We need a Standard Tournament

[MedievalLife]

I'm happy we have all the tournaments we do, but why isn't there a normal tournament? I like EW and HC, but a regular, non-themed tourney would be refreshing. I recall NAC being the closest thing to it.

Something with Standard settings, with Arabia and Arena as the first two maps, then a draft of sorts (or something to that end).

 

[ltm]

NAC was pretty much this, just LAN.
KOTD as well, depending if we consider Arabia standard. But i would really like this as well, just RM on mostly standard maps (a mix of open/closed land, hybrid and water) with a draft.

But i guess having some kind of gimmick makes it a bit easier to hype up and gives the event it's own identity so maybe not too interesting for organizers.

 

[DracKeN]

Agreed, I don't understand the point of tournament maps that are literally played only during the tournament. It's even not the greatest comparison of player skill level. If there's plenty of unusual mostly gimmicky maps, then it's more about who understood the meta of the map and ideal civ faster, while map pool of common maps like Ara, Arena, Medi, Cross, Atacama etc. is closer to reflecting skill level as everyone can play those maps. It's a major reason for me why I really enjoyed tournaments like NAC or German championship.

 

[Überrushung]

i thought you were calling for a tournament with standard victory and was hyped

 

[Lord_patito]

You mean something like this ?

Collection Cup $2400 Hosted by Locoser

The Argentinian caster Locoser (youtube.com/c/locoser) presents his first big tournament 24 Players directly invited by privated will be participating in the event, which will happen from the 15th June to the 11th July. Sorted by max historical Elo, the highest 8 will qualify directly to the...

www.aoezone.net

 

[Dovahkiin4e201]

An S-tier standard tournament with standard maps or commonly used tournament maps would be great to see.

 

[DracKeN]

You mean something like this ?

Collection Cup $2400 Hosted by Locoser

The Argentinian caster Locoser (youtube.com/c/locoser) presents his first big tournament 24 Players directly invited by privated will be participating in the event, which will happen from the 15th June to the 11th July. Sorted by max historical Elo, the highest 8 will qualify directly to the...

www.aoezone.net

Yeah, except if the maps are different. Kinda reminds me the previous map pool where we had 5 aras. Also, putting in the map pool Kilimanjaro and not Arena is a sign of stupidity and ignorance.

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

Something with Standard settings, with Arabia and Arena

Why arena?

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

For 1v1 there are some of those all the time, even with $1k-$2k prize pools. However, the bigger ones are not open for everyone, so are you looking for
a) one that is open for everyone to play; open qualifiers?
b) one that has $20k+ prize pool like Hidden Cup, KotD and RBW?
c) a TG tournament with only previously played maps?

In addition you have to remember, that most of the maps that now are in the standard map pool have been created by the community and been introduced to tournaments at one point in the last 20+ years.
So I am pretty sure that many of the maps that were first played in tournaments in 2020-21 also will be included in future tournaments.

63 maps are now in the game as "standard" maps, out of those:
Community-made/Tournament introduction at one point:
Acropolis, African Clearing (Bedouins), Atacama, Bog Islands, Bogland, Budapest, Cenotes, City of Lakes, Four Lakes (Cross), Golden Pit, Hamburger, Hideout, Hill Fort, Kilimanjaro, Land Nomad, Lombardia, MegaRandom, Michi, Nile Delta, Ravines, Seize the Mountain (Seize the Hump), Serengeti, Steppe, Team Moats, Valley
Standard since AoC:
Arabia, Archipelago, Arena, Baltic, Black Forest, Coastal, Continental, Crater Lake, Fortess, Ghost Lake, Gold Rush, Highland, Islands, Mediterranean, Migration, Mongolia, Nomad, Oasis, Rivers, Salt Marsh, Scandinavia, Yucatan
Maps which were added after AoFE, but I don't know the creator:
Alpine Lakes, Amazon Tunnel, Coastal Forest, Crater, Crossroads, Golden Swamp, Mangrove Jungle, Mountain Pass, Mountain Ridge, Pacific Islands, Sandbank, Socotra, Volcanic Island, Water Nomad, Wolf Hill

 

[AlBundy95]

Arabia, arena, mega random, mixed maps, not-only-water-but-water maps like classic Migration, etc.
Yes, we miss classic tournament, because HCs or RBWs are just funny tournaments, with prestige boosted by money, not by real importance. Tournament with maps mentioend before would have high importance because of covering classic part of AoE2 world from maps perspective.

Personally I miss MoRM tournament with pros participating in it (invited top8 by some tournament ranking, another 8 in qualis), to show community other lvl of aoe2 skills. Not only prepared strats and BOs, but also skill of adaptation to unkown situations.

 

[Lord_patito]

Also, putting in the map pool Kilimanjaro and not Arena is a sign of stupidity and ignorance.

Or maybe we're just not clowns

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

Personally I miss MoRM tournament with pros participating in it (invited top8 by some tournament ranking, another 8 in qualis), to show community other lvl of aoe2 skills. Not only prepared strats and BOs, but also skill of adaptation to unkown situations.

I have been interested in hosting it since last year. But so far I could not find a sponsor for it. If there was one or some that would raise a prize pool of $1000+, I would host MoRM 2 with a combination of classic and new MegaRandom as soon as people want in late July/August/September.

 

[b1gwalt]

The trouble with this idea is everyone has their own idea of "standard". There is no "standard".

Generally speaking, it's probably fair to say the most common way people play age of empires is 1v1 RM on Arabia. Well, we already have KOTD.

Some people don't like KOTD because they want pros to have a more diverse skillset and wider map pool. Ok, we have NAC and Hidden Cup. These have their "gimmicks" but they are mostly affecting the viewers enjoyment rather than how the pros do. The pros know who they're playing in HC anyway for the most part, and I think everyone agrees that the LAN format of NAC is great.

So what is left? A tournament which forces players to play Arena, Arabia, Nomad and Islands? Well now you're forcing the map pool on people, not to mention the fact that all series will have to be at least bo7 if you want to force those four maps for example.

We also need to consider what tournaments are for; because there are so many ways to play AoE it's difficult to draw up a definitive skill ranking of all the players. But do we actually need to? Isn't it OK to say well clearly Lierreyy is the best EW player in the world right now, Hera and Viper are the two top RM players on mixed maps, etc?

I dont know much about tennis but I seem to remember people saying Nadal was really good on clay courts - this situation feels similar to that. Everyone will have their own idiosyncrasies which leads them to perform best on one particular setting, and with so many settings you'll never catch all of them in one tournament.

 

[T-West]

Some day I'd like to see an Arabia 4v4 tournament with random civs and random positions for all games.

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

Some day I'd like to see an Arabia 4v4 tournament with random civs and random positions for all games.

We could start with a 2v2 arabia game 1 random civs and game 2 teams swap the civs from first clash *wink wink masters of arabia 2v2*

 

[simonsan]

Some day I'd like to see an Arabia 4v4 tournament with random civs and random positions for all games.

Curious to see, if that happens in the next 20 years. Please tag me.

 

[lecracheursagacite]

But i guess having some kind of gimmick makes it a bit easier to hype up and gives the event it's own identity so maybe not too interesting for organizers.

I do not think this is a good excuse if we want to consider AoE2 as a serious esport. Also you could say that if there is nothing "special" about it then that becomes the event's identity - it is the pure RM competition. There is a level of prestige to that that should be pretty attractive (and easy to market) for anyone actually.

 

[hallogallo]

Won't Viper event around end of july be something like that?

 

[lecracheursagacite]

Won't Viper event around end of july be something like that?

Is there an announcement for this?

 

[fluppets]

I'm through with the idea that splitting ranked queues by maps would "split the player base"; it already is this way!

- Arabia (open land/hybrid)
- Arena (closed land/hybrid)
- Islands (open water/hybrid)
- Nomad (land/hybrid)

Let players queue up for any map type, and have ranked elo match and show seperately for each map type.

Personally I would only select open land/hybrid maps, I wont miss playing closed, island or nomad maps and I would still have plenty of maps in the pool to play.

I don't mind waiting a couple minutes longer if it means I can play what I want, against somebody that also plays what they want, on settings were both agreed upon and familiar with.

Besides there's yt/twitch for while we wait.

 

[_balcanman]

but why isn't there a normal tournament?

feel free to host one

 

[MuscleChamp]

I mean memb did this kind of tournaments (kotd), but as far as I know he did not get enough ROI out of it.

 

[hallogallo]

Is there an announcement for this?

https://twitter.com/TheViperAOE/status/1407791221800685575

https://twitter.com/TheViperAOE/status/1409478989203349506

 

[lecracheursagacite]

https://twitter.com/TheViperAOE/status/1407791221800685575

https://twitter.com/TheViperAOE/status/1409478989203349506

Hmm not sure it is quite what the op had in mind? Not enough details to really tell for sure. Only one weekend with 100+ players and single elimination is a lot of quick series I imagine which is not exactly how you would envision a prestige "standard" tournament and RM doesn't really say much about actual map pool anymore I don't think.

 

[XDDXOXO]

1v1, 10 most voted maps out of the RM ladder map pool for 2020 or 2021, civ draft, Bo5, seeding, double elimination or GSL.