Red Bull Wololo: Legacy - Official Announcement

Announcement​

Are you ready for the most outstanding and prodigious event in the history of Age of Empires? We have teased you enough and are now ready to reveal what we have been brewing behind the scenes. Red Bull Wololo started back in early 2020 and pioneered the use of Empire Wars in major tournaments. The fast-paced, action-packed game mode quickly took off, and we had so many incredible moments spanning through the initial Red Bull Wololo all the way to Red Bull Wololo V in late 2021. As time went on, the events only got bigger and better, and here we are, in 2022, and we are about to blow you away.
To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Age of Empires, we are announcing not one, not two, but three tournaments. You will get to experience the original game that started the entire franchise back in 1997 - the original Age of Empires. You will also get to experience the arguably most influential game in the franchise's history, Age of Empires II - originally released back in 1999. Finally, the newest edition in the franchise, the incredible Age of Empires IV.

Once again, we will go back to Castle Heidelberg in Germany for the offline event spanning from the 21st to the 30th of October. During these days, you will experience the main event of both Age of Empires II and IV as well as the finals of all three events during the last two days - the 29th and 30th of October.

But what exactly is at stake here? Well, we have a total prize of a whopping $550,000.00 distributed among the three games, as shown below.

• Age of Empires I: $50,000.00
• Age of Empires II: $200,000.00
• Age of Empires IV: $300,000.00

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Invitations & Qualification​

Age of Empires II​

For Age of Empires II, you will see the return of all the previous conquerors. Mr_Yo, the champion of the original Red Bull Wololo. Liereyy, the only champion with two victories under his belt, Red Bull Wololo II and IV. DauT, the champion of Red Bull Wololo III. And finally, TheViper, the champion of Red Bull Wololo V. These players have proven themselves to be fierce warriors and have earned a direct invitation to the main event.

Other players must prove themselves worthy in different events leading up to the main event, as well as the two open qualifiers taking place from the 20th to the 21st of August and the 27th to the 28th of August.
You can already sign up for the open qualifiers here and here.

Age of Empires IV​

For Age of Empires IV, we're looking back to N4C to find our champions, and with that, Beastyqt, the winner of N4C, and Leenock, the runner-up, will already be waiting to meet everyone else that qualifies in Castle Heidelberg.

Other players must prove themselves worthy in tournaments leading up to the main event, as well as an extensive qualification event, Road to Red Bull held by EGC.
Registration and more information regarding this can be found here.

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I sincerely hope we can make this one of the greatest events ever. I'm aware of the commotion there has been following the release of Age of Empires IV, but remember that we are celebrating the franchise as a whole and the incredible history our beloved games have. We can't wait to share even more details with you soon.

For streamers, broadcasters, content creators and so on - I'm not able to share much information regarding streaming policies as of right now. I'll be sure to provide more information as soon as it becomes available. Feel free to reach out to me on Discord, and I'll take note of your interest for later. I know some people have already reached out regarding this, but please do so again now that the event has been properly announced. You can reach me at Chrazini#5687, thank you.

For additional information, go to redbull.com/wololo.

 

Well, that "solves" the vinchester question:

https://twitter.com/Nili_AoE/status/1582376912487612417

So is it Dogao who replaces him?

 

So is it Dogao who replaces him?

Yes https://twitter.com/redbullgaming/status/1582386042900189185

 

Nicov too? WOW. That's a big loss. Nicov is super fun to watch play

 

Yes https://twitter.com/redbullgaming/status/1582386042900189185

What the... Nicov is out?!?!

 

What the... Nicov is out?!?!

Covid test was positive (which is dumb imo since everyone is working normally even with covid)

 

RedBull should hire @oozkan to consult them on visa issues 11. In such cases where there is will there is a way. At least we shall see Yo and ACCM this time.
I shall certainly miss the no notes draft by Vinch, along with an underdog contender.

edit:
Russian arrivals this summer in Greece : ~324800 tourists (+318.4% compared to 2021)
maybe they should have paid a visit to a Consulate General office of Greece in Russia and work it out

 

Covid test was positive (which is dumb imo since everyone is working normally even with covid)

I assume you are not allowed to fly which is the biggest problem.

 

I assume you are not allowed to fly which is the biggest problem.

nobody does any test in any plane. i was travelling to spain, france, italy and india this year and nobody wanted a test anywhere. Not from germany to the destination and also not on the way back home. The last flight was 3 weeks asgo back from Mumbai to Munich. Almost Nobody cares in germany about covid anymore.

The only problem is that Red Bull probably doesnt want that positive people are in the castle which is legit.

 

@oozkan @Potkeny Do you think Vinch would have a chance if he had applied for hungarian visa?

 

Tournament loses some of its prestige without Vinch and Nicov.

 

I assume you are not allowed to fly which is the biggest problem.

Afaik if u are traveling from an european country, you don't need any test. and if you are traveling from non eu country, you have to check local rules.

 

nobody does any test in any plane. i was travelling to spain, france, italy and india this year and nobody wanted a test anywhere. Not from germany to the destination and also not on the way back home. The last flight was 3 weeks asgo back from Mumbai to Munich. Almost Nobody cares in germany about covid anymore.

The only problem is that Red Bull probably doesnt want that positive people are in the castle which is legit.

Afaik if u are traveling from an european country, you don't need any test. and if you are traveling from non eu country, you have to check local rules.

I just checked, yes indeed it changed almost everywhere in the last 2-3 months. I did not know, because I haven't travelled to other countries since 2019.
From where would Nicov have had to fly? I don't follow him enough where exactly he was/is, because he has been (living) in Argentina, Italy and the USA in the last few years.
But the test was probably still done before flying, because it would be even worse if you would fly to Germany and then be prohibited from entering the castle.

 

@oozkan @Potkeny Do you think Vinch would have a chance if he had applied for hungarian visa?

Never applied for it, I have an opinion, but don't want to dive into politics, pkz won't like it

 

I feel sorry for Vinch. He is a great player. And ofc he wouldn't express his opinion publicly when we was waiting for his trip to Germany: if he said A, he wouldn't be able to leave Russia; if he said B, he wouldn't be able to enter Germany. Guys, he needed to leave Russian *and* enter Germany to play for Redbull Wololo....

 

Tournament loses some of its prestige without Vinch and Nicov.

It does, but also does not at the same time. It will become a footnote in history.

Last year had Yo and ACCM missing out, arguably bigger misses, yet what is remembered is Viper's epic final vs Liereyy.

 

I feel sorry for Vinch. He is a great player. And ofc he wouldn't express his opinion publicly when we was waiting for his trip to Germany: if he said A, he wouldn't be able to leave Russia; if he said B, he wouldn't be able to enter Germany. Guys, he needed to leave Russian *and* enter Germany to play for Redbull Wololo....

I've watched some videos from NFKRZ and Nikki Proshin and I think in either it was brought up Germany was overloaded with Visa requests. So the issue may be more practical than you would think it is

 

Both Vinchester (last S-Tier winner) and Nicov were on their best shape ever which imo makes it feel as terrible as ACCM and Yo miss last year considering all the improvement they made during the last months (and well, as Argentinian, probably a top 2-3 community in terms of viewers, Nicov is one of the biggest atraction). Also this tourney is 2x times bigger so in a sense it hurts more for them.

 

the seeding is so strange. dogao and valas are higer than Daniel who has qualified in qualifier #1 beating Sitaux 3-2. And Group B is much harder than Group A.

 

Covid test was positive (which is dumb imo since everyone is working normally even with covid)

Well you can have your own opinion about covid, that is totally fine. However is it very short sighted. Even if covid is way less of an issue currently, if players get infected let's say this friday on opening matches they won't perform as good while being sick for finals even if organisers would let them play. Not to mention all the need for separate rooms and 100 other things, how to do interviews and so on. Not to mention you basically need others to agree them to do/work knowing someone is sick, is just really a lot even though it happens a lot in daily work, but we are talking about 200k prize pool, tons of preparations.

Basically what I'm saying it doesn't matter at this point how dangerous the covid is, even if assuming players won't get in big danger, but ability to play being sick drops a lot and no one can be sure about how hard anyone would get sick and so on. At this point I see it more like, it doesn't even matter if is a covid, a player is sick and can get others sick, which is very unfortunate, is a biggest tournament in 20 years for aoe2 and I can just imagine how frustating it can be, but blaming organisers here is wrong.

As for whole event experience, let me be clear once again, it does suck that Nicov can't go, he did qualify and earn the spot. However all sensitivty aside from viewer point don't think it will be that much of a level(?) difference Dogao changing Nicov and sure Kingstone most likely won't do as good as Vinch. But this year Yo is there, so all top4 are there which I suppose matters most. I mean situation sucks, but tournament will be still great and I can't wait for it.

P.s. what is unfortunate too, that this is on such short notice, that Dogao and Kingstone don't even have time to prepare, I personally don't know if they even played last weeks, although Dogao being first in substitution list could have expected there is quite a big chance, while Kingstone probably didn't even think there is a chance for him to go there being 3rd.

 

P.s. what is unfortunate too, that this is on such short notice, that Dogao and Kingstone don't even have time to prepare, I personally don't know if they even played last weeks, although Dogao being first in substitution list could have expected there is quite a big chance, while Kingstone probably didn't even think there is a chance for him to go there being 3rd.

I believe Kingstone should be decently prepared, because he played in 3 B tier EW tournaments in September-October:

EndoWar 3

EndoWar 3 is the third edition of an Age of Empires II tournament hosted by Elhyar and ClemoL45. All donations during the event will be donated to the EndoMind association in the fight against endometriosis.

liquipedia.net

World Series of Empire Wars

The World Series of Empire Wars is an Age of Empires II 1v1 tournament hosted by Social Jaguar Warriors which is open for players that have not qualified for Red Bull Wololo: Legacy.

liquipedia.net

Magna Carto

Magna Carto is an Age of Empires II 1v1 tournament hosted by JBR_AoE. The tournament is split into different divisions according to players' ratings. This page covers the top division, the "Two-Handed Swordsmen Division".

liquipedia.net

And I agree what you said about dogao, plus that he has so much tournament experience from many years that he always has the potential to get good results and I would be surprised if he wasn't at least an ocasional training partner of some of the other qualified players.

 

Quite bluntly: If Dogao or Kingstone haven't prepared for the tournament, only one they can blame are themselves. If you're first or second in reserve, it's more than likely that you'll get a call with how unpredictable the situation is around the world right now.

 

Quite bluntly: If Dogao or Kingstone haven't prepared for the tournament, only one they can blame are themselves. If you're first or second in reserve, it's more than likely that you'll get a call with how unpredictable the situation is around the world right now.

Well always very easy to speak... While I can somewhat agree with dogao, as Vinch never was confirmed and dogao is first in the list. All others were confirmed and til when you imagine they should keep training? Or do you really think they should have pick/ban proper idea prepared too? I mean, memb today already flying to Germany and news came out yesterday. You just can't expect people act and prepare exact same as knowing they going there compared to when there is only a chance. Ofc, maybe there were talks behind scenes, especially with dogao as I think it was a really big chance for him to begin with. But one thing is being in shape, especially with Kingstone, another preparing strats/picks/bans etc. And I guess in a sense you can count Dark out because of same reason, but in practice Kingstone was 3rd in the list.

 

That was expected; we will never know exactly why vinchester didn't get visa or why bee was banned(unless i missed something), anyway, the hype is getting lower and lower

 

Well always very easy to speak... While I can somewhat agree with dogao, as Vinch never was confirmed and dogao is first in the list. All others were confirmed and til when you imagine they should keep training? Or do you really think they should have pick/ban proper idea prepared too? I mean, memb today already flying to Germany and news came out yesterday. You just can't expect people act and prepare exact same as knowing they going there compared to when there is only a chance. Ofc, maybe there were talks behind scenes, especially with dogao as I think it was a really big chance for him to begin with. But one thing is being in shape, especially with Kingstone, another preparing strats/picks/bans etc. And I guess in a sense you can count Dark out because of same reason, but in practice Kingstone was 3rd in the list.
View attachment 204063

Don't forget ACCM though, he also got visa very late and considering that Bact didn't get it before, if I were KingstoNe, I would still practice.
So when brackets are done, Vinch and ACCM were already written on the wall as may be.

 

RBW: Legacy has so good price money that substitute players had reasonable motivation prepare for tournament in case they would be called in, especially Dogao.

And if you organize LAN-tournament, where are coming players from all around the World, there is always reasonable possibility that some players couldn't travel.