Mogul Partners with Microsoft for Age of Empires II Esports

by Jason Parker in General | Mar, 5th 2020

If you had told me, even a few months ago, that Age of Empires 2 was going to get an esports tournament series, I would have told you: How did you get into my house to start shrieking at me? You have absolutely gone mental! There’s no way that we’ll see Age of Empires 2 esports! But lo and behold, the times, they are a’changin’!

But that’s right. We’re looking at a real change-up in what’s offered in the esports realm, with an upcoming Age of Empires 2 esports tournament series. The tournament’s eight markets will include Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

What? No American market? I’m sure we’ll have to see how this one goes and move from there.

Age of Empires 2 Asia Cup

The Age of Empires 2 Asia Cup is going to start in the first quarter of the year, with four seasons across 12 months. The top four teams in each season will earn a spot in the Age of Empires Asia Cup Major. Team-based Age of Empires esports? Now, I’m excited!

Mark Warburton, chief marketing officer of Mogul, spoke about it in a press release. “We’ve been delighted to be working with Microsoft in recent weeks to discover and engage the region’s most passionate AoE competitors as we work to organize a world-class competition through our Branded Hub and online tournament delivery solution.”

Warburton continued, “For players, this ensures an immersive competition or viewer experience that looks and feels like the game they love. For publishers like Microsoft, it delivers the opportunity to provide a full branded competitive gameplay experience, bringing the game brand and its universe to life in new ways.”

In recent months, Mogul partnered with groups, such as Mineski, Tier One Entertainment, SG Esports, Team Secret and SARENA, so this sounds like this is serious. That’s a nice list of partners to make sure it has people supporting it and giving it publicity. Not to mention, of course, Microsoft involved. You hear that, Nintendo?

Jeremy Hinton, director of gaming category Asia at Microsoft, spoke about this as well. “Age of Empires is an iconic PC title for gamers in Asia, and one we’re very excited to be bringing into competition through the upcoming AoE II Asia Cup with Mogul. Mogul’s competition platform provides us with the ability to deliver engaging, interaction competition events for fans across Asia region, bringing this classic PC game into the online esports age.”

Now, we’ll grant you that Age of Empires 2 is not an established esports title by any means. But it has a serious cult following. I imagine it’s got a solid fanbase in the area they are promoting it for. Maybe that’s why there isn’t a Western tournament series announced (Europe, North America, South America). Perhaps instead, they’re simply looking to expand the market for Age of Empires. It’s already familiar here in the West.

Whatever the cause, Age of Empires 2 in the esports scene is such a wild sentence to write out. I didn’t think it would ever be a RTS video game we’d see in the discussion. All I ever hear on that front is StarCraft II, but Age of Empires 2 is such a fun, visually different title. There are so many other factions to play as, compared to StarCraft II, making it potentially way more exciting.