World Cup 2023: Overview of Initial Rounds
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The French team has proved to be a surprise package in the pre-tournament showmatch, and they will have a good chance to make it out of their group as the top seed.
The second seed of Group C is Canada, a team that has been in the works for many years.
Led by the veteran player Slam and the ever-improving Hera, the Canadian team was one of the most consistent of the qualifiers, and they come in the main event with a good chance to make it out of the group.
The French B team is the clear third seed of Group C, and the one most likely to miss out on the final rounds of the main event.
The team has a good mix of experienced players and promising newcomers, and should give their opponents a good fight.
Italy, on the other hand, is the clear underdog of Group C.
The Italian team has been struggling to get the players to commit to the event, and have been playing the qualifiers with a different line-up every week.
Still, the team is not without talent, and could surprise if they manage to get their players in sync.
I see France A taking the top spot of the group, with Canada A edging out France B for the second spot.
Italy should finish fourth, but their matches against France B could be close. **Prediction:** 1.
France A 2.
Canada A 3.
France B 4.
Italy A ## Group D * Spain A: El\_Majuelo, El\_Maco, El\_Tito, El\_Tito\_Jr, El\_Aguila, El\_Tito\_III * Russia A: Nili, sivorro, Nite, RiuT, sLh, Altais * Germany A: T90, Mr\_Yo, Shou, Cysion, Yabu, Maestro * Brazil B: Sifu, ReaL, Mestre, Kastor, Daut, Nino Last but not least, we have Group D.
This group is headlined by the reigning champions Brazil B, who come into the event as the top seed.
The core of the team remains the same since 2017, with the exception of Daut, who replaced the retired JorDan.
The Brazilians have been playing together for many years, and it would be no surprise if they make it to the finals once again.
The second seed of Group D is Russia A, a team that has been playing together for many years and is also known for their team game prowess.
Led by Nili and sivorro, the Russian team has been one of the most consistent of the qualifiers and come into the main event with a good chance to make it out of the group.
The German team is the third seed of Group D, and the one most likely to miss out on the final rounds of the main event.
The German team has been playing together for many years, and they should provide a good challenge to their opponents.
The Spanish team is the clear underdog of Group D.
The Spanish team has been struggling to get the players to commit to the event, and have been playing the qualifiers with a different line-up every week.
Still, the team is not without talent, and could surprise if they manage to get their players in sync.
I see Brazil B taking the top spot of the group, with Russia A edging out Germany for the second spot.
Spain should finish fourth, but their matches against Germany could be close. **Prediction:** 1.
Brazil B 2.
Russia A 3.
Germany A 4.
Spain A It has been six years since the last Nations Cup tournament, and the competitive scene of Age of Empires 2 has changed considerably since then.
Microsoft’s prolonged support has enabled the professional ecosystem to thrive, and the third Nations Cup offered more than five times as much prize money as the largest 1v1 event.
The demand for team games has always been there, and the community favorite Battle of Africa only saw three iterations, while King of the Desert had five.
Now, with an entirely community-funded prize pool of more than $13,000, 155 teams representing 58 different countries, and more than a thousand signed-up players, Nations Cup 2023 is already, and by far, the largest event in the competitive history of the game.
The competition has already started, splitting teams into four level-based leagues, offering everyone a chance to compete against teams of similar skills.
All eyes will be on the main event, eventually crowning a successor to Brazil B – but teams who don’t make it so far will have chances to participate in the Silver, Bronze and Wooden Leagues.
Now, without further ado, let’s have a peek at the group stage of the main event.
Eight different groups of four teams each will play a round robin phase for the next few weeks, allowing the top two teams in every group to continue in a double-elimination 16-team bracket.
Thoughts and opinions are my own and could of course be completely wrong as the competition picks up!
It has been a long period since the Nations Cup – the last major 4v4 tournament on the competitive Age of Empires 2 scene – which has seen a golden age of growth in recent years.
The game’s business model has shifted from a few wealthy patrons funding the large-scale events they wanted to see to a professional ecosystem sustained by Microsoft’s long-term support.
The tournaments themselves have changed as well.
In 2017, the third Nations Cup had five times the prize money of the biggest 1v1 event, while in 2018 and 2019, King of the Desert 2 offered only a quarter of the Escape Champions League’s total dotation.
In 2020, the balance was reversed – the two S-tier team events had less than 20% of the total major dotation.
There were multiple factors that contributed to this change.
As the number of tournaments increased, it became easier to organize them into shorter timeframes, meaning fewer players were available on key weekends.
The game’s performance was also an issue, with Definitive Edition’s large team games causing issues for all but the most powerful hardware, not to mention the dysfunction of the critical save and restore feature.
Most importantly, however, was the tournament hosts’ perception of the audience’s taste.
Team game tournaments were deemed too difficult to follow, or not to have the same appeal as a 1v1 competition.
Despite this, there has always been a demand for team games.
The team game ladder has twice as many active players as the 1v1 ladder, and events such as the 2v2 World Cup and Return of the Clans have been hugely popular.
The Black Forest community has even turned their own niche into a successful and popular tournament franchise, funded by Microsoft and preparing its fourth installment.
Playing with your friends remains at the core of the Age of Empires 2 experience, and after the football world cup, there was perhaps no better time to organize a new Nations Cup.
With an entirely community-funded prize pool of more than $13,000, 155 teams representing 58 different countries, and more than a thousand signed-up players, Nations Cup 2023 is already the biggest event in the competitive history of the game.
The competition has already started, splitting teams into four level-based leagues, offering everyone a chance to compete against teams of similar skills.
All eyes will be on the main event, eventually crowning a successor to Brazil B – but teams who don’t make it so far will have chances to participate in the Silver, Bronze and Wooden Leagues.
Now, without further ado, let’s have a peek at the group stage of the main event.
Eight different groups of four teams each will play a round robin phase for the next few weeks, allowing the top two teams in every group to continue in a double-elimination 16-team bracket.
Thoughts and opinions are my own and could of course be completely wrong as the competition picks up!
A Tarsiz tournament preview write-up in 2023?!
Pog
Good stuff as always – really looking forward to cast another big TG event! 😀
14!
Amazing write up
How can somebody not be hyped in this sub?!
Really curious how germany will do with late sign-up jordan
TrollDespair Australia 4th
Nice write up, couldn’t help reading it in an AM radio British voice.
Anybody know why ACCM and BacT are not playing?
Especially ACCM seems to be playing in almost every tournament I see recently and doing well, shame to not see them here.
11 u guys need a skip to recipe button, all jokes aside hella hype for this tournament and can’t wait to watch.
Love team games and glad they are getting more attention again.
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