Hey guys,
I followed all of this amazing tournament and wanted to give some base for a post tourney discussion: The Winners and Losers of BoA II:
Winners:
aM - Let’s get the obvious choice out of the way first. aM has been long overdue for a large tournament win. After a dominant group stage without a single dropped match they went on to come back from the edge of defeat at 2-3 against Suomi and going down thrice against Secret. A mix of good drafting, great team synergy, thought-through strategies and strong individual performances makes them the deserved winners. Bonus points for one of the funniest winners interviews in a long time.
Memb – After NAC3, RBW and HC3 all eyes were on Memb to deliver his first big tournament on DE. And boy did he deliver! All top teams attending, open casting for all tastes, no rule changes or controversial decisions and an all in all smooth ride. Even doubters of the bo9 final format had to repent their sins faster than we can count to three unloomed villagers. Special shoutout to Chrazini for supplying the framework for these amazing series.
Teamgames – Every major tournament on DE so far has been about 1v1 performances. BoA2 however showed why teamgames are the standard of almost every top tier eSport and traditional sports. More strats (means more wacky strats!), a lot more balance amongst the top contenders, more gold units, more big battles, more team sponsors(?), more action and more comebacks – do yourself a favor and watch Heresy vs YinYang on Beachfight once more before welcoming gold positions, elite skirms, full walled bases and hussars back into your life for the next half a year. Here is hoping for some 2v2 action before 2020 ends!
Arbalesters and the One TC Imp Push – The prevalence of ranged units has already been a talking point leading up to BoA. In the skilled hands of Lierrey, Lyx, TatoH or Villese the arbalest has emerged as the unit to deliver the ultimate punishment. Of course, this is exacerbated by some major aspects of the tournament: Close maps mean less need for a mobile army. Three instead of four players means only one pocket to contend with, who often cannot afford a fast imperial time himself and is stuck seeing his knights getting shredded by the dozen. And a lot less lag on DE enables stop microing to the max. Add in a pinch of melee pathing and say hello to your new Saracen overlords.
Laming – Like it or not, laming is apparently here to stay. After arguably playing a big role in HC3 and being banished from RBW by lack of dark age, laming came back in the finals of BoA with a bang. There is little controversial about playing to the rules, as said so by TheViper himself after HC3. Whether laming should be allowed and to what extent will remain a part of future discussions. If anything, using team work to kill carelessly unloomed and unwalled villagers shouldn’t be as much of a talking point as the stealing of sheeps and boars, which might definitely use some higher risk to balance the rewards.
Suomi and SY – In the shadow of aM’s victory, it might go all but unnoticed that both Suomi and YinYang lost less games than Secret whilst winning as many, with Secret falling to both of them. Mr Yo showed his RBW win was not a fluke and Paladin and Lyx proved 1v1 ratings as highly unsuited for TG performance. After an underwhelming Nations Cup and ECL Tournament, the Chinese powerhouse is back in the business with some of the best series of BoA. On the other side, the possibly best pocket in the world and his fellow Suomis again provided incredible strategies and teamwork in what might sadly be their last tournament in this constellation. Suomi, we love you!
Honorable Mentions – Tatoh proves his strong form and plays an incredible tournament, putting in a strong contention for MVP – if we told you a Secret player in a finals game would go to full-sling another with 190 Villagers, would you have guessed the roles? Viper keeps doing Viper things from pocket and his demeanor even in a loss is a bright example on how you wish your sports GOAT to be like. The young guard of RoR and PetGunPet make us crave more of the new blood. No slinging is a refreshing change of pace for team games, making every player count. And RiotDash will hopefully show up for more legendary casting. If you haven’t seen it, watch the last fight of Game 9 on T90's channel for some extra goosebumps
Losers:
DE/Microsoft – Not only did they publish a patch in the middle of a tournament, they made sure it was so bugged that the whole affair had to be performed on a two months old setting. So apparently Bulgarians do get Paladin, no one knows if Malay are broken and whatever bonus Goths actually had during BoA2. Garnish with some casting crashes and no really usable spectator overlay and for God’s sake, no one make a siege tower!
Trushing – LaaaaaN is a strong and fun to watch player that qualified for every single big tournament on DE: RBW, HC3 and NAC3. Sadly, in the deciding match against Secret he was relegated to using what turned out to be the weakest strategy of BoA2: Forwarding the strongest enemy player with towers. VNS suffered a similar fate and whilst a tower rush might still be strong in a 1v1 against a favored opponent, team games leave to much room for pocket help and evasion.
Toxicity – Not the great System of a Down song, but the surprisingly high number of attacks on whoever seemed to be the weak link in a game or series or whatever caster someone happens to dislike in twitch chats and forums. Even though ‘we eSports now’, we could still do without the constant bashing and flaming. Yes, player X got out of bed on the wrong foot and is apparently just a top 32 pleb today (how dare he!) and not as strong as his two companions, so obviously he deserves a big steaming pile of crap instead of dinner tonight.
Unique Units – Gone seem the days of Mangudais, Plumed Archers, Chu-Ko-Nu and the occasional War Elephant. Close quarters, little stone and short games turned most games into knight/crossbow festivals and reduced civ’s differences to what bonus they get for these two. Attempts at Arambai, Janissary and Conquistadors where thwarted with halbs, monks, siege or a sleek wad of forty Arbalesters.
Honorable Mentions: DauT just recently proved critics wrong, going toe-to-toe with Hera in HC3 and again pulling into the Top 8 of Red Bull Wololo. Sadly, the close, aggressive maps and pre-Imperial playstyle don’t fully play to his teamgame strengths. Watch for a comeback in KotD3 and whatever team game tournament comes next for him to once again rule the scene as the Lord he is! Vivi and the FSMD team never recovered from one of the more bizzare drama incidents to happen in AoE history and sadly did not make it to the main event. The seeding also left much to be desired, with the group of death living up to its name and making you wonder just how much better Heresy might have done in Group A. Hopefully the next TG tournament can profit from the BoA-results. Also, if the final wouldn’t have been this great, I would still argue that two losses in the group stage should not let anyone get there - it makes the group stage feel unnecessary.
I followed all of this amazing tournament and wanted to give some base for a post tourney discussion: The Winners and Losers of BoA II:
Winners:
aM - Let’s get the obvious choice out of the way first. aM has been long overdue for a large tournament win. After a dominant group stage without a single dropped match they went on to come back from the edge of defeat at 2-3 against Suomi and going down thrice against Secret. A mix of good drafting, great team synergy, thought-through strategies and strong individual performances makes them the deserved winners. Bonus points for one of the funniest winners interviews in a long time.
Memb – After NAC3, RBW and HC3 all eyes were on Memb to deliver his first big tournament on DE. And boy did he deliver! All top teams attending, open casting for all tastes, no rule changes or controversial decisions and an all in all smooth ride. Even doubters of the bo9 final format had to repent their sins faster than we can count to three unloomed villagers. Special shoutout to Chrazini for supplying the framework for these amazing series.
Teamgames – Every major tournament on DE so far has been about 1v1 performances. BoA2 however showed why teamgames are the standard of almost every top tier eSport and traditional sports. More strats (means more wacky strats!), a lot more balance amongst the top contenders, more gold units, more big battles, more team sponsors(?), more action and more comebacks – do yourself a favor and watch Heresy vs YinYang on Beachfight once more before welcoming gold positions, elite skirms, full walled bases and hussars back into your life for the next half a year. Here is hoping for some 2v2 action before 2020 ends!
Arbalesters and the One TC Imp Push – The prevalence of ranged units has already been a talking point leading up to BoA. In the skilled hands of Lierrey, Lyx, TatoH or Villese the arbalest has emerged as the unit to deliver the ultimate punishment. Of course, this is exacerbated by some major aspects of the tournament: Close maps mean less need for a mobile army. Three instead of four players means only one pocket to contend with, who often cannot afford a fast imperial time himself and is stuck seeing his knights getting shredded by the dozen. And a lot less lag on DE enables stop microing to the max. Add in a pinch of melee pathing and say hello to your new Saracen overlords.
Laming – Like it or not, laming is apparently here to stay. After arguably playing a big role in HC3 and being banished from RBW by lack of dark age, laming came back in the finals of BoA with a bang. There is little controversial about playing to the rules, as said so by TheViper himself after HC3. Whether laming should be allowed and to what extent will remain a part of future discussions. If anything, using team work to kill carelessly unloomed and unwalled villagers shouldn’t be as much of a talking point as the stealing of sheeps and boars, which might definitely use some higher risk to balance the rewards.
Suomi and SY – In the shadow of aM’s victory, it might go all but unnoticed that both Suomi and YinYang lost less games than Secret whilst winning as many, with Secret falling to both of them. Mr Yo showed his RBW win was not a fluke and Paladin and Lyx proved 1v1 ratings as highly unsuited for TG performance. After an underwhelming Nations Cup and ECL Tournament, the Chinese powerhouse is back in the business with some of the best series of BoA. On the other side, the possibly best pocket in the world and his fellow Suomis again provided incredible strategies and teamwork in what might sadly be their last tournament in this constellation. Suomi, we love you!
Honorable Mentions – Tatoh proves his strong form and plays an incredible tournament, putting in a strong contention for MVP – if we told you a Secret player in a finals game would go to full-sling another with 190 Villagers, would you have guessed the roles? Viper keeps doing Viper things from pocket and his demeanor even in a loss is a bright example on how you wish your sports GOAT to be like. The young guard of RoR and PetGunPet make us crave more of the new blood. No slinging is a refreshing change of pace for team games, making every player count. And RiotDash will hopefully show up for more legendary casting. If you haven’t seen it, watch the last fight of Game 9 on T90's channel for some extra goosebumps
Losers:
DE/Microsoft – Not only did they publish a patch in the middle of a tournament, they made sure it was so bugged that the whole affair had to be performed on a two months old setting. So apparently Bulgarians do get Paladin, no one knows if Malay are broken and whatever bonus Goths actually had during BoA2. Garnish with some casting crashes and no really usable spectator overlay and for God’s sake, no one make a siege tower!
Trushing – LaaaaaN is a strong and fun to watch player that qualified for every single big tournament on DE: RBW, HC3 and NAC3. Sadly, in the deciding match against Secret he was relegated to using what turned out to be the weakest strategy of BoA2: Forwarding the strongest enemy player with towers. VNS suffered a similar fate and whilst a tower rush might still be strong in a 1v1 against a favored opponent, team games leave to much room for pocket help and evasion.
Toxicity – Not the great System of a Down song, but the surprisingly high number of attacks on whoever seemed to be the weak link in a game or series or whatever caster someone happens to dislike in twitch chats and forums. Even though ‘we eSports now’, we could still do without the constant bashing and flaming. Yes, player X got out of bed on the wrong foot and is apparently just a top 32 pleb today (how dare he!) and not as strong as his two companions, so obviously he deserves a big steaming pile of crap instead of dinner tonight.
Unique Units – Gone seem the days of Mangudais, Plumed Archers, Chu-Ko-Nu and the occasional War Elephant. Close quarters, little stone and short games turned most games into knight/crossbow festivals and reduced civ’s differences to what bonus they get for these two. Attempts at Arambai, Janissary and Conquistadors where thwarted with halbs, monks, siege or a sleek wad of forty Arbalesters.
Honorable Mentions: DauT just recently proved critics wrong, going toe-to-toe with Hera in HC3 and again pulling into the Top 8 of Red Bull Wololo. Sadly, the close, aggressive maps and pre-Imperial playstyle don’t fully play to his teamgame strengths. Watch for a comeback in KotD3 and whatever team game tournament comes next for him to once again rule the scene as the Lord he is! Vivi and the FSMD team never recovered from one of the more bizzare drama incidents to happen in AoE history and sadly did not make it to the main event. The seeding also left much to be desired, with the group of death living up to its name and making you wonder just how much better Heresy might have done in Group A. Hopefully the next TG tournament can profit from the BoA-results. Also, if the final wouldn’t have been this great, I would still argue that two losses in the group stage should not let anyone get there - it makes the group stage feel unnecessary.