I smell a lot of boasting but still, have fun reading:

Strenx on "who he wants to beat at IEM":

I want to beat people who spend their lives playing, those who take it seriously. Then if I do that, I will just prove that it's bullshit to train a lot.

Read it at helloliefje.

I think it's why I'm Cooller because I have something that other players don't have and it's why I'm one of the best. It's what others don't have.

Find out what he has at SK Gaming.

Since a long time already I try to get on their nerves however I can.
They also flame polish people.

A translated extract on ESReality, but the full article in Polish is at Frag eXecutors
(Somebody translate the lot please, as it looks like a funny one too :p )

Sources:

• ESR community
• SK Gaming
• helloliefje
• Frag eXecutors

Post from: Holysh1t.net

Pre World Championship Interviews

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Everybody was allowed to send in questions for the young Belarusian which resulted in some mildly interesting conversation:

How do you turn the tides of a game when the opponent has item-locked you? (Cabelekse)
That depends a bit on my opponent. When you play someone like Av3k, it is very different to get control back then when you play an aimbased player. So either you wait till your opponent makes a timing mistake or like in Av3ks case you need to show extreme patience cause he doesnt make a lot of timing mistakes. You need to get well positioned so you can draw first blood if it comes to a fight or gradually wear his health/armor down.

See Cypher in action at the 2008 Quakecon finals at Quakeunity.com to see what all the fuss is about... or head straight to EUQL.org to read the full Cypher interview.

Post from: Holysh1t.net

EUQL.org Interview with reigning Quake Live champion Cypher

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For those who don't know who either djWHEAT or Slasher are, here's a short introduction:

Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham is a legend in the Quake community. After having shoutcasted some of the biggest and most memorable Quake 3 tournaments in history, djWHEAT went on to work for the Championship Gaming Series. Upon the recent failure of the Championship Gaming Series in November 2008, djWHEAT announced his return to both the Quake scene and his podcast shows Epileptic Gaming & Live On Three at djWHEAT.tv, promising a return to his good old no bullsh1t style of commentating.

Rob "Slasher" Breslau is deeply rooted and well connected in the internet gaming industry. Slasher headed sections of some of the largest gaming websites such as Gotfrag, SK-Gaming and Gameriot. In addition to that, Slasher also makes his presence known as a shoutcaster at some of the biggest Quake events in the world. His most recent appearance being at the 2008 Quakecon finals.

A stream of this episode is embedded below:

Post from: Holysh1t.net

djWHEAT talks with pro-gaming guru Slasher about Quake Live

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In this interview, John and Marty discuss several aspects of Quake Live such as backend infrastructure, their work with mod authors to bring additional features to the game and the hiring of developers from inside the Quake community.

QuakeLive Mod Support

Marty Stratton: We feel like we have a pretty compelling offering with over forty arenas, five of which are completely new for QuakeLive. Most of the good Team Arena content has been included and everything has been given a pretty dramatic facelift. We've taken a lot of the competitive changes for arenas and moved them over to QuakeLive. In most cases, they have been a positive change for both the competitive and new players as far as balancing out item placements and things like that. We've looked at a lot of different ways mod teams have done things. Obviously, Rocket Arena is a pretty big thing and Clan Arena falls into that general category, although slightly different. We didn't want to take anything directly from other mods, but rather include our own offering.  "Moving forward, additional content will depend on how our business model works out and what type of audience we have. The system has been developed to allow us to add new content relatively easily, but a lot of the uniqueness of QuakeLive comes from the fact that we control everything. It's a bit of a tradeoff, but I think we have a nice balance. Hopefully we have a lot of really excited players and the advertising revenue comes in. If that happens, we can keep the team together supporting the game.

Another interesting detail revealed in the interview is the hiring at id software of the Quake 3 CPMA modification programmer Kevin "arQon" Blenkinsopp for the Quake Live project.

The CPMA modification is mostly known for it's wide range of competitive gameplay features and promode gameplay.

You can read the complete interview at QuakeUnity.com.

Post from: Holysh1t.net

Carmack & Stratton Quake Live interview at QuakeUnity.com

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Today's teams up for review are United Kingdom A, Estonia, Finland and Germany.

Earlier I already did a review of both group 1 with the Netherlands, Italy, Poland A and the Czech Republic, group 2 with Portugal, Spain, Lithuania and France and group 3 with Sweden, Belgium, Poland B and Hungary.

Today's overview will be a rather one sided overview, focusing mainly on the UK. For this I apologize in advance . The other Nation captains were unfortunately unavailable for any questions.

Group 4 Teams:

1. United Kingdom A: Disrepute, Darknox, ddk, deus, fragma, nvc, raw, rax, vor
2. Estonia: Easr, Edgar, r3vers, renx, karm, freeZe, fabio, Luda, ekemon, LucifeR, sceery, woosh, ratgot
3. Finland: frs, LuGia, Dimmo, 2feel, wit, Damiah, Danskie, torimaaa
4. Germany: doz3r, Jade, dk, frame, hgk, xtro, Jilted, flabber, immortal.

The two teams who we should be keeping an eye on in group 4 are both Germany and the UK. These two teams are by far the biggest favorites to advance to the play offs in March.

United Kingdom

The UK captain Disrepute [interview] held some very extensive trials to find the right players to compete in the Quake Live Nations cup:

Disrepute: I was already the Quake 3 TDM captain from the last Nations Cup (and am again incidentally) so the role was pretty much given to me by default as I am active in Quake Live, plus nobody else actually wanted the job so there was no election as such. I have lots of experience in similar roles over the years so it is nothing new to me and my main focus was to try and open it up as much as I possibly could to the wider UK QL scene and give everybody the chance to trial.

We already had a number of UK players from the Q3 scene such as deus, ddk, rax that were already experienced and regarded as highly skilled so they were involved right away. However I felt it would be unfair to select players on the past alone, so rather hastily we set up a couple of trials for any player to enter and fight for their spot in the squad. Over 20 people turned out and deus and I selected 8 for the A squad. The actual talent on show and commitment to playing was impressive enough that we decided to form a B squad which would have the long term goal of giving those players we didn’t select (mostly based on lack of experience) the chance to train with the A squad, learning from our best and eventually work their way up to the A squad.

The eventual 8 that were selected were mostly experienced in other quakes which is inevitable given that it’s a limited beta, but some have no experience of national team play so we are also developing players in the A squad as well as the B.

It goes without saying Quake Live is very popular in the UK:

Disrepute: Our national scene in quake is probably a similar level to most nations. Not as active as say the Czechs with their LANs and community sites and such but there are enough active players so that you wouldn’t call it dead. Most of the Q3 scene has either quit or moved to QL though so really it’s all in this new title that we place our hope. A lot of old school Q3 players are returning for Quake Live so it looks like we could have a very active scene again, and I am doing my best to organise these national teams fairly and keep people playing and enjoying the game. We also have other ideas in mind to boost the UK scene.

The UK team played 2 matches in the group fase so far, winning both of them and losing no maps:

UK (W) vs Estonia:

• Map 1 (dm6): 147:81 (UK wins)
• Map 2 (dm14): 117:56 (UK wins)

UK (W) vs Finland:

• Map 1 (dm7): 147:81 (UK wins)
• Map 2 (dm14): 145:102 (UK wins)

Germany

The second team that's expected to advance to the playoffs is Germany. The German team has a lot of experience playing Quake 3 Nation cups in the past and players such as xtro, hga and dk will make Germany a very hard nut to crack.

Disrepute: Our group should be simple enough to qualify from. Having already beaten Estonia and being heavy favourites to beat Finland (a team we already beat in practice) it is looking like a showdown for the group number 1 spot between us and the Germans. They like always in Quake are one of the stronger nations and it is too early to call that match, but expect us to put out our best team and hold nothing back.

So far Germany played only one match against Finland, beating them in two maps:

Germany (W) vs Finland:

• Map 1 (dm14): 75:52 (Germany wins)
• Map 2 (dm14): 151:82 (Germany wins)

That's all there is for the group 4 review. Thanks again to all the captains who send me their interview answers and again, my apologies for the one-sidedness of this overview! All the info and links about the 2009 Quake Live Nation cup event can be found on our Quake Live Nations Cup page, including all the other group reviews.

Post from: Holysh1t.net

Quake.cz Quake Live TDM Nations Cup 2009: Group 4 Overview (UK, DE, FIN & EST)

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Today's teams up for review are Sweden, Belgium, Hungary and Poland B.

Earlier I already did a review of both group 1 with the Netherlands, Italy, Poland A and the Czech Republic and group 2 with Portugal, Spain, Lithuania and France.

Group 3 Teams:

1. Sweden: azmo, doj, Spart1e, PURRI, proZaC, pow3rdani
2. Belgium: impulse, VeRTeX, KingpiN, shot
3. Hungary: Smoggii, dark, SectoR, Gandhi
4. Poland B: Mad, Mav, 1o1, Blanka, eryk, liha

Team Sweden

Sweden is definitely the team to beat in this Nations cup. If it weren't for the fact Sweden won many Quake 3 Nation cups in the past, then it's definitely because they got some kick-ass players in their line up.

Spart1e is currently one of the top Quake 3 duellers in the world, having recently placed second in the ESWC Athens event. proZaC, from the many achievements over the past decade, won Eurocup 5 with the Swedish team the p1mps in 2002 when quake 3 was still very popular. Then there is PURRI [interview] who is probably one of the best, if not the best Quake 2 player [video] of all time, in 2005 winning the Quakecon Quake 2 retro [video] tournament.

The other players representing team Sweden, such as pow3rdani, azmo, hazter and doj, bare the burden of playing in the shadow of these giants. Yet they are nothing short of talent as well.

Even though the Swedish team doesn't seem to find time to practice, the odds are great for them to reach first place in this group.

Azmo: As a team we haven't really played together, and I doubt we will play any practice games in the near future, it's just too much of a hassle to get the team ready and find a server with 2 benevolent spectators and so on. Still, the biggest problem is probably time, people are busy, personally I'm pretty preoccupied with the upcoming birth of my first child, so now you know why if I were to leave midgame .

So far Sweden has played only one match against Hungary, which they won in two maps:

Sweden (W) vs Hungary:

• Map 1 (dm6): 160:100 (Sweden wins)
• Map 2 (dm7): 168:122 (Sweden wins)

Team Belgium

It seems Belgium has managed to get quite a nice line up together for this Quake Live Nations cup. While at first it seemed there wasn't going to be any Belgian team at all, Impulse decided to take the initiative and contact some old school talent.

Both Impulse and VeRTeX are dinosaurs in the Belgian Quake 3 scene, having represented this tiny country on numerous occasions and still playing the game on a regular basis.

On the other side of the Belgian team, however, we find two players, KingpiN and Shot, who are what I very nicely refer to as "a bit less active". An anecdote that illustrates their recent interest in Quake Live quite nicely was KingpiN asking during the warm up period of the Pol B vs BE match, how to open the Quake Live console. "GG!", I tought.

Impulse: KingpiN and shot haven't played Quake Live yet so it will be fun to see how they will adapt.

But do not underestimate this team. Even though half of them are not playing Quake at all, these players know each others game very well and have plenty previous TDM experience, playing and winning against some of the best teams in the world.

Impulse: We've played a lot before in Quake3/4 so yeah the team play should be good. If we get our aim going I can see ourselves reaching the semi finals at least.

Belgium has only played one match so far against Poland B. Fragster.de users had predicted a 97% chance of Poland B winning vs Belgium. Obviously they were misinformed since the final score ended up being:

• Map 1 (dm7): 124:106 (Belgium wins)
• Map 2 (dm14): 98:54 (Belgium wins)

Clearly, even though very inactive, you cannot underestimate this team.

Holysh1t.net: What are your thoughts about the other teams in your group?
Impulse: I think we can beat everyone including Sweden if we get our aim going.

Holysh1t.net: Are there any countries you consider as a serious threat?
Impulse: Not really no.

Holysh1t.net: Any final thoughts about the Nations cup?
Impulse: It's great to be able to play with our team again. We will probably be very rusty but once we oil our engine we should be a force to be reckoned with.

Team Hungary

Hungary is known for its strong Quake 3 TDM squad with players such as dash and mdn leading the team to victory more often than not.

Yet it seems that the Hungarian superstars have sit out this Quake Live Nations cup and left other players the opportunity to represent their country, such as Smoggii, dark, SectoR and Gandhi.

Regardless of the lack of interest in Quake Live from the general Hungarian quake community, they still have a more than decent line up, capable of giving every team in group 3 a decent sweat.

My attention in the group mainly goes out to the Belgium vs Hungary match because both teams seem to perform very equally and because I think this match will be very decisive for the overal outcome in the group. It's my prediction these two teams will be fighting over the second place.

Yet I wouldn't really want to bet any money on it either. Poland B is practicing very often and they have a strong team as well. Even though Poland has lost their first match against Belgium, many things are still possible.

Team Poland B

This is the second Polish team that's participating in the Nations cup. Because there were 17 teams and only 16 spots available, Poland B had to play a match against UK B to qualify. Boy oh boy how exciting was this confrontation!

Not only was the first map decided by a sudden death overtime, also the last map ended up being a sudden death overtime where a team kill in the UK B team resulted in a victory and qualification for Poland B.

Poland B seems to have found a lot of time to practice together. However, considering how tough their group is and the fact they already lost a game against Belgium, I would see them having a very hard time making the playoffs.

Mad: We feel very confident we have beaten UK B! Hehe . To be honest, we aint confident at all because of the rotation in our line up, ping and the overall whine in the team . If we would be lucky just like in game vs UK B we could maybe even get out from the group stage. I'm pretty sure that Sweden is going to beat us and I hope we gonna have tough games vs other opponents .

Again, thanks to the captain(s) who send me their interview answers! For an overview of the last remaining group, check back here at holysh1t.net in the next few days. You can subscribe by mail or RSS to receive the news delivered by Google in your mailbox as soon as there’s an update. All the info and links about the event can be found on our Quake Live Nations Cup page.

Post from: Holysh1t.net

Quake.cz Quake Live TDM Nations Cup 2009: Group 3 Overview (HUN, SWE, BEL & POL B)

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Today's teams up for review are Spain, Portugal, France and Lithuania. It'll be a bit shorter than the previous overview, but It'll have to do.

Earlier I already did a review of group 1 with the Netherlands, Italy, Poland B and the Czech Republic.

Group 2 Teams:

1. Portugal: eden, holy, x1nador, exter, stratos, syz, sLiCeRpt, plim
2. Spain: SuPRiMo, Dabra, Centinela, DosCAras, Sl1p, pizo, Allter
3. Lithuania: Guard, DM, Fndz, Str4fe, H1T, fire_bot
4. France: eki22, l1nkje, Kirua, unity, strenx, slx, AppleSeed, mitch

Team Portugal

Portugal is the team that will most likely take the second place in this group. Even though Portugal hasn't participated in any Nations cup for a long time, captain Eden managed to gather a set of skilled players who are motivated to give the old dinosaurs such as France a good fight worth their money.

Eden: I can say we were always motivated but the expectations about our team weren´t really high. We are far from being good compared to most of the teams of the event, but we will train hard to give them all a good fight and our main objective for now is to get into the playoffs.

Portugal has already beaten Spain in an exciting confrontation that lasted 3 maps. Portugal considered their match against Spain the most important of all if they wanted to make it to the playoffs:

Eden: Spain was our biggest threat, but it's over passed since the first week matches. At this moment our only threat is Lithuania. We need to win them so we can enter in the playoffs.  The sooner the better as France is going for the first place of our group.

Spain vs Portugal (W):

• Map 1 (dm6): 124:133 (Portugal wins)
• Map 2 (dm6): 147:135 (Spain wins)
• Map 3 (dm7): 90:146 (Protugal wins)

However, since the time Eden sent me this interview, Portugal has already won 2 out of the 3 matches in their group fase against both Spain and Lithuania.

Considering France is the huge favorite to win Group 1, Portugal was really just duking it out between Lithuania and Spain. Unless France suddenly drops the ball hard in one of their next few games, Portugal can pretty safely say they've made it to the playoffs.

Portugal (W) vs Lithuania:

• Map 1 (dm6): 158:111 (Portugal wins)
• Map 2 (dm7): 125:86 (Portugal wins)

On a side note, it's always good to hear that Quake Live is reviving Quake communities everywhere:

Eden: As I said, due to being so small the Portugese community isn't organized or anything. We just know all each other very well and I think most of the Portugese quake community is playing Quake Live already.

Team Spain

Spain's line up for the Quake Live Nations Cup is nearly the exact same team playing the Quake 3 TDM Nations cup. From the matches Spain has played so far in the Quake 3 Nations cup, they lost all maps.

Here are the match results from the games Spain played in the Quake 3 TDM Nations cup in which they lost all maps (against Netherlands, Poland and Hungary), with nearly the exact same lineup as in the Quake Live TDM Nationscup:

[Show as slideshow]

Unfortunately captain SuPRiMo wasn't available for any more questions. But I'm sure he'd tell me the Spanish Quake community is still very active in both Quake 3 and Quake Live.

Team Lithuania

Little was I able to find about team Lithuania. I probably wasn't looking hard enough, but who gives! Bare with me as I quickly spew the little I know about the Lithuanian's participation in the Quake Live Nationscup.

Lithuania has some very strong duellers such as Guard and Fire_bot, both playing this Nations cup. I'm sure they are able to hold their own in TDM as well.

Nonetheless, Lithuania has lost 2 out of 3 confrontations already in the group fase, against both France and Portugal, and it's looking like they'll be making an early exit from the Event together with Spain.

Something more about the Lithuanian Quake Community:

Str4fe: There's not that many good Quakers left in Lithuania. Maybe 10 normal skill players and 50 CA lovers. It's mostly the "lithuania nations cup team" that's playing Quake Live though, the rest are still playing Quake 3.

Team France

The French team has with no doubt the strongest line up of all teams in group 2.

Strenx probably has the most solid aim in Europe and recently came second in the 2008 Dreamhack 1v1 Quake 3 competition. Unity, L1nkin and Slx are part of Miel Gaming which is currently most likely the strongest Quake Live team in Europe. Needless to say, the other players such as Kirua and Mitch are a force on their own as well.

Team France has a very strong and experienced line up and is playing for nothing less but the win. They'll meet some tough competition and they might not get there in the end... but whoever comes in their way will sure as hell have known it.

Only one match played by France in the Quake Live Nations cup so far:

France (W) vs Lithuania:

• Map 1 (dm6): ???:??? (France wins)
• Map 2 (dm7): ???:??? (France wins)

Nonetheless, France will most likely win all the group fase matches with their current line up. The only real flaw in the French Team is the lack of motivation or time to organize practice games. They might make it far in the Event and give plenty of teams a hard time,... but in the end a more prepared team like UK or Sweden will probably take the victory in the end.

Again, thanks to the captain(s) who send me their interview answers! For an overview of the other 2 remaining groups, check back here at holysh1t.net in the next few days. I know that matches are already being played, but better late than never! You can subscribe by mail or RSS to receive the news delivered by Google in your mailbox as soon as there’s an update. All the info and links about the event can be found on our Quake Live Nations Cup page.

Post from: Holysh1t.net

Quake.cz Quake Live TDM Nations Cup 2009: Group 2 Overview (ESP, PORT, FRA & LIT)

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For those of you who don't know what the AGP Tour exactly is,... don't worry, you're not alone. About a year ago the organizer Jarod Reisin announced the AGP Tour would organize tournaments for several 1v1 games, such as UT, Q4 and Q3 as well as cover them in a way that's not been done before.

Yet as soon as this news was released, the whole project just seemed to pretty much fall flat on it's butt. Today however it seems they are renewing this dream, yet now exclusively for Quake Live duels.

Which features are you planning to release for the actual tour?
Jarod: Details on the upcoming tour I can give are small. I can tell you one thing: We plan on using Quake Live only.

So you put all your efforts into a game which is still being developed. What if it won't be released at the end of the year?
Jarod: We will use Quake 3 if it is not ready or useable. But it will be (smiles). Also, I would like to apologize to the communities if I may: It is for earlier in 2008, mentioning we would use four games. I jumped the gun on that and would have loved for that to be possible. But it seems that it would have been very complicated in many areas to do such a thing. I personally apologize for that. In the future, as we grow, we would like to open up new tours supporting other games, so anything is possible. But for now, the AGP Tour is Quake3/Live only.

Very interesting as well will be the new AGPtour.com's "Classics section":

Also, a big feature will be our "Classics" section where we have all major Quake 3 tournaments since they began and will slowly have videos of all the matches (that we can get demos for). Right now our Classics section will cover Quake 3 1v1 and later on other modes like TDM and CTF as well.

Always nice to see events like AGP tour having faith in this upcoming game, Quake Live. You can read the full interview with the AGP tour organizer Jarod Reisin at fragster.de.

You can join the AGP Tour on IRC at #AGPTour on quakenet.

Post from: Holysh1t.net

AGP tour plans on being Quake Live only

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We have entered week 2 of the Nationscup and some matches have already been played. You could say this preview comes a bit slow, but better late than never! The actual end of the group fase should only be in March anyway.

Let's first take a look at which players each country in group 1 has in their lineups.

Group 1 Teams:

1. Netherlands: draven, Silencep, tua, Weird, maddog, Xhep, blad3, forever
2. Poland A: Nergal, destiny, v3rb, baal, Invers, mess
3. Czech Quake: Dloob, Lahire, myN, ra1n, Hawr1x, Aim
4. Italy: Stermy, booms, polter, exp, Spartaz0rd, Manuxz, Turbo, mik

Team Netherlands

To form a team draven had little problem getting people excited. He's glad to see that the Dutch Quake Community is becoming more active again since the start of the Quake Live beta, with both new blood and old schools giving the game a try.

Draven: I am in both Q3tdm and QLive captain, in Q3 it was harder to find players for the nation teams, cause there not that many Dutch q3tdmers. In QL it's easier because many Dutch players started to play and come back from having quite Quake 3. We have  a mix of old school players and new schools.

The Dutch lineup consists of both old school talents such as Maddog, Xhep and Weird, but also relatively new blood like Silencep. Other talent, such as tua and Blad3, were recruited from the Dutch Capture The Flag division. They are probably a bit less experienced in TDM, yet still a strong addition to the Dutch lineup.

Although the Dutch team does not have an all star lineup like back in the day with the likes of Lucky, Shaft, if22, SICK, etc... they do have a very solid team that has plentiful previous experience playing together in Nation cups. In my opinion the Dutch team is a serious contender to reach at least the semi-finals.

Draven: I think we can beat every team in our group, though you can never underestimate Poland and Czech cause they have loads of Quake players unlike us , also Stermy and co look strong and have been practicing here and there.

On a side note, just recently zeroQL from Han-Sai Production made a frag compilation video about the dutch TDM'er Silencep, called fragged by Silencep. Definitely worth the watch.

Team Poland A

Quake seems to be very popular in Poland these days. Unlike most nations, Poland put up two teams for competition. There's the Poland B team with Mad as the captain and a Poland A team where Nergal takes the lead.

Even so, according to Nergal, most people in the Polish quake community are still mainly focused on Quake 3 instead of Quake Live:

Nergal: In Poland quake live is pretty popular, community is forming up quite well. About Polish quake 3 players, actually in Poland the "Polish division" league is about to start, so I think the Polish quake 3 players transfer to Quake Live will be a bit delayed

About Poland's A's chances  in group 1... Poland A will probably do good against the Czech Team. Against the Italians and the Dutch however, the odds of winning are estimated to be far less optimistic.

Nergal: In my opinion our group is a really hard one. Italy and Netherlands are really strong teams. The game vs Czech Republic should be a bit easier though. To be honest I cannot understand the actual seedings. In the 2nd group there is one really strong team and three weaker, comparing to our group it seems to be noticeably easier. After 2nd ballot administrators manipulated with seedings, if it comes to that all ballot had to be repeated. What gives some teams the privilege of being favoured?

Nonetheless, team Poland A seems to have a strong lineup. Italy and the Netherlands should not underestimate this team or they will be in for a surprise.

Team Czech Quake

The Czech Republic Quake community currently has some of the best European Team Death Match players out there. From the Total Annihilation team several names such as Krysa, Smasher and Legie come to mind.

Unfortunately, almost none of these players decided to take part in the Quake Live Nations Cup. Team Annihilation who played the finals of the 2008 Quake 3 Nations Cup against Sweden decided to sit this one out and let other Czech players come up with a mix team.

From the current Czech Quake Live lineup especially dloob is a force to be reckoned with. The other players however are not really considered as a huge thread. The Czech Quake community has definitely not put up their strongest lineup for this competition and I expect them to be playing for nothing more but the fun of it.

These predictions were only confirmed last week when the first week matches of Group 1 were played. Team Czech Quake lost against Italy with scores that speak for themselves:

• Map 1 (dm6): 54:135 (Italy wins)
• Map 2 (dm6): 47:173 (Italy wins)

But this is not such a bad thing really. Hawr1x, the Quake Live Nations Cup organizer could use an early knockout. He'll be way too busy shout casting and covering all the other games already!

Team Italy

In Italy it was Stermy who took up his role as a captain. Until recently Stermy was mainly focused on Fifa, appearing several times even on Eurosport for the Championship Gaming Series.

Luckily Stermy came to his senses just in time to make his comeback to Quake and represent team Italy with pride, in the first ever Quake Live Nations Cup.

To form a strong Italian team for the Quake Live Nations Cup Stermy went looking for both old friends and new talent:

Stermy: I have been playing QuakeLive somewhat regularly since November, and I saw a lot of Italian players playing from time to time, some new upcoming gamers and also some old friends.  (...)

I decided to call Polter and Booms because they stopped playing just a few years ago and I was sure they would have loved to get some competition going once again. At the end of the day they have a good amount of experience behind them, so if I wanted to get a competing team I needed those players in the team. Then I called a lot of young talented gamers such as exp, Manuxz and Spartaz0rd. They have been really active lately in the QuakeLive scene and Quake3 (exp), and I thought they definitely deserved a good spot in the team.

It's not all about who plays, but also to give younger players some kind of motivation to keep playing and get better, something I had once I started playing Quake3. One day they will be playing these cups instead of us and at the moment the Quake/FPS scene in Italy is not growing so well.

The team Stermy finally came up with is nothing short of a strong unit. Nearly every single name in the lineup is a force on his own and I personally see this team going very far in the tournament.

But Stermy stays rather modest about Italy's chances and recognizes they'll have to battle for nearly every point, even in the group fase:

Stermy: Man, I would love to say I hope to score easy points against every team but we both know that is not possible. I think a lot of the players now have enough experience to compete at a decent level. Also I haven’t competed in Quake3 for a long time, but in Quake Live it seems like almost anyone can hit +50% rail and +35% shaft nowadays, so things are getting a bit more difficult for everybody. You add a 15 second weapon respawn time, and you will have a really tough time any time of the match no matter what. (...) I haven’t been following the TDM scene in Quake 3 for some time and I know a lot of players just switched to QL so we can`t underestimate any opponent.

I would again like to thank all captains for answering my questions. For an overview of the other 3 groups, check back here at holysh1t.net in the next few days. You can subscribe by mail or RSS to receive the news delivered by Google in your mailbox as soon as there’s an update. All the info about the Event can be found on our Quake Live Nations Cup overview page.

Post from: Holysh1t.net

Quake.cz Quake Live TDM Nations Cup 2009: Group 1 Overview (CZ, NL, POL A & ITA)

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Frag Dominant: What is it exactly about Quake Live that leads you to believe that it will develop into something more than what we have right now?

Destrukt: In the way of tournaments/events etc

Destrukt: Well for one it is browser based. For two it's free. Three the game play is absolutely amazing. It is fast paced, smooth, crisp, and the netcode is very good too. It is just simply a recreation of a game with input from the community for the most part.

Full articles:
Brian 'DKT' Flander
Chance 'chance' Lacina
Shane 'Rapha' Hendrixson

Post from: Holysh1t.net

Triple Quake Interview at Frag Dominant

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