4 years 1 month ago
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Twenty one years after its original release, RTS classic Age Of Empires 2 is finally, improbably, coming into its own as an esport. There’s been a competitive AoE2 scene ever since 1999, but in the last couple of years, and particularly since the release of the Definitive Edition in November, it seems to have blown up somewhat. In fact, since 2pm GMT today, when the third Hidden Cup tournament kicked off, there have been around 30,000 people glued to this orgy of frenzied knight-spamming – and we’re only on the second best-of-five matchup in the first round of 16 [Edit – in the 20 minutes since I started this piece, we’re up to 35,000 viewers].