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.

 

Sure but I do get the criticism. Players take this ultra seriously and you want to keep distractions to a minimum, joking or not.

It's also disrespectful to Dogao who may not be the favourite but is no push-over. Just let the players play, no need to try to get into players heads.

Maybe T90 is trying a little too hard to try to be like Dave or some other smartass, I don't know.

I was replying to what Huehuecoyotl22 replied to what Tempires wrote: "love how they slapped substitute player names and countries over replaced players' banners."

 

Admitting he did something wrong doesn't negate the fact he did something wrong. He should have never done something like that. He's not a newbie. AoE 2 is an old scene and this is the biggest tournament ever. It's not the place for such behaviors.
Things like that should be pointed out.

Your attempt at silencing the discussion by throwing "drama" accusations around (nobody claimed/suggested that before, only YOU brought it up) is disgusting.

Get a life. They've both been around for decades and it was a silly joke which he apologised for. Move on. This place just craves drama for some reason. Enjoy RB and relax.

Also, rooting for Tatoh. Ever since I started watching (DE inception) he's been so close to winning something but never made it. Hope he makes it this time.

 

Daut got some technical problems as far as i read, i guess that's the reason he looked quite uncomfortable and probably underperformed a bit.
It's silly thinking T90's comment might had affected him, it was a friendly comment with someone he knows. Maybe it's not ideal bringing up private jokes into a massive audience but no more than that.

 

Get a life. They've both been around for decades and it was a silly joke which he apologised for. Move on. This place just craves drama for some reason. Enjoy RB and relax.

Also, rooting for Tatoh. Ever since I started watching (DE inception) he's been so close to winning something but never made it. Hope he makes it this time.

Go away from here if you are so shallow you can only consume stuff positively and can't stomach people pointing out a problem. Reddit should be more up your alley.

 

Daut got some technical problems as far as i read, i guess that's the reason he looked quite uncomfortable and probably underperformed a bit.

Yeah, he was clearly dissatisfied with the setup between the games. However other players didn't seem to have similar complaints. Does anyone how much of the equipment is changed between matches? Earbuds are obvious but i wasn't able to catch if something else gets replaced too. Is it DauT having problems with something others adapted to finely, or was it his personal equipment not working?

 

Daut got some technical problems as far as i read, i guess that's the reason he looked quite uncomfortable and probably underperformed a bit.
It's silly thinking T90's comment might had affected him, it was a friendly comment with someone he knows. Maybe it's not the best bringing private jokes into a massive audience but no more than that.

If I were Daut, I'd have been more tilted by the several-minute digression following that with T90 and Dave talking about how scared they were that he'd come over and smack them for their insolence.

 

Yeah, he was clearly dissatisfied with the setup between the games. However other players didn't seem to have similar complaints. Does anyone how much of the equipment is changed between matches? Earbuds are obvious but i wasn't able to catch if something else gets replaced too. Is it DauT having problems with something others adapted to finely, or was it his personal equipment not working?

ppl get their hadphones, keyboard and mouse and i think thats about it

 

Semifinals Viper vs yo hera vs tattoh

Viper Hera final.

Lierey is really daut'son. So sad very bad shape

 

Only thing I find a bit weird is having the post-match interviews right in front of the loser...Feels like rubbing salt into an open wound lol

+1 to that, also Villese was a bit funny after interview of Capoch game, Riley left him with mic in hand, he literally didn't know where to move/go.

 

Really nice production quality yes, but only being able to watch half the matches is a big downside. This is like the world cup of AOE and so many parallel matches when you don't really need to have them really hurts. Don't get me wrong: Good they made a group stage from the horrendous format it was some time ago, but this felt bad for me.
I also felt that downtime was really high when it started, the B stream was miles ahead at some point.

Then about the B-stream, it really fell off a bit in terms of quality for me unfortunately. Survivalist is fine as a caster and did a decent job from what I heard, but I fail to see what Ellie was adding apart from cracking weird jokes and stories about funny pronounciation from her mother. Maybe I only got the bad snippets, but in terms of casting quality this felt miles behind. Chemistry between them seemed fine, but having access to casters like Ornlu and Lidakor for example I really fail to see why they did not get them for acceptable conditions.

Quality of games was a bit meh as well. Map variety was a bit meh as well. Hope this gets better along the way.

Stand out performences in terms of positives so far: Hera, Tatoh, Dogao
Pleasant surprises: Kingstone, Daniel
Disappointments so far: Daut, Lierrey

 

Really nice production quality yes, but only being able to watch half the matches is a big downside. This is like the world cup of AOE and so many parallel matches when you don't really need to have them really hurts. Don't get me wrong: Good they made a group stage from the horrendous format it was some time ago, but this felt bad for me.
I also felt that downtime was really high when it started, the B stream was miles ahead at some point.

Then about the B-stream, it really fell off a bit in terms of quality for me unfortunately. Survivalist is fine as a caster and did a decent job from what I heard, but I fail to see what Ellie was adding apart from cracking weird jokes and stories about funny pronounciation from her mother. Maybe I only got the bad snippets, but in terms of casting quality this felt miles behind. Chemistry between them seemed fine, but having access to casters like Ornlu and Lidakor for example I really fail to see why they did not get them for acceptable conditions.

Quality of games was a bit meh as well. Map variety was a bit meh as well. Hope this gets better along the way.

Stand out performences in terms of positives so far: Hera, Tatoh, Dogao
Pleasant surprises: Kingstone, Daniel
Disappointments so far: Daut, Lierrey

Gotta have some women in there, for the sake of diversity (and to bring in more simps). At least it isn't a 50/50 split. Red Bull is relatively based in that department.

 

@Lightysword well I have to agree with most. Is good that they added group stage, however feels bit weird having so different 2 channels and so many games going "semi seen" as I was watching on 2 screens and unmuting channel B when there was no game/interview on channel A. Felt bit weird missing most action in B channel.

As for Ellie, is not the first time I have watched some of her. I feel main issue of her casting is that she casts it as casual ladder games, i'm not sure if it's even lack of knowledge, I just feel like you have to cast it bit differently, more professional in a sense in such events, I had similar feeling when she was hosting some event with Grath(?). Is not neccessary bad, but I probably can give example including Memb. Memb is more professional in such events and he doesnt call villagers billagers and so on, i mean Memb has many inside jokes that fans know, but if he would do that it might be weird for first time viewers, who do not know his jokes and I have feeling like Ellie's fans really like some of her jokes, but as for some people like me and you it looks bit weird as we are not used to it.

I would add Villese to stand out performances, not sure if we can say he did unexpected today, but he seems really in good shape and felt dominant in many games.

 

The production level between main stream and "b-stream" is huge...

 

ppl get their hadphones, keyboard and mouse and i think thats about it

Don't forget the mousepad.

 

Then about the B-stream, it really fell off a bit in terms of quality for me unfortunately. Survivalist is fine as a caster and did a decent job from what I heard, but I fail to see what Ellie was adding apart from cracking weird jokes and stories about funny pronounciation from her mother. Maybe I only got the bad snippets, but in terms of casting quality this felt miles behind. Chemistry between them seemed fine, but having access to casters like Ornlu and Lidakor for example I really fail to see why they did not get them for acceptable conditions.

Completely agree.

Not hating on anyone but for such a big tournament, it's not optimal to have a caster whose game knowledge is not the best and who keeps making weird jokes. You have to know whether a civ gets arbs, last armour, bloodlines etc. It's weird when the other co-caster has to point it out/correct it multiple times.

On a related note - Why not get Vinch to co-cast on Stream B? Since he could not make it, it would've been nice to include him somehow if he is open to it. Also, he is an amazing caster.

 

Its just the first day but the winners have really stood out, like there is a clear gap between them and others. None of the games were even close for them. I do think Hera, Villese, Viper and Tatoh are probably the eventual semifinalist.. amazing production though.. I have not seen ellie before but she seems entertaining and very different from rest of the cast..

 

iirc, Ornlu was asked to cover B stream and he rejected it. I could be wrong though.

I am more surprised as to why they didn't ask more people and break down the B stream cast. 8 hours of non stop casting is hard as it is, and for 2 casters who don't cast together on a regular basis (unlike T90Dave), it is even harder to keep the quality high throughout the day

Maybe Ornlu refused because they were asking to cast whole 8 hours. Either way, they should have definitely asked more people to cast, and I am fairly certain people would have agreed (depending on their schedules/preference to cast a particular set/miss a particular set from the A stream)

If the B stream casters only had to cast like 1-2 sets before switching, they could have asked more people like MoonFaller, T-West, and even pro players/known streamers like JonSlow/Dracken/Vinch, etc who have the knowledge and would absolutely love the exposure for their streams

 

Maybe Ornlu refused the offer bc Red Bull organization has treated him badly

 

iirc, Ornlu was asked to cover B stream and he rejected it. I could be wrong though.

I am more surprised as to why they didn't ask more people and break down the B stream cast. 8 hours of non stop casting is hard as it is, and for 2 casters who don't cast together on a regular basis (unlike T90Dave), it is even harder to keep the quality high throughout the day

Maybe Ornlu refused because they were asking to cast whole 8 hours. Either way, they should have definitely asked more people to cast, and I am fairly certain people would have agreed (depending on their schedules/preference to cast a particular set/miss a particular set from the A stream)

If the B stream casters only had to cast like 1-2 sets before switching, they could have asked more people like MoonFaller, T-West, and even pro players/known streamers like JonSlow/Dracken/Vinch, etc who have the knowledge and would absolutely love the exposure for their streams

As I already mentioned in the other thread concerning the B-stream. B stream casters instead of main casters were not paid or not offered to be paid in case of Ornlu. They would receive no goodie/compensation at all, thus Ornlu declined, which I can totally understand.

As for Ellie, is not the first time I have watched some of her. I feel main issue of her casting is that she casts it as casual ladder games, i'm not sure if it's even lack of knowledge, I just feel like you have to cast it bit differently, more professional in a sense in such events, I had similar feeling when she was hosting some event with Grath(?). Is not neccessary bad, but I probably can give example including Memb. Memb is more professional in such events and he doesnt call villagers billagers and so on, i mean Memb has many inside jokes that fans know, but if he would do that it might be weird for first time viewers, who do not know his jokes and I have feeling like Ellie's fans really like some of her jokes, but as for some people like me and you it looks bit weird as we are not used to it.

I would add Villese to stand out performances, not sure if we can say he did unexpected today, but he seems really in good shape and felt dominant in many games.

Absolutely. I tried watching her when she was hosting this vegan tournament with many pro players cause I want to give new casters/tournament organizers in general a chance when they host an event. But I just can't bare to watch her for some time. I guess you get used to it. It was similiar for me with Memb when I started watching age, but Memb for me dramatically improved and has the absolute game knowledge to back it up. As for Ellie I don't really see it.
It just did not feel like professional/top notch casting for me. Really excluding Survivalist here. I do enjoy him and want to point out again that he did a fine job.

Totally agree with Villeses performence!

On a related note - Why not get Vinch to co-cast on Stream B? Since he could not make it, it would've been nice to include him somehow if he is open to it. Also, he is an amazing caster.

That would've been a great idea if Vinch would've been open to do it.

 

- war is not politics.

Surely you've heard of Carl von Clauswitz.

 

Surely you've heard of Carl von Clauswitz.

Except that Clausewitz put it in the wrong order ...

 

Except that Clausewitz put it in the wrong order ...

I'm not sure what you're talking about.

 

Sad to see Daut's performance

And yeah, not really liking the "B stream" format at all. I'd like to watch all my games live without them overlapping with one another. It's a big hit to the viewer experience.

 

but I fail to see what Ellie was adding

Purely diversity tokenism. You can see Red Bull sticking that in whenever they realistically can. The logo shows a queen in the front with smaller figure of a man behind her even though there were barely any queens in medieval times. The other screen with two PCs show a girl and a guy even though 100% of good players in aoe2 are males. Last year we had Britney doing "interviews" even though she has no idea about the game but they had to insert a pretty face.
However, as JayGould said, what Red Bull does is relatively mild compared to other companies nowadays so i suppose we can be thankful for that, that they didn't go even further and pull up every possible minority out of the hat, no matter how unrelated to the scene they are, and settled down with just inserting women whenever it could have been excused, without sacrificing too much quality.

 

Purely diversity tokenism. You can see Red Bull sticking that in whenever they realistically can. The logo shows a queen in the front with smaller figure of a man behind her even though there were barely any queens in medieval times. The other screen with two PCs show a girl and a guy even though 100% of good players in aoe2 are males. Last year we had Britney doing "interviews" even though she has no idea about the game but they had to insert a pretty face.
However, as JayGould said, what Red Bull does is relatively mild compared to other companies nowadays so i suppose we can be thankful for that, that they didn't go even further and pull up every possible minority out of the hat, no matter how unrelated to the scene they are, and settled down with just inserting women whenever it could have been excused, without sacrificing too much quality.

It's the same story with all the gaming events (increasing as you go bigger), so nothing new really. Like with other examples you listed. The DIE agenda will keep flowing.

The current example isn't too much of an issue though, at least Ellie knows the game. Though I do think Nova or MoonFaller would've been better due to more indepth understanding. Ellie could've fit better as a reporter or so, I think she is entertaining given the situations.