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?

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)! :)