Rod "
Slasher" Breslau reports:
Photo credit:
GotFrag.com
Paul "czm" Nelson has announced that he will be signing with the North American-based gaming organization Evil Geniuses. He will represent EG during his stint at the ESWC Masters event in late June, as well as any other additional Quake 3 events this year.
"I look forward to representing EG at the ESWC Masters event in Paris, and subsequently working with them to develop my side-career as a professional gamer," tells the CalTech grad student. "It has been a while since I last competed in Quake 3, and it should be quite exciting and challenging to compete against today's best players."
The last event Nelson participated in was his championship run at CPL Winter 2006, a dominating performance over such international stars as Anton "Cooller" Singov, Zhibo "Jibo" Fan, and Alexander "Z4muZ" Ihrfors. Included in that run was his remarkable comeback against his arch-nemesis Singov, climbing back from a 13-2 deficit on pro-q3dm6 to secure victory with only a sliver of health.
Team EG Executive Director Alex Garfield who has put together winning squads in Counter-Strike and Call of Duty 4, but is still missing an international victory, looks forward to his newest prospect. "It's an honor for EG to be part of Paul's first long-term commitment to a professional gaming organization. He's a player who's been courted by many organizations over the past five years, and I'm glad that he sees in EG what I see in EG; I think we were the best fit for him, and we're going to give him more support than he's ever had before."
Throughout Nelson's Quake 3 history, which includes 24 first place finishes both Online and LAN, he has represented the legendary American team clan Kapitol. cK was also the launching ground for current Championship Gaming Series host and gaming superstar Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. As teammates, Nelson and Wendel won all three major TDM LAN tournaments, sweeping Battletop NYC, FRAG4 and QIL4 in 2000-2001. In 2005, Nelson had a short stint with Check-Six for that year's ESWC, where the relationship ended shortly after. Now he heads back to ESWC for the inaugural Masters event, hoping to quality for the Grand Finals in San Jose later this year.
"I told Paul just recently that in my opinion this is an absolutely crucial tournament; that we may very well be witnessing a Quake renaissance in professional gaming," Garfield says of the upcoming event. "Honestly, though, he didn't need me to tell him that. The guy knows how to prepare; he's been doing this (i.e., winning Quake competitions) for a little while, and I'm sure he'll show up ready to go."
Nelson will be busy even up until the Masters event, with school until mid-June and then workshops until the end of June. He hopes to get in 30 hours of playtime before the event starts, and is doubtful of being able to bootcamp beforehand. In the four months leading up the CPL Winter '06 event, Nelson only totaled 25 hours of playtime.
"It's pretty cool. I really like Paul and its a nice to boost to our lineup," Nelson's new teammate Chance "chance" Lacina says, eager to get some good practice in. "I've often debated on what is actually the optimal way to practice. It's better on your confidence to practice against weaker players (toxjq style), but on the other hand getting inside the head of other strong players (zero4/rapha style) is also important."
Current Team EG General Manager and former professional gamer Andy "gellehsak" Ryder welcomes more deathmatch brethren into the fold. "I'm glad to have Paul apart of the squad. He needs no introduction when it comes to the world of deathmatch, as he is considered the best player ever to touch Quake 3. Not only will we help him play at his absolute best for upcoming events, but he will definitely be a great addition in helping out the rest of our squad in preparations for tournaments."
Nelson will make sure he's ready, busy schedule or not. He's given only the highest demands for himself for his first event back.
"I've always been a contender for first, even when out of practice. I'm shooting for top 12 at Masters to make my winning run at the finals -laughs-."
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