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.

 

I think I saw it peak at 48K on Twitch and another 7K on YT. Not sure if it streamed on FB anywhere and I don't know how many viewed it on Chinese streaming platforms like Douyu but I have to believe we surpassed 60K easily when everything is combined.

 

I know, the 77k is combined across all platforms

Yup saw your edit, then I edited mine also

 

Amazing performance by Tatoh, so happy for him to get this huge win!

Regarding viewer numbers: they will always be a bit lower once Viper is not playing in the final, however they were still very strong i think.

Regarding the whole tournament: this was just hands down the most amazing tournament i have ever witnessed, Thanks to everyone who made this happen and hopefully Red Bull will bless us with another edition

 

For peak viewers numbers,
We need Hera-Viper final, on T90's twitch channel, after 3 months both T90 and Viper returned to Twitch, and some drama between Viper and Hera would be nice.

 

Was it higher than last years?

I don't think so. It is a bit lower I think. But not too far off either.

Also, an interesting thing I noticed was that quaterfinals had more viewership in RB channel than semis or finals.
Wonder why that is.

And it wasn't even just the Viper games IIRC, Jordan vs Tatoh also had crazzy viewership.

 

For peak viewers numbers,
We need Hera-Viper final, on T90's twitch channel, after 3 months both T90 and Viper returned to Twitch, and some drama between Viper and Hera would be nice.

Yeah, I forgot that!
I think current RBW would've surpassed last years', if T90 and Viper were still around in Twitch.

Which is great news, all things considered.

 

I don't think so. It is a bit lower I think. But not too far off either.

Also, an interesting thing I noticed was that quaterfinals had more viewership in RB channel than semis or finals.
Wonder why that is.

And it wasn't even just the Viper games IIRC, Jordan vs Tatoh also had crazzy viewership.

Not sure but maybe Sunday evening has more viewers as more people have time to watch then in comparison to Saturday?

But definitely don't find it surprising to see Viper vs. Lierrey having more viewers as this is the El Clasico of Aoe2

 

Not sure but maybe Sunday evening has more viewers as more people have time to watch then in comparison to Saturday?

But definitely don't find it surprising to see Viper vs. Lierrey having more viewers as this is the El Clasico of Aoe2

Ahh didn't consider that, that's why Aoe4 is getting semis and finals tomorrow then 11

Like I said, it wasn't just for Viper vs Lierrey either. It was very high for Jordan vs Tatoh as well

 

viewer-wise scene won't be strong while T90 and Viper away.

But that's the thing, even with those 2 "gone" and not the typical dreamfinal of viper-lierey and it happening on saturday, RBW had such great numbers.
I think they will/have to take that into consideration and with those things in hindsight the numbers are rly great.

Only wonder how viewer-numbers will be tomorrow, I also daut we will see another aoe2/aoe4 mixed RBW-Tournament in the future, but maybe aoe2/aom?

 

Very interesting point I've thought about myself many times.

Why is that?
Is it because being a "professional" age of empires player, meaning you can make living out of it, is only a very recent thing?
Is this true for other games too?

Other games? Not sure, but it's true for traditional sports. Since most have been around forever the easiest example would be to look at female competitions since they are only just now (relatively) growing for the most part. As their job opportunities grow, the talent pool explodes.

 

But that's the thing, even with those 2 "gone" and not the typical dreamfinal of viper-lierey and it happening on saturday, RBW had such great numbers.
I think they will/have to take that into consideration and with those things in hindsight the numbers are rly great.

Only wonder how viewer-numbers will be tomorrow, I also daut we will see another aoe2/aoe4 mixed RBW-Tournament in the future, but maybe aoe2/aom?

Yep. Numbers are great, all things considered. Two biggest streamers in FB, and it happening on Saturday.
Was close to 50K peak in finals, and 46K average, in twitch? How much would be the total? 60-65K peak is a reasonable assumption?
If it was 65K, that is a good comparision to 77K for last RBW, due to aforementioned reasons.


And yes. I dearly hope that there won't be anymore mixed tournaments!!!
The whole "B stream" shenanigans probably stemmed from them cramming up all the tournaments together.
Plus, aoe2 will end up getting shorter end of the stick as usual, if they are combined as well.

 

not sure how much you can trust facebook viewer numbers but if true aoe1 final was peak viewers.

 

I like how they use "1" for GG. Like, yes, it's over.

 

honestly great games in aoe2. and great map pool. great production. amazing and blessed that aoe2 community is spoiled with such a setting and a zero-hiccup run all the way from start to finish. My special respects also go to map creators for creating a diverse map pool allowing all player-styles (aggro-strategic-defensive) to thrive making sure the games often have a clash of styles. such games result in the most fun games and allow players to express themselves in the game in their unique way.
Hopefully future tourney organizers and map creators learn from this and always have a varied map pool with no default map(like arabia) and add new maps.

 

Congratulations too Tati!

Jordan will have a raff time in TGs from now on beeing the only non RedBull champion in GL main squad.

I can hear Daut and Viper already ask for an other RedBull champion

 

I have a few reservations about this RBW event but overall it was excellent.

But mainly, huge congratulations to Tatoh!! seeing him close out the final put a big smile on my face. Been rooting for him since even before he joined Tyrant and didn't have proper respect because he actually played HD and the "new" civs before the voobly port several years ago. Was so frustrated watching him fall short the last few years just delighted to see him finally get one

 

Re: viewer numbers, people have to remember the HC max numbers are heavily boosted by twitch front page, which is now somewhere in the area of an instant 15-25k boost. At the time of HC I think it was closer to a 20-30k boost too. I could be wrong, but to my knowledge this event did not have that factor. Not to take anything away from those events, which were awesome, but those aren't true viewers. Also any event that is on a 3rd party channel vs a popular streamer channel will always have less just do to the discoverability factor. People have to actively know this event is happening and go look for it. When something is on someone like T90s channel there will be a lot of casual fans scrolling through their followers page and see this event at the top and check it out. I think the viewer numbers were pretty good for this all things being said.

Literally the only issue I have with the whole tournament was them forcing AOE4 in (although I expect AOE4 fans may think it was AOE2 forced in). My issue isn't even that they did tournaments for both games, it is more that they condensed the timeframe that should have been allotted for 2 tournaments into 1 or maybe 1.5 thus leading to B stream and such. Still, the overall event was awesome and I am incredibly thankful that Redbull came into the scene and has provided us with some truly S tier events and the production this time was amazing as ever. The live audience adds a great deal to the event, and all casters, hosts, production, players etc put on quite a great show.

Congrats to Tatoh! WP!

 

Excellent production, excelling casting, also credit to Riley who is the perfect host of this stage.

WP to tatitoh… beat Hera and Liereyy. Absolute beast

 

Re: viewer numbers, people have to remember the HC max numbers are heavily boosted by twitch front page, which is now somewhere in the area of an instant 15-25k boost. At the time of HC I think it was closer to a 20-30k boost too. I could be wrong, but to my knowledge this event did not have that factor. Not to take anything away from those events, which were awesome, but those aren't true viewers. Also any event that is on a 3rd party channel vs a popular streamer channel will always have less just do to the discoverability factor. People have to actively know this event is happening and go look for it. When something is on someone like T90s channel there will be a lot of casual fans scrolling through their followers page and see this event at the top and check it out. I think the viewer numbers were pretty good for this all things being said.

Literally the only issue I have with the whole tournament was them forcing AOE4 in (although I expect AOE4 fans may think it was AOE2 forced in). My issue isn't even that they did tournaments for both games, it is more that they condensed the timeframe that should have been allotted for 2 tournaments into 1 or maybe 1.5 thus leading to B stream and such. Still, the overall event was awesome and I am incredibly thankful that Redbull came into the scene and has provided us with some truly S tier events and the production this time was amazing as ever. The live audience adds a great deal to the event, and all casters, hosts, production, players etc put on quite a great show.

Congrats to Tatoh! WP!

Most importantly HC happened right in March/April 2020 when the lockdown happened and everybody was stuck at home.

 

Congratulations too Tati!

Jordan will have a raff time in TGs from now on beeing the only non RedBull champion in GL main squad.

I can hear Daut and Viper already ask for an other RedBull champion

On the other hand, Jordan was the only one who took 2 games from TaToH!

Edit: nvm

 

On the other hand, Jordan was the only one who took 2 games from TaToH!

Liereyy did in the finals it was 4-2, and yeah that Jordan - Tatoh set was close af but feel like Tatoh just pushed it to the next gears in semis and finals

 

I am so happy for tatoh and even more for myself because I once defeated tatoh in a TG so I am better than him off course.

 

My issue isn't even that they did tournaments for both games, it is more that they condensed the timeframe that should have been allotted for 2 tournaments into 1 or maybe 1.5 thus leading to B stream and such.

I think if they "just" make it a bit longer instead with some more days of gameplay it's completely fine to have 2(3) different games, like RBW5 had 6 days of gameplay, RBW Legacy had only 4 days of aoe2 gameplay.
Or if you want to shorten the timeframe you should maybe also decrease the player-numbers instead of increasing it (I guess lots of people would be unhappy about that aswell).

But let's see at what conclusion they come to with this experience, whether it's worth it for them to make one huge Tournament for different games or not.

 

Obviously aoe4 is to "blame" for the whole situation with the B stream and scheduling issues but I will say, at least they didn't shove that game down my throat like I expected them to. I could sit and watch the game I like without seeing ads for aoe4 or having to watch anything aoe4 related between games. At least it's something even if aoe4 is treated as the main game of the tournament.

As a viewer obviously I'd prefer it to be aoe2 only but if they want to do both games in the future, just give us either a day or two extra of games or a better and more professionally organized B stream.

 

Obviously aoe4 is to "blame" for the whole situation with the B stream and scheduling issues but I will say, at least they didn't shove that game down my throat like I expected them to. I could sit and watch the game I like without seeing ads for aoe4 or having to watch anything aoe4 related between games. At least it's something even if aoe4 is treated as the main game of the tournament.

As a viewer obviously I'd prefer it to be aoe2 only but if they want to do both games in the future, just give us either a day or two extra of games or a better and more professionally organized B stream.

I agree, i have no problem at all with having Aoe4 involved as well.

I have no interest in watching Aoe4 and luckily there was no overlap between the two games. On the other hand, I am happy that Aoe4 seems to have decent viewers numbers as well. Success for the whole tournament (for all games) makes it more likely that we will get more editions (Microsoft will have more interest in providing huge prize money if they can advertise both with the event)