I was so sick of ranked toxicity that I asked my opponent for "peace only." You won't believe how it ended.
I was honestly completely fed up with ranked. The toxic GGs, the "Ban them, the loser, the low ELO insults, I was just tired of it. It’s a game, you win some, you lose some. But lately, it felt like too much.
In my last ranked match, right at the start, I decided to just type in the chat: "No violence. Only peace."
To my shock, my rival agreed.
We ended up playing for a solid hour. No military. Just trading, building houses, and placing windmills right next to each other. We built multiple Wonders side-by-side. We even let our monks hang out together and gifted relics to one another! It became this incredibly fun build-order where I actually got to recreate a settlement design I used to do back in 2010.
At the end, we collaborated to build the ultimate peace sign out of Palicade on the map.
I don't care much about ELO, so I told them in the chat that I would resign once we got bored. I said my goodbyes. But right as I was about to, they resigned exactly 2 seconds before me. WTH. I am actually mind blown. The true AoE spirit is still alive out there. To whoever that player was: thank you for restoring my faith in this community.