Only appeared two weeks ago Age of Empires IV a beautiful poster was offered by the French Twitch scene this weekend. Organized and presented by ZeratoR accompanied by Alphacast, the tournament with the carefully considered initials “With Originality and Enthusiasm” took place this Sunday at the Grand Rex. instead of.
The great hall of the famous Parisian cinema hosted a series of games on the STR for almost five hours, with eight personalities from the French streaming as competitors. At the end of the day, a Cash prize 5,000 dollars for the winner, but above all a lot of fun playing video games in front of a conquered audience and an audience of over 70,000 viewers on Twitch.
An event by enthusiasts for enthusiasts
The evening was organized by ZQSD Productions. The agency, which specializes in events, supports the gaming and esports projects of many French streamers and Youtubers, including ZeratoR. After participating in the tournament, we had a brief chat with Hugo Poiblanc, Executive Director of the company. An exchange that you will find in the last part of our article.
Adrien “ZeratoR” Nougaret organizes most of its biggest events through ZQSD. Because streaming on Twitch is not the only specialty of the young Montpellier. His core business today is his friendly get-togethers around video games. The best known and most published of these is undoubtedly the ZEvent, a charity marathon that breaks all records every year.
But ZeratoR also organizes various tournaments that focus on one or more games. He has already worked with Xbox and Ubisoft in the past for the “Trackmania Cup” and the “Game Pass Challenge”. There’s also the ZLAN, a huge annual competition that brings together nearly two hundred content creators. Everything is of course broadcast live on Twitch and brings together tens of thousands of viewers every time.
A first “With Originality and Enthusiasm” took place in the studio in 2020 and saw the streamer TheSniper_AOE as the winner. Alphacast, an early fan of Microsoft’s STRs, was already there for the comments. And for last year and this weekend, Xbox was part of the party.
Our friends out @XboxGamePassFR join the event as a partner 💚!
We are very happy to count on your support for this project, which will take place on the brand new one # AoE4 for this event
Come and experience the event on site: https://t.co/BPZw4tBawb
pic.twitter.com/AQShJPvHru– With originality and enthusiasm (@AoE_event) November 3, 2021
Castle life in the Grand Rex
Eight of them fought for the title of this second tournament. Koka, Skyyart, GoB, Kenny and Khalen tried their luck again after participating last year. Then there were the newcomers MoMaN, OGN_Empires and Funka.
The evening begins in an already heated room where, as is customary in the Grand Rex, the last numbers of the countdown are sung before the curtain goes up. Then the legendary voice of Benoit Allemane can be heard, a dubbing actor who, among other things, puts his stamp on Morgan Freeman. After a video that presents the participants in the style of a medieval novel, the players and casters take the stage.
It’s set up like a tavern, with cloves of garlic hanging from the beams and barrels stacked on a stone wall. We are no longer in a cinema, but in a cyber café full of knights. Because ZeratoR and Alphacast, like their guests, are dressed from head to toe like gentlemen of the Middle Ages: the immersion is total.
📸 from @ChloeRamdani
LIVE: https://t.co/ATRO4rgLPR pic.twitter.com/vp1Fwf5OnZ
– With originality and enthusiasm (@AoE_event) November 14, 2021
Eight gentlemen for a holy grail
The tournament takes place in five games to the game by Relic Entertainment. The first four are played according to the score with a time limit of 45 minutes. The final is decided on the elimination, by economic, religious or military victory. The eight players take their seats at their respective tables and the first round begins according to the rules of Free for all (FFA) or each for himself. Koka wins the card, and then teams form for the next fight.
In fact, four duos compete against each other in the second part, with the aim of not finishing last and thus avoiding disqualification. The formidable Kenny and Khalen are starting favorites who have won several tournaments, including the last ZLAN accompanied by the star streamer. But in just a few minutes, Khalen sees many opponents ally against him … Unable to contain the waves of units of the other competitors who want to know and avoid him hitting hard in the late game, he is prematurely silenced. Kenny, the team’s only survivor, tries to resist, but it’s a waste of time against duos swept away on their triumphal march. With their elimination and the certainty that their points will not fly away, the round is aborted.
After a break, the six remaining participants find themselves in a new game FFA. The two players who finish with the lower number of points are eliminated here. After twenty minutes of rest, in contrast to the incessant action of the previous parts, the armies break out on the map. That will quickly pay the price of the very popular MoMaN, a result that is nonetheless predictable for the underdog of the evening. However, OGN_Empires won’t follow long after they put up stiffer resistance.
Find 2v2v2v2: @KennyStream and Reply to @Team_Twitter are the first to be eliminated from the tournament! pic.twitter.com/yiBsZwKNkM
– With originality and enthusiasm (@AoE_event) November 14, 2021
Epic semi-finals and stormy end
Serious things can begin, and the fourth round takes place on a “King of the Hill” card, a timeless classic in the franchise. The rules of FFA apply one last time. Skyyart begins leading his forces into the Funka area in a long and methodical campaign that will hardly ever be foiled. After defeating his first target, he walks towards the middle of the playing field to appropriate the famous hill, but is slowed down by GoB’s castles.
He’s now waging a merciless war on coca. For Skyyart, there is no longer a choice: you have to throw yourself between a rock and a hard court if he wants his place in the finals. In the last ten minutes, the three belligerents fight a frenzied battle for the highest score. They go back and forth to the delight of the audience, and the dots come and go every second. Skyyart and GoB qualify on the tightrope after a breakdown of units that will have made this match the most breathtaking of the evening.
The finale will be short. Both players have not yet reached the imperial age when Skyyart makes a strategic mistake that costs him dearly. Its gold deposits are not adequately protected. Given this great opportunity, GoB responded and managed to produce the units it needed to win. His rams are based on his opponent’s forum. The other strategic buildings are falling quickly and the suitcase is folded in less than twenty minutes. GoB “lifts its first title” on the stage of the Grand Rexas ZeratoR likes to say.
and @GoB_GG managed to overcome @Skyyart in less than 20 minutes and win this tournament @AoE_event ! pic.twitter.com/bYkbQnLKqO
– ZeratoR (@ZeratoR) November 14, 2021
ZeratoR and Xbox, a win-win partnership
The evening is not over for the participants and the organizers. Players gather to celebrate the success of the rally and GoB’s victory, which itself does not count. Skyyart lingered on the edge of the stage for a while and discussed his finale with the audience remaining in the room. The technician’s anthill approaches behind him, dismantles it and takes the scenery into the trucks parked outside.
A few minutes later, ZeratoR leaves the building for a few photos with fans. At the same time, Hugo Poiblanc agreed to exchange a few words with us about the event. The dynamic Executive Director and Head of Partnerships at ZQSD Productions joined in with an undisguised good mood.
XboxSquad: Good evening Hugo and thanks for your time cleaning up! Did the evening go well?
Hugo Poiblanc: Good evening ! Worked out very well, thank you. We just wanted people to be able to enjoy it and enjoy it with them. That’s what happened. And we’re happy to have found the audience after all this time.
XS: We absolutely loved it! The parties were involved and we had a lot of fun watching. It is true that with the health context, the presence of an audience for ZeratoR events was no longer possible.
PS: Yes, especially since the first “With originality and enthusiasm” took place behind closed doors for these reasons. For tonight it was downright a Donation target from ZeratoR to ZEvent 2020. He and Alphacast had this delirium, they really wanted to do it in order to find the audience. It was something that was very dear to their hearts. But there are events that are made to stay in the studio. Not everything is suitable for an audience to be present.
XS: Like the ZLAN, for example?
PS: The ZLAN is a huge machine, there are a lot of people. There are many games at the same time on the first two days. It is impossible to broadcast all of this on the big screen at the same time, so that an audience there would only see people playing on their computers. It’s not interesting. It’s only possible on Twitch as you can choose which streamer to watch.
XS: Tonight the event was organized with Xbox as a partner. How does such a collaboration work?
PS: We’re really in a win-win relationship. We want to do the tournament, show it Age of Empires IV. You help us implement that. In return, it gives them a showcase because the game has just been released. We have been used to working with them like this for several years. It started, I think, with the release of Forza Horizon 4 [NDLR : en 2018]. At that time we had already brought MoMaN, but also Trinity and Squeezie with us. Xbox liked what we did, so we just kept going. There was especially the “Game Pass Challenge”, which involves several games that are part of it. It introduces the service.
XS: What is the next step now?
PS: To come back to the events in public, a ZLAN with people on Sunday, that wouldn’t be bad! On the last day there are only the semifinals and the finals. People followed without any problems. It’s a big project, but we’ve been longing for it for a long time.
[Il reçoit un appel téléphonique et indique qu’il doit s’en aller.]
XS: Thanks for giving us time and good luck packing!
PS: Thank you, good evening!
Then he joined the multitude of technicians and other members of production who continued to work behind the scenes. Another proof that Behind the cameras of some streamers there is a very complex mechanism that requires a lot of human and material resources. And that mechanism works hard to make sure everything always goes as well as possible.
In the eyes of the public, the result of all these efforts remains the finished product. This is the goal of ZeratoR and the people who revolve around it: to promote video games with the most creative and innovative look possible … and have fun doing it.. The evening was definitely aptly named.
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