qw4ever preview & predictions

Although the lovely warm summer is about to start it seems that there is still plenty of people in the quakeworld community who are willing to play three crazy kenya maps during the hot summer nights. Yes, I’m talking about QuakeWorld for Ever 4v4 tournament created by the guy whose love towards to the kenya maps will never get cold, Link.

You may wonder why were exactly these maps selected and this is how Link explained his map choices:

“The goal for each 4vs4 tournament is to have 3 different maps each time, so that you can focus on those 3 maps only for about 2-3 weeks instead of having 20 maps to mess your head with. I also want to keep the “TB3-balance” each tournament, meaning that I want one 1-RL map, one 2-RL map and one RL/LG map.”

The signups closed late last night and after that Link along with his admin crew started creating the groups by randomly picking up numbers between 1 and 13. I personally doubt that the groups were completely done by random picks because if you take a look at them, they are pretty much as even as they could be, apart from few teams. However it does not really matter how the groups were done as they came out so good, so < /end of speculation>.

Group A is definitely the toughest group on paper by looking at the names but how well do the div0 teams Slackers and Suddendeath know the maps in the map pool? In the past CMT tournaments Slackers used to be deadly on cmt1b with their former line-up but today, only one member remains from the old school line-up. Even if ParadokS will successfully teach his team mates the map, there are still 2 maps left to be learnt. If they can’t be arsed to practise the maps, there is definitely more chances for the lower division teams NoPasaran! and Golddiggers to perhaps take a map win or even win an entire match.

Group A

Slackers
Toc
Suddendeath
Goldiggers
NoPasaran!

Group B a.k.a the low division group. This group is quite well balanced I dare to say and we’re definitely going to see many tight matches as well as some blowouts I’m afraid. For the favourites I’m going to have to name The Veterans but lack of map knowledge can possibly become crucial case for them especially when they are set to battle against teams such as Chosen and Oldones. The Pimps shouldn’t be left out neither because they can be a serious threat just as well. Pilsator Cowboys, who? This question have been lying around for couple of days now and it seems we aren’t getting any better answer than this “div 4-5ish I think”, which Link managed to pull out.

Group B

Chosen
The Pimps
Veterans of Hellfire
Oldones
Pilsator Cowboys

I said the Group B is well balanced and Group C is pretty much the same, except that the skill level in Group C is much higher. Group C consists of only 4 teams due to the fact that only 14 teams signed up for the tournament. However I think it’s safe to say that we are going to see good action in the group C too as AntiQuad, Dead Rabbits, MNY and Osams Mix try to beat the hell out of each other. Will AntiQuad be able to refresh their brains and remember the old school maps? Is Osams’ line-up too mixed up in order to achieve the necessary team play? Are the rabbits still alive or will they finally collapse? One team to rule them all, MNY underdog of the tournament? Answers for these questions we will get as soon as the games kick off.

Group C

AntiQuad
Dead Rabbits
osams mix0r
MNY

It may be a bit dull to predict that who is going to win the entire cup at this point, but I personally would like to see someone else than one of the div0 teams to win, unfortunately that seems quite unlikely. I managed to ask Link that whom he is waving his flag for.

“Well, at first glance I would say Slackers off course, because of their earlier achievements in NQR-CMT, which I ran. Their “old-school” line up there would be unbeatable. But, they got new blood now, so I am not sure how good they are on different “kenya” maps. Old schoolers will of course have advantages on TDM (episode) maps, because they should know these maps better than the new breed of players. Besides the above it’s really anyone’s game I think, though I would expect the higher div. clans to be the top teams. But the lower div. clans got their chance in these tournaments for sure, and I hope I see some of that. Good tactics on these maps are yet to be revealed, and that is what I like most about this whole project; if you got some basic skills, the map knowledge can take you a long way.” said Link.

These details pretty much sums up my preview for the tournament and now we just have to wait until the matches get on. As the matches start to get played, you can expect some more coverage by me.