It's not about showing practice runs on stream. It's about showing that you (player/streamer) still give a **** about AoE 2 to your audience. If you drop AoE 2 completely and don't play a single match for several weeks, lots of your audience might not even show up for AoE 2 tournament you participate in. I don't think it would hurt the streamers to do an AoE 2 game here and there or at least remind people there's still plenty of stuff to look forward to in the future.
Memb has already announced that Battle of Africa is coming in 2022 but he also said that depending on how KotD 4 does, we might see an even bigger tournament in the future. With how the moods in the community are right now, I'm worrying that KotD 4 will heavily underperform which would affect future tournaments too as they won't look like a good idea to the sponsors anymore. I really really hope I'm wrong about this but I can't help noticing all sorts of things, looking at them realistically.
Players/public figures aren't obligated to provide advertisement for KotD 4, yes. However it wouldn't cost them much to hype it up a bit and in fact it would be in their best interest to help the tournament do well, even if merely for monetary reasons of cashing in during future tournaments - unless they plan to drop AoE 2 completely which I hope isn't the case, at least Viper clearly expressed he doesn't want to do that which makes me relieved to some extent. Hera saying he's already accomplished everything he wanted in AoE 2, when asked about his plans for KotD 4 (context matters!), doesn't help in easing the worries. Arabia used to be "his" map but apparently he doesn't mind never reaching top4 of the biggest Arabia tournament? He won one huge event (Hidden Cup 4) and that's where his ambition for the game ends completely? I don't think that's the case but unfortunately that's the message he's sending with such a reply.
Finally, Nili... such a dismissive comment "I don't see myself casting Vivi vs BacT best of 5 Arabia right now", refusing to elaborate further, just leaving it at that... that's outright harmful. He doesn't have to cast all the matches, hell, he doesn't have to cast anything at all if he doesn't enjoy it at the moment but to put it out so bluntly, with no extra cushion of showing basic form of respect to one of the biggest tournaments ever... I'm unable to see his attitude in positive light.
There's also the fact he's a tournament coordinator for all Age of Empires games but I'm not even gonna attempt to think of how the role and said actions tie in together, that would only hurt, will leave it for other people to draw conclusions...
Memb has already announced that Battle of Africa is coming in 2022 but he also said that depending on how KotD 4 does, we might see an even bigger tournament in the future. With how the moods in the community are right now, I'm worrying that KotD 4 will heavily underperform which would affect future tournaments too as they won't look like a good idea to the sponsors anymore. I really really hope I'm wrong about this but I can't help noticing all sorts of things, looking at them realistically.
Players/public figures aren't obligated to provide advertisement for KotD 4, yes. However it wouldn't cost them much to hype it up a bit and in fact it would be in their best interest to help the tournament do well, even if merely for monetary reasons of cashing in during future tournaments - unless they plan to drop AoE 2 completely which I hope isn't the case, at least Viper clearly expressed he doesn't want to do that which makes me relieved to some extent. Hera saying he's already accomplished everything he wanted in AoE 2, when asked about his plans for KotD 4 (context matters!), doesn't help in easing the worries. Arabia used to be "his" map but apparently he doesn't mind never reaching top4 of the biggest Arabia tournament? He won one huge event (Hidden Cup 4) and that's where his ambition for the game ends completely? I don't think that's the case but unfortunately that's the message he's sending with such a reply.
Finally, Nili... such a dismissive comment "I don't see myself casting Vivi vs BacT best of 5 Arabia right now", refusing to elaborate further, just leaving it at that... that's outright harmful. He doesn't have to cast all the matches, hell, he doesn't have to cast anything at all if he doesn't enjoy it at the moment but to put it out so bluntly, with no extra cushion of showing basic form of respect to one of the biggest tournaments ever... I'm unable to see his attitude in positive light.
There's also the fact he's a tournament coordinator for all Age of Empires games but I'm not even gonna attempt to think of how the role and said actions tie in together, that would only hurt, will leave it for other people to draw conclusions...