CMF - 4 Champions
Ok gentlemen I’ll start off by asking what other games besides QuakeWorld you have found or maybe even still find entertaining? You are free to choose any game on any platform.
fifi
I’ve always enjoyed tony hawk’s pro skater series, as for fps games, I played some q3 but haven’t really tried anything before installing warsow a few weeks ago :D
angua
doom2 was gr8 on modem, then I had a shot at CS, Q3 and WC3 which I all enjoyed at that time… nowadays I play and enjoy QW and warsow
fix
Certainly there arent many such games,duke3d on modem back in the days and flatout on lan with irl friends while beeing drunk is always some gr8 fun.
hlt
I’ve spent too much time playing games on pc. I can’t pick a single favourite but the ones I can remember playing way too much are C&C Red alert, duke3d, WC2 and of course Quake. Nowadays I play only Quake occasionally.
Now let’s take a look at your past. Could you tell us a little about your history; How did you start playing Quake? What clans have you played in? Any breaks?
fix
Got my first pc back in the 98 or so, first game a friend of mine installed to it was quake1 and there we go…tikapuuhermosto rok, eller hur kastemato :D
i started with Team Fortress in 98, played it like 2years and then lost connection for a 1year and by that time tf had kinda died, when i got new connetion (10mbit) in 2001 i started to play some qwdm 2on2 with rage,after he showed me some amazing demos from Cables pov..by that time i didnt even know what QWDM was but it sure looked nice :) Fortunately for me fifi was playing tf in the same clan that we did with rage (Twiddle) so he kinda gave me some nice advices to begin with, eventually i ended up joinin cMF, before that i played some in clan Bad-Sector (where Jarrex played in the same time) and then with tf-mates in clan Qandrane.
fifi
I saw my big brother playing and it looked like fun, and it was (this was around 1996-1997). I’ve played in numerous clans, but for the last ~6-7 years in cmf. I have taken plenty of long breaks, due to lack of interest, connection problems, a brief period of q3 and like most finns, military service. Most of these have been only like 6month breaks except the q3-era which was around a year.
hlt
I started playing quake online in 97 or something. I played in many hpw clans with my irl friend until 2000. Since then I’ve been active and inactive from time to time. I think my longest break has been a little over year long. Like two years ago I started playing once again and joined Thangorodrim to play NQR. Then I realized that quake was going to be my career and I joined CMF.
angua
I started out after watching my brother Daver play some 1on1 modem quake against a friend of his. Did some bot-ownage on all kinds of maps until we got to enjoy the life of early ISDN-days (90-120ms), first real clan I joined was NBI, then went on to TGM, to eventually end up in spartacus with my brother and friends. At the same time I played in tf-clan SoF. After Spartacus quit we started to play CS as RAF, and some hot q3/wc3 gaming, qwbreak that is. Got tired of this and was forced back to QW by Xerial, joined =X=, then bgsr, and now in cmf.
..And here you are. Champions and everything. CMF claiming the NQR9 title (congratulations) was abit surprising to many considering the high level of competitiveness. Did it come as a surprise to you as well? Did all pieces suddenly fell together for this season or was there something more to it?
angua
Yes, we don’t really put that much effort in this season in terms of pracs and such… kinda just picked up where we left, as NQR7-champions. Most of the div1-teams have new lineups, so there we were in advantage. But I have to say I didn’t think we’d win vs you in fOm in semi, but after that it was a walk in the park.
fifi
It was kind of a surprise. I thought we could beat pretty much any team on a good day (apart from fom) even though we didn’t practice that much, if at all. After winning the semifinal I was pretty confident we would win because e1m2 had been so smooth all season and it’s not like we are going to lose 3 out of 3 on dm3 and dm2 against sr :D
hlt
It was not a surprise. Our praccing had been so unique that I didn’t even think about other possibilities than winning NQR.
fix
dunno if it was such a suprise,
playing the early seasons with random lineups and still getting some rounds from good clans, kinda let me to believe that when adam comes from the army just for the nqr playoffs we will do just fine..
even we had played a game per week as the leagues were scheduled. no pracs at all..
well have to admit we did few when it was like fucking boring and mem was on holiday and was able to play :)
As said, div1 yet again consists of alot high-skilled players, both new and returning ones. What clans and players, besides yourself, do you see as the best ones around ? Any - in your eyes - rising star players or clans?
angua
We’ve always had quite ez against SR, so I don’t think they’re the best. If fOm starts playing as a team instead of mix again, they will be among the absolute best. Firing Squad seems to be rising again too. Rising star… perhaps valla.fi alias Darkki
hlt
Well I haven’t been so active lately but I think FOM showed some great qw playing on NQR9. I’ve not been spectating enough to spot the rising stars. But the old ones still seem to be in a good shape.
fifi
For me, la is probably the toughest team to play against, especially when they field both riker and nabbe. Their whole team has crazy individual skill and they don’t seem to have any nerves even in the tighest situations. fOm and sr rely on great teamplay so it would be lame to pick some players over others. It’s always very nice to watch reppie and razor dominate (even though they receive major support from teamm8s). As for the rising stars, I’d say bps from sd!
fix
as for a clan newcomers to top fights i guess i am forced to mentonion ex.LeftOvers as they were in their latest days.
LA and F0m will be tight opponents next season for sure,also Koffs might showoff nextseason aswell..
and for last i want Dennis the menace back to active FS squad.
as for a rising star i have heard of a player called paradoks..they say he is good, havent yet seen him play myself but time will tell.
There are lots of newbies out there dreaming of becoming a superstar player like you are. What tips would you like to share to everyone wanting to get better? And how do you see yourself developing, both individually and as a team?
fix
I guess at this point a noob needs pretty solid dedication towards the game, and natural talent with fps games wont hurt either.
in the end i guess it all comes down to how much you practise…
when i started i did hell of amouth 2on2 per day and later on started some 4on4 with tf noob friends..
watching lots of elite players 4on4 demos helped alot. and when you get to play with 3 superstars in the lineup with you, powered with voicecommunication as it went down for me when joining to cmf…you get pretty good chances to learn i would say :)
angua
Demowatching is a gr8 tip, or just speccing one person in official games, not autotracking mixes. I myself rely pretty much on movement and tactics, that comes with practice and thought. Our team is pretty much perfect as we’ve shown by winning nqr once again, I myself can always get better aim, and the movement comes with my constant prewaring.
fifi
You have to play with players better than yourself to improve even though it’s sometimes annoying :D When you get better individual skills, hard moves and shots become routine and you have more time to concentrate on the tactical aspect of the game. I think I’m not willing to put in the time needed to develop my individual and/or teamplay skills. Only way I get better is 13ms.
hlt
Obviously I’ve developed quite a lot as a player when playing with these superstars.. The only way to get better is to play against guys you can’t beat. I’ve never seen myself developing as a player, sometimes I’ve just realized that I can actually beat some superskilled players.
I didn’t know you played with voice communication ? :)
fifi
that was waaaaaay back.
angua
when fix first started
fix
we quited using it when siv joined the team
fix
we have some experience of it tho
What are your thoughts for the future of QuakeWorld? “Quake 10 years” is just around the corner. What do you think is important to do to keep QW alive and even develop?
angua
Keeping the tournaments alive, improving the clients while not making the game simple. Some kind of noob-servers or leagues would probably be good, I know I get annoyed when playing with bad players in mixes for example… They probably don’t enjoy getting whined at either. Further on, QTV gogogo!
fifi
New players of course, and with the nice and shiny easy-to-install clients it looks like the situation is better than 3 years ago (might be wrong, don’t have any numbers). Having a media-hyped event such as tgi2 with today’s greatest players would showcase qw’s best qualities for the masses. Just imagine newbies watching reppie-reload on aerowalk or def-paradoks on dm6, with lan pings :)
hlt
Quakescene well be high up for a long time I think. People just can’t get too bored with it. But I think one way to extend QW’s lifetime is to start playing new maps again and try something different than 4on4-TB3. Getting new players is of course important. Perhaps bring in some elements from CS and the masses will follow.
fix
somehow we need to stick qw’s face to mainstream audience to get ppl more aware of the game, and somehow the start for the newcomers has to be made easier, its almost like you put a windows dude infront linux pc and tell him to set it up running..m-o-r-e-u-s-e-r-f-r-i-e-n-d-l-y. maybe 1on1 combo @ quakecon2006 after all its qw10years soon like you said…little showdown there among best duelers from the world = prizemoneys to planetickets..qw ppl will do it for free :=) just to show off for the noobs who prolly even dont know what that game is they are playing :)
4on4 action/drama seems to be your main quake passion nowadays, but do you find other game modes fun? such as 1on1/2on2/ffa or something else?
fix
have to admit that sadly other modes have almost been forgotten by me atleast, i might do few rounds on aero vs fifi tho here and there, but ye 4on4 is the real thing indeed keeps interesting me year after year :)
angua
I can enjoy both 1on1 and 2on2 if it’s played for fun (my fun that is), +forward at all times… Can’t motivate myself to play such modes serial. 4on4, drama, forward and prewar… that’s my quake.
fix
yes, in 4on4 its so nice to spice things up abit occassionally :D
fifi
I enjoy 1on1 a lot, though I avoid playing serious players on every map except aerowalk. Like other dudes said, it’s hard to motivate myself when someone is playing the world championships and I’m just looking for a target practice :) Like duels, I’m very selective about 2on2s, mostly dm2, aero and dm4 with dropquad.
hlt
I like playing 2on2 (aerowalk), dmm4 1on1 and ffa at QUAKE.INET.FI. Of course 4on4 is the favourite which I often mix up with ffa.
EQL just announced a prizepool for next season, and discussions goes on year after year regarding sponsorship for QW and progaming. What is your personal opinions? And can you see yourself playing Quake (or any computer game) for a living?
fix
the whole e-sport thing is getting big indeed, and it seems to be growing all the time, 2 bad that sponsors (who mainly are hardware manufactors) only give money for the newgames which need 200000ghz cpu and GT1000000 gfx, and those new games are the ones people will buy :P and daadaa here we go, then people will buy new pc’s to get brand new q4 running…circle of life..ermmm money. and i think qw is pretty fucking far from that circle :)
angua
Don’t think we take it that serial opposed to a few other clans so we’ll probably go on like usual. Of course it’d be quite fun to get sponsored for doing what we do anyway, without any economic aid. For a living, no… There are still many other things I wish to experience in life
fix
good examble q4…even before the game was released there was lots of hype about 10000$$$$$ tourney etc..well the game was released fucking many ppl upgraded their pc for it and what did they got? q3 in d3’s engine = fucking bad game :D well good for them. gl for cpl summer or what so ever if those are ever even going to happen..didnt cpl world tour suffer somekind of problems?
fifi
Well, if the prizepool motivates some players to play, good for them. I see it just as another obstacle for starting the games in time. I can’t see myself going pro, ever, and I hope qw doesn’t become an “eSport”. I think there are a lot of qwplayers who could have capitalized the situation when painkiller was popular but no one did :) I’m proud of the scene!
hlt
I’ve always played qw for fun and that’s the way I’d like it to be in the future. Adding some prizepools for tournaments would be actually quite fun. But playing quake for living.. no thanks.
fix
but if a miracle happens and zanne gets some money together for prizepot, i dont think it will have much effect on our tactics..we will continue as we have done in few previous seasons.. “chill’ & killin’ SR’s”
Preperations for next QHLAN is under way, aiming at getting all the top clans battling out under fair conditions. Will CMF attend? Would you like to see more than one big QW LAN a year?
fix
one lan per year is enough for me atleast, and if QH10 turns out to be such a great tournament like QH6 was, almost like unoffical qw4on4 eu championship :) as everytop team from eu was present.
and ye about coming, if its up to me..cMF will be there
angua
We’ll have to ask the finns that… I’m on if the finns are on :D One qw lan is enough imo… as it’s hard enough to get terominator to _one_ lan. At qhlan7 we didn’t manage to get him here, but still we played a few pracs vs LA with fifi in finland and me,fix,siv+la @ lan… 300-0 on dm2 after 10 minutes, made you think about how easy it’d be with him attending.
hlt
I don’t know if the others like to go, but I’ll be spending some time in the woods, so I won’t be attending.
fix
like 6h before qh6 trip was supposed to start
fix
we were still calling each other thinking about if we will go or not
fix
:D
fifi
The QHLAN was great when I was there (january 2004 tror jag), so it’s definitely possible I could go if we had a team. I just don’t know if I have it in me to do the trip again :)
fifi
hahah yes
fifi
the travel arrangements were done like during the night
fix
at one point all hope had already lost, fifi had given up and janne wasnt too happy with 4th player beein a swe (siv)
fix
but after all it was janne who made the last call - “c’mon dudes, lets do this”
fifi
hehe, janne drove extra 400km just to pick me up so we would make it to the harbour in time
fix
then i got like in the middle of the night sms from fifi *fuck i hate to carry this icehockey pack with my pc inside it around the town…damn i hope this worth it*
-obviously it was, since we won the 4on4 compo with 14-0 rounds record.
Hehe, I believe most of us see travel arrangements to QHLAN as a lengthy and strenuous procedure. But few regret they attended afterwards…
Well, thanks all of you for taking your time and I hope to see you in coming leagues and lans. Good luck in the future. Any last words?
hlt
Kaapit hyllyille!
angua
sometimes, dead is better.
fix
Shangge Realm!
fifi
Pernilla kör moped
..And for the record, Name/age/town and occupation for each of you?
fifi
Tero, 23, Lpr, Student
hlt
Holotna Hukadorf, 20, Vantaa, Student
angua
Adam, 21, Stockholm, Nothingatallwillstartstudyingsoon.
fix
Ville,21,Karstula,Student