Purri: “I like QW that is for sure”

I was lucky enough to get some interviewtime with one of the world’s best quaker, known for his q2 and q4 skills, here’s how it went down.

hey PURRI, care to tell me a little bit about yourself.

Hardest question to start with :). Well I’m a 24 year old sexy guy from Sweden that is currently living close to Stockholm with my gf and preparing for Quakecon 2007 Quad damage tournament. Been playing computer games online since 1998 and started off with Quake 2.

Ok that fits right into question #2 cause I wanted to ask some question about the quakecon 1on1 tourney which have been immensely interesting for myself and my community, and it’s a unique opportunity to try and promote quakeworld as much as we can. Do you think it could raise the awareness of the quakeworld community and the game in general?

QW is very fun indeed. This tournament is perfect for all the quakes actually. This forces the whole quake community to check out the other games and I think many people are very interested even in the games they might not play. I personally like ALL the quakes and they are all good in there own little way. This is one of the most fun tournaments I had to practice for for a looong time. I just love the challenge to try and be really good in four games. Long live the quake scene and I hope people outside the community realizes that it doesn’t have to be consoles in the future when we already have these awesome games that works perfect for tournaments.

What’s your impression of quakeworld, and the scene in general? What are we doing good and what do we fail at?

I like the game. It’s fast and pretty simple if you understand what I mean. It’s hard to master but its just simple to play in a way. The scene seems to be very helpful to newbies and so on. Nothing but friendly people so far. My best guess is just that people played so long and the average age is so much higher in QW than most other games. So you don’t get childish behavior that much which is very nice.

How is quakecon, does it differ from the other big tourneys?

Quakecon is just what it sounds like…. It is QUAKEcon :) It’s not all about the tournament. It’s about all the people there that love Quake. There is a huge BYOC without CS/WOW/SC etc. People having fun and it’s one of the best events you can go to if you look at the “outside” tournament perspective.

In a player prediction over at a big gaming site they mentioned you as a favorite, and stating that a “pro” level in 3 out of 4 games is probably needed for the throne, and the cash. And that if your practice in qw goes well that you have the biggest chance of winning. Do you think they got it right, do you feel as a top competitor?

I would not go so far by saying I will win. I do think I got pretty good chances into the top 5 if I just get my game going. There are many good players attending and it’s hard to predict this tournament since you really don’t know all the people and their history in all games. You also need to be lucky with playing the players that suits you when it matters later on and not face players that are perhaps good in your bad games etc. You also need to have the coinflip with you sometimes when it’s a 1-1 tie which I think will be very important in some cases. This tournament seems to be very nice but also a few random factors will role out during ones victory with 256 players in 4 different games :)

What has been the biggest challenge and what has been the easiest meaning doing the transition from q2/q3/q4 > qw.

The hardest bit will be to play all quakes on TFT monitor. Im not whining but shit, its sooo different to play with those monitors with games you played on CRT for +10 years. But switching from game to game is not a problem for me. Ive been doing that for many years. Played Q2 tournaments and the same day have eurocup games in Q3 etc. Even now when I played QW with different movement it has not affected me at all in the other games.

Is it true that a few members of the q2 community sponsored you to quakecon in 2005? covered your expensed etc, and got it back? cause they knew you would win.

That is true :) I was not going since I thought paying 2000USD at the time for plane and hotel which a bo1 map tournament would be to risky from my own pocket. But the community mostly from a clan called plus30 wanted me to go anyway and made it happen. They only wanted the money back if I would have won… Lucky for me I did it so I could go back without fear of getting a beatdown at arlanda airport.

One of your probably biggest opponent fojji has been training qw aswell, and he said that he preferred qw over q4 and was thinking about staying with quakeworld after the tourney was over. Having some similar thoughts? (please say yes)

I like QW that is for sure. To be honest with you I like all the 3 earlier quake before Q4 if you just look at the “having fun” part. I played Q2 for that main reason for so long. I dont enjoy playing online only these days though. I will play the game that has the most fun AND real lan tournaments for the time beeing. It’s just so much easier to motivate and play when you actually can travel and play against the best in big tournaments.

How about the weapon balance in qw, does it bother you that’s its hard to make use of anything other than rl lg or gl? (in 1on1 without quad) or does it force some nice creative use of them?

That is one of the things I like the most about QW to be honest. I come from Q2 from start and you dont spawn with mega health and a powerful weapon there either. It’s the same thing. You have to actually control those powerful weapons in QW aswell as the armor/health. If you look at Q3 and Q4 you have a lot of health and a pretty powerful starting gun (I HATE THAT). I like the games to be abit harder and trickier to learn.

What tips have you gotten when you first begun to practice qw, what did work and what did not, any good demos you watched and picked up stuff from etc?

After installing the game I just started to play right away. Im not new into quake in general so I guess I knew pretty much how to get started :). I watched a few demos on dm4 (griffin vs reppie!) and a few more on aerowalk that I cant remember really! :) Since I knew aerowalk from q2 and q3 (remakes) I already knew how you should play that map. I’ve gotten ingame tips from people I played with what I should focus on etc. As I said earlier the community is very helpful in my opinion and it feels really easy to ask stuff if you need anything.The hardest part was the movement though. In the other quakes you press +forward all the time and combine that with a strafe key. In QW you have to release the +forward key. 10 years with +forward down and I had some problems in the beginning.

Okey, now I wont disturb you any longer.. I just hope I can pass one some luck in the brackets! Go and kick ass for sweden and thanks for your time, oh and if you want a shoutout, now’s the time.

Np! Hope I learned something from the guys in #qwrookie Even if I now should start a #qw1337 chan for myself!!! I do hope the swedes including me, fox, tox wont dissapoint you guys! Perhaps we will make a team after and defeat you guys in TDM <3 (I wish)