Yesterday the announcement was made that the swedish Quake star Magnus "fox" Olsson would be joining the Belgian multi-gaming team LowLandLions. Fox will be representing his new clan in multiple Quake 3 events this year such as ESWC Masters, GameGune and QuakeCon
The swedish Quake 3 and Quake 4 player has been clanless since his contract with Fatal1ty's free players organization ran out.
I have been to Finland *and* to Warlock's basement and I can assure you Warlock's basement is much nicer. Apparently, soon there'll be Scandinavians in Warlock's basement too and then it'll be ruined, but until then it's definitely much nicer than Finland.
Uhm, the last few years the real estate prices here went up twice the rate of the ones abroad. Right now it's getting kinda ridiculous as it's already hard for the highly educated people to buy something decent.
ah, well my parents got friends in belgium, dutch people who moved to there, but your a bit right yes, you gotta be welthy and got a good job to get all this.
Well it still depends on the area offcourse. Areas around Brussels and "Leuven" (where we'd like to buy something :/) are up to a few 100k euros more expensive than other places.
Also what you're talking about is people still working in holland but living right across the border because that indeed has some benefits. I can't remember what they are tho, feel free to enlighten me :)
it's because there's no capital tax in Belgium. Also, the area near the Dutch border is relatively cheap to live since it's not economic heartland - you can only live there if you have a job there or no job at all - so perfect for wealthy retirees. Try buying a nice house near Brussels though and you have to compete with all the Eurocrats - gets expensive. Still, any place in Belgium or Holland is cheap compared to, say, the City in London.
but then "black sheep" doesn't suggest that he's *trying* to sound cool. "lowlandlions" otoh is just embarassing. it's probably because all the cool clan names like, oh, say, "Cicatrix", were already taken.
Okay, where does this come from? Has anyone in an official position with SK or anyone from their Quake-team actually said, that SK doesn't want to send them anywhere? Or is this just some "fight the power" thing?
I can see that they're not attending and that they're with the same team. Does that mean that SK buttfucked them or might there be another reason? I was asking for some proof that SK's intentions for their players are bad--something that everyone in here seems to know for a fact that they are.
look at the prizemoney? look where rapha and zero4 are from... america? how on earth does sending them benefit SK in any way?
fox on the other hand is european and they would for sure of sent him, fox never intended to join SK, he had other teams in mind im sure of that, some were not looking to take on quake 3 until they see quake live develop further, others he simply turned down himself when they gave him an offer
LLL offered everything he wanted, and he has good relations with the manager from the FreePlayers organisation so that seems pretty positivet to me.
But maybe your right, he didnt want to take the risk with SK, but i can assure you, the outcome would have been different regarding gamegune anyway and therefore i can conclude you are talking rubbish and just flaming unnecessarily.
ESWC is BIG, and not only can you win money but you gain entry to the finals, if someone was going to decide between GAMEGUNE and ESWC, it would be ESWC, and this... if it wasnt due to the player is exactly what happened.
do you find this hard to understand? it explains why the players are actually attending masters, travelling this distance makes zero economic sense, however going to masters does because people actually care about this event, like anyone gives a shit about gamegune in the competitive community.
do you see eu teams running off to the USA to play in random tournaments? no, did you see some eu teams running off to the USA to play CPL (yes ok it did turn out to be a joke, but it still doesnt change the point i am making) and QuakeCon? YES... ie. get a clue please.
certain high caliber teams are not signing quake players yet until they see how quake live develops, others have because they see potencial.. agp tour? sending 1 person is far cheaper than sending 5 or even 6, signing certain players earlier will secure them for the future if everything goes to plan... just think about it.
travelling this distance makes zero economic sense, however going to masters does because people actually care about this event
economic sense has a lot to do with "caring" about the event. fail number one.
do you see eu teams running off to the USA to play in random tournaments? no, did you see some eu teams running off to the USA to play CPL (yes ok it did turn out to be a joke, but it still doesnt change the point i am making) and QuakeCon? YES... ie. get a clue please.
this is a random statement, has nothing to do with this. fail number two.
certain high caliber teams are not signing quake players yet until they see how quake live develops
quake live especially has nothing to do with sk behaving in a retarded way. they want the best for their players? they want them to win eswc? in that case, its really smart to avoid gamegune, which is 2x stronger tournament than eswc masters, cause they expect them to get in shape for san jose with online practicing vs random us pickups. have to be stupid to support a stupid. fail number three.
it really is not that difficult to understand?
no, i get it. you talk a lot of shit without any brains or facts to back it up.
whether i am right with the SK situation or not its still true 99% of teams
i dont enjoy socialising with people like you however entertaining it may be because it just inflates my ego, and i am told its far too big for my boots already, so this is an official goodbye.
I often wonder why people sponsor quake players too, its the game i love and only game i would spectate really but at the same time i dont see what return people get from their sponsorship.
Especially when they sponsor randoms that have no real chance at winning an event or even getting in the top 5 like some of the signings i have seen recently lol. Where is the return for the companies?
companies often push products that they actually lose on for lots of reasons
LLL picking fox is a major step for them and while it may seem a bit weird fox happens to be the perfect candidate as he's a very promising contender for 3 major upcoming events. That's a whole lot of leverage for them when it comes to boasting achievements for potential sponsors.
4kings going for ddk is the same kind of thing. Not to take a stab at ddk (he fucking rocks) but in terms of established skill it was another weird choice (you would think someone like fox would go here). Right away they have ddk being invited to the tournament of the year and winning the national competition: two achievements for nothing and more pulling power for sponsors.
they (sponsors) don't have a clue if ddk is super skilled or not, but you tell them he got an invite to France, America and won his national competition, it looks brilliant on paper.
As long as it looks good on paper then all is well. you only need to take a look at idiots like nvc getting selected for masters. his achievements were a load of sugar coated bullshit but it probably looked somewhat impressive as a huge list same likely applies to dongjin and so on
how do you know 4k didnt try for fox too? ddk invited to masters? he was 3rd choice, then ddk winning eswc uk? there were 3 contestants, both who do not even play q3. Now he hasnt done that well at masters, so why flame me? do you see my name on masters? have i ever said i was going? no, These guys are the best in q3, did i think i was going to do well? no. Ever considered thats the reason i never accepted the invite when i got it? probably not.
Just because a player is from one nationalitiy or plays actively doesntmean he deserved an invite, in the 3rd party eyes as you said, sure, that eswc result is "worthy". But even so, ddk turning up and losing every game is more of a reason to flame his motive to actually going than me who turned it down.
Maybe he thought the same as me about only going because it would be fun, however he has been practicing ALOT, much more than i would have and so ofcourse I don't have anything against him going either, i am glad he went and for how much he prepared i think he does deserve it and i do agree with another UK player going, i am simply pointing out that it makes no real sense to refer to me or my invite when i am not and was never going to be there. Also for the record, the only achievements i put down were q4 tdm, 2.
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