1 group game means nothing.
Cooller went on to win the whole tournament.
Toxic lost to 2 series to Fox, to Jibo and the crucial ZTN to Keeper, so he didn't even make it out of that group.
You are right, that is clear evidence that Toxic was the best Q3 player!
He wasn't even the best in Sweden, Fox clearly was! Toxic may have had a higher highest level of play when on a roll, but you just aren't all the time...
He may have been the best Q3 tdm player though, but even here i think that you could easily argue that Fox was better or at least equal.
I don't think he was serious... regardless, fox was better than toxic in tdm and duel both imo. i think czm had the highest "high" level of play ever witnessed in q3 also.
Questionable that fox was better in tdm, toxic was dominating long before fox joined ice climbers. As far as the czm comment goes, in terms of just any game with no circumstances applied you might have a point but one of the problems with czm seemed to be that in some high pressure situations he couldn't always turn on his 'A game' where all the great q3 players of their eras could in those situations. He certainly improved that element of his game over the years though.
kind of funny, I remember an interview with reptile or phantom, just some online event (might have been ESR invite) before toxic was known as a force to be reckoned with.
something along the lines of "you watch toxic from here on out" and voilą; everyone notices his inhuman aim and he begins to rise as a top 1v1 player.
Questionable, yes, but I still think fox was better (though their roles in 4v4 were very different and hard to compare. and well, not really much to say about their 2v2 game.)
Certainly agree that czm could fail under pressure, this is why I wrote he had the highest "high" level of play (meaning the level he was on when playing his very best.) Also, this might be wrong, but I think that czm only ever really failed due to pressure in 1v1, and always seemed on his A game in tdm and ctf?
i agree completely. when czm was an active tdm'er, his team simply didn't lose. he's certainly cracked in a few duel events though. threw away a "gimme" game vs DOOMer @ babbages to get knocked out, early runs at quakecon were disappointing, should have done better @ qlan2 (though credit goes to fooki for being so damned hot in that tourney), and then there's the infamous eswc.
another significant point is the EC q3 2v2 they won. fox's level of interest/commitment/shape was questioned throughout the season due to his heavy involvement in other activities at the time. but when push came to shove at the lan finals....fox carried tox big time.
i think cooller with a good day, and he has more good days than bad ones, wins toxic at any map. I like toxic style, i think it's the most spectacular player around but for clever and control player i think cooller wins, and one important thing it's mentality, cooller has really strong mentality, only my point of view.
with all the you are nothink on lan-stuff going on before this, this is the best thing that has ever happened. i smiled, and i'm gonna keep on smiling 'til i die.
Anyway, hasn't cooller beat toxic more times on this map?
I remember the QLAN games (I think) being epic, he lost the first dm6 game then totally fucked him up in the next, couldn't do shit against his strategy.
and of course, quakecon.
Still toxic an extremely impressive player none the less, but regardless of what stupid idiots believe beast aim is not going to allow you to be the best.
the first ten min are just perfect play by cooller, but see toxic only loses by 5 or 6 frags at the end. I think many players would lost his concentration seeing no armor on the map and really aggressive play and aim by cooller, but toxic stands up and keep fighting, i think this is a really impressive demo.
In all fairness though, they were quotes from Cooller that he used to taunt Tox. "All rail and no brain". That was originally a taunt by cooller at tox, and tox used coollers own quote against him. That's the beauty of it.
edit: I assume this is that match. if it's not then my apology. I have not dl'ed this demo in the last 3 reformats, and may have this particular game wrong. If this is the one I think it is though, then yeah, Cooller had it coming.
Edited by eXg. f0cus at 15:25 CST, 27 December 2007
I think toxic reached a new level of play in q4, if he plays q3 at eswc this year i could see him taking top3 maybe...he dominated q3 at qcon but never played anyone that great in it besides fox if i remember correctly