Nili announces NC4 - $100K AoE4 LAN

[NKamayuk]

I'll point out that Microsoft is not the only or majority sponsor of this tournament. It was specifically mentioned that the money was coming from a variety of sources, but those other sources (in contrary to Microsoft) required contracts and could thus not be disclosed until everything was signed.

 

[kw1k000000]

@Nili_AoE in his role of Age of Empires tournament coordinator decides to drop the biggest prize pool on his own tournament in a game which is having far fewer numbers than aoe2. Inviting his team mates and organizing it at his team's place is just icing on cake. How is this ok by any imagination?

 

[Halleju]

Nili worked hard to get where he is. I dont blame him for organizing events he likes. We don't own or deserve that Microsoft money. None of us have proven ourselfs as massively succesfull tournament hosts.

I just won't be watching this tournament and if too many people feel the same as I do Nilis favorable position with sponsors will disappear.

All he did was just copy paste taketvs tournament. He had some connections into the aoe2 scene, as did take with wc3 back in the days. So he could invite some pros more as friends, as in competition to his home and build it up from there.
He just used someone elses idea, nothing more. Its not my definition of "hard work."

 

[Moonspring]

All he did was just copy paste taketvs tournament. He had some connections into the aoe2 scene, as did take with wc3 back in the days. So he could invite some pros more as friends, as in competition to his home and built it up from there.
He just used someone elses idea, nothing more. Its not my definition of "hard work."

Thats my point, people like you have no idea how much work it is to organise stuff.

 

[i_no_english]

Are the conditions under which MS made Nili in charge of organizing the tournament even known?

What if: MS asked Nili to organize an AoE LAN event with great exposure. And now: Nili organizes an AoE LAN event with great exposure. What's the problem?

 

[lecracheursagacite]

On this note I wonder when the "hate" will turn towards Dave who's participating as a caster in this tournament, like he hasn't streamed AoE4 since November and even back then only from time to time.

I guess for some Players/Casters this Tournament could be the final try to get into AoE4.

Dave is Canadian and therefore lends a neutral voice of authority wherever he contributes without appearing personally suspicious when there is some legitimate reason for that contribution. In his case casting another game than AoE2 helps grow his overall ability as a caster and he is clearly justified in working on his ability in this way.

 

[Halleju]

Thats my point, people like you have no idea how much work it is to organise stuff.

Dont you worry. Since I followed the homestory cups from take since the first one, I have a pretty good idea how much "work" it takes to organize something like this. But using the phone all day and chatting to get everyone together, as well as begging sponsors for hardware and prizemoney might be stressful, its still laughable to call it "hard work" in my opinion. Especially if it isn't even your idea in the first place, just a copy pasta so you know what to expect. Maybe you get too emotional about his tears in the end, idk.

 

[doacid]

A power hungry hippo is trying to divide and conquer the Aoe community.

I don't think we need any more help with division 11 Although this is certainly not helping.

Some people had enough gas to fuel their hate for Nili (and others) just for the reason they were streaming aoe4, so no wonder we're seeing this kind of backlash at this time.
Now there are actual good reasons that he is losing sympathy. He knew what he was getting into when he got the job at Microsoft (or whatever sub-company is paying him).

When he accepted the job he knew he was trading part of his good image and community perception in exchange for the job. Had he stepped out of organizing tournaments then it wouldn't be that bad but now he's basically allocating funds for his own gain and that's never gonna fly good in any community.

I have to mention though, that it makes sense his tournaments are getting funded too, he also allocated funds to tournaments hosted by others, like Memb's or Redbull's. He's one of the biggest tournament hosts so it does make sense he also gets the funding. But yeah, that's the problem with a conflict of interest, you just can't proof your good faith, that's why you try to avoid it. Now it makes even more sense why he has been distancing more and more from this forum/community.,

He's an intelligent person, he already knew all of this and still decided to take this route. I wonder if now he's regretting it or not. Publicly losing your good image isn't an easy thing to deal with.

I'd also say, calm your tits guys. Drama is never as important as it seems when you're in the thick of it. There's always time to reconcile, no need to keep digging deeper trenches. But by all means keep at it if that's how you fly xD

 

[ProudObuch]

calm your tits guys

 

[megabomberman]

Microsoft should peel a few lawyers off the Activision due diligence to pour over the finer details of this tournie. Bill is going to be pissed when he finds out about all the subs this twitch user is gaining off his hard earned $100k.

 

[lecracheursagacite]

I don't think we need any more help with division 11 Although this is certainly not helping.

Some people had enough gas to fuel their hate for Nili (and others) just for the reason they were streaming aoe4, so no wonder we're seeing this kind of backlash at this time.
Now there are actual good reasons that he is losing sympathy. He knew what he was getting into when he got the job at Microsoft (or whatever sub-company is paying him).

When he accepted the job he knew he was trading part of his good image and community perception in exchange for the job. Had he stepped out of organizing tournaments then it wouldn't be that bad but now he's basically allocating funds for his own gain and that's never gonna fly good in any community.

I have to mention though, that it makes sense his tournaments are getting funded too, he also allocated funds to tournaments hosted by others, like Memb's or Redbull's. He's one of the biggest tournament hosts so it does make sense he also gets the funding. But yeah, that's the problem with a conflict of interest, you just can't proof your good faith, that's why you try to avoid it. Now it makes even more sense why he has been distancing more and more from this forum/community.,

He's an intelligent person, he already knew all of this and still decided to take this route. I wonder if now he's regretting it or not. Publicly losing your good image isn't an easy thing to deal with.

I'd also say, calm your tits guys. Drama is never as important as it seems when you're in the thick of it. There's always time to reconcile, no need to keep digging deeper trenches. But by all means keep at it if that's how you fly xD

It doesn't really help that most people in the community don't have a good idea of what he actually does because the transparency and communication with the community by those involved with things officially tends to be extraordinarily poor.

 

[NKamayuk]

I feel people are being overtly harsh just because it's AOE4.

It's not corrupt for Nili to allocate a reasonable amount of money to his own tournament series. Whether the amount here is unreasonable is simply not clear from the information available.

- We know that Microsoft is investing significant amounts into AOE tournaments. They sponsored the full 100k$ for RBW5, as well as the majority of KOTD4 prizepool of 75k$.

- We know that N4C has significant sponsors that are not Microsoft, how much of the 100k$ is from them is not immediately clear.

- NAC as a series has been one of the of the largest tournament series of AOE in the last few years, along with HC and KOTD. As a result, it is perfectly reasonable for it to be treated as such and allocate it *among* the largest funds for an AOE tournament.


I really don't think the vitriolic reaction is justified here, especially not before the full sponsorship details are announced.

 

[Tendo]

Publicly losing your good image isn't an easy thing to deal with.

Where is he losing his good image?
Let's be honest, the biggest reason why people are unhappy with this one is because it's aoe4 and not aoe2.
It was always known that he is in charge of distributing the money, it was known he's in team GL and it was known that he will organize Tournaments.
So the conflict of interest is nothing new at all.

Also imo a 100k Tournament for AoE4 is nothing to be surprised at all looking at what they distributed towards RBW5 and KotD4, actually I would have expected it to be way earlier but maybe they decided against it looking at the state of the game.

- We know that N4C has significant sponsors that are not Microsoft, how much of the 100k$ is from them is not immediately clear.

Well in that regard you also have to remember that it's 100k Prizemoney only.
The costs for flight, Hotel, the GL-House, all the equipment, staff and more, all this will be huge.

 

[LadosaurusRex]

With this statement, I give notice that Nili is strictly forbidden to use my AOE2 games for working out an objective way of spreading prize money between AOE2 and AOE4. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: MICROSOFT is a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. DO NOT SHARE. Copy and paste.

 

[doacid]

Where is he losing his good image?

So the conflict of interest is nothing new at all.

It was a conflict of interest since he accepted the job. But it is new in the sense that the actual conflict is happening right now, when he's allocating Microsoft's money for his channel, his own gain.
It's so clear he accepted it himself, there's no way around it.

Do you really think he's not losing image with this? Of course it's not the apocalypse like some people make it out to be (many out of vitriol towards him) but "his brand" is taking a hit with this for sure.

 

[MaSmOrRa]

Absolutely shameless plug: my interview with Nili - recorded just an hour ago - will be up tomorrow (hopefully...) in my channel for those interested.

We obviously talked about this announcement and the circumstances surrounding it.

 

[doacid]

With this statement, I give notice that Nili is strictly forbidden to use my AOE2 games for working out an objective way of spreading prize money between AOE2 and AOE4. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: MICROSOFT is a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version

I can't tell if you're for real or not. Cause it really does seem like counterintelligence done by Nili to show how "brilliant" his haters are.

DO NOT SHARE. Copy and paste

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

 

[Elvaenor]

I can't tell if you're for real or not. Cause it really does seem like counterintelligence done by Nili to show how "brilliant" his haters are.

It's just a copy pasta that was shared all over Facebook a few years ago.

 

[Tendo]

But it is new in the sense that the actual conflict is happening right now, when he's allocating Microsoft's money for his channel, his own gain.

But this is nothing new, it was always known that his own Tournaments will also receive Microsoft money, which he himself distributes.
Atleast for me this is nothing unexpected and obv. it won't be for MS either, even though Nili manages the distribution MS knows of the conflict of interest and will have taken a deep look at this.
Because the only questionable thing was for MS to give Nili this job, nothing wrong by Nili's side imo.

Because there is nothing hidden, the conflict of interest is 100% transparent for evryone to see.
Only if he had tried to hide this there would be a real damage to his reputation imo.

 

[Rayne]

Absolutely shameless plug: my interview with Nili - recorded just an hour ago - will be up tomorrow (hopefully...) in my channel for those interested.

We obviously talked about this announcement and the circumstances surrounding it.

Maybe it is just me, but I don’t get why it seems that any or most forms of advertising are ‘shameless’ these days. Gotta advertise somehow tbh, and seeing as how this is relevant to the topic a lot care about, it is one of the good forms of advertising imo.

Also if anyone knows you a bit as a person from how you carry yourself on these forums, I’d never really connect you with being dishonorable.

 

[doacid]

But this is nothing new, it was always known that his own Tournaments will also receive Microsoft money, which he himself distributes.
Atleast for me this is nothing unexpected and obv. it won't be for MS either, even though Nili manages the distribution MS knows of the conflict of interest and will have taken a deep look at this.
Because the only questionable thing was for MS to give Nili this job, nothing wrong by Nili's side imo.

Because there is nothing hidden, the conflict of interest is 100% transparent for evryone to see.
Only if he had tried to hide this there would be a real damage to his reputation imo.

Of course you're free to not see a problem with it but to me and many others a conflict of interest is damaging on its own, nothing else needs to happen. It's the very nature of what it is.
Any conflict of interest you can come up with is a problem, that's why it's called "conflict", because you can use your position of power in your own interest, making it unfair for others in the process.

 

[sheeesh]

Absolutely shameless plug: my interview with Nili - recorded just an hour ago - will be up tomorrow (hopefully...) in my channel for those interested.

We obviously talked about this announcement and the circumstances surrounding it.

interview timing is really sus , big media rushing to wash up the scandal as always
(kidding ofc)

 

[homers84]

Of course you're free to not see a problem with it but to me and many others a conflict of interest is damaging on its own, nothing else needs to happen. It's the very nature of what it is.
Any conflict of interest you can come up with is a problem, that's why it's called "conflict", because you can use your position of power in your own interest, making it unfair for others in the process.

well if there is a concern regarding interest, that should be Microsofts concern. it is weather if their consultant or employee (i have no clue what nilis contractual situation with MS is) uses their funding in their interest or not. fascinating how everyone is suddenly a lawyer from MS. and i am sure MS was aware that nili had a role and personal interest in NAC (fun fact: his name is actually in the title). so i am quite confident that they chose him "because" of his engagement with tourneys himself, not "even though" he organizes tournaments.

 

[Please_dont_choose_goths!]

R.I.P. NAC 2018-2022 destroyed and killes by greed...

Imagine killing such a nice tourney just to jump on the AoE4 Hype train.

 

[Baron Icey Harkonnen]

@Nili_AoE in his role of Age of Empires tournament coordinator decides to drop the biggest prize pool on his own tournament in a game which is having far fewer numbers than aoe2. Inviting his team mates and organizing it at his team's place is just icing on cake. How is this ok by any imagination?

View attachment 197353

I don't like throwing **** that much but how the hell is this morally unacceptable to you compared to Facebook and Zuckerburg leaks?


Is Nili going to keep any money? I don't think so