Red Bull AoE Wololo: We got tickets!!

I’m not someone who generally plays a lot of computer games let alone watch them, but my husband had been playing and watching Age of Empires (AOE) for years and in the last few years has got me into watching the occasional games on Twitch and YouTube. The main person he watches is The Viper and has been doing so for many years, even watching him when play the campaign. I have to say, I’ve seen a few of these myself and nothing beats The Viper having to say the introduction himself when it wasn’t done for a while, classic!

We were watching an AoE tournament when an advert came on for the Red Bull Wololo Londinium Worlds Edge which was taking place on Monday 6^th April at The Royal Albert Hall in London and we knew we had to try and get tickets for this. I knew I wasn’t going to understand a lot of what would be happening in the games, but the atmosphere should be really good and worth going. The were a few days we could try and get but we only wanted the final day, not that we knew who was going to be in it. The tickets went on sale on 3^rd December 2025 and we went online to try and got our tickets. The only question now was, what are we going to expect and where would we be sitting as they were selected seats, please be good seats!!

The day came and we headed off to London by train, not knowing what to expect. The travel itself was ok, we had no problems getting to London or using the underground and the 10-15 minute walk from South Kensington tube to The Royal Albert Hall was pleasant. As we approached The Royal Albert Hall we could see people walking around the building, some even wearing Monk costumes which was geeky but cool. I knew then this was going to be good.

As we continued to walk around the outside of the building, we noticed a small group of people queuing and when we looked closely, we noticed that they were waiting to meet The Viper who was outside talking to them. We thought about joining the queue but thought it was too geeky and sad, but little did I know that later I would join the queue to have our pictures taken with him. There was due to be about 3500 people in the venue for this final day, and you could tell it was starting to fill up already and this was a few hours before the start.

We went inside as we wanted to see where we would be seating and to look around the venue. I liked that you could walk around the place like one big circle, there is honestly no chance of getting lost in there. We found our seats, they were in in Rausing Circle V, row 2 seats 75 and 76 and I have to say they were good seats. We had a good view of the stage and could see everything, it was also easy to get out of our seats and back if we needed too.

We decided to go and explore the venue, check out where we could get drinks/food from and there was plenty of places within the venue for this. You could get burgers, chips or even crisps and popcorn and whatever drinks you wanted, alcoholic or soft drinks. I did also notice that there are plenty of toilets which was great but turns out wasn’t need for me (makes a change I know) as this event had mainly males there and they were the ones having to queue and wait for the toilets. Every women is going to understand that this was amazing to see and I couldn’t help but laugh as I walked past all the queues. Finally, now they understand how it feels!

While we were walking around we saw a couple of people talking to someone that looked familiar and when we got close we noticed it was Sabastian, Uruguay. I turned to Tim and said we had to get a picture with him and so we stood there until it was our time to chat to him. We spoke to him about the tournament and then had our picture taken with him. He was a really nice guy and I am grateful for the picture and chat and wish him well for all future tournaments.

After this we decided that we wanted to go exploring outside the venue as there was still an hour or so to go before the games we wanted to watch were due to start. We did land up going to McDonalds and getting some fries (such a British thing to do) and then we headed back for the start of the games. There was the final of AoE4 first but we don’t watch this as it’s very different to AoE2. Saying that, we were in our seats and saw the finalists walk to the stage to begin for AoE4. I’m not the biggest fan on London, I find it too busy for my liking but it was nice walking around and seeing it.

Once we got back to the venue, we noticed that The Viper was still outside talking to fans so I decided to join the queue and see if we could get a picture with him. While we were waiting, we saw Mr Yo and ACCM come by briefly (smoke break probably). We must have been in the queue for about 20-30 minutes before it was our turn to say Hi. We spoke to him about how long we have been watching him (a little joke from him that I’ve only been watching for a few years!) and Tim mentioned that he has been watching him for many years, since his Campaign videos, which he seemed happy about and stated that he hasn’t done that in ages. We then had our pictures taken with him and headed into the venue for the start of the final. He was a really nice, friendly guy and I wish him and his family all the best for the future.

We got a drink each and headed to our seats, the venue was starting to fill up at this point. Then it started, the Sea Shanty was beginning and the atmosphere was heating up. I don’t know how they managed to do it, probably because it’s Red Bull, but they even had a live orchestra playing in the background which was amazing. They played buts throughout the final and even for a Red Bull advert and wow, amazing! Then the two commentators for the final was announced and the crowd went wild for T90 and Dave! I love these guys, they are funny on their own and even funnier together.

Now it was time for the two opponents to enter for the final and first to enter was Hera (Canadian), followed by Liereyy (Austrian). They are teammates for Team Vitality, so they have played with each other many times as well as against each other. This was going to be a good final. Liereyy won the first three games (best of 9) and people were going crazy. He was, although very good at the game, the underdog and people like to see the underdog win. It didn’t take long for Hera to come back though and before we knew it, it was 10pm and we were into the final game of the show at 4-3.

Unfortunately, the map chosen for this game was one that is known for being a longish game and we had to catch our train back home which meant we had to leave 10:30pm. We sat there watching and hoping that the game wouldn’t take as long as predicted and people were cheering left and right but sadly it was now time for us to leave and the game was still in full swing. We left with them only having played 30 minutes of the final game and although we both thought that Hera was going to be victorious, it sucked that we weren’t going to be able to watch it! Hera won!!!

Would I ever do something like this again, yes, I think I would. We will keep an eye out to see when and where the next one is and see if we can get tickets to go. I know that they have held them in castles before which would be nice but even travelling to the next one, wherever it may be within the EU would be exciting and I can’t wait.