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.

 

If the finals were on Sunday and if Viper made it to semis I imagine it would be even better. Still great viewership.

 

Im not a fan of redbull as company or energydrinks as product. In my mind decline them heavly and they have both no part in my life but even I must admit this event was amazing. Thank you very much was a pleasure to watch. Even when I was not able to see it live.
And I hope some day I will find time to visit maybe future events. Sadpeporoni living near Heidelberg and don't find time to visit the event.

 

If the finals were on Sunday and if Viper made it to semis I imagine it would be even better. Still great viewership.

Might be a reach.

But, I think if it was Sunday and a Viper vs Hera/Lierrey final, I think aoe2 would've hit 100K+ for the first time

 

TATOH

 

Might be a reach.

But, I think if it was Sunday and a Viper vs Hera/Lierrey final, I think aoe2 would've hit 100K+ for the first time

Not sure about how much Viper would increase it, but Sunday especially that some countries had haloween for sure took some viewers away. Spoke with one guy, so he didn't even know final will be on saturday, because he assumed it will be on sunday as always.

 

View attachment 204454

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.

Would like to see VoD viewership too. I watched it on Sunday because I was out Saturday, like I imagine a lot of people were.

 

Would like to see VoD viewership too. I watched it on Sunday because I was out Saturday, like I imagine a lot of people were.

AOE2 Saturday
Redbull Twitch: 443k views
Redbull YouTube: 176k views

Aoe4 Sunday
Redbull Twitch: 277k views
Redbull YouTube: 53k views

 

AOE4 viewership seems like carried viewers from AOE2. Unlike general trend on this thread, I don't found it as success, especially with record amount of prize money, having sunday after another big final of saturday, they had the premium position to deliver higher numbers than AOE2, still couldn't meet it.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion though so I will not deep dive into further debate about this subject.

 

Viewership statistics from esports charts:
Age of Empires I

• Peak viewers: 115 108
• Average viewers: 25 153
• Hours watched: 496 757
• Airtime: 19h 45m

Age of Empires II

• Peak viewers: 76 699
• Average viewers: 38 860
• Hours watched: 1 350 351
• Airtime: 34h 45m

Age of Empires IV

• Peak viewers: 41 866
• Average viewers: 20 785
• Hours watched: 698 027
• Airtime: 33h 35m

Sources:

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

 

Age of Empires I

• Peak viewers: 115 108
• Average viewers: 25 153

Age of Empires II

• Peak viewers: 76 699
• Average viewers: 38 860

Ok thats interesting, i was wrong about vipers effect as his match viewership wasnt as high in comparision to others. Im happy about that. You cannot say that about vietnamese viewers where clearly Chim Sẻ Đi Nắng is an idol. Btw im not Viper hater i just like variety and want the better player to win.

 

Viewership statistics from esports charts:
Age of Empires I

• Peak viewers: 115 108
• Average viewers: 25 153
• Hours watched: 496 757
• Airtime: 19h 45m

Age of Empires II

• Peak viewers: 76 699
• Average viewers: 38 860
• Hours watched: 1 350 351
• Airtime: 34h 45m

Age of Empires IV

• Peak viewers: 41 866
• Average viewers: 20 785
• Hours watched: 698 027
• Airtime: 33h 35m

Sources:

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

Do you think all of those are good numbers?
I knew AoE I had good viewer numbers, so only a Bo5 in the final was a bit strange.

Another thing which I wonder, is how much the changing times affected viewer numbers. For the AoE 2 final, I could only watch starting about half an hour after the scheduled time, but when I tuned in, I saw it was not game 1 or 2, but already game 5, because they started 1.5 h earlier.
Similar with AoE 4, I believe they started more than 2 h earlier.
Imagine someone wanted to watch only the final of one game and then it's already over.

 

AOE4 viewership seems like carried viewers from AOE2. Unlike general trend on this thread, I don't found it as success, especially with record amount of prize money, having sunday after another big final of saturday, they had the premium position to deliver higher numbers than AOE2, still couldn't meet it.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion though so I will not deep dive into further debate about this subject.

If they were separate events the gap would be a lot bigger, no question about that. But then again, that's exactly why they weren't separated.

 

All hail the true AoE king, AoE1!

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the demographic of the user paying for the cost of AOE4, or AOE2, its multiple re-releases and DLC's are significantly more valuable in terms of value for advertisement than AOE1.

 

Viewership statistics from esports charts:
Age of Empires I

• Peak viewers: 115 108
• Average viewers: 25 153
• Hours watched: 496 757
• Airtime: 19h 45m

Age of Empires II

• Peak viewers: 76 699
• Average viewers: 38 860
• Hours watched: 1 350 351
• Airtime: 34h 45m

Age of Empires IV

• Peak viewers: 41 866
• Average viewers: 20 785
• Hours watched: 698 027
• Airtime: 33h 35m

Sources:

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires I prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires II prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV - AoE - Viewership, Overview, Prize Pool | Esports Charts

Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV - AoE statistics and viewership ► Tournament overview, Red Bull Wololo: Legacy 2022 Age of Empires IV prize pool, peak viewers, top matches, platforms, viewer count and more

escharts.com

So the question is what conlcusion they'll make out of these numbers?

"AoE2 is more popular, let's focus on it" or "We didn't push AoE4 hard enough, let's push it more"

p.s. sorry for ruling out AoE1

 

So the question is what conlcusion they'll make out of these numbers?

"AoE2 is more popular, let's focus on it" or "We didn't push AoE4 hard enough, let's push it more"

p.s. sorry for ruling out AoE1

I think Aoe4 will be on a heavy decline going forward. The organizers sign contracts many months before the tournament actually happens, when they were still in hope Aoe4 will pull people as a new game.
But now even the most optimistic Aoe4 fan should aknowledge, that Aoe4 will be even a smaller niche than Aoe2. I don't believe organizers will throw as much money into the game as before seeing it's numbers and that could even speed up it's decline.

 

AOE4 viewership seems like carried viewers from AOE2. Unlike general trend on this thread, I don't found it as success, especially with record amount of prize money, having sunday after another big final of saturday, they had the premium position to deliver higher numbers than AOE2, still couldn't meet it.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion though so I will not deep dive into further debate about this subject.

Some anectodal evidence from my side on how the viewer numbers can get skewed quite a bit - I suspect I am not the only person in a similar situation:

I watched the AOE4 finals - just because I wanted more of the tournament experience. I was not able to catch the AOE2 finals live because I had other obligations on Saturday evening (imo it was a big disadvantage for AOE2 to happen on Saturday instead of Sunday), but watched the VOD immediately after I got home and the following morning.

The big difference is *how* I consumed the content.
With the AOE2 finals I was glued to the screen for every single second.
The AOE4 finals I had running in the background and never got really engaged by it.

In the end I count as a live viewer of AOE4 and not as a live viewer for AOE2, while the only reasons I watched AOE4 is AOE2 and even then I didn't really pay that much attention.

 

So the question is what conlcusion they'll make out of these numbers?

"AoE2 is more popular, let's focus on it" or "We didn't push AoE4 hard enough, let's push it more"

p.s. sorry for ruling out AoE1

A few levels to this, and I'd suggest profit is a more motivating factor than viewers for Microsoft, who are already in almost every home in the world and don't really benefit from exposure, especially with an almost monopoly (maybe with 1 competitor) on many of their products

If we take an unrealistic optimistic approach and assume that every viewer equates to the sale of a game, then going off the current steam prices Aoe2 would need to have four times as many viewers to equal aoe4s value, and whilst it did blow aoe4 put of the water and almost double the viewers of aoe4, unfortunatly that's nowhere close to being more profitable.

If we take a stance that is slightly more realistic and suggest that being a newer game (eg having 3d graphics, even if they don't look as good to you, is a good selling point and probably the future of their new releases going forward), with a price drop, and the advantages that come by simply being more modern, then we could likely say that aoe4 is likely to sell more copies of the game, than a 20+ year old game, who's viewerbase largely consists of hardcore fans who have owned the game for years.

Then we might say that even by doubling the exposure and viewer count, Aoe2 will sell less copies than aoe4. When to be more profitable it needed to sell 4x as many copies, not less.

Whilst I am an aoe4 player, and that comes with bias of course, I can admit that aoe4 will never, ever hit the levels of popularity that Aoe2 is currently at, and I don't expect aoe4 will ever surpass Aoe2 in popularity - but for the next few years at least, the reality seems to be that it will be more profitable, even though less popular, than Aoe2

I predict aoe4 will get more attention, and more resources put into it as it's pushed hard in the short term (2ish more years), but a consistent level of support will long outlast aoe4, at least untill aoe5 arrives and then we go through it all again.

With a 40k tournament starting the same week Redbull finished, and a $1m that has been all but confirmed by the main hosts of aoe4 tournaments, support seems strong in the short term - but I don't think it will last beyond that

We might say that Aoe2 will never get pushed as hard as the new games in the series, and to hope that it does might leave many disappointed, but it will likely outlast all of them.

Unless of course it manages to find itself in the vicinity of 8x more viewers than aoe4, which would probably be in the range of yielding an equal profit (if we consider that 4x more purchases are needed just to meet the sale price, and Aoe2 probably has a fanbase who already own copies of the game)


..at least from a Microsoft point of view

If you look at it from a Redbull perspective (who aren't a popular drink, have many competitors, and want their customers to be repeat often customers rather than buy once, or buy DLC once a year), rather than Microsoft.. I would suggest that exposure and viewers are actually more important than sales, however in this instance, being the first time that Redbull has involved itself with aoe4, it was an instant win regardless of viewers. Introducing themselves to a new community and becoming the talk of a new community is likely to be far more valuable to them then repeating the event for an existing community, regardless of how small that new community is

However, now that Redbull is the talk of aoe4, for the next event - it will hold equal value to Aoe2 and viewer numbers will be much more important.

In my opinion, even as an aoe4 player - I hope that this was a one-off and Redbull doesn't host aoe4 next time. Whether they stick to Aoe2, or combine Aoe2 with another game in the series such as aom retold and gain the advantage of being the focus of an entire new community.. it's too early to tell. But it doesn't make alot of sense to repeat a small community such as aoe4 when the initial exposure has already been created. (there is also a lot of contempt towards Redbull in the aoe4 community after the event, which isn't a lot of motivation to repeat it)

Tldr: I predict aoe4 will get pushed harder by Microsoft, but Aoe2 will last longer with consistent support. And that Redbull won't be involved in aoe4 again, even though it was a win for them to include it once. (Tried to keep it as bias-free as possible, I think Aoe2 will always be more popular even though I play aoe4)

 

Do you think all of those are good numbers?

For AoE2
Overall I would say these are good numbers.
2022 was kind of a strange year in terms of tournaments. From the established tournament series we only had BoA returning (KotD if you want to count the last 12 months). While the new S-tier events still offered good content, they were hosted by "new" organizers. It made it harder for casuals to actually be aware of them. Then you have to factor in the facebook move by T90 and Viper which also hit viewer numbers pretty hard.

So all in all, its imo a success that we could match the viewer numbers from last year. Increasing the prize pool can only get you so far. I mean, propably noone would say: $100k, nah, I only tune in when its $200k. In the end, both are massive prize pools for AoE2. Also its propably good for Red Bull that they have a save guess in terms of viewer numbers for their offline events.

Now you could also compare these numbers to Starcraft 2. They had two offline events these year so far.

IEM Katowice 2022 (World Championship)
Peak viewers: 50 635
Average viewers: 27 318
Hours watched: 1 472 865
Airtime: 53h 55m

DH Masters 2022 Valencia (one of two offline events from the ESL Pro Tour this year)
Peak viewers: 37 932
Average viewers: 17 192
Hours watched 670 454
Airtime: 39h

Pure number wise RBW:L beats both of them, pretty amazing isnt it?

For AoE4
Looking back at the last two big tournaments, N4C peaked at ~16k on the Twitch category and Golden League at ~14k. To my knowledge there arent any big youtube streamers for AoE4.
Then you have Road to Wololo - a series consisting of $2k weeklies and $4k monthlies.
Looking at https://twitchtracker.com/games/498482 and https://twitchtracker.com/egctv/streams, you can estimate that they pulled 3-5k depending on the event - except for the Last Chance Qualifier which had ~7k.
The two outliners were for
- July: these two https://sullygnome.com/channel/khaosadam/2022july & https://sullygnome.com/channel/deansocool/2022july streaming on July 22nd together
- September: Bonjwa LAN

So going into RBW:L, I wasnt expecting 41k peak and 20k average for AoE4 at all. Now you could list all kinds of reasons why the numbers are as they are:
- AoE2 people just continued to watch
- Sunday primetime
- new DLC/new season
- game is in general more stable, bugs getting fixed
Its propably a mix of all of them, so now only the next events can tell if it was a fluke or its a start of a positive trend. Though the next big event will be a $40k team event and we all know that tg events perform worse than 1v1 events. But hey, Beasty, MarineLorD and Demu got Serral as their backup!

Red Bull approach

Twitch

Twitch is the world's leading video platform and community for gamers.

clips.twitch.tv

Another thing I want to add, Dave mentioned in last year's Q&A after RBW5 that Red Bull are first and foremost interested in the "WOW"-factor for an event. Viewers (online/in-person), players or casters must thing: "damn, this is amazing!". And atleast for me, I got that feeling.
Also, they must be pleased with all the watch parties.

Another thing which I wonder, is how much the changing times affected viewer numbers.

I partially blame us/Liquipedia for it. I saw too many comments refering to the schedule on Liquipedia and how they were late for the finals. Red Bull itself never set an exact time for the finals. For the final day, they had 13/15/17 CEST for the semis and the AoE1 finals on stream but thats it. I guess, a small explanation on LP could have minimized the confusion.

 

Another thing I want to add, Dave mentioned in last year's Q&A after RBW5 that Red Bull are first and foremost interested in the "WOW"-factor for an event. Viewers (online/in-person), players or casters must thing: "damn, this is amazing!". And atleast for me, I got that feeling.
Also, they must be pleased with all the watch parties.

Well of course. Their only goal is to have a wow effect on people, so their brand stays in people heads with the connection to good feelings. So if you see their drink in the supermarket, you instantly remember the "wow effect" and want to buy it. It's simple psychology on the weak minded.
They don't need to advertise themselves for hours and days, because everyone already knows them. All they want is a positiv thought in combination with their brand, instead of thoughts about obesity, heart problems and diabetes. You can call it white washing. That's the only reason they are willing to spent so much money on even niche games.

 

I partially blame us/Liquipedia for it. I saw too many comments refering to the schedule on Liquipedia and how they were late for the finals. Red Bull itself never set an exact time for the finals. For the final day, they had 13/15/17 CEST for the semis and the AoE1 finals on stream but thats it. I guess, a small explanation on LP could have minimized the confusion.

I can understand that, at same time this RBW or any other tournament always have just average time set in Liquapedia and pretty much always games go on by one, no one can predict how long stuff will go, is not football. Also someone mentioned that someone maybe just wanted to check finals, well curious if there are many people who didn't pay attention to it and checked just final. I bet there always are some extremes.

Well looking at numbers it seems that aoe1 got very big boost by aoe2 viewers, including me, as I never seen aoe1 gameplay, so was interested to check, although finals seemed so one sided, that didn't even manage to see proper gameplay of it, although maybe that's how most games look there idk.

In the end it seems like aoe1(well just final) and aoe4 had big boost by aoe2 viewers, while aoe2 probably didn't get a boost of aoe1 or aoe4 communities and also final was on saturday instead of sunday.

Well overall tournament was very good, although even if for next event they plan to keep B stream, they should somehow try to have at least similar quality on it, some interviews added or something idk. Also I agree with some, maybe when torunament was so rushed, there wasn't much time to check recs/vod of B stream, but for example in football championships on main TV here hosts usually say "please turn off sound now if you don't want to be spoiled". maybe something like that could be possible idk.

Anyway in short: B stream should be improved. Also for me personally rushing everything and then leaving 3 sets for almost a week is a bit weird. I can see it being nice to stay there for players, at same time watching hera's clip I can see it can be difficult to prepare, all those days you are thinking about semi final.

 

there is also a lot of contempt towards Redbull in the aoe4 community after the event, which isn't a lot of motivation to repeat it)

I'm really curious about this part. What's this and why?

Overall is a leveled comment, nice to see your perspective, though I have some disagreements. I think if MS plays is cards right with aoe2 with long term in plan, it can create a great esports scene which isn't as niche a it currently is.

 

I'm really curious about this part. What's this and why?

Overall is a leveled comment, nice to see your perspective, though I have some disagreements. I think if MS plays is cards right with aoe2 with long term in plan, it can create a great esports scene which isn't as niche a it currently is.

They wanted 400k :D

 

They wanted 400k :D

I hope this is a joke lmao

 

I'm really curious about this part. What's this and why?

Thankyou!

Long story short, we essentially only have a single tournament organiser in aoe4 who is hosting large events (egctv)

Although there are many other tournaments, such as low elo legends weekly tournament for example, egctv is the only tournament organiser who consistently gets 1000+ viewers and has a prize pool of $1500+

In general, there was a level of displeasure at how Redbull handled the aoe4 portion, which didn't align with what the community was used too.

1. From, rules that the pro players publically said were "ridiculous" that conflicted with our regular tournament rules (the Aoe2 community is used to having a different game mode, but for aoe4 this was the first time another tournament has come in with rules that conflict with what the community was used too)

2. To, the exclusion of people who are a big part of the scene (Lidakor, who is seen by the community as the main caster of aoe4, (along with Aussie Drongo) not being invited and bee, who was the tournament favourite being disqualified without a reason that the community felt was sufficient)

2.5 this has led to a major split within our already small community, and has led to alot of fans being toxic towards each other with differing opinions of whether 1, both, or none of these players "deserves to be there" this is the first real internal drama aoe4 has had since it's release

3. To most of the community seeing aoe4 as a sideshow compared to Aoe2 (I know most people on this forum see the opposite).

Things that attributes to this include like our regular memes in aoe4 being banned in twitch chat eg: there is a 'fun' rivalry between demuslim and Marinelord, and from what I gather there were dozens of people timed out for taking a side, which is a normal fun part of our game - but not understood by the twitch chat mods who aren't familiar with our community)

And a few pro players went on the Redbull discord before the main event and complained that aoe4 wasn't getting much attention

4. To what many within the community saw as favouritism and I know that chrazini is well liked within aoe2, but a series of events which many claim is discrimination, having favourites, and being inconsistent with rules has left a bad taste in the mouth of many of the community.. to be fair, it was probably all stuff out of his control, and made much worse by our own community but it is issues we hadn't faced before in our tournaments and has given the community an appreciation of our regular admins and tournament hosts

It's not so much Redbull directly doing something bad, I would say it's a combination of expectations that had been set within a small community for a new game, and an inexperienced aoe4 community person although highly experienced tournament host entering the scene leading to many issues has caused fights within our own community, and an appreciation for how things were with our regular admins and host leading to many comments such as "300k wasn't worth the drama that came with it"

I don't speak for everyone to be fair, and it's probably a loud minority who are unhappy with Redbull entering the scene