Can you recall what obstacles you had to overcome before taking your game to the professional level and how you approached fixing or bettering them?

Chance: I remember timing being one important hurdle I had to better understand then overcome in my game-play. Kronos, a friend, rival, and former top player in North America, taught me invaluable information on timing and the usefulness of understanding it all. I learned how to position myself by watching his demos/recordings and I ended up building a more 'aim-heavy' style to my movement.

On a side note, I know many aspiring gamers are finding there aren't many worthwhile 'skill enhancement' guides to Quake. Very few professional players offer advice and the available lessons found throughout the internet are often outdated and useless in competition. I'm looking to change this by writing a guide in the near future on this subject which should help players build their own strategy in-game. Ideally, I'd like to provide to other aspiring gamers tools that I just didn't have available when I was first taking Quake seriously, but that can also help them advance in their skill at a measurable speed.

• Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024x768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection

Sign-ups start: Tuesday, February 16th
Sign-ups end/seeding starts: Wednesday, March 10th
Seedings end/starts on period, all clans have the chance to comment the seeds before they eventually get adjusted: Wednesday, March 17th
First match week: Monday, March 29th – Sunday, April 4th

1. Who Run It - winner of div 1!
2. s.o.y
3. lights out
4. FILP*
5. IneXorable Dominance
6. INFAMY
7. LordsofQuake - winners of div 2!
8. Pramedics
9. FILP**
10. pipeline
11. Kitten's Litter
12. Fire In The Hole - winners of div 3!
13. Clutch Impact Gaming
14. madd
15. {IDK} Hells Haven
16. QuakeLove
17. The Lou Krew

This week brought no shocks, as all favorites managed to win 2:0 except for the Czech Republic, which got one point from the match vs Italy.
The most interesting clash in this week was Austria vs Serbia, where game one was unexpectedly even for most of the time.

Match of the Week
Holland agaist Finland. Despite losing first map by 6 frags and the second by 34, the Finns had a great game.

All went as expected until Sweden - Finland match. The Swedish team was taken by surprise by the Finns and lost to them 1-2.
Another mentionable match was Ukraine vs Slovakia, in which the Slovak underdogs gave their opponents a hard time and forced the match to go into a 3rd map, where the favorites from Ukraine managed to win.

Match of the Week
Finland against Sweden, absolutely. The 'Svenskar' underestimated their rival, or it certainly seemed so by not having the strongest possible lineup (and not deciding to use the wildcard). Altough they won the first map, the Finnish team showed that they'd better not be taken lightly and won the next two maps on dm14 and 20, by 10 and 7 frags respecitvely.

Week 3 brought us a number of great matches with some suprises in both group A and B. The first one is matter again, with winning their match against Ukraine only 2-1 and possibly complicating their way into playoff.

Match of the Week
A very dramatic fight, Russia / Iceland. Just see it by yourselves :)

The most important match of group C has been played this week. Highly seeded Austrian team has met with Germany, where Germans desperately needed to win, so they could ensure their chance to advance to playoff. Germans unfortunately lost this match and team Austria took 2 points and kicked team Germany from the group.

Match of the Week
This week's best match was United Kingdom vs Iceland. Both teams were quite confident to beat their opponent so we could expect great match. United Kingdom won this match by small frag difference in both maps.

13:30 CST, 17 February 2010 - Czech Republic vs Hungary (bet)
15:00 CST, 19 February 2010 - Poland vs Hungary (bet)

Is your practice schedule more intense the bigger the event is or does your practice routine often stay the same?
As long as there are events on the horizon I tend to play 10-15 hours a week. Not necessarily duel though. I play a lot of CTF since I enjoy the game on its own and the community. But as an event nears I definitely put in more time - usually 20-30 hours the week or two before the event. Since the time limit is 10 you can feel like you got a lot more done without necessarily a whole week dedicated to the game as if it's a full time job. I'm going to try to take whatever steps necessary to get in top form whether it means playing a lot or staying fresh and avoiding a burnout. We'll see how it goes.

Speaking of the time different does the travelling hinder you at all? Having to travel such a long way does jet lag and the time difference give your more challenges to overcome?
I think it has and does. For me personally, I tend to stay up late. So for me I believe gaining 6-7 hours isn't nearly as difficult as losing 6-7 hours. Going from America to Europe, we lose hours so it can be very difficult to adjust within just one day of the tournament. This time I intend to arrive 2-3 days early, so there will be no room for excuses. I also play on day 2 of the tournament, so that's even another day. I'm confident that it won't even be a factor this time.

1: rapha
2: DaHanG
3: Vo0
4: Griffin
5: dkt
6: zero4
7: tehnewbz
8: swooped
9: gellehsak
10: pl4gue
11: outlaw
12: kmrey
13: whaz
14: kgb
15: sparks
16: kmflame

gatorsmashed
dCoy
john
blatrix
semaJWD
zamN
lonewulf
TiLter
untouch4bl3
everkill
mOrtal1
erickeK
Stywo0
weeja
erok
Monty

Mode: Duel
Date: every Sunday
Time: check in 07:00 CDT, start 08:00 CDT
Prize: 100€ for 1st place
Mappool: dm6, ztn, dm13, t7, t9