Can't really reply to this without insulting your intelligence even more harshly than I did to Aguruchi, which I really don't want to do for two main reasons, one being that this is not the thread for it and secondly I know that neither of you are actually lacking intelligence. It's just that you both clearly have no clue about the things you are discussing and therefore come across as a bit silly. Anyway not here to argue so let the thread get back on topic, just read up on past tournaments etc and you will find all you need to know on what kind of annonymous sponsor the AoC communitry has. Any discussion on Microsoft being the annonymous sponsor is equivalent to a discussion on whether or not the planet earth is flat.Wow, that's a harsh reaction! When such emotions come into play, there's often some truth involved.
Which other sponsor than Voobly would try to remain undisclosed? Which other sponsor than Voobly would benefit from the top players returning to these tournaments? The AoE world is a very small one.... Unless you really believe some guy in the United Arabic Emirates doesn't know what to spend his money on. :roll:
The release of AoE HD & AoF by Microsoft is the best thing that happened to this game for a long time. Even the players that prefer to keep playing at Voobly benefit: suddenly the tournament prize pools went up drastically and widescreen support became available free of charge. Coincidence? Or the only way to keep players around?