The League

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The League is one of the most ambitious team-format projects the Age of Empires II scene has seen, a $75,000 3v3 competition organized by community figures Daniela_AoE, Rbase96 and sieste with backing from World’s Edge. Rather than the usual one-versus-one ladder grind, this event puts the spotlight squarely on coordinated three-player squads, and it runs as a months-long campaign that kicks off with open qualifiers on July 18, 2026 and builds all the way to a live LAN final in Hamburg, Germany on November 28, 2026. Between those two bookends sits a full competitive pyramid: two divisions, a round-robin league stage and double-elimination playoffs. Below you will find everything that is confirmed so far across the main league, its qualifiers and Division 2.

Guide Contents

PRIZE POOL

The headline number is a hefty $75,000 USD, making The League one of the better-funded team events on the calendar. The prize is spread across the top nine placements in Division 1, though at the time of writing the organizers have not yet published the exact dollar figure attached to each finishing position. Division 2 also distributes a share of prize money among its participants, with amounts still to be announced. We will update this section with the full breakdown once it goes live.

FORMAT

Everything in The League is played 3v3 in Random Map mode. The competitive ladder has three rungs: open qualifiers feed into Division 1 (the premier tier) and Division 2 (the secondary tier), each of which runs its own league stage followed by playoffs. The structure rewards both consistency in the long round-robin grind and clutch performances in the elimination rounds.

Division 1 (Main League)

Nine teams contest the top division. The league stage runs from August 10 to September 13, 2026, in a round-robin played under a “Pa4” scoring system: teams earn one point per individual game won, plus a bonus point for taking the set outright. From there, the top squads move into a double-elimination playoff bracket on September 19 and 20, where every match is a grueling best-of-seven. The whole thing culminates in the LAN final on November 28, 2026, at CinemaxX Hamburg Dammtor, played as a best-of-nine showdown to crown the champions.

Division 2

Division 2 is detailed in its own section further down, but in short it gathers twelve qualified teams into two groups of six, runs a round-robin and finishes with a single-elimination playoff.

MAP POOL

The same 15-map pool is used across the qualifiers and both divisions, mixing open land maps, water and hybrid layouts, and closed-map specialists, so well-rounded teams have the edge:

Arabia
Arena
Black Forest
Cape of Storms
Crescent
Enemy Archipelago
Fortified Clearing
Fortress
Frontline
Grand Bara
Menindee
Migration
Nomad
Team Acropolis
Tres Leches

DIVISION 2

Division 2 gives teams that did not make the cut for the top flight a meaningful stage of their own, and it doubles as a proving ground for squads on the rise. A total of twelve teams, all funneled in from Qualifier 2, are split into two groups of six. The league stage runs from August 10 to September 16, 2026, using the same Pa4 scoring as Division 1: a point per game win and a bonus point for closing out the set. The top two teams from each group then advance into a single-elimination playoff on September 17 and 18, with semifinals played as best-of-five and the final stepped up to a best-of-seven. The Division 2 finale is set to take place at The Garrison 2026. Specific rosters and standings have not yet been published.

QUALIFIERS

Two open online qualifiers determine who fills out the divisions. Both are 3v3, single-elimination, and play every match as a best-of-five, but they differ in how many teams they feed forward and where those teams land.

Qualifier 1

The first qualifier drew 40 teams, organized across five separate brackets. Round 1 ran from July 18 to 24, 2026, with semifinals on July 25 and finals on July 26. Each of the five brackets produced one finalist, and those five bracket winners earned spots in Division 1. Full results and team names have not yet been posted.

Qualifier 2

The second qualifier featured 27 teams split into four brackets. Round 1 ran from July 27 to 31, 2026, with semifinals on August 1 and finals on August 2. This qualifier carries deeper stakes for advancement: the top four placements move up to Division 1, while teams placing from 5th through 16th are routed into Division 2. The remaining teams are eliminated. As with Qualifier 1, the brackets and final placements are still to be filled in.

PARTICIPANTS

Division 1 is made up of nine teams, with five seeded in from Qualifier 1 and four from Qualifier 2. As of now the official rosters and player countries have not been revealed by the organizers, so the lineup remains to be announced. We will update this section with the full team list and player nationalities once the qualifiers conclude and the brackets are confirmed.