Conquerors tournament update

Microsoft has announced more details about the upcoming final round in its Age of Empires II: The Conquerors International Tournament. The finals will take place on Wednesday, November 7, in Redmond, Wash. It will feature 16 finalists competing for a total prize pool of close to $100,000, including a $50,000 grand prize.

The tournament will use a single-elimination bracket with opponents determined by random drawing. Each match will be played using Microsoft's popular real-time strategy game add-on Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion with the following settings:

Map Style: Standard
Location: Archipelago (first round), Arabia (quarterfinals), Mediterranean (semifinals), Highland (finals)
Resources: Low
Difficulty: Standard
Population Limit: 200
Starting Age: Dark Age
Victory Condition: Standard
Map Size: Tiny
Reveal Map: Normal
Game Speed: Normal
Lock Teams: Enable
Cheats: Disable
All Tech: Disable
Record Game: Enable

Live play-by-play commentary for the tournament will be provided by several of the game's developers in Microsoft's Zone Theater chat room on November 7 from 12pm to 3pm PT.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion was developed by Ensemble Studios, the studio that created the previous Age of Empires games. For more information, take a look at our full reviews of the Conquerors expansion and Conquerors expansion .