Before going into the details of the new season of Thunderdome, a wrap-up of the results and some map specific statistics from the last one may be of interest. An exciting piece of news last season was that we would not only see Thunderdome action among the European players, but also an additional South American part of the tournament was launched as primarily Brazilian players had shown interest. Unfortunately the interest in playing games wasn't as high as the interest to sign up for the tournament, so the South American division was soon cancelled due to too few games played.

The results in the rest of the Season 7 divisions follow below:

Division 0
1: Locktar
2: Murz1k
3: Speedball (aka NPH)

Division Pro
1: Danya
2: Trygve
3: Starling

Division Regular High
1. Orc (w.o. in grand final)
2. X1bot
3. Baresi

Division Regular Low
1. Lordlame
2. Goorol
3. Doctor

Division Advanced Rookies
1. Thor*x*
2. Qtio
3. SaZ

Division Rookies
1. CrazyAl
2. RaggA
3. Degrave

As a follow up to last season's map statistics, triggered by the controversial introduction of Bravado at the expense of DM6 in the map pool, some numbers on the popularity of the maps during Thunderdome Season 7 can be viewed below. The map pool for season 8 will be the same as last season, i.e. DM2, DM4, Aerowalk, ZTNDM3 and Bravado.







Thunderdome has been going strong for seven consecutive seasons now and one of the factors behind its popularity has been the way that players are matched against opponents of similar skill in a judgement made primarily by head admin VVD. Season eight will be no different with the skill span ranging from divisions with elite players to divisions where duelers may be more or less starting from scratch.

A theoretical break down of the player characteristics in the various divisions can be found in the rules section (which you are recommended to read):

1. Open Division - Former Div0, now open for all players, independet of their skill
2. Pro - Experienced duelers with high skills
3. Regular High - The typical average players
4. Regular Low - The typical average players
5. Advanced rookies - Skilled new players and the old and rusty
6. Rookies - New players to QuakeWorld

One interesting new addition is that the highest division is called the "Open Division". In this division any player can decide to step up and play with the big guys in case he/she think they got what it takes. This is in addition to playing in their regular division. Besides the open division consisting of the best opponents there are, it also features more games than the other divisions as best-of-five match format is used earlier than for the other divisions.

In the general signup section so far we have 25 players at the time of writing.

So, registrations for the new seasons are already under way and to sign up you should head on over to the Thunderdome Season 8 site and let 'em know you're up for some dueling.