he's still a great player and played way better than I expected him to... but I doubt that he has the motivation it takes to really train that much. its guys like av3k who are very young and still have the time + dedication to practice all day 24/7
The irony is the players who you deem as better now were simply not good enough when old school players were at the top of their game at a time when Q3 was really popular. I assure you they were dribbling over z4.czm, cooller demos.
Quake III has made its star players a long time ago. I would say 2004/2005 was the last time eveyone really cared about q3 cos there was nothing really worth playing for after that.
So if you didnt do it then then you might well be better than some of the top players from then, but its only because they have all been there, done that and simply moved on to the point where they no longer train like they used to in that game.
All the top placing players at ESWC masters were the ones who played in WSVG and Quake 4 after Q3.
Consistency.
I'll put tons of money on a player that has kept playing SOME version of Quake competitively consistently, then a really good old-school Quake 3 player who hasn't touched the game in 3 years.