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!

 

Edit: just caught up on the VOD drama.

Hopefully they can get it reuploaded fast. Wanted to watch the matches I missed yesterday before today's games

 

The joke was indeed funny. I'm far from being a Nili fan, but I don't see drama here besides an attempt from Memb's mod to create some for maybe obvious reasons.
Sure it's not professional, but the entire lan tournament is not. It's more of a relaxed atmosphere of friends meeting and playing. So I don't see a big deal.
In a few days from now on, no one will remember this wc anyways.

 

AoE esports is totally unprofessional so why constantly bother about such things..

 

The joke was indeed funny. I'm far from being a Nili fan, but I don't see drama here besides an attempt from Memb's mod to create some for maybe obvious reasons.
Sure it's not professional, but the entire lan tournament is not. It's more of a relaxed atmosphere of friends meeting and playing. So I don't see a big deal.
In a few days from now on, no one will remember this wc anyways.

This has nothing to do with my position as a mod in Memb's Channel. I am a free individual who expresses his own opinion. I personally felt offended by the joke/boycott comment as I have relatives living there in Qatar (And I am an Arab/Berber myself). I had a very busy day yesterday of debugging and developing and I tuned in to watch nice games from two of the best players in the world (I'm viper's fan boy number 1 and I don't ever miss his matches) and the least I want to hear are politics in my favourite game.

 

Ornlu doing a great job of justifying Redbull's decision to exclude him; Nili getting himself de-platformed; Dave regurgitating cliches; Ellie's nails on a chalkboard laugh; and new presenter is a cardboard cutout in a suit.

If anyone wants to get into AoE commentary, there's a huge gap in the market.

Credit to Vodka though. Watching Memb fumble his way around the map in the last tournament made me long for the return of an observer.

 

This has nothing to do with my position as a mod in Memb's Channel. I am a free individual who expresses his own opinion. I personally felt offended by the joke/boycott comment as I have relatives living there in Qatar (And I am an Arab/Berber myself). I had a very busy day yesterday of debugging and developing and I tuned in to watch nice games from two of the best players in the world (I'm viper's fan boy number 1 and I don't ever miss his matches) and the least I want to hear are politics in my favourite game.

I'll interpret that as:
"I have realtives living there so I'm fine with people dying in Qatar(as long as they aren't my relatives) and don't want to hear anything about it"

 

Probably poor judgement from Nili to make that sort of joke in this context, where he is (presumably) being paid to be a caster on behalf of an organisation who seem like they want an uncontroversial stream. Definitely something he should try to work on in a professional setting like this.

That being said I agree with Nili's sentiment and it doesn't seem particularly political to point out people died building the stuff there, that's just a factual account 11 but better to keep that kinda joke for aoezone or his own channel

 

Ornlu doing a great job of justifying Redbull's decision to exclude him;

what did ornlu mess up?

 

Still no VOD... this is a disastrous decision.

 

Even the Ukraine situation has been kept off official streams, just like it should have been.

but it absolutely shouldnt

Many ppl are dying in other places all over the world, no one speaks about them

that stupid 'argument' shows up every time someone brings any unpleasant topic like that

after Sunday everything will be completely forgotten like the issue never existed.

one more reason to bring it up as often as possible

 

Bit sad that the thread is taken up with commentary about who can take the most offense to a joke when we should be talking about Hera clapping Tatoh (they've both been immense this year) and Liereyy vs Viper that was an incredible series.

And damn it's on already, that's early! Perhaps third place not so pointless as it's effectively a $4,000 showmatch.

 

Thank you @Hangover!

 

Still no VOD... this is a disastrous decision.

 

Still no VOD... this is a disastrous decision.

Yup.
Was watching it yesterday night while all of a sudden it got taken down.
Bye bye Viper vs Lierrey for me.
What a lame tournament it has been.

 

Really appreciate it. Now I feel silly for complaining so much, haha. Thanks bud

 

but it absolutely shouldnt

Good thing people in charge of the other S tier events have more sense than that to not allow it then.

 

The comment was unnecessary and at the very least unprofessional. Seemed rehearsed as if he was waiting for just the moment to spring it, especially with the boycott remark.

It was 100% rehearsed. Which is why he should have known better. It wasn't just something he said in the heat of the moment.

Games have been good but everything else about this tournament has been just bizarre. A 3rd place match worth $4000, in these settings, at this time, with players casting. Just weird.

 

There shouldn't be any safe space for injustice. But maybe he shouldn't have said to boycott. I think the joke was fine though.

 

Games have been good but everything else about this tournament has been just bizarre. A 3rd place match worth $4000, in these settings, at this time, with players casting. Just weird.

TakeTV's Homestorycup in SC2 (from which Nili copied his NAC) has a prizepool of 26.000$, 34 players and right now 8k viewers in a lower bracket round of 16 match.

The Grand Melee has a 100.000$ prizepool, 8 players and right now 5k people watching not a simple lb match, but third place match with Viper and Tatoh.

This tournament isn't doing good, thats for sure. Empty seats, closed streaming policy and an "at home" atmosphere around it that doesn't really suit a dreamhack stage event. Not a good promotion for AoE2 and future tournaments.

 

Games have been good but everything else about this tournament has been just bizarre. A 3rd place match worth $4000, in these settings, at this time, with players casting. Just weird.

Just a very strange tournament, I have restreamed the original stream and nothing happend (yet).

Good games, Nili (semi)banned with strange apology on Twitter, no audience, worst chat Ive ever seen, strange phony technical issues with Vods. Just very unprofessionally handled. TOTS seemed more interested in their own cult than AoE2.

From a business pov this is likely a disappointment, no more funding to the sheeps.
Lets hope GL will not go bankrupt

 

TakeTV's Homestorycup in SC2 (from which Nili copied his NAC) has a prizepool of 26.000$, 34 players and right now 8k viewers in a lower bracket round of 16 match.

The Grand Melee has a 100.000$ prizepool, 8 players and right now 5k people watching not a simple lb match, but third place match with Viper and Tatoh.

This tournament isn't doing good, thats for sure. Empty seats, closed streaming policy and an "at home" atmosphere around it that doesn't really suit a dreamhack stage event. Not a good promotion for AoE2 and future tournaments.

comparing an established tourney in most popular rts to a brand new thing in rather upcoming title doesnt seem very relevant

 

It was 100% rehearsed. Which is why he should have known better. It wasn't just something he said in the heat of the moment.

Games have been good but everything else about this tournament has been just bizarre. A 3rd place match worth $4000, in these settings, at this time, with players casting. Just weird.

I tuned in as other days and I found out it's already 2:2 lol

 

Lets hope GL will not go bankrupt

Don't worry, their big LoL and CS:GO sections are carrying them enough. But sponsors for future aoe events will also take this tournament into consideration about spending future money on AoE2, especially on lan tournaments.

comparing an established tourney in most popular rts to a brand new thing in rather upcoming title doesnt seem very relevant

I just point out the discrepancy between players, prizepool and viewers in both rts games. You think aoe2 events will keep hosting 100k$ tournaments while pulling half of the viewers than Sc2 events with a quater of the prizepool?
Also the HSC22 is a good example how to do an exciting 1v1 tournament with more than the same 8 players we see all the time and create a funny and cozy lan atmosphere. The Grand Melee is aside from the games which are good, in nearly every other aspect a good example how not to host a lan.

 

he Grand Melee is aside from the games which are good, in nearly every other aspect a good example how not to host a lan.

it is not bad, and for a first time i would say its pretty good

 

This has nothing to do with my position as a mod in Memb's Channel. I am a free individual who expresses his own opinion. I personally felt offended by the joke/boycott comment as I have relatives living there in Qatar (And I am an Arab/Berber myself). I had a very busy day yesterday of debugging and developing and I tuned in to watch nice games from two of the best players in the world (I'm viper's fan boy number 1 and I don't ever miss his matches) and the least I want to hear are politics in my favourite game.

so just like Russians get offended and complain politics when game devs annouce donating money to help Ukrainian civilians suffering from the war or are against the war. There either is no war or you cannot talk about it because people dying is not relevant, it is reallly just political talk according to you. I guess classicpro got admin loss for politics in Warlords and not because there happens be war causing power outage.

Mouttie: "i don't want to hear about thigns i don't like so i say it is political"