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Introduction

I was 10 years old when I played an id Software game for the first time. It was the time when my oldest brother and his friends would skip school to come home and play Doom. I would sit next to them and watch, possibly even more excited than they were. The game was so fresh, beautiful and scaring at the same time. And I was there, feeling as cool as a kid could ever feel, as I was sharing those precious moments with my 18 years old brother and his friends. At the age of 12 I created my first WAD using the Doom Construction Kit. I spent hours making horrible levels with invisible poison in the center of the rooms and where one would have to hit every single shot in order to kill all the monsters. At the time I was a regular kid, going to the secondary school, but I would know by hearth all multiples of 8 up to 384, as I would not realize there were automatic tools to create stairs. I was 13 when during the Christmas vacation, with the snow outside and a warm fireplace as main source of heat for our old house, we got a second computer at home. The real deal was that, we could hook the two PC up with a direct link cable enabling Doom deathmatch and coop modes. That was the most awesome gaming experience I could think of. I would quickly learn that, despite being the youngest of all my brothers, in that game I could beat them all.



Coming to Quakecon 2012, I realized how much of my life has been influenced by id Software's games. If doom has definitely branded me with fire as a child, Quake has more and more become a central part of my life today. The list of memories that have rose to the surface these past few days could go on forever. And it's not just my memories, but the one of all who came to this event, some of them for the x-th time, people who grew up playing id's games, modding them, discussing and sharing experience about them.

What is Quakecon?

The first thing I learned about Quakecon is that this is not an id Software's event. I've been to some events, like the IEM ones, where the brand behind the event is clearly pushing the organization to get a certain visibility and standards to promote itself. If you come to Quakecon, the only thing you see promoted is Quakecon itself, plus a number of minor things. Of course, id Software is a big guest and sponsor, its characters playing key roles throughout the event. However, Quakecon is conceived, made, and run by a group of people that volunteer because they want to be part of Quakecon. This has a number of implications.



First, for many of these people Quakecon has become the chance to see a special group of friends. Working hard with someone - some of these people work really hard - and reaching a common goal is one of the best way to bind with somebody. If you approached the volunteers, talked with them, and listened as they spoke with each other, this observation comes very natural. People travel together, work together, hang out together. Today, after the event would close, I saw so many friends saying each other goodbye, and that's something that cannot leave one's heart untouched.

Second, as it always happens with volunteers run events, competence is welcome, but dedication and passion are the true essence of the staff. In a purely pragmatic view, this is suboptimal and may create inconveniences. If you think in terms of business, an employer usually tries to find the best employees possible, and may fire an employee if certain professional standards are not met. In a volunteer setting, however, replacing somebody is harder. On the one hand, it is less granted that someone else who is better at that job can be found, and on the other hand, one has to deal with the problem of telling to someone who did his or her best (asking nothing in return) to move on as the performance is not good enough.

The result is that instead of a perfectly oiled mechanism of cold steel, a group of volunteers forms a colorful tribe where the value is not just in the work that gets done, but also in the people who do it.


(Photo by Owen "O1kenobi" Long)

The controversy

While I won't iterate over the extensively discussed stream issues (I think this thread is a good summary of people feeling about the event as it was perceived from home), a topic that is worth exploring is what the priorities of Quakecon are, and as a consequence how much we - as ESR home viewer - count for such an event.

I can fairly say that the primary goal of Quakecon is to care about the people who show up to the event. The players are part of them. If you were to come here and check, you would see that the tournaments are run pretty smoothly, and the admins are very accommodating, even when players show up late and so on. Care is taken of the general public as well. While throwing t-shirts and gadgets and asking people to swing bananas onto oranges may not exactly be the highest expression of human intelligence, it works at entertaining the general public. Giving out a 60k car to a lucky winner goes along the lines. Online, the general audience comes also first. That is why, given the presence of a single stream, a keynote is preferred over some tournament matches.



For all these points, there are problems associated that hit us directly in the face. And of course, there are possible solutions. Dreamhack's admins have often done an impeccable job, with tournaments that would run smoothly both for the players and the viewers. Using multiple streams would allow to avoid conflicts, and with some careful planning, one could create a stream for the hardcore guys where Quake and only Quake is shown, and a general one for all the rest, where if one wants to see swinging bananas, a technical keynote, and a tournament final, he or she is welcome to stay tuned.

The real question is how can this happen. And the answer is simple: it's all about the people stepping up. Whining brings nothing, as in the eyes of the volunteers who spend a lot of energy into Quakecon, we count zero. A catch phrase could be "Quakecon owes us nothing". What can be done however is for the NA scene to step up and say "next Quakecon I will be there as volunteer and will try to do things right". Of course one will have to work with the people who are already in, and possibly convince them of the importance of certain things, but my experience is that dedication and initiative - although not coming for free - can open many doors.

The path of Sam



This event was special for me personally because for the first time I planned to practice seriously and try my best in the open cup. This exposed me to all sorts of new experiences. I realized how hard this actually is. While indeed I played more than I usually do, this was far from the "full immersion" I was hoping for. I learned that - at least with my job - one cannot really take vacation without actually going away from home. I learned that finding opponents is not necessarily easy depending on what maps you want to play. I realized how little stamina I have to keep practicing for multiple hours, and how important it is to just play when your mind is fresh and rested. In the end I probably put together a couple of days of intense practice, out of the three weeks I was home, finishing my thesis and supposedly train to become the next pony-tailed hero, after Guybrush Threepwood and Noctis.



Here I want to be totally honest with you, even if I am far from proud of what happened. The thing is, you may have a laugh, or even benefit from my failure.

I've played many times in LAN, and it has always been awesome. The game is just a much better game in LAN. For the first time though, I arrived at the event, I set up my stuff, and found out I was playing horribly. Originally I thought it was because of the 60hz monitors in the open tournament, but retrospectively, I think it all came down to my nerves. I played a first practice game and lost without being able to time a single item, running around an hitting 20 percent shaft, and missing all my rails. I felt I was the most horrible Quaker on the planet.

The opportunity of playing the master came out (they needed a replacement) and I grabbed it as a life vest in the middle of the ocean. I wanted the 120hz monitors, I wanted to sit with the people I knew, but most of all, I wanted to get my peace of mind back. And I knew that playing in the master, with no chance to do anything, would give me that. While it worked - I could finally execute things right in game - I think this was my first LAN failure. The tournament itself counts to some degree, but what I was really interested was to see how well I could handle my emotions. And well, trying to go serious (as silly as it sounds, considering it was an amateur tournament) crushed me.



The Tournaments

LANs are just better when team modes are involved. A wider spectrum of players is present, creating quite some variety in the otherwise static hierarchy of duelers. The nature of playing in team brings emotions out from the start, as one has to communicate to play effectively and is keen to share the joy of a victory after the match. This helps breaking the ice with the rest of the participants and improves the overall atmosphere. As spectator, I found myself enjoying CTF quite a lot, probably more than I would have with TDM. The flags just give that clear top-level perspective to base the story of the game, with powerups, weapons, and roles as interesting elements added to the equation, highlighted every now and then.

Duel remains incredible for the emotional connection to the two players. Despite the little European attendance, I really enjoyed the tournament. The highlights have definitely been the semi-finals on Thursday and the Grand Final on Saturday.



The semis were played late in the evening, after the rest of the area was closed and silent. It totally reminded me of the Rapha-Cooller group match at IEM4 in Hannover. There is just something magical in watching such games. The dim lights, the total silence, a small dedicated crowd gathered around the players PCs, all eyes looking at the monitors.



The finals on stage were quite a surprise. At previous events I would always have the feeling that most people in the crowd were there not just for other games, but for totally different types of games. Their appreciation for a fast FPS like quake would then be quite limited. The impression here was that people would have actually played FPS at some point of their life, and in quite some cases that would be Quake. The result was something I've never seen before. This is what Quake finals should always be.



Conclusion

There are a few take home message from this trip.

The first is that Quake is freaking hard. I was watching the duel open finals, and thinking to myself "these guys play better than I do - I know as I lost a few practice games against them - and yet I see so many mistakes". This was quite interesting because I'm mostly used to watch the pros, who not only do very few mistakes, but have such an awareness in game that the advantage of being an omniscient spectator is sometimes negligible.This however is positive. It means that - at lower skill levels - the path to improve is right there to be seen, if someone is willing to take it.

The second is that what matters in the end is the people. On paper this trip would be a bad deal. It did cost me quite some money, I was annihilated in the master tournament, and I did not reach the goals I set to myself before going. Yet, the people I met, the time I spent with them, and the things I learned, made this one of the best events I've been to.



Going forward, a big question is what is going to happen next. I'm not so much worried about QL online - at least in EU - as I think that organizing weekly cups with some highlights every couple of months is not outside the reach of our community. I'm very curious about the Adroits LAN, to understand if that type of LAN is viable, and whether we can move toward having more events like that.

As for big events, with enough money to get the pros flying oversea, the engine has definitely slowed down. Quake however has shown many times that the game has an unbreakable nature. Many years have past since Zero4 and czm were at their peak, and yet they were both here at this Quakecon and competed in the master. Who knows what will happen when the next burst of esport is injected in our beloved game.

Link: Gallery

Hello,

this article describes how to create visualizations for the recently released Uber 2D Demo Viewer.

Introduction

This is still an evolving process, and the current solution involves quite some manual work. You need to be a bit techie and be familiar with different tools (3D modeling/rendering, Photoshop, Radiant).

Process

1. The first step is to generate a 2D rendering or illustration of a map. On this article, I described a process to extract Quake Live maps.

Once you get the 3D model out, the tricky part starts. Ideally you would like to remove any surface whose normal is pointing downward. This is however not enough. Maps have tons of "hidden polygons" outside the reachable walls, and all those contribute in screwing up visualizations.


Once you created a 2D image, you need to save it as PNG with the name of the map, and place it in the "..\U2DDV_v0.1\data\maps" folder.

2. The second part is to create a simple text file that includes the boundaries of your visualizations in Quake coordinates.

This process requires you to have q3radiant (or gtk-, or net-) installed, as well as the .map file for the arena you are working on. You should have the converted .map if you did step 1 using the QL Map Converter, as proposed in the article above.

Done manually this process may be quite annoying, as it all depends on how much margin you have left around the map in your visualization. In the readme file in "..\U2DDV_v0.1\data\maps" you find a dirty hack on how do this.

To make the process simpler, I coded a simple Map Ruler (thanks myT for hosting). The process on how to use this is below.


3. If you have done everything correctly, your "..\U2DDV_v0.1\data\maps" folder should now contain "yourmap.png" and "yourmap.txt". Whenever the demo viewer recognizes "yourmap" being played, it will load your visualizations. If you have made mistakes in the formatting of the .txt file, the log window should complain.

Good luck!

Memento_Mori and myT are proud to release the first version of the Uber 2D Demo Viewer (U2DDV). This program allows you to visualize Quake Live and Quake 3 demos from a top-down perspective for analysis and quick demo preview.






Link: Project Page ~ Screenshots: Duel, TDM ~ Download: Win, Linux

A couple of months after the first rumors about the game, James "2GD" Harding has made a tweet that seals the deal:

Reborn is going to happen!

You can listen to 2GD describing the project on YouTube.

Links: Forum discusson, 2GD reply.

Hi Luke, tell us about yourself in real life?

Hey! My names Luke, I live in Dublin, Ireland and I`m 16 years old. I`m currently on my summer holidays but I shall be going into my 2nd last year of highschool in september.

You`re one of the youngest Quakers in the scene. When did you start playing Quake, and in particular duel?

I started playing Quake around this time of the year in 2009. I only played duel because at the time I found it hard to find a CTF team and TDM wasn`t very active (or I wasn`t in touch with it) so I found it easiest for me to play duel as I only needed myself and an opponent to play.

Your father traveled to dreamhack with you. How has that trip influenced his view on the game? Did you discuss about Quake after you came back home?

My dad is beginning to understand how quake works. We discussed the main problem with Quake LANs is that players after receive any prize money so they have no real motivation to come other than to socialise at the events.

Did you watch the demos of your match against weird? Did you learn something from it?

I have tried to watch my demos, yes, but it isn`t easy! I`ve mainly watched the Aerowalk game and the main mistake I made was that I paniced, I`ve done this plenty of times versus players and I never seem to learn from it. Take for example last weeks zotac, I had p0ni in the first round. We were playing on ZTN and the score was 4-4 with 5 minutes remaining and I had just ended a fight coming out as the obvious winner (me: 200 100, him: <25hp). He restacks on the 50hp and YA and hits 3 rails in a row and then shafts me on the red without me dealing any damage. I`ve made this mistake time and time again against "top" players and I know about it myself (I hate it) but it happens every time I come close to taking the lead against higher skilled players.

At Dreamhack you said that you don`t really time to the clock. Is this really the case, and if yes, do you feel this is something you gotta change to step up your game?

I think I will only begin timing if I seriously start playing duel for a tournament but I`d rather practice my positioning,combat skills/dodging before I focus on timing.

What would be your favorite map pool?

ztn,aero,tox,dm6,t4

Sound is a crucial component of the game. There are some questionable design choices (like the fact that you cannot walk down stairs silently), and technical limitations (the visibility-sound coupling, creating problems like the one of battleforge, where a window in the middle of the map screws up everything). Imagine you could influence the next Quake, what would you like to see there in terms of sound features? You can go as crazy as "YA armors making you silent for 10 seconds", but motivate your suggestions!

Well I think that id software has to fix the sound in general in quakelive but thats another story I suppose. I`d like to try some sort of silent powerup where you make no noise at all for 30 seconds (weapons and movement) just so you could suprise your enemy. However the main problem I see is if you pick it up in duel the enemy knows you have it and they will just be super-cautious. This is what we have qlfocus for though, so we can try these things out and see if they work and if they don`t we can just remove them.

You once proposed the idea of allowing weapon drop in duel as a way to bait your opponent. Can you expand on this?

Heh, I did mention this at dreamhack. I approached rapha and cypher about it and cypher seemed against it as he thought it wasn`t very realistic and if you accidently hit your drop weapon bind in the middle of a fight you`re doomed. Rapha said he had thought about it but that cypher was right. However I don`t see why idsoftware can`t add it anyway, I mean whens the last time you`ve accidently hit your drop weapon bind in a TDM game? Just because its there doesn`t mean you HAVE to use it.

Can we expect to see you at one of the next lans, in the Netherlands or Italy?
I`d love to, I had a great time at the last event with you guys (even if I didn`t get to go to the after party :D). However I really don`t know, we`ll just have to see in the future.

Any final shout out?
Basically to anyone who I talk to on a regular basis!

pic - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/14939633/IMG_2190.jpg
demo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8SGWFkgqeI

Hello maza. Can you start by introducing yourself?
Hello world. I'm a 20-years-old dude from Finland and probably the current Finnish hope in QL dueling scene. Some people might recognize me from Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a game which I used to play until I found about the lovely quakelive. At the moment I'm working but I'm going to start my studies this august and hopefully I'll be able to carry on practising QL!

Tell us about mazaa in Quake. When did you start playing and which modes? What about today?
Like mentioned, I played ET since 2003 or so and in 2010 I started following quakelive tournaments. ET didn't suit me very well due to various reasons, I started noticing it in 2010 as well. It was a team game so the outcome wasn't always in your hands. Also the main format 6on6 required staying up too late for my taste so I never got into that. But most importantly ET lacked the challenge and it was frustrating for me to notice how low the level of play was in ET and how easy it was to dominate in. As I got very good in ET I realized I must have some sort of talent in me as well. Then QL stepped in, in august 2010 I began to play QL and started liking it more and more. I tried playing both ET and QL but that didn't work out, I couldn't play good in both games at the same time. So in may 2011 I decided to go all-in in quakelive and not once have I regretted that =). Since then I've been focused on getting better, and eventually the best, in duel. To summarize, I started playing QL duel almost 2 years ago and been doing it hardcore for a bit more than a year.

Describe what you like of the game in one sentence.
It's 1on1 and the player who plays better wins.

As dueler around 1900-2000 ELO, how is your experience in terms of finding practice partners in EU? Have you ever had specific training buddies? Do you see it as an advantage over playing random opponents? What is your practice routine?
Depends on who you are ready to play, I for instance don't like playing boneheads or cheaters so that makes it a bit harder for me. But yeah you can get practice any time you want but the quality of practice varies hugely. To mention one, I've been practicing with Sc00t every once in a while and nothing beats that practice. I mean, usually if I want to play versus good players and I lose I need to find another server or wait 10-20 mins in the queue because there are always other players in the row. You might be searching the game for 60 minutes but in the end you get like one or two games max. When you have a practicing buddy, like I already have a few, you can potentially play 6 games per an hour. And then again, atleast for me, playing players that are on a level below me can get extremely demotivating for some reason, maybe just because I've had enough of winning and noob-bashing in ET and now I actually enjoy getting to play players better than me =). If I had like 2100+ ELO it would be easier to get practise because there would be nobody that wouldn't consider me as a contender and therefore decline from playing me. Now there are still guys who think I can't give them hard time, but getting good practise was a lot harder 6 months back so it's only getting better from now on. I'm likely to purchase pro account in the following months and that should make practicing more efficient also, because on your own server you can make sure you can play all the time. My practice routine is pretty much playing for a few months and then I'll do a mazamovie and doing it I analyze my progress and the cons and pros of my game. Recently in the last 4-6 months or so I haven't played necessarily for the win and instead tried out crazy/different stuff that comes to my mind. Also I've played a little CA and stuff to get better in combat. Now I should put the crazy stuff in balance with safe play and I'll be good to go. I play to get better, not to win =) Obviously another story in zotacs and such.


Are there features you would like to have included in QL webpage that would make your experience better? Or do you feel the current external tools (irc, QLRanks) compensate well enough?
Well, noobs don't know about IRC nor qlranks so they (id) should at least integrate qlranks with QL. Few days ago I was skill matched with 990 elo guy... Then maybe some sort of introduction to configs and HUDs because QL is one of the few games you can modify endlessly! Why not having some community shiat and link to esreality.com too?

TODO: replace youtube video with this demo:
http://www.upload.ee/files/2492743/QLetmazaa_...dm_73.html

You seem to play all maps of the official map pool evenly, except for toxicity. Is there anything particular about this map that makes you like it less? Or do you feel that map requires less practice than the others?
I somehow dislike the way toxicity works, it depending on spawns and combat situations hugely. You mess up one important situation and you might find yourself 5-10 frags behind. In dm13 you can switch control via positioning and thinking, in tox you gotta be aim-wise awesome instead. But I'm gonna start practicing it more now that my combat skills are getting better I'm automatically getting better in tox too, right?! D:

If you could decide how the duel map pool should evolve, what would you do? Are there maps (either in QL or Q3) you would like to see played? Are there non-played maps that could fixed and become good?
I'm not anybody to answer this really, I never played Q3 or the 'underground' maps in QL but from ET I know new and unknown maps never get the attention the should, which is a shame but not much you can do about it really. The ongoing map pool of dm13, ztn, t7, aero and toxicity would be perfect if you removed toxicity and put hektik back in. I kinda even like toxicity how it's different but I find it horrible to play so I would prefer hektik. Maybe try having both for a while and see which one is preferred?

Looking at your records, you did beat players like Baksteen, Scoot, and Evil. Were these lucky matches, or do you feel that on a good day you can play at that level? What do you think separates these players from you?
I don't think those were lucky by any means, haven't played evil much but I've won baksteen and Sc00t multiple times. When I'm warmed up and happen to hit decently I feel like I can beat pretty much anybody excluding likes of cypher. Then again there are games where I pick up a rail and use the 10 slugs and haven't hit a single one. Tough to play if your aim lets you down like that. Also I'm very warmup dependent player and I never can be bothered warming up before casual practice, can't help it :(. I think they're on a level above me simply because they've played the game like twice the amount I have. You just gotta grind the maps and situations hundreds and hundreds of times, which I haven't yet done enough. Doing that you dodge better which already can decide matches, leave alone the aim part. The biggest bottle-neck is combat skills but also map knowledge sets me apart from players like Sc00t.

Are you going to attend LAN events in the near future, like Adroits in the Netherlands, or UGC in Italy? What about Dreamhack winter?
I don't think I'm going to attend those LANs unless I get sponsored. If I do happen to get a sponsor I have no reason to not to go. I simply am not good enough to enjoy LANs yet. When I'm pretty much guaranteed to go playoffs I'll start considering going. That's probably next year or the year after when I'm supposed to be dh14 champ :x Although, there are rumors that there would be a minor Finnish LAN which I might attend if it ever becomes reality.

Thanks for this interview maza. Any final word or shout out?
I'm just gonna thank you Memento_Mori & twister for the cup and invite, you're doing good job keeping quake alive and kicking.. and the same for zotac crew (donathan)! :)

As a preparation to Quakecon, I wanted to make sure I go there with the right things in mind.

A good way to start is to do an other "5 wishes/questions" run. If you wonder what it is, you can have a look at previous instances here:
- August 2010
- January 2011

The goal is to get an updated view on what the community thinks it's necessary to do. I propose we include both suggestions and questions, as often the two are connected.

The quality of your post matters. Try to do some prioritization and post what you think is really important.

This is an information thread about traveling to Quakecon.

There are two airports in Dallas, Dallas Ft Worth (international) and Dallas Love Field. Most flight from Europe have at least one stop in the US, so I guess both airports are an option. Which one is the best?

The Hilton Anatole offers room for almost 200$ a night, which is quite crazy. Are there cheaper options nearby?

Thanks!

Goteborg, 5:40 am. I'm sitting at a cafe in the Landvetter airport, my laptop and an orange juice as fellow companions as I try to not fall asleep. Today, I got meetings starting early in Saarbruecken, and the only option to get there in time was to plan a trip over night, leaving directly from the dreamhack "afterparty". This column is my attempt to keep my mind focused, preventing me from falling asleep and missing my flight.

I'm writing this column as a mixture of chronological facts and unstructured impressions. What drives me to tell you this story is that I feel this event helped me understanding how I want to approach my future, what I want to do, and where I want to be. These things are never easy to figure out, but when that happens, one feels like a better person. I want to share this with you guys, as a natural response to what I feel is a good thing.



Day 1

I arrived quite late on Saturday, being able to follow some of the groups on stream as I was still traveling, very excited to meet the quake folks. My traveling got slower and slower as the more I would get close to dreamhack, the more I would meet people I knew, the socialization including a few d-tours for a beer. I finally managed to get to the Quake area around 6 or 7pm, just to see the reminder of the games.

The tournament area was different from last year, possibly a bit smaller, but as well organized and appropriate for the tournament. Despite the duel attendance being wider, I missed the TDM folks. Teams are nice because the common goal allows sharing the emotions more openly from the start. Emotions and communication are the key for a good atmosphere. In duel, only some individuals are extroversive enough to open up to other contenders and visitors. While the overall mood was positive, I felt like some of the ice did not melt yet.



At night I would sleep at a hostel a bit outside Jönköping, together with a bunch of Quakers. I shared the room with Tony (who can fall asleep in 0.736 sec and start snoring right there), and in the nearby rooms staid Weird, Twister, Ins, Mouse*, Lukelawl, his father and a woman, whose name I forgot (Penny?), that would let us know that stealing her cokes from the common kitchen fridge had not been appreciated. Bad boy Tony...

Day 2

Sunday was quite exciting. I slept like a baby and arrived at the event ready to get irradiated by Quakers' awesomeness. Some of the most exciting matches happened that day, and most of the credit goes to the Russian power house.

I was deeply rooting for pavel, who to me incorporates the notion of perseverance and purposefulness, and I was happy to see how well he did against cypher. I would later find out that pavel is also a very nice guy in person, despite the chances of getting to know each other considerably limited, as the intersection of languages we both speak was the empty set. It was also nice to see cypher vs evil. I somewhat did miss this last year, so if you did not know yet, evil is an iron robot. I don't know if it is his cold blood, extreme composure, or deep interior peace, but evil would sit at his desk and play as a surgeon, as emotional as a stone wall. He also conducts a very healthy life style, without alcohol or smoke, which makes him stand out among the fellow Russians, who measure the vodka they swallow in tanks and live to tell the story. If I understand correctly, Cooke (the Russian Quake godfather) is the man behind evil and pavel's attendance. Respect for that.



We had other very interesting games. I was really happy to see Luke play well. I totally see him talking the last minute loss on Weird as motivation to come back next time much stronger. He's just a great youngster, smart, honest, passionate, much more mature than people at his age. Luke's father was a nice surprise as well. He came to the event with very little knowledge about Quake, besides "it's a game where people chase each other". He stood there for the whole event and watched game after game, sometimes getting explanations from either Luke or other people around. Talking with him at the end of the event, he showed some understanding of the game and seemed genuinely impressed by how deep the thinking goes, and how good the players were.

Another surprise was seeing scoot winning against dkt. If dkt took the loss very professionally (i.e. went for a smoke without throwing any chair <3), scoot looked like a flourishing flower. The smile on his face, the excitement for reaching the top4, the satisfaction for winning prize money... that man walked around with a joyful aura that made me happy just at looking at him.



In the evening we manage to squeeze in a few games among spectators and eliminated players. It always amazes me how great the game feels in lan. Even with a config made on the fly, there is something magical about how responsive everything is, how dodging seems to allow you to do crazy stuff especially in close fights, and in general how weapons are insanely nice to use. It is really a better game, and I'm just so deeply saddened I get to play it so rarely.

I got my personal satisfaction beating twister on ztn. He probably took it lightly at the beginning, but said in the end he really tried to comeback. After that he played a crazy aero with Tony that went to something like 5 overtimes. There was a small crowd behind Tony's pc, with people laughing as he was definitely being a showman while playing. This is something anyone who went to an old school LAN party has experienced. It's not e-sport by any means, but it's Quake at its origins, a form of the game that is just so nice. I’m a bit sad we all live so far apart, as I would love to do a pure Quake fans LAN every now and then.

Day 3

The last day was a mix of different things.

The semis and third place final were still played at the QL area. I was expecting Dahang to be in the beastly form he had the previous day. Unfortunately this did not happen. I wonder what happened exactly to him, if he was too nervous, or did not sleep well, but I felt that somehow the huge anticipation given by how strong he was playing earlier, somehow broke his play against rapha.

It was very interesting for me to observe scoot. As said earlier, I felt scoot's feelings were right there for me to see them. He was being almost too honest about feeling no chance against cypher. This was definitely reflected in the game; as "caster legend clipper the dolphin" pointed out, he was not bolzy enough, and in many situations where he should have done harassment on major items he preferred to stay hidden. Now, this is probably no big news, as it is quite trivial one has to feel confident enough to play his game, otherwise things go bad. Moreover, one could argue that even a super confident scoot would not be able to beat cypher.

My point is different, though. There are situations in everyone's life where we are put at test, and we are scared of not performing as we know we could. Sometimes, if we fight enough, our brain makes a "clic" and suddenly we become a new person, stronger and determined. An example could be the first time one makes a concert as guitar player and has to play some solos in front of the audience. I feel scoot was right there, on the stage, guitar in hands. I remember that as teenager it took me a few concerts to start feeling confident, and even if it were small concerts with most of the audience drunk, it thought me a few valuable lessons. I'm just looking forward to see scoot doing the mental step up, and grow to his full potential as player. You can do it man!



The finals left my mouth a bit dry. On the one hand, the games were good, and rapha was on fire. On the other hand, sitting in the dream arena, I wanted to have the best possible show ever, and I felt things ended too quickly, with some sort of anticlimactic lostworld. I general I was happy to see Quake played on stage with a big crowd, even if many were there for lol. I think it still makes a difference to be up there, with fair stream numbers and moments of excitement in the air.

Since there were fewer games during the day, I had time to hand around and chat. I had a very nice and refreshing discussion with a Swiss guy with a very good network within e-sport, and a lot of experience with making LANs. I talked to him about the idea of bringing an event to Switzerland, and what the country could offer. He gave me very good insights and a trace to follow. I make no promises here, but I’m going investigate a little more about this. I would dream to be able to host Quake in my country.

Monday Night

The part I enjoyed more of third day, and probably of the whole event, was the evening. We started the social event at the hostel, having some drinks and discussing about the game. We were joined soon after we started by the Bloodline champions guys. They were about 20 people, mostly gamers, and at least one of the developers which apparently always hangs out with the players. I think 2GD must have instilled some sort of profound respect for Quake in that community as they were very friendly with us, one guy even going around asking our autographs.



We then moved in taxi to the afterparty. It was conceived as some sort of exclusive party for pro players and VIP of the industry. I honestly took it as the occasion to hang out with the quake folks and just have a good time together. The place was some sort of disco, with a dance floor and an elevated area with couches and tables. A pro-gamer wristband would grant you drinks for free, but they did not seem to care much and would just serve anyone who showed up.

The quake guys conquered one of the corners, right next to the bar, with a good view over the rest of the disco, and enough space to fit everybody. There I realized I really like the Russians. They were the first to arrive, and acted as tractor beam for the rest. There might be some serious cultural and linguistic barrier for me to fully understand them. But when you go to the root of it, I saw a group of strangers welcome every Quaker as a brother, as if we were a clan, and share a special moment together.

I was happy rapha joined the party. In past events he had stricter scheduling and would fly to Germany or home right after the event, but this time the ambiguous dates of dreamhack (which include Tuesday morning though the only thing happening is that people leave) allowed him to spend an extra day in Europe. rapha is very special. One the one hand he is so remarkably knowledgeable of the game that I’m just happy to sit there and let him talk. On the other hand I find him extremely hard to read, and I’m constantly trying to guess what is going on in his mind. It’s like looking at a black box that takes whatever input and generates awesome stuff as output, with the partially sad feeling you will never know how it works inside.



The afterparty went on for some time, with people having a good time. It was in the middle of it, I realized something important about myself, which has rested inside me for a long time, but finally erupted to the surface at full force. I want to be part of this. I want to keep seeing this game going, I want to keep playing, I want to keep coming to the events. This is part of my life; it’s something that defines who I am and what I want to be.

Outlook

Dreamhack is a very unique event. It welcomes e-sport as a natural fit, but still maintains its identity and attachment to the LAN party experience. I'm not sure exactly how and when they managed to make gamers and LANs something “cool” in a general sense, but I certainly happy to see they managed to do it.

This event gave me more faith in e-sports. There are so many fascinating individuals, so many characters I look at for inspiration. The industry has grown-up gamers who do this because they love it; people for whom the business is a mean and not a goal, people I want to be with.

There are several people I met these past three days that I want to thank, and I will probably name just a few.



A big big thank to the staff! The admins (blaze, slayzah, and snelvovve) have done a terrific job, and I agree with those saying this has been the best run dreamhack tournament ever. Same goes for zoot and calipt for the casting, which from what I could see was really well done and entertaining. I want to thank all players who did their best to come to the tournament. This makes such a difference, as the quality of the tournament, and in turn of the event overall, depends on them. I want to thank the guys that staid at the hostel, for the nice evenings we spent together. I want to thank luke's father for bringing his son over, and for showing interest in the game and what we do.

I wanna conclude with a very personal note. I owe a big thanks to 2GD. I discussed with him throughout the event, and some of the things he said reached deeply inside me. I've always looked at him as a brilliant caster and entertainer, but I learned he has much more to offer. He has a vision for this industry. He understands esport. But more importantly, he cares about the people.

And this is my take home message. Quake, beside being an awesome game, is a group of players, supporters and enthusiasts. We share a passion, and the best we can do is to care about one another, and look at the future as a community. Today I'm an happy Quaker, and I dare looking at tomorrow with a smile. Thank you all for being there with me.


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Hi guys,

these are the photos I took during the event. It took me a while to upload them as I had to travel directly from Sweden and I just got home now.

My camera started acting weirdly at the final, so I got few pictures at the end. I hope you enjoy the collection, which is definitely not very professional.

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