The 7th edition of the ESWC. In order to attend to the final, all champions will have to qualify through ESWC national selections and ESWC Masters from October 2008 to June 2009.
According to placings at finals, I think Rapha is in better "shape" than Cooller.
Av3k is disgustingly good right now, just from his showing at GameGune and the games against Jibo are o.O. He had a bunch of very close games against Cypher at Masters. I would definitely give Av3k 2nd seed ez.
And considering the games are on CRTs, we'll see a lot of Cypher's and Av3k's aggressive styles come out next Friday. It's gonna be awesome!
His recent q3 record:
1st GameGune
3rd ESWC Masters (lost to Cypher)
-He was unable to participate in ESWC Finals due to visa problems (he was defending champion)
JIbo has better aim and is a hell of a lot more practical with it as is cypher
toxic aim is going to be hot no doubt but it's not going to be anything out of the norm as now the top majority of the players all have the same aiming abilities (to some extent).
Well, in other thread you listed Cooller as Top 3, then Cooller gets high seed. But I suppose it makes sense cause I wouldn't put him at medium seed anyhow. Nvm
cooller will hit back, he needs his revenge from the eswc finals (altho that maybe was a revenge as well from the americans from the ni3-case back in '01).
with cypher winning this tourney being just a formality the big match everyone will want to see is toxic vs cooller, hope they both make it past groups and meet up at some stage :)
Sometimes time off is a good thing to clear away bad habits... at least, I think so. Besides, I've heard Toxjq been playing lots of QL and wiping the floors with people so his aim/movement shouldn't be rusty.
EDIT: Although, I still agree with you. Probably will be Rapha and Fox who advance.
I can imagine what the GTV spam is gonna be like for Toxjq games, though... "Toxjq is nothink on lan", "Considering it's on good monitors.", etc.
Also, I think I remember Toxjq saying he thought he was better at Q3 duels than Q4 duels.
toxjq is strong on dm6 and pretty good on ztn, but he used to loose on t4, now with new system of dropping maps (new for him) he might have much better chances
and he was beating recently fox at quakecon 2007 on dm6, so he's not really out of shape
i can't say tox will win, but i can say it's a safe expectation for him to do well
i hear he wasn't so good in Q3 duels, as he was mostly a TDM player
but im sure his duel skills have matured a great deal, so we shall see
Groups A and C are clear though L1nkin may take a map from Av3k\RazerJ. In B Fox and Tox will go 2 the next round. Just my opinion so dont flame me, Rapha is a cool guy and everything, but i think tox will advance xD
Group D will be interesting: Spartie can beat cooler as he showed it on GameGune. He even took a pro-nodm9 from him in group D and won 2:0, he although lost the 5-6 place match. But if they had played aero, who knows?
And if anyone then cooler is capable of beating cypher...
Im so looking forward to it xDDD
one group with three solid players and in this case that's inevitable
it doesn't matter how these groups are done I can't see them being done any better apart from favoring someone like toxic and making sure he's in a near sure win group but then that means 1 player who is proven is going to be fucked over
well try then and keep ur pants up just for a few hours before the show begins
I can't promise u my daughter, but she must keepin' an eye on you, for sure (now that you revealed wonderfull news to the people)
imo killsen is way better than jibo, the main difference though is that jibo hardly ever makes a mistake because of his playstyle whereas killsen takes a lot of risks and plays so fast that he sometime fucks up. But that's just like cooller th, if you remember his ztn aganst zero4 which he almost stupidly lost...
k1llsens rail will be the hell. and his rockets will also do some extra-damage in comparison to the tft-stuff. besides that, do you really think that a crt-monitor would affect the outcome in such a big way? k1llsens strengths are a great maplock, annoying rockets/rails, nice tactics and really strong nerves. he never fucks up, and plays to the end. (game against griffin doesnt count, cause he knew that he would win the other map/maps)
and to the groups, i'd expect to see rapha having better chances to advance, than fox/toxic. he's a really all-rounded player and has best possibilitys to safe a mapwin on hub and dm9. on the other maps hes also on a level where it will be a 50/50 chance who wins.
to spartie ... well he had a big motivation-blocker since he didnt got invited directly and stopped practicing. but since a few days he kept on playing and will hopefully be in shape till the tourney. he's definately a player, that can show us some big upsets! (remeber the cooller interview "i couldnt feel my mouse in the early games")
and now i'm waiting for next weekend to have sone awesome gtv-nights! :D
"nice tactics and really strong nerves. he never fucks up, and plays to the end"
I thought these are his weaknesses. The game that he fucked up against fox (in CPL Italy I think) went down to the history as one of the biggest fuck ups in Q3. Personally, I have never seen anyone play that stupid, like he did in that game. Have seen him done it other times as well. I feel like when he is nervous (and he definitely is) his IQ drops at least a good 20 points.
it means germans are always low thinkers under pressure -a rumor I have read in some book about WWII
w/o beer I mean maybe if they are drunk they go better
did not want to sound too phylosophical anyway, more fooling around :P
nono - killsen imho not a pretendent on win... on eswc he did lose to fox in group1 and in second group he was with chanse and czm... and stupid match vs jibo in semifinal...
rapha imho now can to win whole champ - most intellegent player now and avek have good chances...
was just talking to k1llsen. he said his group will be easy.
and he said rapha and av3k are in germany bootcamping. they invited him too, but he has no time, because of the family ^^ so he just started training today
Should not have Tox Fox and Rapha in same group, losing a good player when group A has Noctis, Matr0x and Puppet? Exchange any of those with Tox so that we arent losing one of the potential winners.
Cypher was dominating the last q3 tourneys (in which Toxjq didnt take place).... I would like to know what will happen when Cypher will meet Toxjq again :D
Cypher mentioned he knows what to do to win but did he thought of Toxjq?
who will be the machine?
I'm actually quite amazed at all the people thinking tox will make it past the group stage (though I'd be the first one to say it would be awesome if he won the whole thing.)
As far as predictions go (have in mind that I've never even once heard of any of the Greek players):
Group A
K1llsen
Noctis
Matrox might steal a spot if either of the first two mess up.
Group B
Rapha
Fox
But please God make tox prove me wrong for awesomeness
Group C
Av3k
RazerJ
Linkin might have a shot if he decides to be Russian this event
Group D
Cypher
Cooller
Spartie has beaten Cooller before, but Cooller is bestest player ever.
i agree. i don`t really see tox advancing. he´s a great player, but not really a prooven q3 dueler and had a looong break. but he might cause an upset in this group
While this is true, the question is for tox and Cooller both how well they'll perform today. The game has changed and everyone is a tad more skilled than back in '05. I really hope tox wins it all though.
EDIT: I don't think Cooller cares anymore about winning, imo... he's proven himself time and time again. Now he's just the old, grizzled warrior of the past and more just about showing up and being there for his sponsors.
Unless Cooller is like Michael Jordan and can't stop himself from taking the challenge of getting back into top form, I doubt we'll see any top finishes from him.
Personally I believe cooller plays as much as he always did before a tourney. He ALWAYS claimed to barely practice and prepare, even when he won. If you aren't prepared and you lose...well there's your excuse. If you win...you are that much better then everyone else. It's a great excuse for cooller to constantly use. I think he's simply past his prime, and no longer a top player at the game. Look at the seeds. Cypher/Av3k/Rapha vs Fox/Cooller/jibo...there's quite a big age difference. It's just kinda funny how the young guys are stepping up, while the old guys are stepping down. Don't get me wrong, the old guys are still awesome..but they used to be better. Don't really care for cooller, never have, when he was younger playing in tourneys he was a cocky sob with some lame excuse all the time.