a big slap in the face to the aoe2 community after all of the support we showed throughout the pandemic. They are trying their best to kill the community, but what is dead may never die, and rises again harder and stronger.

 

[MuscleChamp]

I am getting escape gaming (rip) vibes

 

[Fall]

For what it's worth, it's also bizarre that Nili is able to choose to allocate Microsoft funds to his own private event. There's all kinds of rules around contract tendering processes, and whilst Microsoft is a private company that can do what they like, it still feels a bit wrong.

If I was a tournament host in the AOE2/4 scene, I'd be concerned that Nili could use his position to allocate funds to himself and reduce funding to others, to take more of the market share at the cost of other organisers. Now, whether or not Nili would actually do that is one thing, but the fact that he is in a position where he is able to do that is strange - for public roles this type of conflict of interest is usually illegal, obviously Microsoft is a private company but it's strange that this is allowed as most private companies usually have pretty strict rules on this kind of thing, especially ones the size of Microsoft.

 

[marco47]

So tournaments in the second most popular 1v1 map in the game never get even 1 cent from Microsoft and there's 100K for this tournament that will have abysmal viewership numbers.

 

[Lord Bolton]

everytime an s tier aoe 4 tourney is announced, aoezone loses its mind :')

 

[rmcoo]

So tournaments in the second most popular 1v1 map in the game never get even 1 cent from Microsoft and there's 100K for this tournament that will have abysmal viewership numbers.

At least we know that Nili definitely likes each map equally, and definitely does not have any say in that

 

[Potkeny]

At least we know that Nili definitely likes each map

We all know that MS wants to sponsor S-Tier tournaments, and S-Tier doesn't only mean it has to have X$ pricepool but have to have top players like viper, tatoh, slam, accm, bact, vinchester... ohh wait

 

[Tempires]

So tournaments in the second most popular 1v1 map in the game never get even 1 cent from Microsoft and there's 100K for this tournament that will have abysmal viewership numbers.

Which second most popular 1v1 map you are talking about?

 

[LowEloNobody]

Which second most popular 1v1 map you are talking about?

Probably Arena, Nili/MS has refused efforts to organize an S-tier arena/socotra/etc tourney

 

[SouFire]

everytime an s tier aoe 4 tourney is announced, aoezone loses its mind :')

Not really, other than lidakor or adicco and lorpatito, aoe4 topics about tournaments have poor views and likely 0 comments.
------

Back on topic i remember being accused of being a conspiranoic, even tho i predicted the 100k event like a month ago, the price is only there to hype the communities involved and generate views on twitch and youtube platforms to deliver those good numbers to the people in charge to justify the support to the game.

But this is like beyond corruption, not only because he is using the money to sponsor his own event but also being an employee of microsoft, but also inviting viper for winning the first aoe4 thing after a week of its release, i mean viper who happens to be a clan mate from his another job as a pro gamer, who also hasn't been performing great on aoe4 and withdrew from aoe4 events, the invitations should go to the current top players or all of them should qualify, that invitation system worked for aoe2 cause the gap was insane btw the top 8 players and the rest, but for a new game where the winner is always a different guy and the position are also not the same, invitations doesn't make sense or are fair, they are just inviting top aoe2, top aoe3, pro sc2 and top wc3 players to gather viewers.

Nac 3 was the best aoe2 social event, nac 4 will go unnoticed.

 

[malamadre]

can we talk about how stupid the name N4C is too? what the **** does it mean, Nili's 4th Cup?

 

[Giuseppe551]

$100k prize pool must be based on Genesis viewer numbers which we all know were the product of novelty/hype alone, not gameplay. Now we see S tier aoe4 tournaments with like 6k viewers.

Anyway I'll be happily watching OGN's tournament that week.

 

[LowEloNobody]

can we talk about how stupid the name N4C is too? what the **** does it mean, Nili's 4th Cup?

It means nothing. It's just a play on NAC. He explains this in his youtube video

 

[LowEloNobody]

$100k prize pool must be based on Genesis viewer numbers which we all know were the product of novelty/hype alone, not gameplay. Now we see S tier aoe4 tournaments with like 6k viewers.

Anyway I'll be happily watching OGN's tournament that week.

I'm sure the Microsoft tournament coordinator thought AoE4 would be successful enough to support a 100k tourney, otherwise he wouldn't have allocated so much prizepool for the event.