Age of Empires has just launched one of its most ambitious esports tournaments to date. This new Warlords AoE tournament is going to feature a huge prize pool for Age of Empires, alongside a pretty unique format set-up for faster more tense matches. The top 16 players are competing here, coming from past AoE tournaments and a direct qualifier.
Between 10th November and the 27th, the event is going to be running in full. It was preceded just by a short qualifier that picked the rest of our competitors.
Warlords AoE Format
The format for the Warlords tournament is broken up into a group stage and a play-off. The group stage has already started up, but it is running through to the 20th. This stage is played with GSL groups, of 16 players across two groups. Players are competing in best of 5 matches. The top four players in each group move through to the playoffs.
The playoffs themselves are a shorter stage. They’re running November 24-27th. This is where things head up. This is played in a single elimination bracket between the top eight players at the event. Once a player loses, they’re out. The quarter and semi-finals are played in best of 7, but the grand final takes it up to best of 9.
Prize Pool
Warlords AoE features an impressive prize for Age of Empires, in no small part thanks to the sponsor Microsoft. This is how the prizes break down the event:
- 1st place – $10,000
- 2nd Place – $5,000
- 3rd Place – $3,000
- 4th Place – $2,000
- 5-8th Place – $1,250
- 9-12 Place – $750
- 13-16th Place – $500
Warlords AoE Players
Players have qualified for Warlords in a few ways. Eight of the sixteen players for the main tournament have come up through the Red Bull Wololo Legacy, one of the biggest Age of Empires events. The rest have fought their way up through the qualification tournament for Warlords AoE. These are the players taking part:
Qualified from RBWL
- Hera
- jorDan_AoE
- Liereyy
- Mbl
- Mr_Yo
- TaToH
- TheViper
- Vilese
From Qualifiers
- ACCM
- Capoch
- Classicpro
- DauT
- Miguel
- Nicov
- Valas
- Vinchester
These include some of the top players active in Age of Empires right now. Those from the RBWL are coming in with a bit more hype just from recent performances. There’s been some strong players in the qualifiers here too though.
Maps
The Map pool for Warlords AoE is also going to be a bit more varied. It has a wide array of maps, with 7 different types in play for the tournament. Each of these maps will have nine villagers on the map at the start which should help to speed up the pace of the games without limiting strategy. It’s being played on the random map game mode.
You can watch the tournament on the official Twitch stream. Make sure you tune in and see how this latest Age of Empires tournament is going to play out.
GamerLegion dominance in the opening rounds
It was the four GL players that came out swining at this event. Ørjan “TheViper” Larsen and Roberto “TaToH” Jiménez topped both group A and B. Darko “DauT” Dautovic didn’t fare too bad either. He had to face teammate Marco “JorDan_AoE” Bloch in his opening match, this being the only reason why we dont see all four GL players up in the Winner Round.
Heading into Winner’s round, we will have to face teammates match up once again, as Viper and DauT will have to play a duel. TaToH is safe in the other Group and will likely go ahead of Hera into the following round. It’s not game over for either of the players, as the event’s GSL/Swiss format allows for a defeat before heading into elimination rounds.
Catch Round 2 of Warlords this Thursday, Nov 17.