Let’s be honest here, after seeing day one of ESWC, history writes itself again. Quake Live is once again hurting the community. Why? Day one of ESWC saw little matches. Nothing was on schedule due to one simple problem.

ID Software.

Now, this isn't entirely their fault. If the world was perfect and if networks ran flawlessly, we could have had a good day one. But even if we had perfect internet and Jesus working at ID Software, the event STILL wouldn't have been as good as it could have been, had we have been playing Quake 3.

I'm going to list reasons why we should push for Quake 3. This is year two of playing Quake Live, think back to two years ago. Have tournaments really been BETTER in two years? No, they haven't.

- Quake 3 offers GTV - Allowing thousands of people to watch ANY game they want from their home. They don't need to rely on a stream, or anything else, but their Quake 3 client. Any person from around the world can watch their favorite player with ANY SETTING THEY WANT. Low bandwith costs from a tournament organizer.

- Quake 3 offers LAN support - ANY tournament can run a Quake 3 LAN tournament. Zero hassle, other than their network problems. You don't need to run internet servers, or have any ID Software employee be at the event, or configure the server from the internet. You don't even NEED internet to run a Quake 3 LAN Tournament (unless you want GTV offered to your users).

- Quake 3 offers map support - With Quake Live, we're not in control of our content. If we want to play a map in a tournament, we can't, unless ID allows it. This means we wait years for content, as ID has to go through numerous legal measures to allow a map to be played in Quake Live. What do we do in Quake 3? Download it and put it on the server. This means we have control of a map pool, NOT ID software. CTF would thrive from this (CP9 anyone?), TDM, and duel. All games modes would.

- Quake 3 allows for community decided rules - With Quake 3, we can decide time limits, weapon respawn rules, etc. We can make matches 15 minutes if we want to, or 10 minutes. We can decide. WE have control. Quake Live FORCES five second weapon respawn, ten minute matches, etc. We have no control.

- Quake 3 offers any server, anywhere - With Quake Live, servers are provided, but in restricted locations. With Q3, you can run any server you want, anywhere.

- Quake 3 is a rock solid game - very little bugs, it's almost perfected. Yes, Quake Live has more current support, but let’s be honest here, there's only one or two people working on Quake Live, that's the same amount of support CPMA has. I mean, we don't even have features such as Weapon Statistics at the end of a game, or even item pickup information on the scoreboard.

- Quake 3 servers have Stat tracking.

- Quake 3 has superior features for competition, CPMA. We are all tired of the bad netcode, hitboxes, lack of competitive features for duel, ctf, tdm, etc.

- Quake 3 has gameplay options - VQ3, CQ3, CPM - Yes, we probably wouldn't be playing CPM, but we have the choice of VQ3 and CQ3. We have a choice. I'm really trying to drill that into your brains right now. We have a choice. We can choose. Not ID software, US!

What about tournaments like ESL that want to advertise? Well, tournaments like ESL have CS 1.6, which offers HLTV. If a tournament like ESL wants to NOT show it over GTV, they're going to do so already. They've done it before, and they'll do it again. This is not a BAD thing; this is a company advertising sponsors to stay alive. So, with Quake 3, they HAVE the option of GTV for non-stage matches. Quake Live does not.


So what can we do? Well, we need to understand one thing. Right now, we don't have control because of ID software. Why are we promoting Quake Live? There aren't MORE players because of Quake Live; we have the same amount as before. Tournaments aren't filled with HUNDREDS of competitors because of Quake Live. Quake stayed alive since 1999, it wasn't the player base that kept it alive from 2006-2008, let’s be honest. It was Quake. People love to watch Quake. Tournaments like ESWC understand that.

We're going BACK in time. Do you understand where we are? We're pre-2001 with Quake Live. QL is Q3, with FEWER features. Even with the same map pool, we're still not as good as Quake 3.

TOURNAMENTS are what will keep Quake alive, NOT quake live. Think of all the potential tournaments that COULD be using Quake Live right now, but can't, due to server issues? No one wants to play on online servers. NO ONE.

For those thinking Quake would be dead if we went to Q3, think again. Quake 3 is easily available to anyone through steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/2200/) and the casual base will be happy with baseq3. The competitive players will get CPMA, it's not that hard.

If we somehow sent in a proposal to ESWC and ESL to use Quake 3, and they actually replace Quake Live with Quake 3, more tournaments will see the trend, and use Quake 3. Who knows, maybe WCG and MLG want to use Quake, but can't due to restrictions by ID software.

We've been told what to do, what to play and how to act, for two years by ID software. Enough is enough. We need to do something about it.

Quake Live is a great game for casuals to get into Quake and play it for fun. But let me stress this, Quake Live is in no way a game ready for professional e-sports tournaments. Until Quake Live is a proper platform for e-sports tournaments, Quake 3 should be used.

My point is this. There would be zero loss with tournaments like ESL and ESWC using Quake 3 instead of Quake Live. Zero loss. There would only be GAIN from using Quake 3. So if a tournament has nothing to lose switching to Quake 3, and only has things to gain, why not switch?

Any disagreements or constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. We have the chance to have a better quake in e-sports. You all know this. There was 200% less whine when Q3 was in play.

We had this kind of hiccup with Quake 4. We thought the new Quake would bring in new players and sponsors, and for a bit, it did. But we realized that the terrible game wasn't worth it, as tournaments were fine with Quake 3. This is the same situation. It's time to start supporting this game. Once a big tournament like ESL or ESWC picks up Quake 3, the rest writes itself.

I hope an ESR admin can make a poll, asking the questions "Should tournaments use Quake 3 instead of Quake Live?” with a simple yes or no. If no poll will be done, then please, F1 this post.