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Red Bull Wololo’s final day was one for the ages
Red Bull Wololo brought the hype and then some. Here’s everything that went down during the finals of the epic Age of Empires 2 tournament.
What a tournament that was! Competitive Age of Empires hasn’t seen a tournament like Red Bull Wololo in years. Close matches all over the place, crazy strategies we’ve never seen before and massive plays that may have permanently and single-handedly changed the meta of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
Four days of competition are now over and we have a lot to look back on. The two clear stars of the competition were Ørjan ‘TheViper’ Larsen, the most successful Age of Empires II player to date and Mr_Yo, the Chinese player who's been impressing lately. The pair met in the final after pulling off some crazy plays in the earlier rounds and the match-up between the two didn't disappoint, with one of the most unexpected narratives of the whole tournament unfolding on the live stream.
TheViper made getting to the final look pretty easy. He took down Helenês ‘F1re’ Cândido 3-1 in the round of 16 and then Darko ‘DauT’ Dautovic fell by the same score in the quarter final. This set up a much anticipated semi final against Hera, which many had wanted to see as the grand final.
In the semi final against Hera, TheViper pulled out one of the most surprising civ picks of the entire tournament. He decided to pick Teutons, a civ considered by pretty much everyone in the know as garbage tier. While many analysts expected a few surprising civ picks due to the empire war game mode and the modifications made to it for the tournament, almost no-one expected to see Teutons actually played – that’s how bad they were thought to be.
Then TheViper pulled them out in game two vs Hera and everyone's opinion suddenly changed. TheViper had won game one, so he had room to experiment without fear of elimination, but the performance was incredible. He won the game pretty easily and as soon as it was over the analysts started to consider if Teutons could actually be a good pick. He may not have won the tournament, but TheViper might just have changed the Age of Empires II meta single-handedly.
He would go on to win the semi final 3-0 and with many considering Hera to be the second best player in the world, just behind TheViper, it was assumed that the final would be just as one-sided.
Mr_Yo actually made getting to the final day of the competition look even easier, with a 3-0 win over Chris ‘slam’ Gregson in the round of 16 and a 3-1 win over ‘LaaaaaN’ in the quarter final. His semi final match-up against Kai ‘Liereyy’ Kallinger went all the way to game five and was incredibly close, but the talking point that it will be remembered for was the crazy ending to map two, that Mr_Yo managed to pull off.
The final kicked off with TheViper playing Khmer and Mr_Yo playing Mayans on the Arabia map. Things were super-even through the early game between these two: TheViper created some elephants, but didn’t really do much with them, and then Mr_Yo managed to convert two of them to his side (they didn’t end up doing much for either side, but elephant conversions are always fun to watch). After a very even game, at around the 30 minute mark, Mr_Yo launched a big offensive, with multiple attack points and got a decent lead. Continued pressure with trebuchets in multiple locations eventually led to the win for Mr_Yo, giving him a 1-0 lead.
Map two saw the players head to Golden Pit, a map that has rarely been seen and pitted TheViper’s Cumans against Mr_Yo’s Saracens. TheViper took an interesting strategy from the get go and took control of the pit of gold in the middle, but Mr_Yo managed to sneak around his base in the middle and establish some buildings on TheViper’s side of the map outside of vision. Just minutes later an attack from this forward outpost cost TheViper dearly and effectively cut off his two different settlements. After a long siege from Mr_Yo, TheViper’s town centre in the middle of the map was taken out and that was the game. Mr_Yo dominated this match and went 2-0 up in the final.
Game three saw TheViper go for Indians, with Mr_Yo on Malians, as they took to the Aztlan map. Mr_Yo again created chaos early on, taking multiple fights at once and keeping pressure on TheViper’s set-up on the shore fish, which were key to his win condition. He executed his strategy nearly perfectly early on and by the time he hit the Castle Age he had a big 10-villager lead. Mr_Yo kept things chaotic and managed to pull out another convincing win. Going onto match point after just three maps.
Next up was the Land Madness map, with TheViper again picking up the Teutons and Mr_Yo going for Slavs. It was clear that TheViper was trying to pull out one of his more unexpected strategies once again with the Teutons pick, adding even more credence to the idea that they might not be as terrible as was first thought.
Things went slightly better for TheViper in this match, but it was clear he was playing a little too safe and was off his game. He made some questionable decisions and Mr_Yo once again kept the pressure high. TheViper stayed in the game for longer than many expected, but everything he tried seemed to be countered by Mr_Yo and it didn't take too long to realise all was lost. TheViper tapped out, giving Mr_Yo the incredible 4-0 victory in the final.
After one of the most dominant performances ever seen against TheViper, Mr_Yo was crowned as Red Bull Wololo champion and took home €5,000 for first place. Taking down a giant such as TheViper in such fashion is certainly quite a statement to make and more than a fitting end to such an entertaining competition.
