Those guys influenced our lives. They became our rolemodels. They dedicated part of their lives to this game – playing it from hundreds to thousands of hours. For some people they meant more than Tiger Woods or Wayne Gretzky. But who are they? Which impression do they make as a people and as players? Here’s the short list of Quake 3 players who influenced my gaming life and my real life in a way as well. I started following Quake 3 scene around 2004 so I am sorry if some famous names are missing, that is, because I don’t know much about those players and don’t want to rely on some gossips. I would also like to see your opinions on this matter, on the players, and also on my analysis. This is also based on the interviews I’ve read, ingame behavior and some related articles.


As people

Av3k : This dude was talking about getting a girl when he was like 14-15. I was always like: omg? Why would he want to ruin his life that early :-) We could see that he wants to wear fashionable clothes and look good. On last events we could see that he gained some muscle… End of jokes. Av3k is no longer a kid like some of the older quakers (e.g. me) think, while we’ve been following his gaming career since his early OSP online matches; I guess he’s good nerves.

Cooller : In the past he influenced a lot of players, seemed like a perfectionist, great role model, with very strong will to practice, will to become the best and so on. Hungry for tournaments. Later on his focus seemed to be somewhere else (I would guess – girls, school, work). He overall seems like a funny good guy (with all his lg,rg,dancing floor quotes) although I could see he easily became angry when something went wrong, but I guess that’s how it is, when people are deeply concentrated. Hard worker and talented. In some of the latest tourneys I could see the "I don’t care attitude".

Cypher: Popular in last few years. Very confident, very hard working. He seems literally pissed off when he loses. I can’t say I like his attitude in some ways but overall OK. Friendly guy giving good answers in interviews.

CZM: This guy seems like a really friendly type and very intelligent. He makes a great role model, because he’s obviously successful in life (Outside Q3 that is) with his own game and math successes and in the game as well. Good analytical thinking, interesting practice methods and patience, this guy seems like a hardworker with a good discipline. I always laughed when watching his Interview videos.

fooki : Hm I think this guy is also not that talkative. But he seems like a really nice person! I remember few interviews with him, the best one for, me was undoubtedly the one with another quake player, I guess it was 2GD and they were in some French restaurant or anything like that. It was hilarious. I believe his self-confidence isn’t high though.

Fox: I think he’s naturally intelligent guy (in different way than czm). Maybe he’s not that patient or become nervous when there’s huge pressure, but that’s the case of many people. He seems funny, giving good answers in interviews. Good looking guy, with good sense of humor I think if he did something else than playing Quake, with more people around, he’d be surrounded by girls all the time :-)

Jibo: I believe this happy looking guy has many friends and is successful in so called R.L. I don’t know much about him, but I guess he’s hardworking and patient. I don’t see him as an individualist more like some team worker :-)

Noctis: Became popular in last few years. I think this guy is also smart (like the foxes intelligence), but he seems kind of moody, not that consistent I’d say. I also think he might be a bit lazy. He seems to have great amount of talent. I can’t remember any interview with him, but he’s often here on ESR so I can say he gives smart answers and has good sense of humor.

Toxic : Pure heavyweight with huge muscles. Expect to be KO’d in the first round! I remember Toxic from past as a quite guy, later on, he seemed to gain confidence, not only in RL but also in duels. I have read some interviews with this guy, I guess he doesn’t like joking that much or does but only with his friends. When I think of Toxic I somehow recall Kimi Räikönnen. I would both define them as „Silent assassins“.

Z4muZ : I think of this guy as of a confident player. With good mindset. I believe I am not that from truth since he successfully played or maybe still plays poker. And there, he must have proven, that he’s a good pretender and cheater with nerves of steel :-) Which might be a fine background to be good at quake.

Zero4: This guy didn’t make a good impression on me. From the interviews, in-game behavior, trashtalk, he seems like a guy with too big ego and seems OVERconfident, maybe it was mostly fun from his side, but I don’t know that, as an ordinary guy staying outside, representing the public. He also seems like a hard worker.


As players

Av3k : Seems like a well-balanced player with dynamic style. Don’t know of his best weapon, maybe railgun. But as for the map I would pick ztn, he was doing well there and had lots of demos from there. I picked him because raged poles wanted him here. No:-), I did, because he’s done good job in the online matches and last year he was doing great in CPMA vq3 LANs.

Cooller: Brain, brain, brain :-) I have this impression, because he used to time many items at once while effectively fighting his opponent and that was something rarely to be seen. Known for his railgun hating attitude. His favorite maps seemed to be ztn and pdm6. If I should name some weapon when I hear the name of "Cooller", it would be shaft.

Cypher: Fast, faster, the fastest! Positioning of this guy is on really great level, his speed seemed insane and aim great as well. I recommend watching demos against czm, there you can see the difference in speed of those two. His favorite map, I am not sure but he does great on ztn, pdm6, pt4 afaik… ZTN. If I should summarize the patterns of his game I’d say it’s "dynamic".

CZM: Good strategy, patience, very good aim, famous for his railgun shooting on a short distance. I remember his shaft from QCON 2004 which he won. That shaft seemed on another level than the rest of the comp. If I am not mistaken he said something like he practiced aim for this one with his sister or something like that :-) Map? Obviously hub3aeroq3 as he was the first player to master it and was on completely different level than the others. Weapon? Railgun

Fooki : His favourite map, like month ago I would pick dm6 but I’ve seen some kind of quote in his QL profile saying to not make him play any more dm6, so I am kind of afraid to claim that now! As a weapon, that’s difficult one for me, maybe lg. He’s been with us for a long time, winning e.g. QLAN2, I guess. He definitely fits in my list well.

fox: More of a TDM player. Great aim. I Can’t forget his games in team with toxic. It seemed like those two played in their own league and were competing only with each other (Who gets the better NET, gets more kills and so on) his TDM games were always so nice to watch. I enjoyed mostly the pdm6 games, where he mastered the RA ‘panel?’ part of the map and kept killing enemies from there in so many different ways. Weapon? RG. Maps? Dm6 or pt4.

Jibo: I think he’s great TDM player, does great in duel too but not as good as in TDM. So he might resemble fox, but in Jibo‘s case I believe he’s worse in TDM and better in duel. His cpma vq3 shaft was ferocious, although he lost legendary 200/200 x 100/200 battle against Av3k on ztn. Map? Ztn. Weapon? Lg

Noctis: I know him only since the cpma vq3 era so it’s kind of hard to judge his play style. He definitely seems to be one of the best in TDM, that’s for sure. In duel it’s different case, I personally don’t think he likes this mode that much. Sometimes you see him play very good and sometimes he’s almost like a middle skilled player. I think he’s more of a TDM guy. I am not sure about his fav. weapon, don’t know his favorite map either. He seems to be consistent on many maps, can’t remember to see him playing pt4 in duel that much.

Toxic : I think I don’t have to say, that his favourite weapon would be railgun, or at least the most feared one. I wouldn’t pick pdm6 or pt4 against him, that’s for sure. Some people think that his lg is nothink on LAN, I am not that convinced. As mentioned in the fox part, they made a great 4v4 team and I guess even better team for 2v2. I remember them playing under tag iC, owning everyone and therefore I picked him. I think that QIV duels were somehow better for him than duels in Q3 though for some reason.

Z4muZ : At his prime, I guess it might’ve been around 2003-04 he did well on all maps. I personally liked his ztn and pt4 matches. I wouldn’t like to eat one of his slugs or take some of that lightning beam, so best guns – railgun,lg. But I have to mention his rockets were great too so again well-balanced player. I liked his playing style the most, it made me sad in a way, that he stopped wasting his time with Quake 3.

Zero4: I guess his cpma vq3 career was too short to judge. In OSP he is famous for mastering pt4 map, I believe he was almost as dominating as czm on aero at his time. I remember well placed rockets, so his fav. Weapon I ‘d say RL. Patient player, good positioning, successfully finding good opportunities to attack.

Many more guys should be posted here, they deserve to be listed, but I don’t want to make this too long. I think I should also mention girls who come on my mind when I hear the word "Quake 3": Liefje, trito, Missy, Barbie, Ms.X, and obviously Quetz, she’s the one with higher skill than the other listed girls. She’s incredibly active in tournaments so I guess she loves competing. Although those girls haven’t ever been close to top, they definitely have their place here, and they might be legends in a way too, why not?

I hope you had fun reading this. It’s full of personal opinions and I am not stating it as a truth! :-) It’s just my point of view as quake 3 fan and don’t get me wrong as a player too. As for the last point, I am sorry for my english111

Added some big names, have fun guys.