In the 11 years I have followed Q3 and QL, tonight was the saddest "e-sports moment" I have ever experienced. Yes, I'm a Cooller fanboy, and his retirement was "sad", so to say, but Av3k's brief speech was several magnitudes harder to swallow than Cooller's long-since-expected translated announcement.

Well of course it fucking was! Not only was it completely unexpected, but Av3k is, for me, and I dare say 99% of the Quake community, the most heartwarming guy to have ever graced the world of Quake since the early days, with a positive attitude, charisma and friendly character only rivalled by Cypher himself. His actual Quake skills do not even need to be mentioned here, everyone knows that the name Av3k is synonymous with aggressive and intelligent pure Quake skill.

To see this grown man who we have all supported without exception over the years, announce a sudden and solemn retirement from Quake out of the blue, motivated primarily by his unsatisfaction with his own performance just hours earlier, is a truly heartwrenching sight. The amount of love for Av3k pouring out of the stream chat at that moment was a monument to this. If you disagree, this thread isn't for you, and I truly hope you die in a fire.

He was on the verge of tears, and anyone who has Quake running through their veins who witnessed that speech no doubt was too. Not tears of weakness, but tears of nostalgia, heroism and above all appreciation for him consistently being not only a magnificent Quaker but also a great human being. Don't deny it, faggots.

Even when he was playing against each of our own personal favourite Quakers, we never felt bad if he won, not a single thought of hate towards Av3k ever crossed our minds, and even after he stated his dislike for the average ESR user mentality and thread content, we somehow never took offense. How can you take offense to such an awesome dude?

He was right after all, which made the part where he apologized for his famous comments even sadder. He didn't need to apologize! We ARE a bunch of dicks. For fucks sake he was the only one , as far as I know, with enough balls to come out and say it how it is.

One small thing that stuck with me more than anything else is how he suggested that he didn't have much of a life because all he has ever done was Quake. Well let's let him know that he was more than just a Quaker, he was one of the most inspiring and talented players of the greatest multiplayer game ever invented by humanity, and that is quite an achievement, and even if due to stereotypes and general uneducation our society is currently too retarded to recognize this fact as common knowledge, at least we recognize it as a community, and we are many.

THANK YOU MACIEJ, FOR BEING WHO YOU ARE

Needless to say, we all wish Av3k the best in his future.

I've lost track of where I was going with this but my original intentions were just to make an Av3k Appreciation Thread where we can all show that the community loves him like a true broheim, and will do forever, so feel free to let your feelings run free while you show Av3k that his pain is understood by every true Quaker out there. Post pics & fragmovies too! And someone make Av3k the greatest motherfucking fragmovie ever made!!!

No homo.