I just want to thank all those who organized and who participated in the Quakeworld QCon tournament. As a spectator, it was absolutely a blast to watch all the games and QCon did a super job casting the matches. The guys who were casting were genuinely excited about QW and for someone such as myself who's been playing on and off for the past 20 years (I still have my original 1996 Quake CD), I felt even more proud and honoured to be a part of this community after following the tournament at QCon. And to actually be able to place real faces to the greatest QW players, wow, I was just floored.

Congrats to Milton and Rikoll, excellent playing and excellent teamplay, just so cool to watch, and thx to Carapace and Locktar for making it to the finals, and for all of you guys who travelled and showed your love and dedication and sharing your talent and smiles and good sportsmanship while honouring this 20 year old game. Congrats 'n Thx!!

Dr4k0

Yeah it was great! Definitely a highlight in QW history!

And the power rank was solid. I enjoyed that. Proud andeh. Proud.

Awesome event! Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers!

On a side note, it is sad that we could not get 32 teams.
There were like what, 9 decent teams there? And 16 entrance spots were left empty

Very cool indeed. I even enjoyed the Quake Live final afterwards.

A quick thought on that: I find it really strange how defensively they play QL. They keep backing out halfway into duels to restack and restack and restack instead of going for the kill, even in situations where the opponent is down to one rocket hit away from being dead. It's extreme how "safety first" they are. I keep wondering how a top QW player in all-out-attack-mode would do in QL after a little practice ... what I saw from the QL finals didn't impress me very much. My impression is that the top QW players have better movement control and aim. But this is the 1st time I've ever seen QL, so maybe I'm missing something.

i think the skill in QL is reading your opponents, knowing where they are and what they are going to do next rather than all out aim/movement.

the finals were edge of seat games because they were so close, but the action was pretty poor. i think the div0 qw players would do very well in QL given time, i don;t think any of them could put that many hours into the game though, q3 has never felt "right"

thanks andeh for your streaming on the community day, you did a better job than the official stream imo with the config/sounds etc

having ddk was great, he really is great at his job whether it is qw/ql/cs

the zoot guy just did my head in and made me not want to watch

finally well played to every single person in the qw for making the effort. GT was so good to watch i am sure everyone will agree, but theres no doubt i was hoping Rikoll would carry the EU flag high and proud and he did not let us down.

erland I don't know that much about QL but I think that is probably in part due to the game mechanics where they want to maintain control and not risk winning a fight but giving up position and being weak. I think a fresh spawner in QL probably has better chances than QW because the mid-tier weapons are better so it's like, if you win a fight and are left with 40hp and no position, you haven't gained much because the other guy can then mount a comeback. It looks like 'attritional' to me whereby you want to wear them down (typically hitting a rail/rocket) until you have a bigger stack and then attack in a suitable position. I think the spawn models are different too compared to QW i.e. I don't think the enemy can respawn right next to you after dying meaning that spawnfrags are probably less common (don't quote me on this one).

Very occasionally you will actually see this type of thing in a QW duel where a player will not aggressively pursue a weak opponent in favour of maintaining control and stopping the risk of them getting a good respawn. Examples are on dm4 if they want to avoid the risk of the enemy respawning at red, or occasionally on dm2 not wanting to give up mega control etc.

Essentially what I'm saying is that I think it is most likely an optimal playstyle that works for that game, rather than just the players having a different mindset. There's probably lots of other nuances that I haven't picked up on that could contribute to this (physics, weapons etc

Ditto. The organizers (qcon staff, lille, cpy, dev, dirtbox), players (all not just attendees but even those who helped practice), casters (jehar, ddk, zoot), and developers (meag, dimman) all contributed months of work in many different forms to make this an unforgettable experience, and one that can be remembered for a long time to come with demos, photos, and stream highlights that will continue to become available.

I plan on making a separate comment to express some of my more personal qcon feedback later on.



The qcon staff mentioned at the opening events they had forgotten to mention that the qw 2on2 portion was an open event that anyone could register for. I think most attendees were not aware they could randomly sign up and get the VIP treatment.

However, I think this turned out to have a silver lining. The extra time and the accommodating staff (qcon + staff) allowed us to setup what I believe was an impromptu 4on4 tournament, which was streamed, and gave me the most memorable moment of the night and my favorite highlight from qcon, the dm3 4on4 of Americas vs EU Mix.



I think the Quakecon stream did not give the same experience as being in the room. The crowd was loud; with absolute mayhem during any overtime kill and the many clutch comebacks. I didn't think they lacked action, but it was certainly a stark difference compared to the qw 2on2s that happened right before.



The Quakecon QW stream configuration evolved live. I saw Milton, dev, and others on Discord conferring with the casters to improve the HUD between games. Even having players false start to check settings while casting/interviewing in the background. While not fully polished out of the gate, the fact that they responded to feedback and made improvements shows how much they wanted it to be great too. What they ended up with wasn't perfect, but it was easy to follow for gamers like us. If anything I think its a reflection of how difficult it is to modify ezquake HUDs.

I'm saddened by the fact that the QW finals were so poor. They seemed unprepared somehow. LocKtar didn't have any in-game sound (how do you beat Milton and RIkoll without sound?) and there were no pre-game interviews or anything to build up the hype.

The best part about the finals was seeing LocKtar and Carapace walk in with the Swedish flag, as well as seeing Milton and Rikoll raise their trophys and getting recognized as the very best players QuakeWorld has to offer.

Holy moly, why did he play then? This is so unfair.

So obviously Quakecon was a super awesome event! Everyone involved deserves a huge thanks, from the staff and organizers (including Dev and the Aussies for their efforts), the developers, the casters (including Andeh!), the sponsors, the fans watching from home, and of course the players who traveled from around the world.

Some highlights for me:

1- Meeting many of the fine folks that I've been playing with for all these years. Everyone without exception was super cool and friendly, not that I expected anything different (frankly I wasn't quite sure what to expect). I personally got some really nice compliments that I probably don't deserve

2- The bootcamp LAN that dev/gt/dirtbox/venom set up. Those beautiful nerds had a network cable running through the hotel hallway to connect their rooms.

3- Watching Dev be as happy as a kid on Christmas morning. The guy was super excited about everything.

4- Hearing Dev on teamspeak during team Americas' unexpected 4on4 dm3 victory versus milton/bps/trygve/rio. Fucking animal!

5- Watching the cast of the Americas' unexpected 4on4 dm3 victory, where at around 2 minutes in a stacked Dev has quad and accidentally bores at RA ledge with nobody in sight, but the casters are so impressed by Dev that they claim he did it on purpose to leave the pack for a teammate. Genius! Dev showed this to me the next day and couldn't stop laughing about it.

6- The arm wrestling competition at the Media Grill+Bar (pretty much the only place we ate at for 3 days), where I was undefeated.

7- Getting to meet my partner in crime, Bogojoker! We did well and showed that we can hang with the Euros, coming very close to taking down Aeronauts 2-0 in the Winners' bracket (lost aerowalk after being tied with 45 seconds left, then won ztndm3 in an overtime, then got crushed on dm6). Not saying we deserved to win, but I think we earned some respect! Also really had fun playing 7 aerowalk practices in a row at 1am the night before, where we only barely lost 4-3 against arguably one of the best Aerowalk teams.

8- Witnessing GT's movement first-hand. It was eye opening, and I'd be curious to see if other players adapt their game after realizing what's possible. Also seeing that GT was able to take down some titans on LAN ping duels, with very limited practice against good players, losing only to Rikoll.

9- Seeing Bogo able to beat everyone in aerowalk duels (except Locust, but a rematch is in order!). I am his coach so I take full credit for his victories.

10- Getting to show off my awesome movement config. I remember Milton, Rikoll, and Trygve were impressed with my demonstration, and I think there were others watching too. Nobody else can move with the console pulled down like I can. On the last day Rikoll gave me a pep talk about updating my config from when it was optimized for Doom II back in 1995, I may give it a try.

11- Realizing there's a kickass community half-way around the world in AU. Venom was a beast in our duels at the bootcamp and Dirtbox was a beast at ducking our 2on2 tiebreak match (justkiddingpleasedontaddmetoyourprankcalllist!). Love Dirtbox's story telling, there was always a crowd gathered around him cracking up!

12- Dirtbox's taxi driver.

13- After the grand finals, playing 10 ztn 2on2s in a row with GT versus Milton+Dev. I think we did it with at most 20 second breaks between games, just the way I like it.

14- Skimming through the stream last night and noticing this gem while the live camera was pointed at me and bogo


15- Last but not least, all of us competitors being treated like VIPs, with our own tournament room where we could leave our stuff for 3+ days and play as much as we wanted. The Quakecon staff was incredibly awesome to us and deserve a huge thank you!!!

Some lowlights:

1- Was really cool to also meet Serp after all these years, I just wish we had more Americans show up (that reminds me, Thump4 was surprisingly really nice in person ). We also missed out on some Russian representation, and of course Mur...

2-Losing a super close tiebreak to Dev/GT in the 2on2. Gotta be honest, I fully expected to win that match for 4th place and was looking forward to a rematch against Aeronauts, but Dev/GT played really well and deserved the win. Dev has reminded me pretty much every day since then that he finished ahead of me. However, because of that loss the fans were treated to an entertaining interview of Dev/GT, where Dev graciously admitted that bogo and I are his teachers

Cheers and until next time!
BD

I was pretty sad to hear this as well. He told us after he came off stage. There was a keyboard issue and we fixed that, but had no idea about the sound issue. He did get a vip wrist band from Tim Willits once we found out.

I had a great time and am so glad to have had the pleasure of hosting your tournament. I have to admit you guys are a passionate bunch and particular about how things should be, but who could expect anything less form a tight knit community of a 20 year old game. While I was worried about how things would play out once we were all onsite, I found that each and every one of you were so very nice and just down to earth people. I think I saw more smiles in the Quakeworld players than I ever have in a tournament series before. Dev's giddiness was just super contagious.

I hope that we served all of your expectations well, and that you truly had a great time. I look forward to the time I can run another Quakeworld event, or see you all at the first Quake Champions event.

I also saw/heard that and was thinking to myself 'no way he did that on purpose in this situation'. But I love how - I think it was DDK commenting - spent a few seconds thinking and then explained the situation to the viewer in detail how advanced all the players in this game are and how many levels of thought process go into the decisions, e.g. in this bore which may just look like a stupid accident to the untrained eye :-)

I am very positively surprised at how the whole event turned out as you guys just nailed it from start to finish kinda, listening to the community and making sure it was a modern setup both with regards to the rules/client as well as the server setup with QTV etc. Also the casters made it a joy to watch with the commentary. Well done and thank you very much for hosting all of this!

What can I say? I had some of the happiest days of my life.

Thank you Lilie and Adam for inviting us, QW players, to the party ( and to let us set our own little party ). More than just creating an opportunity for us to get to know each other, our experience was so intensively positive that now we want more. And that's all I want for QW in general: more QW.

Love you all!

quakecon was awesome from start to finish! about the finals, they were the better team overall. the sound issue was not gonna get fixed, it was more a hardware issue then anything else. i dont think either one of us could hear that much anyway. hope it can be a qw tournament there next year also!

Lilie! \o/

I am very happy about how things turned out! And you are a trooper for enduring the QW community when it comes to settings and rules. Know that the entire QuakeWorld community appreciates what you guys did for us, and I wholeheartedly wish we see another QuakeWorld event in the US sometime!

Great great job

Hey guys!!!!

I know this is a very late response to Quakecon, but I figure that I better let you guys know how I felt about the event before the year is over. I just want to say how much of a pleasure it was to run the Quakeworld tournament this year at Quakecon. I have been a tournament admin for over 14 years now whether it be at a local lan or for the world championships at ESWC. I have never had an easier group of players to manage. MINIMAL bitching was a plus. No whining hardly. I mean locktar's sound wasn't working on the finals stage and he just went ahead and played his match. I had no idea it wasn't working properly. (I wish I would have though) I loved Dev's enthusiasm to the event as a whole. It was like he was experiencing everything for the first time. Well, I guess he was.... It was fun rooting for my American players and then seeing how good Milton and Rickoll actually were and deciding to secretly root for them under my breath. I wish I would have been there for the 4v4 action, but I was under the weather.

I have to admit that Quakeworld wouldn't have been my first choice for a tournament at Quakecon. That being said, I am glad they chose me to run it. I learned a ton about Quakeworld and your community in the whole process. I sort of had too since I hadn't really paid attention to Quakeworld since 2007 when we did the quad damage tournament, and even then, I really didn't think much of it. I'm so glad to see some of your responses to the event on here. I wish that we could have a Quakeworld tournament every year, and you guys could all come back for a reunion.

I want to apologize to any of you guys that came down this year that I didn't hang out with as much as I should have. I had some things going on in my life back home that I had to leave early to take care of, but if you guys come back again I promise I will make an effort to hang out and be my normal happy self. Lastly I would also like to apologize that the event wasn't as big as it should have been. I don't know where the miscommunication was on our part. I thought everyone knew it was an open tournament.

Anyways,
Take care guys,
Keep playing Quake,
See you next time!
ceppy