although it surely is sad to see this development....it is not completly surprising.

When Dreamhack was streaming different games at the same time, other games had more spectators.

While this is not the only indicator of course, I think (fear) that many games will have a larger playerbase.

The quake scene is basically the same for a decade with some top players leaving and some newer ones taking those spots, but there is nothing to see that couldnt be seen in 2004 aswell...

From a business point of view and, lats face it, thats what those companies are about after all, it makes totally sense to take some younger and (at the moment) popular games....

Returning to Q3 dueling, I must admit I had a very hard time the first weeks and still today I am struggeling against many opponents.

What it all comes down to is the excessive use of the shaft nowadays. When I was dueling more or less active , winning was a matter of timing prediction (rockets) and a solid rail. Not talking about movement here, since I consider it as a basic. What I encounter today are many opponents, that have awfull low rates of rail, but some INSANE accuracy on the shaft and nothing else. They move as if they are playing for 2 weeks and as I said I think they dont even have the rail binded ;)

I encountered mostly spam spam spam on long range (remember no rail:P) which was not a problem, but if they come into range of the shaft..they constantly hit close to 35-40 %. So is this way of playing the new flavour of the month?

I just ask (this is not intended to be a whine) because I was rather shocked by this experience