RTS-League: Clan Leagues for Strategy Gamers

A few weeks ago, a great and in some ways surprising season of RTS League's Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Clan League has finished, seeing the 2-season reign of CZ Clan ended by Lords of Skulls, a clan that has rarely been noticed or thought of as being favourites - until now. How did they manage to clinch the Golden Banner belonging to the best clan in the whole of AoC? How did they overcome all their opposition? Read on and find out what it takes to become the best of the best and rule them all in a world full of Conquerors...

The season itself began as one of great expectations, because as RTSL's prestige constantly grows, more and more top quality clans and players hunger to taste the sweet nectar of victory and recognition coming with the success in the oldest Age of Empires competition ever. We again saw many top teams sign up, like WolfpacK, Power of Japan, Rulers of Rome, Run Forrest Run, New Chapter, Arg plus multitude of others, and CZ's way to the magical third victory in a row was pretty much assuredly not to be easy, many even predicted not possible at all due to the insane line-ups they had to face.

Group Stage

As fate would have it, both the Finalists-to-be were seeded into the same division, expecting the Czechs as top favourites to come 1st, and LoS fighting for the Playoff placement with other clans the likes of Arg or Klrz, kLu. Both clans' way towards the Postseason seemed pretty easy with Lords suffering just 1 loss to the Argentinians, and defending Champions coming up loss-less up until the crucial last fight of the group stage - mutual battle to decide who goes as n1 seed into the Brackets.

Almost ending in an Administrative Decision, teams finally met on the field of battle in the nick of time, and we got to see a pretty fun set of games ending with a clear score 2:0 (recs). But not for the favourites. Evil tongues could say it was because CZ left their best at home, but with how much was at stake - direct advance into Quarterfinals, but, more importantly, avoiding WolfpacK until Finals - no one could say this was a moment to underestimate, and the Champions sure knew what they were doing. Nonetheless, with the help of some traitorous Paladin, whose name and whole family shall forever be cursed, the first spot deservedly fell to Lords of Skulls, and CZ's first wrinkle on their pristine record had grave consequences for their hopes to claim Gold yet again.

The rest of the divisions went more or less according to expectations, with WolfpacK, by many considered clear favourites for the Title, owning Division 2, and New Chapter coming strong in Division 4, but special mention has to go to Rulers of Rome in Division 3, finishing above strong (and last season Bronze) Run Forrest Run, posing an interesting question - can they follow up with equally intriguing results in the Postseason? With the kind of clans heading for the "Best of" fighting, supported by individual results and performances so far, we knew we were in for something special come Playoffs.

Playoffs

The answer to the question posed above came soon, when CZ Clan faced the enigmatic Romans in the Quarterfinals and dispatched them 3:0 (recs) with their top line-up, clearly showing the strength of the RTS League Champions clad in Gold. Similar brandishing of weapons happened in the LoS-Arg encounter (recs) as well though, and we were getting clear signs something is up - the mostly Brazilian clan means business, definitely confirmed by employing TyRanT's finest, RiuT (aka SAFADAO), who wanted to help his true home clan come out big.

WolfpacK then had similar success (recs) against Tolpoi Kuchaem having season of their lives, and New Chapter had a little revenge fun with RFR (recs) for last season Bronze battle, wrapped up by a rather epic Game 4 (rec). This all resulted in some highly anticipated Semifinal match-ups, promising great games and loads of top quality team game fun in the best format available - 3v3.

WolfpacK vs. CZ (recs) was dubbed the premature Finals, as before the season started, CZ Clan were obvious favourites, having won two times in a row, and WolfpacK's line-up just doesn't allow room for anything else than Gold - and to many, even the Czechs were supposed to be a walkover. Well, they weren't. Also due to some misfortune, but mainly due to serious skill in strategy and tactics set-up before the match itself by their opponents, the Wolves found themselves on the standard end of the Little Red Riding Hood story, and the Czech Hunters found not only her and the granny inside the canines' bellies, but also the shiny key to the Grand Finals themselves.

The other side of the bracket was no less interesting, and with the players both Lords of Skulls and New Chapter were using, this seemed like a Nations Cup rematch (recs) in full strength. Here the fans started to realise the Brazilians (mostly) are kind of the favourites with fielding 2k++ all the time, and were actually expected to trash nC, but boy, were such predictions misguided. All the recent training paid off tremendously for the Germans and they were very clearly reaching for the advance, but proved just a bit short in fully capitalising on RiuT's presence that seemed to have an interesting, yet unexpectedly sour, side effect - common and inescapable mentality that superstrong reinforcement will win the games by itself. Luckily for LoS though, they managed to get things right just in time to clinch their Grand Finals ticket in the last, fifth game, and dream of claiming the highly coveted Golden Banner for themselves stayed alive.

Grand Finals

The last fight of the season was a bit longer in coming due to stacked schedules of the clans, but when the teams finally met, the atmosphere was almost palpable, as there was a whole lot at stake - magical third victory in a row for CZ, premiere Title for LoS, and eternal glory for the winner. Lords of Skulls stuck to their expert game skills, CZ to their expert pre-match tactical preparation. Only one could prevail though, and so the heated clash began, with the challengers racking up Game 1 on Flood (rec) after skillfully conquering the sea, impatiently waiting to face CZ, the Arena Masters, on their favourite home map (rec). The Defending Champions went with their proven, highly effective double sling, but to their surprise, the opponents somehow contained the situation and did not allow for it to get out of hand, stealing a map that should have been CZ's stepping stone to victory. With LoS' home map incoming, the situation was dire for the Champs, needing to win all now, and even though BCC3@Fortress (rec) is similar in appearance to their cozy little piece of battlefield, the progress followed the theme of the evening, eventually, and quite fittingly, seeing the Kings of AoC topple. When all ggs were said and shaking of hands done, a new day has dawned, a day where the proud CZ Clan's Banner flies a little lower, outshined by the Golden Banner of the Champions of RTS League's Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Clan League, Season 37:



The Honoured Finalists:



Watch the Grand Finals on RTS League YouTube

Download the Grand Finals recs and discuss them at AoCZone

Bronze Banner Match

The first Banner to be awarded though was the one that again had a supposedly clear favourite - it was near unthinkable that WolfpacK would leave empty-handed with such quality, but at the same time New Chapter were on a very similar boat, collecting awards with regularity many could envy. With the fairy tale adventure yielding proper lesson, the Wolves looked to rectify their mistakes and make sure Bronze would be theirs, ready to transform into fearsome Werewolves for this match, not having to worry about the fateful Silver Banner at all. But, well, the representatives of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation did not need any silver on their side, as they had plenty of holy water ready to Flood (rec) their enemies with, followed by just enough spikes made of Black Wood (rec) to still the beasts' hearts, finishing them off with a golden sling found at the fabled El Dorado (rec), a weapon even David himself would love to brandish against his nemesis Goliath. Not even the Arabian (rec) mystics could then divine a way to secure victory for the Pack against such huge odds, and so were the chroniclers of old made to turn the leaves of their tomes one last time this season, to start a New Chapter depicting the heroic deeds of:



Watch the Bronze Banner match on RTS League YouTube

Download the Bronze Banner match recs and discuss them at AoCZone

Congrats LoS, CZ and nC!

Also, of course, big thanks to all the participating clans for making this season as great as it was!

And as usual, we are deeply grateful for the time and effort our many streamers put into bringing the heroic battles of strategy and tactics to the fans live, so thanks Voobly TV and prominent voices of our streams like Genette, Rgeadn or pedro!

The new season with number 38 will be starting in the next several weeks, so follow us on our community channels to learn when the time for the great clan wars comes again



Btw if you'd like to help us bring RTS League and the fun it offers to the community to the next level and join our team, be sure to message me (careful to replace the addressee line with my nick - Black Adder ) with your ideas and how do you think you could help us improve! Currently we could use a whole range of skill sets from programming to graphics, video editing or League admining, but even text content authoring like round and match reviews or skilled social media management help would be quite welcome. Simply if you want to help and become part of our team, shoot me a message! (careful to replace the addressee line with my nick - Black Adder )

About us:
RTS League is the foremost and longest running "Age of" clan competition ever, with a history of hosting numerous other strategy games (like StarCraft II, Empire Earth, and Dawn of War) in the past. Fun and friendliness are the prominent aspects of RTS League, with the unquestionable prestige and fame the triumph brings to the top finishing clans following close behind.