Red Bull has launched ticket sales for the eighth stage of the Red Bull Wolf 2026 tournament, which heads the legendary Age of Empires series. In honor of the start of the big London cycle, known as the Londinium series of events, the brand has organized themed events in three districts of the city at once — today, December 3.
Schedule of the Red Bull Wolf 2026 tournament in London: dates and venues:
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The group round is scheduled for April 1-3, 2026 and will be held at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Shoreditch.
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The playoffs are scheduled for April 4-5 at the Odeon Luxe Cinema in Leicester Square.
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And the final show, the Grand Finals event, will take place on April 6 at the legendary Royal Albert Hall.
Red Bull Gaming said that Leicester Square, Tower Bridge and Hyde Park have literally turned into medieval decorations today – such a kind of London takeover. Performers dressed as Age of Empires characters appeared on the streets, and passersby could catch a glimpse of the “mini-tournament”, as if they had come to a rehearsal for a big competition that starts in April.
Tickets went on sale today at 13:00 BST, so fans got a chance to watch the playoffs and final showdown live. Those who do not have time to purchase a seat are promised a live broadcast — the match will be shown on the Red Bull Gaming Twitch channel.
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Red Bull Wolf 2026 Format
This year, the best players in the world will compete in two disciplines: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires IV. Both series are divided into three phases — group stages, playoffs and the decisive final.
From April 1 to April 3, the group stage matches will be held at Shoreditch Gaming Sphere. Next, on April 4-5, the participants will meet in the playoffs at the Odeon Luxe venue. And the final battle, the esports final, will open on April 6 under the arches of the Royal Albert Hall. There will also be a live soundtrack: a live orchestra consisting of forty musicians will perform the game’s music in front of more than 25,000 viewers.
In the Age of Empires II discipline, two groups of four players will be formed. There will be a number of positive features and a series of round-robin matches, and then the top four will advance to the relegation playoffs. There is a prize pool of 170,000 dollars (~128,000 pounds) at stake.
In Age of Empires IV, 40,000 dollars (~30,000 pounds) will be raffled off, and the winner will be determined in a 1×1 duel. Open qualifications for both disciplines will start in January 2026, so players still have time to stake out a place among elite strategists.
Fans from all over the world will be able to follow the tournament via Red Bull Gaming broadcasts on Twitch and YouTube — it’s not difficult to miss a single moment now.
The history of the Red Bull Wolf: from the 2020 Online Tournament to the Grand Finals at Castles and Royal Albert Hall
If you look at wololo history, you can see how Red Bull Wololo has grown from an online event in 2020 into a full-fledged esports spectacle with offline scenes in castles and legendary halls. The first titles in Age of Empires II were taken by Mr_Yo, then Liereyy loudly declared himself for several seasons in a row, later TheViper returned to the peak, and already in the era of Red Bull Wolf: Legacy and El Reinado, the trophies were shared by TaToH, Hera and other elite players in different editions of the series.
In fact, the stunning evolution of the tournament shows well how a narrow event for RTS fans turned out to be a landmark for the entire Age of Empires II and Age of Empires IV scenes. The community is already joking about the future “beastsensations aoe2” and the conditional “liooon aoe4” — new heroes who can break into the Red Bull Wolf and rewrite the history of the next grand finals.
Red Bull Wolf 2026 line-up: favorites and surprises of the qualifiers
If we talk about who fans want to see in London, discussions revolve around the conditional “top players wololo” list — those who consistently stay at the top of the rankings and have repeatedly reached the final stages of Red Bull Wololo. In AoE2, they are usually called Hera, TaToH, TheViper, Liereyy, and each of them looked like a favorite at different times. But qualifiers aoe2 will solve a lot, where new guys regularly pop up who can disrupt the established order.
In AoE4, the attention will once again be attracted by reign MarineLorD: he has long been entrenched among the strongest, and it is logical to assume that he is expected to be among the leaders. AoE4 qualifications also rarely go smoothly — from time to time there are players who burst onto the scene without much expectation, and eventually turn out to be real contenders.
If we try to carefully formulate forecasts for the London stage, one thing can be said: the composition will be a mixture of proven masters and those who will break through to the main stage through selection. And this is exactly the case when the favorites of London will not be determined in advance, but after the first matches — momentum in Red Bull Wololo sometimes turns everything around in one game day.
