Two Pools Tournament 2 Announcement

After the success and the many memorable moments that the first event gave us in 2019, I am extremely happy to introduce the second edition of Two Pools Tournament - this time with the sponsorship of Microsoft! In this 2v2 format, each team will play every game with a civilization selected by them, and one selected by the opponent for them! This way, players are able to influence the civilizations of the opposing team directly!

The event in its entirety will be covered live on the Lidakor Twitch and Youtube channels.

The main event will feature eight invited teams:

• TheViper and TaToH
• Liereyy and Hera
• MbL and Nicov
• Mr. Yo and Lyx
• DauT and Slam
• TheMax and Villese
• Miguel and Dogao
• ACCM and SayMyName

While eight other teams will be able to qualify from a bracket of 24 teams.
The 16 teams of the main event will play through a GSL-Style group stage, followed by an eight-team single elimination bracket to decide who will be the champion!

Timeline

March 25-28: Qualifying stage

Main event:

April 3-4: Group Stage Round 1
April 10-11: Group Stage Round 2
April 17: Group Deciders
April 18: Quarterfinals
April 24: Semifinals - Live games
April 25: Grand finals - Live games

Prizepool

The tournament will feature a minimum of $10,000 prizepool. In addition to this, Lidakor will be adding $1,00 for every Twitch Subscriber, and $1,00 for every 75 Youtube subscribers at the conclusion of the event.

1st place: $3250 - (32.5%)
2nd place: $1625 - (16.5%)
3rd & 4th place: $800 - (8%)
5th - 8th place: $500 - (5%)
9th - 12th place: $200 - (2%)
13th - 16th place: $150 - (1.5%)

Currently unassigned: $125 (1.25%)

If you would be interested in adding to the prizepool or contributing to the administration costs, please reach out to Lidakor on discord or on AoEZone.

Maps

The map pack will feature a variety of maps known from various tournaments, and will also mark the return of two legendary maps from the first edition of the tournament: Cape of Storms and Forest Pond!

The following maps are going to be played during the event:

• Arabia
• Cape of Storms
• Coast to Mountain
• Eruption
• Forest Pond
• Hideout
• Kawasan
• Not Socotra
• Rockslide
• Regicide Fortress (no towers)
• Team Acropolis
• Team Islands

The maps are available to download at: https://www.ageofempires.com/mods/details/21294/
An overview of maps can be found here: Soon (TM)

Special thanks goes to Chrazini for creating and maintaining the map pack.

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Because of scheduling and the length of the civilization draft, games will be casted as recorded games. This, unfortunately also prevents the streaming of player POVs.

The event will be fully open casting. Please refer to the streaming rules here

Questions regarding the event will be answered here
Any feedback is welcome here

Sign-ups are open until the designated time in the sign-ups topic

Viewers are welcome to propose pre-tournament interview questions in the designated channel of Lidakor's discord server.

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Lidakor on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/lidakor
Lidakor on YouTube: https://youtube.com/lidakor
Lidakor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LidaStream
Discord: https://discord.gg/ywnjF278Qr

 

This is freaking epic. Thank you for hearing us Lida. The first edition was one of the best audiovisual productions from 2019 despite the prize pool. Very very excited

 

Feels Jordan man. Seriously though, can the invited teams add a third player?

He already signed up with Nili, so doubt that's necessary

 

He already signed up with Nili, so doubt that's necessary

The question could apply to BacT though but as he was added to the team last time I assume he was asked. Maybe he wants to sign up with iL anyway.

Edit: Generally speaking I assume the invited teams were asked and would have requested this beforehand, if required

 

The question could apply to BacT though but as he was added to the team last time I assume he was asked. Maybe he wants to sign up with iL anyway.

Edit: Generally speaking I assume the invited teams were asked and would have requested this beforehand, if required

The invited teams have all either come up with the rosters themselves or agreed upon a roster when they accepted the invite. Now with that being said, I don't think the current list has been edited after the final changes so hold on with those questions before I can confirm it 100%. The teams are confirmed and final. All invited players have either agreed to or proposed the teams themselves.

 

This is awesome, Two Pools 1 was a rly great tournament.
Bit sad most games won't be live.
But still, it's incredible that Microsoft sponsors this, 100% deserved.

 

This is awesome, Two Pools 1 was a rly great tournament.
Bit sad most games won't be live.
But still, it's incredible that Microsoft sponsors this, 100% deserved.

The recs have 2 main reasons:
1. As it was pointed out, draft can be lengthy, and we would like to avoid delays
2. More importantly: since this is a major event, we would like to put an emphasis on casters being able to cast all games. If it is live games, some games may overlap/may be in timeframes that are very problematic for certain casters including myself because of timezones.

 

The recs have 2 main reasons:
1. As it was pointed out, draft can be lengthy, and we would like to avoid delays
2. More importantly: since this is a major event, we would like to put an emphasis on casters being able to cast all games. If it is live games, some games may overlap/may be in timeframes that are very problematic for certain casters including myself because of timezones.

That's neat, but please make sure the players post their games on AoEZone AFTER they've been casted.

For Hidden Cup round 2, I saw some players (won't say names) inadvertantly spoiling the results by posting their winning set on AoEZone, a few hours, sometimes even one day before T90/Memb etc. cast. That was really bad.

 

That's neat, but please make sure the players post their games on AoEZone AFTER they've been casted.

For Hidden Cup round 2, I saw some players (won't say names) inadvertantly spoiling the results by posting their winning set on AoEZone, a few hours, sometimes even one day before T90/Memb etc. cast. That was really bad.

Yes, that will definitely be done. For HC4, I think it was just confusion. Because rules say they have to post it right after they played 11 I guess since coordinated streaming times wasnt originally planned for the qualifiers and players got confused 1111

 

That's neat, but please make sure the players post their games on AoEZone AFTER they've been casted.

For Hidden Cup round 2, I saw some players (won't say names) inadvertantly spoiling the results by posting their winning set on AoEZone, a few hours, sometimes even one day before T90/Memb etc. cast. That was really bad.

That was deliberate as the games could be cast live by anyone if they so wished

 

That's neat, but please make sure the players post their games on AoEZone AFTER they've been casted.

For Hidden Cup round 2, I saw some players (won't say names) inadvertantly spoiling the results by posting their winning set on AoEZone, a few hours, sometimes even one day before T90/Memb etc. cast. That was really bad.

really bad? no one was hurt by it

 

Love that this tournament returns! The first edition was very very entertaining and the map pool is already looking great

 

Hype! Where is the team Jordan man

 

Hype! Where is the team Jordan man

Currenly seed 3 in qualifiers

 

Nice to see the tournament returns and bigger than before!
and my favourite map back in action: Coast to mountains, i love the strategic decisions you have to make here.

 

It is a shame Microsoft gives out money based on the host's viewer numbers (it seems), especially when events are open casting.

Two Pools tournament was an incredible event, second to none, and this one deserves much more prestige.

 

It is a shame Microsoft gives out money based on the host's viewer numbers (it seems), especially when events are open casting. They really have no idea...

What I am trying to say is the first Two Pools tournament was an incredible event, second to none, and this one deserves so much more prestige.

Thank you for hosting, sir. I am certain it will be great.

Hey now, $10,000 is nothing to sneeze at!

A couple short years ago this would have been one of the biggest prize pools of the year.

Instead of focusing on how much bigger it could be, let's give Lidakor many thanks for coming up with this great idea, and making it happen. We have desperately needed a good 2v2 event, and this gives a lot of players who perhaps aren't going to be winning a 1v1 tournament any time soon a chance to shine. I'm looking very forward to the games!

 

It is a shame Microsoft gives out money based on the host's viewer numbers (it seems), especially when events are open casting. They really have no idea...

Are you forreal?
It's incredible that they sponsored this tournament with such a huge prizepool, this is a huge jump compared to TwoPools1.