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.

 

-$300,000 prizepool
-Sunday peak time
-Fresh-ish civs

Lets see how it goes

 

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.

The caster’s channels were live on Twitch the entire event (I assume T90’s FB as well). Total viewership would have certainly been worse without Red Bull involved.

 

It was a beautiful tournament and the production was extremely good.

But we have to admit that organizing a tournament on 2 games simultaneously on such a short period is not optimal.

For me as a caster, having to choose which game to show to my viewers was a real pain.

Also, having the AoE 1 final between the semi finals and the AoE 2 final was a real disaster in terms of audience.

Without forgetting the schedule of the games that had to be modified... AoE 2 would have deserved a little better I think. ( As much as AoE 4 will say )

Anyway, thanks to RedBull to propose the Wololo, it's still a flagship tournament for the scene and to totally deprive it would be horrible, so thanks for that.

 

I don't buy this. Sure, unconstructive criticism never helps, but thinking that sposors come to AoEZone to check 'what people think' is rather naive. They surely use more reliable data to pick their investments

no one believes it, not even the people saying it. It's just something they repeat again and again cuz they are incapable of engaging with anything being said so they clutch their pearls and shout "how could you!" instead

How cynical 11. Why denying the obvious? Historically most if not all sponsors come to Aoezone.

Sorry for my bad memory because I'm forgetting names but Carlini, Pinztec, WIC sponsor, dude who sponsored Escape Gaming, and many others (probably people from Red Bull and Microsoft too) hang around Aoezone and have given away their free hours, work and their money. They have basically kept this game alive since forever. They all visit this site, sometimes wondering whether it's worth it to gaze at this much filth (admittedly not so much in this thread). And sometimes leaving the sewer for good.

Chances are they are the average and somewhat empathetic people who even with different opinions or criticism they still prefer themselves and others being treated with respect.

Very much unlike a very few users, who enjoy systematically finding an obscure angle to **** on anyone who does something for this game. Unable to critique without being a cunt or making it personal. Always forgetting or not caring that there's an actual human being on the other side.
And not only there's a real person there, but one who actually does something for aoe2, one who focuses on building their own thing rather than destroying someone else's.

Sponsors, casters, admins, modders, pro players and also peasant supporters have been able to build a thriving game, each of them contributing their grain of sand. All done despite the efforts of those who only relate with others through conflict. And while Aoezone isn't thriving itself... I sometimes wonder if PKZ and Co aren't leaving this site up as a firewall to keep a few users contained in here 11.

Be aware I don't expect toxic people to accept it when I point at it. On the contrary, I expect the opposite reaction 11. But I will still mention it when I find it engaging or even fun to do, just like a monkey hanging from a low branch teases a tiger by pulling on its tail. I must say most times it is done in a less hostile way than it may seem, but alas to written words I'm confined. Also I am no Shakespeare, specially in English ^^

So off you go brother. Keep finding your angle, keep shitting on others not realizing you're also shitting on yourself. Once again you can write in your logbook how you see what the mindless sheeple cannot. We're all free to feed our ego in the way we see fit. All part of such a great cosmic joke 11.

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Also, Tatoh... FINALLY!!!! No better way to get an S-tier tournament than getting the biggest one <3.
Maybe this will nudge me towards enjoying the competitive scene again ^^

Regarding the overall tournament... a couple of "simple" fixes can make it a 10/10 event for next time.

 

Did anybody get the viewer count for the final across all platforms?

 

Did anybody get the viewer count for the final across all platforms?

Peak
-Twitch 45k+
-YT 15k+
Might not be unique viewers tho, maybe just wait for escharts for clearer picture.

 

Twitch peaked around 48k but YT was always over 20k in only the channels i follow, so i guess the finals reached the historical peak.
AoE4 is doing surprisingly fine with 33k on Twitch. That's like 4x more viewers than 200k golden league final's if i remember right. Maybe mixing with AoE2 helped view numbers a bit or is the event's level of production+ recent changes?

 

There has to be way more aoe2 audience watching aoe4 than the other way around. Mixing, if we want to call it that, with aoe2 definitely has had a big effect.

 

Twitch peaked around 48k but YT was always over 20k in only the channels i follow, so i guess the finals reached the historical peak.
AoE4 is doing surprisingly fine with 33k on Twitch. That's like 4x more viewers than 200k golden league final's if i remember right. Maybe mixing with AoE2 helped view numbers a bit or is the event's level of production+ recent changes?

What YT channels besides Red Bull were steaming it?

I’m sure the improved viewership for aoe4 is a mix of 1. Aoe2 viewers sticking around, 2. 400k followers on Redbull channel, and 3. Improvements to the game over recent months.

 

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 to mention it was Halloween. Most people under 40 (at least here) were at some Halloween party last night.

 

What YT channels besides Red Bull were steaming it?

Nacho around 7k average, Mario around 6k average (both live from the castle), Wayne Chang around 2k average, Juan Perotti around 1,5k average.

 

Twitch peaked around 48k but YT was always over 20k in only the channels i follow, so i guess the finals reached the historical peak.
AoE4 is doing surprisingly fine with 33k on Twitch. That's like 4x more viewers than 200k golden league final's if i remember right. Maybe mixing with AoE2 helped view numbers a bit or is the event's level of production+ recent changes?

there are 2 german streamers, maxim and maurice weber, that are casting the finals together, they add 6k+ viewers. they are not age4 casters, but they cast finals, dont know why. they didnt cast yesterday the age2 finals.
in the RB chanel, yesterday peak was 30k+ i guess, today is 20k

 

Was Tatitoth's performance the greatest performance of all time in Empire Wars? It's hard to compare obviously. Do you think he would've beaten last year's Viper? I think so personally.

Anyway, the GL boys are the most fun to watch, by far. True masters of the game (due to their experience/age). Maybe the AM guys will get there at some point, but the level of game sense and understanding among the GL guys is on another level.

 

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.

On the other hand, without Aoe4 I don't think we would've gotten such good production (prize pool, a live audience etc). Both games benefit from each other.

 

there are 2 german streamers, maxim and maurice weber, that are casting the finals together, they add 6k+ viewers. they are not age4 casters, but they cast finals, dont know why. they didnt cast yesterday the age2 finals.
in the RB chanel, yesterday peak was 30k+ i guess, today is 20k

Both of them did in fact cast yesterday:

MauriceWeber - Stream Oct 29, 2022 - Stats on viewers, followers, subscribers; VOD and clips

MauriceWeber stream on 2022-10-29 10:49:40 - evaluate stats, view chart, watch VOD.

twitchtracker.com

maxim - Stream Oct 29, 2022 - Stats on viewers, followers, subscribers; VOD and clips

maxim stream on 2022-10-29 10:49:40 - evaluate stats, view chart, watch VOD.

twitchtracker.com

 

How cynical 11. Why denying the obvious? Historically most if not all sponsors come to Aoezone.

Sorry for my bad memory because I'm forgetting names but Carlini, Pinztec, WIC sponsor, dude who sponsored Escape Gaming, and many others (probably people from Red Bull and Microsoft too) hang around Aoezone and have given away their free hours, work and their money. They have basically kept this game alive since forever. They all visit this site, sometimes wondering whether it's worth it to gaze at this much filth (admittedly not so much in this thread). And sometimes leaving the sewer for good.

What was being denied was not "sponsors have visited aoezone before" but rather your claim of multiple sponsors deciding to cease sponsoring events mainly due to mean comments on aoezone. you should probably try understanding what you're responding to before writing your very important essays

 

Both of them did in fact cast yesterday:

MauriceWeber - Stream Oct 29, 2022 - Stats on viewers, followers, subscribers; VOD and clips

MauriceWeber stream on 2022-10-29 10:49:40 - evaluate stats, view chart, watch VOD.

twitchtracker.com

maxim - Stream Oct 29, 2022 - Stats on viewers, followers, subscribers; VOD and clips

maxim stream on 2022-10-29 10:49:40 - evaluate stats, view chart, watch VOD.

twitchtracker.com

my fault. yesterday i was painting and only watching with the phone, so cant see if they were casting in aoezone.
how were their numbers yesterday?

 

my fault. yesterday i was painting and only watching with the phone, so cant see if they were casting in aoezone.
how were their numbers yesterday?

you click those link provided in your quote to see numbers

 

I hope the next RBW (if they plan to make tourneys) will have separate events for aoe2 and aoe4.

Was Tatitoth's performance the greatest performance of all time in Empire Wars? It's hard to compare obviously. Do you think he would've beaten last year's Viper? I think so personally.

I don't think we can predict that at all.

At this point, IMO the maps are new enough and not figured out well, so the randomness plays a lot more role.

We saw this especially in the group stage, where upsets and almost-upsets happened.
The same Tatoh, also almost got swept by Jordan as well (tho these two are in "same tier" IMO so it wouldn't have been an upset either way).

 

Some observations:
-With Tatoh's win that makes 6 winners in the last 8 S tier 1v1 tournaments
-In general we saw way too much of the casters and not enough of the players. Really missing backstage interviews, pre-match interviews (at least for the semis onward), etc.
-Marinelord has now won the the second most prize money of any RTS player this year
-Aoe4 viewership was kind of amazing. How they went from ~2k viewers for every EGC event running up to this to 25k is wild

 

At this point, IMO the maps are new enough and not figured out well, so the randomness plays a lot more role.

I think it's bad to categorize this as randomness.
Finding out what works and what doesnt and developing that to a high level over a small amount of games is a crucial skill and some players are better a this than others.

 

I think it's bad to categorize this as randomness.
Finding out what works and what doesnt and developing that to a high level over a small amount of games is a crucial skill and some players are better a this than others.

Indeed, adaptation to changing environments is basically the most important human skill compared to all living beings.

 

Total stream viewership by day and hour for all four aoe2 days across Facebook, Youtube, and Twitch. Sampled every 10 minutes. Peak observed was 75260 during 18 GMT on 10/29.

 

All the RBW's have been amazing, hope the series continues for years to come. Congrats to Tatoh on the biggest win of his career, he played as good as I've ever seen him play and I'm sure that payday will be life changing for him at least in the short term.

 

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Total stream viewership by day and hour for all four aoe2 days across Facebook, Youtube, and Twitch. Sampled every 10 minutes. Peak observed was 75260 during 18 GMT on 10/29.

Do we have the same for aoe4? Would be interesting to see it directly compared