Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition News

Get HYPED! The QUEEN’S CLASH Main Event is upon us!

[h3]🏆 WHAT: Queen's Clash[/h3]
[h3]📅 WHEN: March 13 - 14[/h3]
[h3]📡 WHERE: twitch.tv/TinyTriss[/h3]

[h3]THE EVENT[/h3]Since the announcement of the Queen’s Clash tournament last week, the excitement has been absolutely electric for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition‘s first official, women’s-only, 1v1 event! Players are training tirelessly for their shot at the $5,000 USD prize pool, and the audience is amped to see the skills and talents of the most powerful women in the Age of Empires community on display.

The tournament admins were ecstatic to see sign-up numbers above and beyond their initial expectations! With a limited number of seats at the table, the top 44 participants were selected to join across the two leagues—the Gold League (1500-1900 Elo) and Silver League (1200-1500 Elo)—where they’re bound to impress with the incredible skill and rivalry they bring to the battlefield.

[h3]TOURNAMENT PARTICIPANTS[/h3]GOLD LEAGUE
[expand]

ashleylynn
Gabi
Julinse
Lavie Head
Mica
Ning
Nodscouter
Odette
Ofelia
Qwin
shanavii
sunsetfire

[/expand]
SILVER LEAGUE
[expand]

Akr0Ma
Alba cuidadora de Lapras
apach2412
BlackBaby
CharChar
Chipmunk
daehiise
duck_detective
Elhyar
Flor_13
Hippo_Run
hlh19
Kaaaai_
Kougrialka
La BriAnne
Larifari
Leiya
Maggy205
Magnolia
Medusa
moko
momo
noellecat
oceaningabyss
Ottilia
Poods
QueenOfWinland
sivagxa
StellarMeesh
Thalounette
Tileä
Valeria Huesca

[/expand]
While some names may be familiar—especially those who actively stream or participate as members of the Age of Empires II community—we’re excited to welcome so many new names to the Age of Queens! We’re looking forward to seeing what everyone brings to the main event; check out the schedule of matches below!

[h3]TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE[/h3]

[h3]⚔ Saturday, March 13[/h3]
Games start at 20:00 UTC (12p PT / 3p ET). 
[h3]⚔ Sunday, March 14[/h3]
Games start at 14:00 UTC (7a PT / 10a ET).

[h3]TOURNAMENT DETAILS[/h3]
Learn more about the tournament over at Liquipedia:

[h3]:arrowsright: Gold League[/h3]
[h3]:arrowsright: Silver League[/h3]

[h3]TUNE IN[/h3]
Here's where to tune in to the action:

[h3]:arrowsright: TinyTriss on twitch.tv[/h3]

Ranked Map Rotation – March 09!

Here is the latest Ranked Map Rotation as determined by the developer picks and community vote. For the next two weeks, you’ll be able to pick from the new set of maps listed below!

Map pools as of: 6p Pacific (9p ET / 20:00 UTC / 22:00 CEST) on Tuesday, March 09 to Tuesday, March 23

👤 1v1 MAP POOL

This week's 1v1 Community Map Picks are in BOLD.

ARABIA

ARENA

GOLDEN PIT

HIDEOUT

MEGARANDOM

MIGRATION

NOMAD

👥 TEAM GAME MAP POOL

This week's TG Community Map Picks are in BOLD.

ARABIA

ARENA

BLACK FOREST

COASTAL FOREST

FORTRESS

GHOST LAKE

NOMAD

OASIS

SCANDINAVIA

👤 1v1 DEATHMATCH POOL

ACROPOLIS

ARABIA

FOUR LAKES

GHOST LAKE

GOLDEN PIT

GOLDEN SWAMP

KILIMANJARO

SERENGETI

VALLEY

👥 TEAM DEATHMATCH POOL

ARABIA

CENOTES

GHOST LAKE

GOLDEN PIT

GOLDEN SWAMP

KILIMANJARO

LOMBARDIA

OASIS

VALLEY

Server Maintenance - Tuesday, March 9

WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Tuesday, March 9 @ 2:00p PT / 5:00p ET / 22:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 1-2 HOURS

[h3]GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED[/h3]

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)

[h3]OBJECTIVES[/h3]

Routine server updates and maintenance.

[h3]DETAILS[/h3]This coming Tuesday, March 9th, the platform team will be taking the multiplayer servers down for regular maintenance. Please note:

Ranked matchmaking will disabled exactly one hour before the maintenance window to prevent disruption to newly-formed matches.
Any matches still in progress at the start of the maintenance window will be disrupted when it begins.
DURING THE MAINTENANCE WINDOW, YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCHMAKE OR ACCESS ANY ONLINE FEATURES.

To prevent any interruptions, we recommend wrapping up any games at least 10 minutes before the maintenance window. The downtime is expected to last between 1 and 2 hours. You can watch this thread with any changes to the schedule as they arise, as well as the all-clear when the maintenance is complete.

Thank you for your patience!

VOTE! Your Ranked Map Rotation starting March 9!

It’s that time again! Visit the official Age of Empires forum to vote for your Ranked map pool for the next two weeks.

This Week's Dev Picks

[h3]1v1 Random Maps[/h3]
✔ ARABIA
✔ ARENA
✔ MEGARANDOM
✔ MIGRATION

[h3]Team Games[/h3]
✔ ARABIA
✔ ARENA
✔ BLACK FOREST
✔ FORTRESS
✔ GHOST LAKE
✔ NOMAD

Cast Your Vote Now!

To participate in the community ranked map pool vote, you will need to login to the official Age forum using your free Microsoft account. Then, click the images below to jump to this week’s polls.

:alertalert: Polls are open until NOON Pacific on Sunday, March 7 (or 3:00p Eastern / 19:00 UTC), so be sure to cast your vote and check back to see which maps emerge victorious!

Age of Empires 2 DE gets new Steam beta program to test future updates

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, despite being the second remaster the iconic RTS game has received in recent years, is still incredibly popular. So popular, in fact, that it recently received an expansion pack that added new civilisations. It's decisively ahead of the other two Age of Empires remasters at least, and the developers are continuing to devote resources and support towards the strategy game via patches and new initiatives.

One of their new ideas involves rolling out a "public update preview" program, whereby owners of Age of Empires II DE on Steam will be allowed to access a 'beta' branch for testing out new tweaks or features the developers have coming down the pipe. This is inspired by feedback they have received from the community regarding keeping them in the loop on upcoming changes.

These new test branches for Age of Empires II DE won't require a passcode to unlock, and so are publicly available to everyone who has the game installed. New branches will appear as and when they are made live.

Read the rest of the story...