Was 2021 the best year of whole AoE2 History?

[Please_dont_choose_goths!]

Guys, i have the feeling that this year was the best dear for AoE2 since its birth. Specially the big events like hiddencup 4 and redbull wololo 5 been great for the community. I m excited about 2022, will aoe2 dominate or will aoe4 keep his throne?

Btw, i wish you all a great new year, enjoy your time and stay hopefully healthy. And never forget: its doesnt matter how important some things seen, there is always a more important thing than anything else: AoE2!

 

[Adalolf]

I absolutely think so, huge events went down, big upsets, unpresidented amount of viewers.
It may have taken a small dent with the release of AoE4 late this year, but not enough to take away AoE2 as the true champ of the franchise.
And as we see, AoE2 is making it's way back, or rather, AoE4's hype stooping down.
It is time to be honest and stop shilling for AoE4, the game is a disappointment, at least for now.

 

[Please_dont_choose_goths!]

I absolutely think so, huge events went down, big upsets, unpresidented amount of viewers.
It may have taken a small dent with the release of AoE4 late this year, but not enough to take away AoE2 as the true champ of the franchise.
And as we see, AoE2 is making it's way back, or rather, AoE4's hype stooping down.
It is time to be honest and stop shilling for AoE4, the game is a disappointment, at least for now.

AoE4 is a scam

 

[Mihai06]

2020 was better.

 

[pumukel]

no nac no best

 

[Hunyadi_]

It's hard to say for sure because now the internet is much bigger and viewership (for both HC and RBW5) was exaggerated by COVID. People stayed inside and watched more online.

Compare that to the mid to late 2000's which was the original golden age. Internet wasn't as big nor did we have a pandemic. And yet we had $100,000 tournaments, players being flown to the Maldives, Qatar and China.

If that scene were happening today, you'd see in excess of 100,000 viewers and as much as $250,000 in prize money. Maybe even half a million.

AoE2 was huge back then and Microsoft is to blame for having dropped the ball on the esports opportunity. I'm not saying they could have been Dota or LOL huge but certainly as big as Starcraft. Oh well.

 

[ponciliano]

No, 2021 was a shitty year for aoe2, maybe your posts were worse though.

 

[just_sum_guy]

No TG tournaments, so absolutely not.

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

No TG tournaments, so absolutely not.

Two Pools 2, Empire Wars Duo 2, Rage Forest, World Desert Championship.
No $100k TG tournament, but those alone had a combined budget of $50k+. And further a lot regional and smaller, themed or ELO capped ones. Content wise there were plenty.

 

[Hoera]

The release of AoE 4 makes it not the best year of the AoE 2 history. Attention from AoE 2 went to AoE 4.

 

[just_sum_guy]

Two Pools 2, Empire Wars Duo 2, Rage Forest, World Desert Championship.
No $100k TG tournament, but those alone had a combined budget of $50k+. And further a lot regional and smaller, themed or ELO capped ones. Content wise there were plenty.

I just assumed it was pretty clear I meant S Tier tournaments and 2v2's are really just two 1v1's.

 

[Philippe le Bon]

One of the finest for sure, number one though?! Not to my taste, because it lacked 4v4 TG tournaments on varied maps (water, mixed maps etc.) among other things

However I think/hope the best year for AoE2 is still ahead of us.

 

[Adalolf]

I just assumed it was pretty clear I meant S Tier tournaments and 2v2's are really just two 1v1's.

Say that when both opponents come in your base with archers and scouts, noob

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

I just assumed it was pretty clear I meant S Tier tournaments and 2v2's are really just two 1v1's.

One of the finest for sure, number one though?! Not to my taste, because it lacked 4v4 TG tournaments on varied maps (water, mixed maps etc.) among other things

However I think/hope the best year for AoE2 is still ahead of us.

If you mean S tier and 4v4 with many teams, then I agree. That has been a long time and definitely is missing.

 

[Biz]

are you new?

year of position-pick is the worst year of aoe2 history

 

[Philippe le Bon]

If you mean S tier and 4v4 with many teams, then I agree. That has been a long time and definitely is missing.

Sad the biggest sponsors have no taste.

But Biz is right, when the 4v4 TG S-tier tournament will finally come, it better be no position picking at all, just like the old-school tournaments.

 

[hellhammer]

I think was a golden year for the whole franchise, with 2 DE and 3 DE that received 4 civs each one, plus new campaigns and historical battles, also the tournaments (RBW, Hidden Cup and KOTD), also the reelase of AOE 4 at the end (with Genesis tournament tho).

Just hope that 2022 brings out fixes for all DEs (plus some attention for 1 DE) once at all as well for AOE 4, and the potential AOM DE personally.

 

[SouFire]

Well it seems everybody has their own opinion and different preferences, but this year had probably the biggest 1x1 events ever and the biggest aoe2 event ever(red bull 5), but the thing with aoe4 was a sad ending for such great year, but in my opinion as a player not as viewer, the game went backwards in terms of balance, critical issues with the multiplayer ruined my experience trying to play the same game mode i have been enjoying all my life playing(team games), team games are in their worse state compared to any previous platform but in forums like this it seems like no one cares.

Cheating was exposed and not a single fix or patch or even a word about it, i guess the hong kong cheater got bored of cheating instead of being banned.

We lost viper and t90 from the biggest streaming platform, that was another painful strike to the game.

We also lost a lot of pro players at the end of the year cause of the aoe4 impact, so i guess it was a good year for those who won tournaments and those who lived the redbull experience(Lan), but to me as a player the game had a terrible bad ending, even in kotd4 anyone could feel a lot of players under performing badly despite the high price pool, so lets see how it goes the next year.

 

[malamadre]

So for normal players: CS is dead, DM ladder removed, TGs are dead.

I think this was a good year in some regards, but in others the game is in a bad situation.

Now competitive 1v1 ladder is also struggling with aoe4. We wont get a better aoe2 levels while players juggle playing 2 games at the same time.

 

[damdres]

Well it was a great year but I hope better years will come. AOE II rules and I love this game

 

[ponciliano]

Well it seems everybody has their own opinion and different preferences, but this year had probably the biggest 1x1 events ever and the biggest aoe2 event ever(red bull 5), but the thing with aoe4 was a sad ending for such great year, but in my opinion as a player not as viewer, the game went backwards in terms of balance, critical issues with the multiplayer ruined my experience trying to play the same game mode i have been enjoying all my life playing(team games), team games are in their worse state compared to any previous platform but in forums like this it seems like no one cares.

Cheating was exposed and not a single fix or patch or even a word about it, i guess the hong kong cheater got bored of cheating instead of being banned.

We lost viper and t90 from the biggest streaming platform, that was another painful strike to the game.

We also lost a lot of pro players at the end of the year cause of the aoe4 impact, so i guess it was a good year for those who won tournaments and those who lived the redbull experience(Lan), but to me as a player the game had a terrible bad ending, even in kotd4 anyone could feel a lot of players under performing badly despite the high price pool, so lets see how it goes the next year.

Also worth mentioning we potentially lost pinztec guy as a sponsor, and seems like fewer and fewer people will want to sponsor new aoe2 events. aoe2 lost a lot of marketing space with aoe4 and declining viewers, mainly due to the fact that both viper and t90 left twitch, and the biggest streamers are streaming mostly aoe4.

So, while 2021 might have been good overall by itself for aoe2, it's laid the foundations for a TERRIBLE 2022, potentially the worst year ever, for the game. Not optimistic at all. Hope I'll be proven wrong.

 

[Tempires]

Also worth mentioning we potentially lost pinztec guy as a sponsor, and seems like fewer and fewer people will want to sponsor new aoe2 events

Thsi was always the case. Sponsors come and dissappear. You cannot rely on invindual people to sponsor tournaments.

 

[Rustyiesty]

If that scene were happening today, you'd see in excess of 100,000 viewers and as much as $250,000 in prize money. Maybe even half a million.

AoE2 was huge back then and Microsoft is to blame for having dropped the ball on the esports opportunity. I'm not saying they could have been Dota or LOL huge but certainly as big as Starcraft. Oh well.

I know you mean it for individual tournaments, but we had over $415k in S-Tier tournament prize money alone last year! With three 'big ones' over $75k!

Now imagine if MS had never shut the zone or Ensemble..

 

[ponciliano]

Thsi was always the case. Sponsors come and dissappear. You cannot rely on invindual people to sponsor tournaments.

aoe2 relied on those for a decade and has had been successful so far. Things are falling now because companies decided to take risky decisions on the franchise.

 

[Baron Icey Harkonnen]

So for normal players: CS is dead

The Citadel is trying to revive custom scenario. We will have a map competition soon.
I don't know what else I can do. I even applied to join FE
2022 looks challenging