Last night QW Central Season 2 draft took place without a hitch. There was a bit of drama the night before as B1aze tried to use Russian voodoo mathematics on us to trick us into securing stronger draft order for him but it was resisted. The draft went quickly once all the captains congregated on mumble and picks were announced live in #sta on Quakenet. It was a low key event for its importance on the upcoming season and some players even were playing a QW 4v4 pickup game during the draft. Overall the teams drafted look solid without any overly weaker teams. The upcoming season will be a blast and probably be even more competitive than last season, which featured the league champion Vegeta Hoes only having a 54.94% frag efficiency with a 15-6 map record. Vegeta Hoes squeaked out the closest of victories in the best of 5 finals winning the final 5th map by only 6 frags. I expect most matches within 50 frags like last season, so tight matches incoming!

This season features some repeating captains and some new faces as captains for 7 captains/teams in total. Vegeta returns to defend his championship along with runner up Dustin. Serp, Karnage and GND all captain again with both Serp and KRN looking to make much stronger showings than in season 1. KRN has even gone so far as to build an entirely new computer for this season. GND is looking to repeat his success on making playoffs in season 1 and finishing even better this season. New captains Blood_DoG and B1aze enter the mix but both were strong players last season. Blood_DoG was on trip to South America but still played impressively with 200ms (YAY QW antilag) and was a core player on the 2nd place team. B1aze was the star player of Dustin's 2nd place finisher, GQ Models and team mate of Blood_DoG.

Rules were tightened up for season 2 with emphasis put fairness and closing loopholes. No longer will late additions be made solely by the decision of one admin. Arguably Vegeta Hoes in season 1 was helped to their league championships by late add, whitey, who played very well. This upcoming season captains will hold a vote on any late additions so not to overly change team balance after the draft. Server selection has also been tweaked so that average teams pings should be closer but in truth there were not any major problems in season 1 with fair servers. Controversially, to some, team overlay has been enabled as a setting which lets you see where on the map your team mates are at all times. Given the heavy usage of mumble and team binds I do not see it as a major change but a slight help for teams with less experienced players. Unfortunately this season we are missing a few players such as Blakbeard, Squeeze, Sane, Top, Razor, Deathbomb, etc but I hope they sign up for season 3.


Dustin's team this season is named fancypants and consists of Fiend, wonko, cled, Quark, and cream. I was somewhat surprised to see Fiend go first pick overall, not because he can't be great but because he hasn't been playing much except for the last few days. Wonko had a strong last season and continues to improve so he's a solid pick. Cled is very old school from Point Blank which was a famous ancient QW clan. Cled needs to play more to regain form. Quark and cream are both also season 1 veterans who did not play many matches but I hope can get some good more TDM experience in the upcoming season. I suspect this team will favor DM3 as Fiend is a monster there and Dustin has loads of QW CA experience where they mainly play DM3. If Fiend can carry them somewhat on E1M2 they will not have a weak map.

Serp's team this season is TBD and consists of thump4, jackal, up2, higgs, and shaftadelic. Serp's team last season went 0-5 so this team would not need to do much to improve Serp's last season as captain. However, I suspect this team will be quite strong as Thump4 (Jeff) is a great competitor. Serp is no slouch himself and it'll be interesting to see who ends up running most of the quads or if Jeff and Serp switch off. Jackal plays from Turkey with over 100ms but has loads of TDM experience to make up for any ping weaknesses. Up2 hails from the west coast and also can face ping issues but is constantly getting better and might even one day be as great in TDM as he is in QW TF. Higgs refers to himself as the "Quake Calculator", or such, and is an expert at timing items, perhaps even too good at it. He needs more QW TDM play time to learn the game but he's a potential monster for the upcoming season. Shaft played with Serp last season so they know each other well but Shaft will probably take on more of a backup role this season. This team should be quite good on all maps and I think E1M2 might be there strongest as Serp, Jeff and Higgs have all had some very good games there.

BLooD_DoG's team this season is named Immolation and consists of whitey, Cyanide, STEEK, Flash, and th0rax. Blood_DoG is (BD) one of the most famous QW CTFers to have ever played but these days he plays DM, and quite well I might add. Last season he was plagued by ping issues so this season he can prove himself as a fresh captain. Whitey is a very strong player but sometimes he lapses into pickup mode where his teamplay can suffer. Whitey needs to concentrate on teamplay and he'll be a great anchor of the team along with BD. Cyanide and STEEK are always solid and play smartly with no hesitation to make sacrifice plays or save items for a team mate. Flash and th0rax will continue to learn TDM as they get more experience. I know both are capable players but in certain situations. I see this team favoring DM2, as all their players do well there, but their DM3 game should be strong as well. If they can find the right rhythm E1M2 could sync as well but I foresee them needing more practice on that map in particular.

GND's team this season is named Sweep The Leg and consists of doum, Nitro, pinion, troyonfire, thrill, and zalu. GND did as he promised and picked Doum, repeating playing with him last season. GND and Doum are a great combo and will build off their prior play time together last season to continue upping their teamplay. Nitro might have a breakout season playing alongside Doum and GND who will push his TDM skills to the next level. Pinion is another old school player who knows DM3 very well but still has some learning to do on DM2 and E1M2, with more practice he'll be very solid. Troyonfire and thrill both have Q1 experience but need more play time to get back into the swing of things. Both could be potentially big value picks this season who go on to pay huge profits. Zalu is extremely new to QW and is just getting his feet wet in TDM but he's on a good team which should propel his TDM game forward quite a bit. Another DM3 team due to GND, Doum, Nitro and pinion all being quite good there. E1M2 might be their bane this season.

Karnage's team this season is named Ecstasy and consists of Rusty`, toxic, mihawk, ivan, killjoy, and crono. KRN had a problematic first season with his team being broken up due to inactivity. I'm not sure exactly how he drafted the wrong mix of people but his second attempt looks much better already. KRN used to be one of the top players and with more practice many predict he will be again. Rusty had an excellent season prior and will be a strong core player on this team. Toxic has been very inactive lately but in years past he was a very good all around player. It remains to be seen how he will perform this season. Mihawk plays from Brazil and has bad ping but is incredible despite his handicap. Ivan, killjoy and crono all have little TDM experience and it will be interesting to see which of them ends up playing the most this season. Ivan has been playing lots of TDM pickup games lately so he seems to have a head start over his team mates. I can't predict what maps this team will favor, it really depends what players end up being active for them.

B1aze's team, this season is TBD and consists rline, furbison, Genie, davis, and aardappel. B1aze had great play last season and really stepped up his game in the playoffs propelling his team to 2nd place finish. This season as a captain he is looking to win it all and has the competitive drive to do so. When not streaming matches rline is a strong player who managed a good showing last season despite his team's losing record on Big Ballers. He'll definitely not be the star of the team this season, B1aze will be, but he will be along with furbison a core player. Furbison isn't flashy when playing but still manages to consistently play solid TDM. B1aze will probably force him to play even better. Genie speaks Russian and should get on well with B1aze who does as well. If he can be more active Genie could possibly have a breakout season. Davis has great technical skills, timing and teamplay but severly lacks QW experience. If he can put in the hours he could be one of the strongest players in the later part of the draft this season. Aardappel is well known for various maps, Cube Engine, and being hilarious on mumble when he will grace us with his voice. He's going to be a reliable player and will get better as the season goes on. I was surprised to see him get picked so late in the draft. B1aze is arguably the strongest E1M2 player in QW NA and if his team will play as he instructs they should be a great E1M2 team. DM3 might be their weakest map this season.

Vegeta's team this season is Vegeta Hoes (again) and consists of Fastidious (the author of this column), kwong, rook, mikefails(my brother), and QuakePhil (of ESR fame). Vegeta captained the season 1 champions but not without a favorable event happening. By getting a late add in whitey his team was strengthed considerably. This season however people are talking about his team being the strongest despite going last every round in the draft. Somehow Vegeta ended up picking the same exact people I would have and I managed to trick him into drafting my brother mikefails (of IDL fame). Vegeta was arguably the most dominant player last season. I (Fastidious) had a good season last time and think I can do even better this time as I get in more practice and refine my teamplay. Slipping under the radar of other captains both kwong and rook are potentially 1st round picks in skill if they can put in the necessary practice to get into shape. I even keep hearing that kwong is supposedly a CPM legend, is this true? Mikefails is fairly reliable but needs more play time. QuakePhil played a lot of matches last season and if we can convince him to stay up past his bed time (10pm EST) he might play quite a few matches this season as well. I think E1M2 might be our strongest map due to pure aim skills but I cannot see us being much weaker on DM2 or DM3.

One thing I've learned over the years with leagues I've observed and played in is a team's strength on paper almost never matches up to their real world results. It can happen but usually teams are better or worse than you expect. With so many unknowns in this season any team can win. It all depends what teams can manage to pull off and what individual players end up doing. One maxim will remain true, if you don't show up to matches your team will do worse, activity counts for a lot in this league. As a draft league most players have never played with each other on a regular basis. Teams need practice to solidify and learn each other's styles. So, good luck and have fun, may the best team win but playing some tight QW TDM matches is enough to satisfy me.