The demos for all three QuakeCon 2010 tournaments are finally online.

"Unfortunately, due to technical problems the archive is missing several demos from key match-ups that were played on the tournament stage. The missing files have been documented within the archive."

Update: mickzerofive saves the day with spectator POV demos from the grand final.

Link: QuakeCon.org, QC'10 Demos

Ok guys, I'm back in Tokyo and I've officially landed on planet earth. I've slept through all the jet lag, calmed down and come back to my "senses".

Whatever happened, happened. There is a lot that can be said about it but it's done, it's over. I forgive everybody and I have nothing but love for all you gamers out there. Stay frosty.

All I have to say to anybody who thinks i was 'on' something is; rarely in my life have I ever become angry. And most of my friends even those whom I've known for 10 years or more have rarely, if at all, seen me angry. I know what I am capable off so I pray to god that if I do get angry, nothing too extreme will happen, but guess what ...

Here's my story.

I've been living in Tokyo, Japan for the last 10 months. Studying Japanese, Practicing karate and partying / DJ:ing on my spare time. One thing you need to know about Tokyo is that there are SHITLOADS of people and I live in a dorm with 10 other people, I literally have no private space. Also there's almost nobody to talk to since the foreigners are few and the Japanese aren't much for everyday chitchat.

So I was a caged animal that was unleashed upon the U.S.A. and I got to re-experience what it was to be truly alive again.
I flew all the way from Japan to the U.S.A. to play Quake Live. First thing that happens when I arrive to Chicago is that a cab driver rips me off. I got his plates and thought that I could get back at him. But you know what the concierge says at the counter when I explain my situation? "Welcome to Chicago".

- Strike one.

Sure you could say that was my own fault. But from that point on I was steaming and on my toes. Unleashed buys me some drinks and we buy some bangin' pizza and chill out.
I'm all good.

Next stop - Iowa. Because of floods we have to ride a bus instead of a train. Mind you I'm packing some heavy load, monitor, computer and all (about 35kg in total). We ride on the bus next to this awesome elderly christian couple and we talk through the whole trip, they actually even gave me their bible which i was reading in from time to time.

Anyway... We arrive at Iowa...

But we forgot something... Our luggage is still on the bus. HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE!? Thanks to Virgil at the train station we get them back the next day without any problems.

Then we arrive at the BigBang convention and we're BANGIN'! The Bridgeview center was awesome and I just couldn't wait to go and play quake. But guess what, there's a major update from ID which prohibits us from playing quake. Also due to some misunderstanding between Syncerror and myself I thought I was not in the focus but I was (holy sh*t). I have to learn a new map, battleforged and learn how to play aerowalk. Hurray. Now I'm even more steaming. We can't play quake until the final day and I play a few games against dkt and one game against rapha, but those three hours was only warmup I didn't even get into the real mindset.

- Strike two.

Although Steve-o (Steven), Ice (Adam), John (ESL John Clark), Tom-Toms (Jenny in particular) and Johnatahan (Fatal1ty - happy birthday!) helped creating an awesome atmosphere and an experience which I will never forget I have nothing but mad love for you guys!

Sidenote: I entered the gamer of the year competition where I was owning, but I was late one hour in the fourth round and got booted (even though I could still participate) and I was amongst the top (I WON THE HUMAN VS. ZOMBIES ROUND!!!)

The event is over we have to pack down. Next stop is Chicago. I stay up most of the night drinking with the host of the bar Tom-Tom's (she invited me to her room) and we had a great time until 05 in the morning. I take a cab to the AM-Track train station at 06 thinking it's best to sleep in the station so I don't miss my train which leaves at 09:30. Mind you there's a RAGING thunderstorm going on, the sky is POURING and ROARING. I get to the station, the taxi drives away and I yank the door of the station ... It's locked.

So there I am, a Swedish boy in f*cking Iowa in the middle of no-where drunk of my a** in a raging thunderstorm, so what do I do? I shiver like a little girl on christmas from the cold and wetness and try to grab some Z's lying on my backpack ...

anyway three hours pass. I sleep a bit more in the station and talk to an Amish family inside the station (they were awesome). The train is late because of floods and when we finally get on it rides really slow ...

Finally back in Chicago I hook up with Kim Rom for some nice steak and chillax at the sky lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building (I LOVE YOU KIM!). That made me happy, relaxed and got me back into my mode, but then what happens the second day?

Ricardo (Cirka) invites us to the frat house DELTA TAU DELTA BABY! Where we practice. At some point i decide to go out and get a beer, I go half naked cause it's frikkin' hot! I get a ride back to the frat house by the police - lol. Apparently it's illegal to go half-naked in the state of Illinois? ;)

- Strike three.

Anyway later I decide to grab a few drinks on my last night in Chicago, flying solo. What happens? A loong story short, some girl steals my cap, goes into a club, I take it off her head and the bouncer literally takes the cap out of my hands and gives it back to the girl (WHAAAT). The doorman says I can't come in cause I'm drunk, mind you I was so sober it wasn't even a joke.
By this point I'm raging. No love from Chicago ...

I walk up to the nearest police car and ask for a breathalizer test. And this police officer was the coolest guy I had met in Chicago (except for Kim ;)). He's like what happened? I explain it to him, he literally goes into the club and gets my cap.
I go home but my credit card is lost (F***CK!).

- Strike four.

Anyway, I land in Dallas thinking now finally all my troubles are gone and I can show the world what my last 2 months of practice has been all about.

We arrive at the Hilton Anatol which is HUUUUUGE! Can somebody please give me a GPS so I can find my room? All you do in this place is HAULING A**! But the art was amazing and it was a truly beautiful hotel with awesome staff and bangin' sights!
We party a bit the first night. But I'm still at the registration at 6:30 giving everybody some good energy and hyping up (cause that's what I do!) for QuakeCon.

The line is a mile long and nothing is moving, I ask who is in charge and at that point it was superpumper (madprops to you man! you were the only big guy actually hauling ass and trying to get everything set up).

So I'm screaming my ass off trying to keep a good mood and helping people get ready to tag their stuff (partially why I lost my voice) so we could get in and play. Finally I'm in, although I've been up since 6:30 I think I'm in the tourney area at about 12 or 14 or so...

- Strike five.

Nothing is working and it's hard to get any directions. Steve-o did the best he could, man he stayed busy! But there was a lot of miscommunication going on. And as for myself I was like a boxer ready to go at any moment (even though I lost my voice). So at this point I'm steaming, people think I'm crazy cause I can't talk (I'm writing notes on papers) and all I wanna do is hit something really hard. Finally Steve-o says "go to the stage, now!".

I go to the stage and I ask where my spot is so I can hook it up and the answer is "we don't know". I'm awed, truly awed. Then I'm asking the tech guy who actually gets up and gets into my face like he wants to fight or something, I back down (for which I think I deserve a medal of honor) but still I have to wait.

- Strike six.

I come back a little later and they say NOW YOU HAVE TO GET ON STAGE NOW NOW NOW! So I hook my stuff up, play my game and I lose because of a bad rj in the last minute and he gets me in the last 15 seconds. Nevermind, I still got Losers bracket and a helluva lot more quake in me to give.

Directly after the sparks game I'm just steaming I go to the pool to chill out. I just jump off the stage, leave my stuff on the table and go, thinking now it's their problem see how they like it. I go to the pool and swim it off. Then Unleashed comes and gets me and says: "we have a CTF game NOW!". I head back with my pool pants, go to the stage to pack my stuff and they stay "YOU CANT BE HERE, YOU ARE DRIPPING ALL OVER THE PLACE!" at which point I just jump down go to my computer and change pants. I'm nude for about 2 seconds, I go out for a smoke before the CTF game to get my mind into it. When I come back I'm met up with the executive organizer, I don't remember his name but he's like "that's indecent exposure you can't do that you're out".

- Strike sixtynine.

I'm like "ok" not even resisting or giving him a hard time about it cause by now I know that I'm f*****. The police comes and gets me and it takes about 2 hours to check me out of the event and all I have to do is sit in the corner and stay frosty ... I was sad, angry, mad, disappointed and ashamed at the same time.

The name of the event is QuakeCon but not even half the people know who I am, not that it really matters I just think it's weird that I get such a hard time... Aaaanyway, they get me everything but my screen (a DELL screen, black and gray, I got the base but not the actual monitor) and the police walk me to my room and gives me a lecture.

- Strike onehundrednine.

I stay in my room for three hours, shave my head just as a protest and head on out to the pool where I stay most of the remainder of QuakeCon. In the evening you could see me drinking and dancing the anger out of me and if you ask anybody boy was I owning that dancefloor.

So now I'm home, my name if I ever had one is even more tarnished than before and everybody thinks I'm crazy. What does a Swedish boy living in Japan have to do to get to play some decent quake? All I've had to play these last months are Japanese and Korean players which to be honest aren't really that much of a challenge (granted unleashed is my biggest challenge thus far). But you get me.

Sidenote:
Mad props to Artisan, my boss Kobayashi-san in particular, even though I made a helluva mess he didn't get too mad and I tried promoting the mousepads (which actually are truly awesome, I really do believe in the product) outside of the event as much as I could.

Also much love goes out to my fellow brothers and sisters: Cooller, Coollers brother, Carnage, Dahang, Dkt, Link1n, Matteo, Rapha, Smokes, Stermy, Steve-o, Spart1e, Strenx, Ice, Relic and all you others whom I fail to remember at this present moment.

So all I got to say is: TEXAS WHERE'S MY BRISKET AT?!
Keep it sexy and stay frosty everybody!

MAD LOVE.
I'm out.

/Cyrus 'proZaC' Malekani

ps. Check www.artisan-gaming.jp out, it'll be up soon and they're mousepads are BANGIN'!

The following column is an opinion piece from QuakeLive.tv's Gavin "gnnr" K about his experiences at the recently gone Quakecon 2010. He talks about what it was like to meet the pro's and also work with Quakecon this year as streaming partners. Included are some nice photos

Alright Folks,

Pre-Con set up and Experience
So there were ups and downs at QuakeCon as there are with any event. I’m not going to get into that topic much. Rather I’m going to talk about one of the positives of QuakeCon and how despite anything that happens the veteran players and tourney staff make it a fun atmosphere. So without any further backstory here’s a look at what I was honored to see and partake in backstage and throughout the tournament.

I arrived Wednesday. I had a lay over in Vegas where I had some lovely scrambled eggs. Pro-tip, don’t eat in Vegas :) I got in to the convention center around 3:30pm on Wednesday. The day seemed to go smooth, exhibitors like Razer, Nvidia, Bethesda Software were setting up. Occasionally saw SyncError and some id suits roaming the floor. The two Mustang Shelby GT500's sat right in front of our booth. While I worked I was consistently reminded I drive a car from 1989, which to be honest I love.

NOC (Network Operations Center) staff came by the booth around 10 times to check the MAC Address on every single machine. The staff decided to manually enter every single hardware address into the routing tables.. Our allocated bandwidth was fixed 6mb/s. We set 5mb/s for the streaming and studio machines. The rest of our work computers had 1mb/s.

That’s about all I will say about our booth and the pre-setup. There’s an article about the exhibitors and the feel of the convention center. The rest of this article is about the pro tourney area.

————————————————————————————————————————


Pre-tournament
I approached the area where the pros were playing behind the main stage in the exhibition hall. On Wednesday the mood was calm and some of the usual faces were there: Stermy, Spart1e, Cooller, Cypher and Rapha among others. However, for the pros Wednesday was more about relaxing and hanging out. There was an attempt to get practice in but network issues prevented any meaningful scrimmages. A few players scrambled to touch up their configs in QuakeLive practice mode and a number were playing bots for an hour or so. Most everyone was calm.

Tournament Day
Arrived around 9am on Thursday, the date and time competition was supposed to begin. All play was delayed at first for a “few hours” which turned into the entire day. The players had to wait most of the day in case things started. NOC staff scrambled around to fix DNS routing issues and the core LAN network problems so competitive play could begin. At this time it was impossible to run QuakeLive on the Lan or any computer at the event, even BYOC machines. Now there’s no person or particular reason I can say caused this, but issues for players persisted throughout the event



Admins
Stephen "stevo" Cano, the master of the tournament area, never stopped running. I think he probably walked the most of anyone at QuakeCon. He rocked a decent mohawk and a Johnny Depp gotee similar to Pirates of the Caribbean. Stevo is amazing, and a no non-sense kind of guy. He knows every player personally, takes care of their needs and pushes hard to get everything running smooth. He wasn’t in control of the overall network issues but if you ask a pro who really ran things Stevo was the guy. He’s also the life of the party so if you are looking for the after party or just want someone to hang with he’s your man. Being a former pro he has respect from most everyone. Also, Psyn was another main tech in the tourney area. He was very easy to work with and provided players with some amazing AlienWare computers. I appreciate how hands on he was with set-up and his willingness to help when free. If network issues weren’t a problem Psyn and Stevo would have held a very smooth tournament. Hats off to Stevo and Psyn in particular for navigating the issues which arose.



Alexei "Cypher" Yanushevsky
Cypher, the eventual winner of the tournament sat in his chair at the end of one of the rows. He was a little smaller than I had imagined about 5’8" and skinny. I suppose that’s average size. Cypher was quiet, not shy but comfortable in saying only a few words. With his thick accent he spent most of his time speaking Russian with Cooller and Cooller’s “manager”. At one point Rapha leaned over Cypher’s shoulder and grabbed hold of the keyboard/mouse and proceeded to help configure his video settings. They laughed and smiled at each other while Rapha fixed his set up. It turns out Rapha and Cypher flew together to Gamescon immediately following the event. Cypher was set up with his Razer mouse, keyboard, and mouse pad as usual. He wore a Razer jersey with Cypher on his back. Cypher’s shots are amazing, always. He is consistent. This event meant a lot to him and he was tearing up when he won. I have a lot of respect for this player and his professional work ethic and training regiment. It was funny to stand behind him as he played stone keep. Many players did not know this map well so he was asking where is RA where is Mega or whatever. Funny thing is even without knowing the map I think he still played amazing and won. He did have some help from the others on the EURO pickup ctf team.



Shane "rapha" Hendrixson
Rapha was smug and also a man of few words. He played in a far corner of the tourney computer area. Rapha was actually quite pleasant to interact with but his personality is one of very focused mental energy. Most all of his time was spent practicing duel and with quad gaming ctf. He also hung out with Cypher and the Euro’s quite a bit. He used his SK qck pad, and what looked to be a special version of a microsoft intelli-mouse however Rapha specifically did not want to talk about his mouse. So, I honestly did not try to take a close look at his set up, he could be using something completely different. As far as these claims that he carries a bible everywhere, there was none to be seen. He never brought up the subject and although I’m sure he is a religious person he wasn’t this fanatic that some people try to portray. Very easy going type of person.



Anton "Cooller" Singov
Now on to my favorite player to watch of the tournament, the one, the only… Cooller!!!. He is literally one of the most focused and intense people I have ever met. People wonder how he is so consistently good. He logged easily 3 hours more practice than any other player. On Thursday night around 11:30pm QuakeLive came up. Cooller was the first player to have the game up and immediately began scrimmaging anyone and everyone. I stood behind him a couple times. At one point he was playing Draven who seemed to be a close friend. Cooller was up by 5 frags or so and draven landed a rocket rail combo for a frag. Even with this huge lead Cooller re-spawns and yells in his thick accent, “NO!! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! WHY WOULD YOU BE THERE.” This was pretty consistent throughout. Cooller take this game so seriously every second every play he re-analyzes, and he lives up to the title of “quake mastermind”. The out bursts were more about him reminding himself of what mistake he made so he could correct it. He played on an Artisan mousepad he bought on the fly in the exhibitor area. He sat sideways taking up the room of two stations and could literally be found practicing and playing 10 hours a day there. I spoke to him, and got to do an interview which I hope is posted soon. He’s a real cool guy, mellow and no bs kind of personality. At first, he was not too keen on an interview but after our quick session he said “Good job, You stuck to your time.” I interacted with his manager after and they were always very respectful but you could see Cooller needed his space to do his work. During the finals vs. Cypher I was near the stage and his manager shouted at a stage tech “EXCUSE ME. I need you to…” the tech walked off. I came up and said “What’s the problem.” He said, “I don’t know if you can help.” I said, “I don’t care you tell me what you need, I’ll do it.” The manager said, “These lights they are shinning in Cooller’s eyes and flashing we need them off.” I nodded and had the light tech turn them off. His manager nodded thank you, and Cooller’s eyes never left his screen. Cypher was across the stage seeming calm and relaxed jumping around a few maps, and positioning his body for the finals.



Alessandro "stermy" Avallone
Stermy was quite laid back, with his perfect hair, and intense blue eyes. I got to talk to him a couple times. He is quite smart and has strong opinions about maps and the future of quake. He was obviously frustrated at times with the amount of times staff asked players to just wait around. Thursday players waited 5+ hours for things to resume and as Stermy said calmly, “It’s not a big deal, there are always issues. It’s just with the time difference I am tired and would like some sleep.” Later in the tournament he attempted to take naps between matches because Friday and Saturday were marathon sessions. Most every pro played duel and ctf so not only were they constantly in duel matches they had to switch to ctf during almost all of their breaks. Despite all the bs about Stermy this guy is an intense and focused player. When it comes to practice and gaming he works harder then almost everyone, except maybe Cooller :) . I never saw him party or mess around. His videographer was there though, capturing footage for Life of a Pro-Gamer Stermy. I commend all the players for being sober and on-time and I was disappointed with the delays they encountered.



Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira
Spart1e was relaxed and of course a man of few words. One of my best friends is from Sweden, and he did have a similar personality. A very nice guy, and as Stermy said in our interview, “… Spart1e is the one with the better hair.” He’s definitely a confident guy, and keeps things professional. Some might take his personality as off putting but it’s mainly a cultural thing. In Sweden, from what I have learned, the language is to the point and you can be forward about your opinions. So, although he seems very opinionated he’s quite respectful. Like the rest of his pros he just needed his corner with the computer and to be left alone. Fnatic hung out all together in one corner. Cypher, Cooller, Draven and some other hung out across the tourney section



fnatic
Deus from fnatic, who is also their CTF captain was a real pleasure to meet. I didn’t know much about this player but he was one of the CTF stars of the tournament. Even though fnatic finished second they were extremely close to first. At the end I didn’t know who to root for. fnatic guys were so cool to meet and such fun guys I felt I was torn between EG and fnatic at the end. Either could have won and I would have been happy. EG’s win though was epic and cemented their position as one of the best CTF teams in the world. If YYT and LLL* were there I could easily say they are the best, but unfortunately those two strong Euro teams couldn’t make it. During some of the CTF matches players got connection interrupted about ever 2 minutes. It was pretty bad and I saw fnatic and other teams just hang their heads.



Evil Geniuses
Dahang was pretty mellow, not over excited. He’s a very relaxed guy it seems 24/7 even during games. He does get animated in CTF but I think one of the main reason he is so good, is his patience. He’s patient in life like he is in game from what I can tell. I also spoke to Viju and ClampOK. I did see Chance but he was not very much of a talker. Viju was real cool to meet, a business man now with a high-powered investment firm. Unfortunately he has almost no time to practice anymore and said after QuakeCon he might take 2-3 months to focus on his regular job. ClampOK always had ear buds around his neck, was texting and always chill. He liked to hang outside joke around, and have a few cigarettes. I didn’t see the Euros outside smoking as much as I’ve heard. I’d say it was pretty common among players to smoke cigarettes.



QUAD
Jones, Br1ck, sdahaghi and the rest of the QUAD gaming ctf team were interesting. It’s unfortunate they didn’t get a top 2 finished but put up a strong showing. Jones and Br1ck rocked green player jersey’s with their gamer tags on them. One guy mentioned, “do you think we have room for sponsors on here??”. Although they are sponsored by the QUAD gaming website they’re still looking for main sponsors. Jones was tall so I think he was uncomfortable with the desk size. Rapha brought a cool and calm energy to their team, and their area was relatively quiet on the far side of the tourney area.

Loaded
kgb and the Load team sat in the middle area of the computers. There was a lot of drama surrounding the Load team before they showed up, as kgb has gained a negative following online. Rapha and other players sat behind kgb for much of their matches just observing his skills, and trying to check if he is legit. Whatever anyone says, kgb played well on lan, and wasn’t the reason for their loss, although there were a few infamous mistakes he made which were costly. Sparks, whaz, flysher were fun to watch but Load fell flat in the end of the tournament. You could hear kgb yelling out commands, and complaints. He said things like, “QUAD!!! QUAD!!! Get the f’ing QUAD!!! C’mon!!” When he wasn’t playing he kind of disappeared and didn’t ever say much to anyone. He didn’t seem angry just focused on the game. He played damn good as well. Sparks was explosive, flysher solid and well rounded and whaz brought some veteran skill and knowledge to round out their team. If they stick together and practice hard I think Load may dominate online competition like DFM did.



Brian "dkt" Flander
dkt was tall and looked buff. You could easily spot him standing and talking with the other gamers. He has a physique similar to a pro athlete. He was polite and calm, contrary to all the online rage which I’ve heard about and seen. Honestly he just cares more about this game then anyone else and can’t handle to make mistakes. I don’t think he has issues with rage, he just likes to mess with people online because he’s played for so many years and gets annoyed. When he lost to DanDaking from Australia though he raged for a bit and yelled something like “I OUTPLAYED HIM, AND HE STILL WON!! ARGHH” After a little while he spoke to Dan and everything was good. dkt’s very serious about his game.



Daniel "dandaking" De Sousa
So the suprise of the tournament Austrailian player DanDaking. He won an online tourney sponsored by Archaic-MSI and got a trip paid in full to QuakeCon. I heard from a pro player I won’t name, that he would finish 16th or so. This was a fair assessment as Dan is new to competition and has not competed against the top players before. Never the less he beat Draven, Vamp1re and dkt. WOW!! I was stunned. I thought he might go further but he was pleased with the dkt victory. I must say, mick05, from 4seasonsgaming, and DanDaking were a pleasure to meet and kept things calm Aussie style throughout the tournament. As fatigue set in though Dan crashed and went to sleep on 3 chairs.

Finals
The epic climax of the tournament was Cooller vs. Cypher two seemingly close friends. The game came down to the wire and you should watch vods when they are available. Cypher sat in his chair at the end stunned. Cooller had let him through his fingers. His eyes teared up and I think he felt he no longer had to stand in Avek’s shadow. He has been wildly popular but tournaments have been his Achilles Heel. This tournament meant a lot to him. The CTF tournament was close, and the players were quiet but focused. Looking over the two teams you could occasionally hear a few words shouted about a power up. It was too close for comfort but EG pulled it out. The EG guys were excited but more relaxed to get this burden off their shoulders as I think sponsors and management demanded a victory. fnatic was visibly disappointed but they didn’t take it too seriously. Honestly, 2nd place was still a great finish. The team looked frustrated but also happy that they could relax and maybe enjoy some adult beverages. :)



The Craziness
To my surprise many of the pro players were happy with delays because it gave extra time to hang out, test equipment and indulge. However, almost every single player stayed sober during the tournament and had an intense focus. That is except for Prozac. Now, I don’t know what Prozac consumed if anything. Many people assured me this was his normal personality. Well things got progressively worse. Thursday and Friday he was aggravated and appeared intoxicated, which ultimately resulted in him being ejected… Why? Well he changed his shorts in the back of the convention and someone saw him exposed. Honestly, in his country it probably wasn’t as big of a deal, and I guess whoever saw it was extremely offended. Prozac is Prozac many said. He’s a cool guy, refreshing and funny. He makes things exciting and ridiculous. I think many of the players loved his company because he made countless events seem interesting again. I got a few chances to talk to him one on one and although he’s not always coherent he’s an amazingly funny and creative person. I sincerely hope I get to meet him again. It’s unfortunate he got ejected but from what I heard he got to chill out near the pool and slam back some adult beverages. Big props to Prozac!!!! I wanted to duck the stress a few times too.

Post Tourney
By the end of the tourney players were exhausted and stress levels were high. Most everyone went either to get wasted or relax in their rooms. Things went on throughout Saturday night, checks were handed out, cars were given out. As I walked through the BYOC I saw rapha and cypher walking and talking together. They carried their accessories on large QuakeCon posters as they headed off to their next tourney. For the newer players it was time to go home, and relax. For the veterans, off to the next thing, and over and over and over. Always chasing the next check.

written by QuakeLive.tv's gnnr

I just returned from QuakeCon 2010, bleary-eyed, exhausted, and happier than I could have imagined. Thirteen QLTV staffers descended on the event just a week ago to begin on-site preparations and setup. Throughout the week, several of them, myself included, wouldn't even get a chance to attend John Carmack's keynote, would miss the many panel presentations and wouldn't even see what vendors were strewn about the same exhibit hall in which we were about to spend the next 4 days because we all would be too busy.

In short, covering QuakeCon 2010 has been a relentless endeavor from start to finish. This literary after action report will detail my experiences as Lead Shoutcaster and unofficial manager of Quake Live TV. QuakeCon is an event built by and for the community, and I feel the community should know and understand how and why things happened the way they did this year.

Stepping Up to the Plate
Partnering at the 11th Hour

Part 2
Part 2 - Gathering The Troops
I'm A Lucky Man
Game Faces
My Kingdom for an Internets!
Upstaged

Part 3
Part 3 - Fire In the Hole!
Day 2: Stream at Last, Stream at Last!
*.net *.split
QuakeCon Volunteers and Staff Save QCon

Part 4
Part 4 - The Final Day
Center Stage
Bring Your Own.. 'Casting Setup?
Addressing LiveOnThree Episode 56
Final Thoughts

Live On Three is hosted by Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham, Rod "Slasher" Breslau and Scott "SirScoots" Smith.

Live On Three #56 is now online featuring discussing regarding several aspects of this year's QuakeCon including Cypher and Cooller's epic final, proZaC's banning, and the multitude of DNS, streaming, and coverage issues at the event. Special guests on the show include first-time top 3 QuakeCon finisher Stermy, the infamous proZaC, and QuakeLive.tv's Ben "FishStix" Goldhaber.

Stermy's thoughts on Cooller gg'ing him with 3:30 left on Furious Heights:

What can I say? I mean..that's Cooller, ya know? it was probably 10 frags ahead with 3 minuted left, and I knew that the match was pretty much over, but I gusss he wanted to get into my head because I won the first map. I don't get scared of those things anymore. I played during the time when 2GD was playing, and I mean that guy's trash talk is definitely worse than Coollers even, so i have enough experience from that, I don't get annoyed anymore by it. Cooller is like that, gotta take it for what it's worth.

proZaC on getting booted from QuakeCon:

...I'm playing my game which is awesome - I kept it sexy. I thought sparks was a half-newb, and wanted to show the world you can play Quake without pressing +back, just keeping it fucking sexy, and i lost int he last 15 econds because i missed a rocket jump to red armor. If I got that rocket jump I would have won hands down. When I lose to sparks I'm steaming so I go to the pool - I'm out. Go to the pool, get my swim on, get my drink on, when my CTF team comes and says I have to come back and play

Listen to the show now on djWHEAT.blip.tv. QuakeCon talk starts at 5:00, FishStix on at 38:00, Stermy on at 46:00, proZaC on at 60:00.

The rest of the photos are here. =]

The QuakeCon 2010 is taking place at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas between the 12th and 15th of August 2010. This convention is hosting 3 sponsored tournaments for Quakelive and several tournaments in the BYOC.

Update: All the matches are now over! Watch out for VODs and demos in the near future.


VODs / Demos: Some VODs, Demos (NOT UPLOADED YET, QUIT REPORTING THE BAD LINK)
Useful links: Tournaments, Schedule / Brackets: Duel, CTF, Open Duel
Interviews: DaHanG, Chance, carnage, strenx, Post-QuakeCon with Stermy and proZaC
Coverage: Fnatic, SK, TEK9, myEG, Loaded, coL, 4SG, Fragster, FFF / Not Slasher
Round-ups: Day 1, Day 2
Galleries: Flickr Gallery, compLexity, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

More photos from Quakecon but taken by my little sister.

Sorry for the delay, had to get some sleep. QuakeCon 2010's second day is over, and the problems continue. The tournament once again stalled for several hours without any notice from anyone at QuakeCon. It seems DNS issues continue to plague the event, only briefly resuming for the vamp1re vs dandaking match before lag struck mid-way through, calling it a day once again. Evil Geniuses' player manager Stuart Ewen comments: "This even has been the single most disappointing Quake tournament I have attended, while the head admins are not at fault the lack of organization and preparation leading up to and during the event is deplorable. If the buzz around the forums is true as well, then the BYOC is in a similar state."

Gamespot decided to restream the event on their site, which was pretty cool for however long it was up.

proZaC was escorted by police and kicked out of QuakeCon for indecent exposure after changing his pants in the tournament area after coming back from the pool. "No kids, no families, no nothing. Fuck QuakeCon. I'm OUT! Love", says proZaC in his posting, who's been relegated to room arrest in his hotel due to the incident. He tells me later, "The way those guys were coming at me, it's like they think I'm a terrorist or something. The police made me wait like two hours." He has and is currently ready to party in room 2269. It seems as long as you have a tie on, you're good to go.

I have given a short interview regarding my inability to attend this year's QuakeCon, as well as several news stories that have popped up. "Although I had not logged into the Focus Test in quite a while, and the information was public, I had still signed the NDA previously, and was therefore banned from Quake Live for a month. Then a few days ago I received an email stating I would not be allowed to enter QuakeCon 2010."

proZaC and I are not wanted.

chance and destrukt had their quite boring rematch from last week's IVGHOF, with destrukt able to squeak out two one-frag victories. From what I hear, a video exists of chance not too happy after the loss, stringing obscenities towards destrukt after it was over. stermy looks in good form, taking down DaHanG in straight maps with a close win on Lost World (dm13), and a very strong defensive showing on Battleforged. The italian now looks forward to a hotly-anticipated semifinal with rapha, who he's taken out before. Spart1e came back down a map and railed his way to victory against Cooller to send the fan-favorite into the lower bracket, before being taken out by Cypher in the upper bracket semifinals. Spart1e had a sizeable lead against Cypher on Aerowalk before letting it slip away in the final minutes (Video: Cypher POV), leading to a rather one-sided victory on Lost World.

here we go again..

Day one.

QuakeCon 2010's first day is over and a long one it was. In what seems to be a theme year after year, the QuakeCon tournaments did not start at all today, fueled by an electrical fire in the tournament area, and continued by delay after delay, which resulted in the decision to call it a day to the dismay of unhappy and tired viewers.

Brackets for Duel and CTF have been released with some interesting match-ups ahead.

chance and destrukt will meet each other in the second round after their heated encounter at the IVGHOF last weekend which saw destrukt forfeit to chance in the end out of frustration. According to DaHanG, destrukt has already proclaimed this "to be over already." proZaC has been practicing and is trying to make a real run at this year's event, but will have to face a tough sparks in the first round, and a determined stermy in the second. A stermy who's still one of the very few to take out rapha in a set of maps. On the other side of the bracket, unless draven can continue to impress and LoSt-CaUzE can make a next to impossible comeback, we will most likely be seeing Cypher versus strenx and Spart1e versus Cooller quarterfinals.

Evil Geniuses might find some opposition in compLexity on their way to the winner's bracket finals, but will probably arrive with relative ease. Fnatic and Deus want their shot at a rematch with EG, but shouldn't look too far ahead as they're in for a tight game with Loaded in the semifinals.

DaHanG says he isn't thrilled with Battleforged, and hopes a placebo will get him past rapha, if he makes it there.

John Carmack is still the most bad-ass programmer in the world and has managed to "do some fairly clever things" to get their new title Rage working on the iPhone - at 60 fps! It looks sick.

Carmack also announced a little QuakeCon gift, as he has released the source codes for Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Singleplayer) / Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Multiplayer) / Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. The source codes hold no game data, so you must have the games to access assets from each.

Doom 4 will not be shown at this year's QuakeCon, after id Software previously promised last year that it would be. CEO Todd Hollenshead commented that the company wanted to put more work into it before it was revealed.

id Tech 5 will apparently be for Bethesda titles only, with Hollenshead stating "I think that [Epic] made a strategic choice to focus on the middleware service stuff, and we never pretended to be focused on technology licensing...Epic's made a good business out of that so kudos to them, but I wouldn't change the way we've done things."

Lastly, you can buy every current id Software and Bethesda game right now through Steam $70. All of them. That's only slightly more than a year's subscription to Quake Live.

PS. I have contacted HEXUS Lead Developer Steve Kerrison (steve.kerrison@hexus.net) about the site load for this weekend, and he is making sure to keep ESR up and running for the duration of QuakeCon (and other major events from now on). Send him thanks.

The first day of QuakeCon 2010 has concluded. Evil Geniuses' Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty is seeded 5th in duel while his team took the top spot in CTF. He faces a rather tough road ahead of him with Alessandro "stermy" Avallone and nemesis Shane "rapha" Hendrixson in his path, and shares his thoughts going into tomorrow's matches.

Rod "Slasher" Breslau: You look to face stermy in the 3rd round of the bracket as your first real challenge, what are your thoughts going up against him here?

DaHanG: He's a very strong player that you can't afford to make mistakes against. I know he stepped up a bit at ESWC by defeating rapha in groups, so he's capable of playing great games. I am just hoping to feel comfortable at the tournament with my setup and just feel good in general (awake and alert). I don't think it's really worth thinking about too much though as we both are veterans and know how each other plays. It's just going to come down to who is playing better this particular match.

Players weren't able to play their first games today, what happened there?

DaHanG: Apparently the internet was down, and this is required to play the game. The internet was up later in the afternoon, but LAN servers were still not available. I don't know any technical details, but more games will be played Friday because of it - and I hope because I'm in both tournaments there aren't scheduling issues or personal fatigue. I hope things are VERY smooth tomorrow.

The full interview can be read on the next page.

Photo: SK-Gaming.com

The Quake-Live.TV team has touched down in Dallas, Texas to provide complete coverage of as much of QuakeCon 2010 as possible.

Renowned Quake casters James "2GD" Harding and Joe "Joe" Miller will broadcast the majority of the Intel Masters QUAKE LIVE Duel Championship, while QLTV's Steve "GreasedScotsman" Huff and Alex "Jehar" Popa will take over the Masters CTF Championship and Open Cup, as well as provide additional BYOC coverage.

For a tentative schedule of events, see the schedule page. Remember that the primary tournament coverage will be located at QuakeLive.com with secondary content available at Quake-Live.TV.


Links: Official Press Release, QuakeCon LIVE, Tournament Signups, Tournament Rules, @QuakeLive_TV, #QL.tv

Loaded, LLC -- Loaded, North America's renowned professional gaming organization, is proud to announce that today it will be picking up a Capture The Flag (CTF) team for the popular first-person shooter, Quake Live. The team, formerly known as DaFoneMen (DFM), consists of several talented and experienced players who will be representing Loaded at the upcoming QuakeCon 2010 event in Dallas, Texas.

Leading the team will be veteran Quake player, Kevin "KGB" Holowchik. Holowchik was a deciding factor in his former team, Who Run It, finishing an impressive second place in last year's QuakeCon tournament. Joining him will be Jeff "Flysher" Heakes, Justin "sparks" Sparks, and current Loaded player Gaven "whaz" Sorensen. The team has managed much success so far, quickly becoming one of the top teams in North American Quake Live CTF.

"I am excited to have this group representing us at the upcoming QuakeCon tournament," said Shashi "DetonatoR" Singh, Team Manager. "The team has just the right mixture of experience, talent, and hunger to be a challenge to any and every team in attendance. They've already proven themselves to be a force to be reckoned with in their results so far and I am confident they will showcase this in Texas."

"First and foremost, we would like to express our gratitude to team Loaded for their support," said Jeff "Flysher" Heakes. "We are very happy to represent Loaded who have quickly established themselves as one of the top professional gaming organizations in North America."

"As a newly formed team ourselves, we are especially excited to play at QuakeCon this year," explained Heakes. "In our first event playing together, we participated in the one-thousand dollar QUAD Gaming tournament and defeated the top two contenders in the North American scene to take the tournament. While it was a great start, we made sure not to let anything get into our heads as there is no place for egos on our squad. We have since grown much stronger as a team and believe to be serious contenders for this year’s CTF tournament."

About Loaded LLC:

Loaded, LLC is a professional multi-gaming organization where passion for esports and the desire to compete are first and foremost. Founded in June of 2009, Loaded has quickly risen toward the top of North American gaming and currently fields the top teams in Heroes of Newerth, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty 4, among highly talented teams in Counter-Strike 1.6 and Quake Live.