The Grand Melee - Announcement and Discussion

Some time ago, the secretive Order of the Sheep teased us The Grand Melee, an Age of Empires II: DE happening in Hannover at the DreamHack LAN event, from the 15th to the 17th of December.

We are now happy to deliver the full message to you.

Settings specifics
The whole event will be played using the DWL game mode, also known as 9 villagers start game mode. It will allow for quicker action, while keeping the openness and strategic diversity of the standard RM mode.

Main event
The Grand Melee main event will consist of a single elimination bracket, featuring a total of 8 players.
15th of December
Quarter finals best of 5
16th of December
Semi finals best of 7
17th of December
Third place match best of 7 and Grand final best of 9

Participation
Firstly, as per their performance in the RedBull Wololo: Legacy tournament, Liereyy and TaToH has been granted an invitation to the main event.

Secondly, the other 6 participants will have to come on top of the entirely open qualifiers happening on the 3rd and 4th of December. The registration is already open and you can sign up here on start.gg

Prize money reward
The monetary reward will amount to a whopping $100,000 split between the 8 main event players as followed:

1st place: $40,000
2nd place: $20,000
3rd place: $14,000
4th place: $10,000
5th to 8th: $4,000

Where to watch?
The whole event will be streamed on Twitch at: https://www.twitch.tv/theorderofthesheep

On top of that, the qualifiers will be completely open to broadcast, so you can catch them live at your favourite streamer’s channel on the 3rd and 4th of December!

Details for the broadcasting policy of the main event will be announced soon. Stay tuned...

Join the Discord server now!
Chat with us and get all the latest updates regarding The Grand Melee at https://discord.gg/vT9NWJJtp5

You can also use this announcement thread to discuss about the tournament and to send your questions and feedback.

See you soon!

 

what happens to future s-tier tournaments now? if someone organises a 50k tourney, would they let these sheep guys stream it? or are they doing this knowing they dont need that and can rely on their deep pockets?

I think/worry we could go back to the days of closed streaming.

 

Does anyone know how much of that prizepool was sponsored by microsoft? I believe the organiser is covering the costs of the arena haHAA where the games will be played + the accommodation and flights for the plajers, this looks similar to RedBull then why so much crying?

 

Does anyone know how much of that prizepool was sponsored by microsoft? I believe the organiser is covering the costs of the arena haHAA where the games will be played + the accommodation and flights for the plajers, this looks similar to RedBull then why so much crying?

IIRC everyone streamed RBW 5 and 6 on their streams as well.

I saw T90, Memb, Dave etc streaming them on their channel......though was like a copy.

I think that isn't allowed for this? IDK
Maybe I don't understand this closed stream thing well and confused

 

Does anyone know how much of that prizepool was sponsored by microsoft? I believe the organiser is covering the costs of the arena haHAA where the games will be played + the accommodation and flights for the plajers, this looks similar to RedBull then why so much crying?

Exact amount of MS sponsorship is unclear - but in tournaments past MS has sponsored prize pool and the host organizes the venue / expenses.
RedBull tried closed streaming, and viewer numbers were pretty crap. They moved to open streaming (partnership model) and had much better traction

 

RedBull tried closed streaming, and viewer numbers were pretty crap. They moved to open streaming (partnership model) and had much better traction

From my understanding, this is where they allowed others to "copy" the stream, right?

Is this also some type of "closed streaming" (with partnership model or something as you said)?

And, grand melee not allowing the same, right?

 

Closed streaming in LAN-tournaments is not a new thing. Its been pretty much the norm since LAN-events become a thing in aoe2.
I believe all NAC and Escape LAN-events was closed streaming

 

League Information
Organizer:
The Order of the Sheep
Sponsor(s):
World's Edge (Microsoft) • Backforce • TERRA • Samsung • Western Digital • Re-Bo

 

Closed streaming in LAN-tournaments is not a new thing. Its been pretty much the norm since LAN-events become a thing in aoe2.
I believe all NAC and Escape LAN-events was closed streaming

Yes, name more LAN tournaments that didn't survive plz

 

Yes, name more LAN tournaments that didn't survive plz

i don't think NAC ever had complains regarding closed streaming. If anything, I think NAC was the pinnacle of live viewing in such a close knit community because we could tune in anytime during the entire week and find a group of gamer friends chilling and trolling each other. If anything, I would prefer the more homely and friendly environment of NAC than the professional and spontaneous environment in Redbull (We barely saw any live behind the scenes from Redbull, it was all mostly prerecorded, the interviews sucked, and felt like it was soo rushed)

ECL had its own problems, it was very ambitious and long and not quite organized enough to be successful financially.

In retrospect, ECL should definitely have been open streaming just for the amount of games that were being played played. However as for NAC, i prefer it to be closed streaming because that keeps viewers, giving people in the apartment more incentive to do QnAs and give behind-the-scene sneak peaks.

Don't like the closed streaming for TGM though

 

Yes, name more LAN tournaments that didn't survive plz

The reason that another NAC didn't happen wasn't cos of closed streaming, it was because of the covid pandemic that followed soon after NAC3. And then N4C happened 2 years later, which really didn't help at all.

 

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603015042999455750

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603026769702952961

 

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603015042999455750

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603026769702952961

Why does it have a 5v5 setup? Are there other games involved ?

 

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603015042999455750

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603026769702952961

Damn, it's starting tomorrow?

I was hoping it would be on weekends. I'll probably miss most of it then. I think same can be said for many others, viewership will take a hit adding onto the hit from closed steaming.

Anyway, good luck to everyone involved. I'll be cheering on for viper and daut as always

 

Why does it have a 5v5 setup? Are there other games involved ?

Yeah of course, it's a big event.

Many team games tend to be 5v5

 

I've been wondering why Liquipedia doesn't have the opening matchups yet, considering this starts tomorrow.

 

I've been wondering why Liquipedia doesn't have the opening matchups yet, considering this starts tomorrow.

I think the draw will be livrstreamed in roughly 45mins

 

Damn, it's starting tomorrow?

I have same reaction even though I watch basically all tournaments... That says a thing or two 11

 

 

Artosis so expensive they apparently could only afford one poorly working microphone for the broadcast

 

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603015042999455750

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603026769702952961

Why does it have a 5v5 setup? Are there other games involved ?

Yeah of course, it's a big event.

Many team games tend to be 5v5

Ok so aoe2 is gonna be a side event. Hopefully final is on stage

 

Why does it have a 5v5 setup? Are there other games involved ?


Ok so aoe2 is gonna be a side event. Hopefully final is on stage

There are three stages in DH.

AoE2 will be on stage 2 (already posted picture) but on sunday there will be VALORANT and Rainbow Six matches, so the 10 seats are needed for that.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1602356362842968074

 

Here's the schedule courtest of OotS

 

Some live reactions to the bracket draw from the players - taken from the Order of the Sheep Instagram account.

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Ah GL lucky on the dice throw (1/6 probability) to get no GL-GL matchup in the first round..

 

Very lucky GL i must say. Especially the last draw, Daut had 1/2 probability to get either Viper or Liereyy and he got Liereyy. Apart from Viper and Hera (sorry Tatoh but this is RM) I think Daut is the only one who might be able to take a set from Liereyy.

If Daut beats Liereyy, Viper might have this path to the finals assuming he beats ACCM and Daut (i give this a very solid chance). If not, we might have a Viper Liereyy Semis and that will be insane.

On the top side of the bracket, I think Hera will shine. His path should be all about being consistent and as long as he plays his game, I believe he should be able to get till the finals.