Welcome, Huni, content creator of the TAG (Taiwan AoE Gamer) team. We’ll work on a few interviews together, but since TAG is a relatively new team, maybe not known to every reader, I want to ask you a few things about yourself, the team and the current state of the Taiwanese AoE community first.
Please introduce yourself in a few sentences
Hello, I'm Huni from Taiwan.
As you said, I'm a content creator for the TAG (Taiwan AoE Gamer) team.
I've been playing AoE 2 since 2018. I like to help the Taiwanese players who have questions about tournament stuff (for example questions on rules, Chinese to English translations etc).
I don't stream and although I'm a lower rated player, I want to try my best to make the Taiwanese AoE 2 community better.
TAG was founded in July 2023. How did it happen and how is it different from the previous Taiwanese team “Kyo All Fallen”?
For Kyo All Fallen, the name comes from the player IamKyo who was a teammate of AoE 2001 Champion IamKmkm and is still active in AoE 2 DE. We respect him very much and we used his name for our team name.
Let's watch his wonderful operations together:
https://www.twitch.tv/gktcloud/clip...atured=false&filter=clips&range=all&sort=time
Different from Kyo All Fallen, TAG is an esports team and we have sponsor support. As Taiwanese players have only participated in international tournaments individually previously, Wayne founded the organisation with the intent to help with the development of local talents and to facilitate a professional training environment for the team's players.
Who is on the team, what are their roles? Are there any conditions for joining the team, e. g. language or rating?
Founder - Wayne Chang
Manage r- Hî-á
Coach - Cloud
Strategist - A88
Player - Sora Kuma
Player - Youpudding
Player - Z40
Trainee - RayZ
Trainee - TaeYoon
Because of the need for communication, there are currently only Mandarin-speaking players.
How does being part of the esports team affect the players? Do they receive any salary, equipment or in which ways are they supported?
After becoming a player of TAG, the salary support ensures that they have a safe life and can concentrate on the tournaments, and ensures that they can continue to be active in the esports industry in other ways (streamers, editors, etc.) after they have retired from playing competitively.
How is the situation in general in the Taiwanese AoE 2 scene? By looking at Liquipedia, you see that there are multiple Taiwanese tournaments with good price pools per year. Is the community (players and viewers) growing? Do you receive more sponsorships than a few years ago? If yes, why do you think this is the case?
Over the past few years, viewers of Taiwanese streams have grown steadily.
I believe that the continuous updates to Age of Empires 2 will bring more viewers and players for us. The steady growth in numbers has allowed sponsors to see that Age of Empires 2 is a game with potential.
3 years ago Cloud, Sora Kuma and Demonsheep were already some good players, then some of them focussed on AoE 4 when it was released, but now in 2023 there are also some players like Z40 and Youpudding getting notable results.
What do you think let these players improve recently to reach the level they have now?
They review replays and refer to videos from the highest level players. I think this is the reason why they can keep improving.
Although there now are many 2k2-2k4+ rated Taiwanese players, there aren’t any reaching something like a top 16 in an A-tier or S-tier tournament. What do you think are they still missing for the next step?
Our players each have favourite maps, but if they want to stand out in the tournament they must improve their understanding of maps and civilizations. They must get out of their comfort zones (Arena, Nomad, etc.), play every map and practice every civilization. Then they can have a chance to compete with the highest level players.
Nomad and Arena are some of the most popular maps among your team’s players, right? But we also have two players (Rayz and Youpudding) participate in my hybrid map tournament, Blue Carbon Cup. Is that because they like to play these kinds of maps too or is it rather because they want to take every chance they can get to get more tournament experience, because they have been participating in many other recent tournaments too?
Taiwanese players like playing Nomad lobby game and put star on nomad ranked for sure. 11
At the beginning we just wanted to have more experience but those maps are really fun, we enjoy it.
When looking through the mod center a few weeks ago, I found a map called “Huni’s Formosa” by Chrazini. Can you share the story behind the map? Was or will it be used in any event/tournament?
The land on the map is the shape of Taiwan.
Formosa is the name given to Taiwan by the Portuguese in the 16th century. It is a beautiful island. If you go to Taiwan, you can also see many stores using Formosa as their name. 11
From November 23th to 26th, the Taiwanese AoE community will join the biggest LAN party in Asia called 'Wirforce'. We will have many activities over those days. This map will be used in a Wirforce showmatch between TAG and the French team Fox. I'm sure it will be fun and I am looking forward to it!
(But my favourite map is still “Huni’s KirbyWorld”!) 11
I knew about the name, can you tell more about the Wirforce LAN?
Asia's largest esports carnival, November 23 to November 26, attended by streamers and cosplayers from many communities. They interact with streamers and take photos at the scene, combining esports with live music, creating a grand party for an exclusive gaming community.
This is the aftermovie from Wirforce LAN party 2022:
https://youtu.be/xCOLIgW1v8M?si=sd1iT9gGB8q07O8V
I stumbled upon the map when looking through Chrazini’s maps, because I actually forgot to look at some for my Blue Carbon Cup and thought about what could be included in a next edition. I might want to include Formosa. This edition was linked to ecosystems in Seychelles (not maps specifically, but the charity aspect and player images), but I also thought about that there could be one Taiwan- or South East Asia-themed one if there is a collaborator from that region, as we would have lots of mangroves, river deltas, coral reefs, etc. there too.
We like the introductory picture of the Blue Carbon Cup you created very much. If there is a second edition in the future, we would like to help with the profile translations to benefit the understanding of the Chinese community. This time we didn't have much time to translate and only translated the profiles of Taiwanese players.
I didn’t really mean the images - of course that could be done for the top 16/8 if it was a bigger tournament - but more that if your team and audience liked the tournament, in a collaboration with an actual esports organisation, there could be a higher visibility and maybe a sponsor or charity organisation related to that. The majority of hosts and sponsors are more interested in land map-focussed tournaments. But in case there is interest, we can discuss more later.
Yes, I agree with you. Competitions centered on land maps are more popular. For sponsors or charitable organizations, they understandably want to maximise viewership and engagement, but we also value the overall strength of the players and their ability to perform on a variety of maps. Memb's Warlords tournament that is currently underway is a great example of a successful mixed map tournament. There is a lot to discuss.
Do you want to add, ask or share anything else?
The challenge for Chinese speaking players is the delay or lack of information due to a language barrier. As there is no official Chinese site, and no established communication channel with AOE representatives for Chinese content creators, up to date information for the Chinese community can be scattered and hard to find.
In order to scale and expand the Chinese community, an official point of contact within Microsoft/AOE and communication channel are needed. Once it’s established, the improved mutual communication will further increase community activity for old and new players. This is really what we lack in the Chinese community currently.
This has been a problem for many years. There luckily are some Spanish-, Portuguese-speaking people/communities/websites to share to the big Latin American player base. I think for example French, German or Russian communities have something like Discord servers and/or forums too, but they and people from many countries don’t have a problem with English information.
Since TAG now is an established esports organisation, could that be a goal to create a new public website for Chinese-speaking people to share information?
There are also some Discord servers for content creators, top players and tournament organisers to directly communicate with Forgotten Empires/World’s Edge employees. Are you or Wayne part of any of those? If not, maybe there is a way for you to join to discuss some improvements. I know that many mainland Chinese players don’t use Discord, but if they would read information you (TAG) share too, then it would make a lot of sense to have someone like you as a mediator.
Yes, the Chinese language is very different from other languages in terms of grammar and word formation. English would not be as commonly known as a second language as I think it is in Europe for example.
When Microsoft released the new DLC, no Chinese speaking content creators had a demo, so we could only refer to the videos posted by other streamers, and then use Chinese translations and text narration to describe it. During this period, we were 3-4 days delayed in receiving information.
Even now, Traditional Chinese still has translation and grammatical errors.
We are happy to serve all Chinese players. If we can also join the exclusive Discord, it would be a great help to us.
As far as I know, some Chinese players (HeavenlyChorus, Bad Koala, etc.) are also using Discord and have helped contributing a lot towards China's AoE community (translation, liaison, release of tournament information, etc.). I hope we can work collaboratively with them in future for the benefit of all of the Chinese-speaking player base.
Thank you for taking the time to interview me.
Thank you for the introductory interview, and see you soon with our next guest: Youpudding.
Follow TAG on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twaoegamer/
Please introduce yourself in a few sentences
Hello, I'm Huni from Taiwan.
As you said, I'm a content creator for the TAG (Taiwan AoE Gamer) team.
I've been playing AoE 2 since 2018. I like to help the Taiwanese players who have questions about tournament stuff (for example questions on rules, Chinese to English translations etc).
I don't stream and although I'm a lower rated player, I want to try my best to make the Taiwanese AoE 2 community better.
TAG was founded in July 2023. How did it happen and how is it different from the previous Taiwanese team “Kyo All Fallen”?
For Kyo All Fallen, the name comes from the player IamKyo who was a teammate of AoE 2001 Champion IamKmkm and is still active in AoE 2 DE. We respect him very much and we used his name for our team name.
Let's watch his wonderful operations together:
https://www.twitch.tv/gktcloud/clip...atured=false&filter=clips&range=all&sort=time
Different from Kyo All Fallen, TAG is an esports team and we have sponsor support. As Taiwanese players have only participated in international tournaments individually previously, Wayne founded the organisation with the intent to help with the development of local talents and to facilitate a professional training environment for the team's players.
Who is on the team, what are their roles? Are there any conditions for joining the team, e. g. language or rating?
Founder - Wayne Chang
Manage r- Hî-á
Coach - Cloud
Strategist - A88
Player - Sora Kuma
Player - Youpudding
Player - Z40
Trainee - RayZ
Trainee - TaeYoon
Because of the need for communication, there are currently only Mandarin-speaking players.
How does being part of the esports team affect the players? Do they receive any salary, equipment or in which ways are they supported?
After becoming a player of TAG, the salary support ensures that they have a safe life and can concentrate on the tournaments, and ensures that they can continue to be active in the esports industry in other ways (streamers, editors, etc.) after they have retired from playing competitively.
How is the situation in general in the Taiwanese AoE 2 scene? By looking at Liquipedia, you see that there are multiple Taiwanese tournaments with good price pools per year. Is the community (players and viewers) growing? Do you receive more sponsorships than a few years ago? If yes, why do you think this is the case?
Over the past few years, viewers of Taiwanese streams have grown steadily.
I believe that the continuous updates to Age of Empires 2 will bring more viewers and players for us. The steady growth in numbers has allowed sponsors to see that Age of Empires 2 is a game with potential.
3 years ago Cloud, Sora Kuma and Demonsheep were already some good players, then some of them focussed on AoE 4 when it was released, but now in 2023 there are also some players like Z40 and Youpudding getting notable results.
What do you think let these players improve recently to reach the level they have now?
They review replays and refer to videos from the highest level players. I think this is the reason why they can keep improving.
Although there now are many 2k2-2k4+ rated Taiwanese players, there aren’t any reaching something like a top 16 in an A-tier or S-tier tournament. What do you think are they still missing for the next step?
Our players each have favourite maps, but if they want to stand out in the tournament they must improve their understanding of maps and civilizations. They must get out of their comfort zones (Arena, Nomad, etc.), play every map and practice every civilization. Then they can have a chance to compete with the highest level players.
Nomad and Arena are some of the most popular maps among your team’s players, right? But we also have two players (Rayz and Youpudding) participate in my hybrid map tournament, Blue Carbon Cup. Is that because they like to play these kinds of maps too or is it rather because they want to take every chance they can get to get more tournament experience, because they have been participating in many other recent tournaments too?
Taiwanese players like playing Nomad lobby game and put star on nomad ranked for sure. 11
At the beginning we just wanted to have more experience but those maps are really fun, we enjoy it.
When looking through the mod center a few weeks ago, I found a map called “Huni’s Formosa” by Chrazini. Can you share the story behind the map? Was or will it be used in any event/tournament?
The land on the map is the shape of Taiwan.
Formosa is the name given to Taiwan by the Portuguese in the 16th century. It is a beautiful island. If you go to Taiwan, you can also see many stores using Formosa as their name. 11
From November 23th to 26th, the Taiwanese AoE community will join the biggest LAN party in Asia called 'Wirforce'. We will have many activities over those days. This map will be used in a Wirforce showmatch between TAG and the French team Fox. I'm sure it will be fun and I am looking forward to it!
(But my favourite map is still “Huni’s KirbyWorld”!) 11
I knew about the name, can you tell more about the Wirforce LAN?
Asia's largest esports carnival, November 23 to November 26, attended by streamers and cosplayers from many communities. They interact with streamers and take photos at the scene, combining esports with live music, creating a grand party for an exclusive gaming community.
This is the aftermovie from Wirforce LAN party 2022:
https://youtu.be/xCOLIgW1v8M?si=sd1iT9gGB8q07O8V
I stumbled upon the map when looking through Chrazini’s maps, because I actually forgot to look at some for my Blue Carbon Cup and thought about what could be included in a next edition. I might want to include Formosa. This edition was linked to ecosystems in Seychelles (not maps specifically, but the charity aspect and player images), but I also thought about that there could be one Taiwan- or South East Asia-themed one if there is a collaborator from that region, as we would have lots of mangroves, river deltas, coral reefs, etc. there too.
We like the introductory picture of the Blue Carbon Cup you created very much. If there is a second edition in the future, we would like to help with the profile translations to benefit the understanding of the Chinese community. This time we didn't have much time to translate and only translated the profiles of Taiwanese players.
I didn’t really mean the images - of course that could be done for the top 16/8 if it was a bigger tournament - but more that if your team and audience liked the tournament, in a collaboration with an actual esports organisation, there could be a higher visibility and maybe a sponsor or charity organisation related to that. The majority of hosts and sponsors are more interested in land map-focussed tournaments. But in case there is interest, we can discuss more later.
Yes, I agree with you. Competitions centered on land maps are more popular. For sponsors or charitable organizations, they understandably want to maximise viewership and engagement, but we also value the overall strength of the players and their ability to perform on a variety of maps. Memb's Warlords tournament that is currently underway is a great example of a successful mixed map tournament. There is a lot to discuss.
Do you want to add, ask or share anything else?
The challenge for Chinese speaking players is the delay or lack of information due to a language barrier. As there is no official Chinese site, and no established communication channel with AOE representatives for Chinese content creators, up to date information for the Chinese community can be scattered and hard to find.
In order to scale and expand the Chinese community, an official point of contact within Microsoft/AOE and communication channel are needed. Once it’s established, the improved mutual communication will further increase community activity for old and new players. This is really what we lack in the Chinese community currently.
This has been a problem for many years. There luckily are some Spanish-, Portuguese-speaking people/communities/websites to share to the big Latin American player base. I think for example French, German or Russian communities have something like Discord servers and/or forums too, but they and people from many countries don’t have a problem with English information.
Since TAG now is an established esports organisation, could that be a goal to create a new public website for Chinese-speaking people to share information?
There are also some Discord servers for content creators, top players and tournament organisers to directly communicate with Forgotten Empires/World’s Edge employees. Are you or Wayne part of any of those? If not, maybe there is a way for you to join to discuss some improvements. I know that many mainland Chinese players don’t use Discord, but if they would read information you (TAG) share too, then it would make a lot of sense to have someone like you as a mediator.
Yes, the Chinese language is very different from other languages in terms of grammar and word formation. English would not be as commonly known as a second language as I think it is in Europe for example.
When Microsoft released the new DLC, no Chinese speaking content creators had a demo, so we could only refer to the videos posted by other streamers, and then use Chinese translations and text narration to describe it. During this period, we were 3-4 days delayed in receiving information.
Even now, Traditional Chinese still has translation and grammatical errors.
We are happy to serve all Chinese players. If we can also join the exclusive Discord, it would be a great help to us.
As far as I know, some Chinese players (HeavenlyChorus, Bad Koala, etc.) are also using Discord and have helped contributing a lot towards China's AoE community (translation, liaison, release of tournament information, etc.). I hope we can work collaboratively with them in future for the benefit of all of the Chinese-speaking player base.
Thank you for taking the time to interview me.
Thank you for the introductory interview, and see you soon with our next guest: Youpudding.
Follow TAG on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twaoegamer/
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