Bulat

Player Information

Nicknames:

SHah, Skiv, Batir

Name:

Zakirov Bulat Zinfirovich

Born:

December 8, 1980 (1980-12-08)

Country:

Russia

First spawned:

1998

Status:

Active

Clan:

Bear Beer Balalaika

History

2006 – Present

Bear Beer Balalaika

Zakirov Bulat, considered to be one of the best Russian QuakeWorld players since his debut in 2003 on a major Russian lanparty, finally winning Russian QuakeWorld League 13 in 2009 and becoming the undisputed reigning champion of Russia. Bulat started playing Quake in 1998 but had no internet connection until 2005. During the 7 years without internet access he played mostly against bots, which explains his stunning aim.

Being an ethnic Tatar, Bulat speaks little to no English and only limited Russian, his native language being Tatar. He is from and resides in Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia.

Peculiar eccentricities of his behaviour and a remarkable kind of linguistic giftedness have earned Bulat a cult status among certain circles of QuakeWorld community. Numerous top players ( LocKtar,  bps,  lakso and  goblin in particular) have praised Bulat's personality and worshiped him as an Idol. Unfortunately, due to the long distance from popular QuakeWorld servers, Bulat almost exclusively plays with a ping over 40 in Russia and ping over 52 in Northern Europe. This unfortunate circumstance currently limits Bulat's ability to conquer the European QuakeWorld scene.

In 2020, Bulat upgraded his old 17" crt monitor for a state-of-the-art 280hz 27".

Achievements

Year	Place	Event	Mode	With	Prize
2021	A55 - 6th	Money for nothin and gibs for free	2on2	dot	$250
2021	A55 - 8th	Sdcup1	1on1
2021	A11st	GetQuad! Draft 4 Div 1	4on4	ShambleR
2020	A33rd	Duelmania Reloaded 4	1on1
2020	A33rd	Hammer Time Season 2 Division 1	1on1
2017	A55th	Thunderdome Season 8	1on1
2017	A99 - 12th	QHLAN2017	1on1
2017	A99 - 12th	QHLAN2017	2on2	dev
2017	A22nd	QHLAN2017	4on4	666
2017	A44th	Thunderdome Season 7	1on1
2015	A22nd	Duelmania Worldwide	1on1
2015	A55 - 6th	Thunderdome Season 5	1on1
2015	A22nd	Thunderdome Season 4	1on1
2012	A44th	Thunderdome Season 2	1on1
2012	A22nd	Hymn of Hope May Edition	1on1
2010	A33rd	Ownage 3	1on1
2009	A11st	RQWL season 13	1on1
2009	A33rd	Quakephil Old School	1on1
2009	A33rd	Quakephil AEROWALK 2009	1on1
2008	A11st	Quakephil Oneday 6 - ZTNDM3 mini	1on1
2008	A22nd	Bernard Oktoberfest 2008	1on1
2008	A99th	Quakephil DM6 2008	1on1
2008	A33rd	Quakephil ZTNDM3 2008	1on1
2008	A11st	EQL Season 7 Division 1	2on2	Bear Beer Balalaika
2008	A33rd	EQL Season 7 Division 1	4on4	Bear Beer Balalaika
2008	A11st	NQR Season 11, Silver Cup	4on4	Bear Beer Balalaika
2008	A33rd	EQL Season 6 Division 4	4on4	Bear Beer Balalaika
2007	A33rd	EQL Season 5 Division 4	4on4	Bear Beer Balalaika
2007	A33rd	NQR Season 10, Silver Cup B	4on4	Bear Beer Balalaika
2007	A55th	Summerjam 2007	1on1
2007	C525 - 32nd	Ownage 1	1on1
2006	A22nd	RQWL season 9	1on1
2004	A33rd	TQA - Invasion 2	1on1		$200
2003	A33rd	TQA - Revival	1on1		$200
2003	A44th	Comfort Challenge	1on1

Gallery

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  GT & Bulat

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  GT, Bulat & goqsane

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Statistics

Quotes

CEMPER

    — during official DM2 game vs Valla

Bulat naice aim

    — saying that Bulat has nice aim

Bulat best pov russia

    — saying that Bulat is best in Russia on Povdmm4

Bulat win all pov more ping. good forma 60%. normal 50%

    — saying that Bulat wins all Povdmm4 games on high ping and that his LG is 60% in good shape, 50% in normal shape

UL YOU CPIK ENGLESH I NO ANDERSTENT TEBYA

    — saying that Bulat doesn't understand UL's poor English, before their official game in Ownage

Bulat SUNDAY BULAT OUT / TUDAY AND MONDAY

    — telling about the days when he can play

bulat kill reppie control map

    — boasting about beating Reppie in official DM6 game

bulat in mega. reppie go in. bulat kill kill kill. no reppie

    — describing his victory against Reppie

bulat champ win paradoks eh murdoc

    — saying that Bulat beat Paradoks, Eh and Murdoc in official games

NO LENGYIJE

    — admitting that language skills are not among biggest talents of Bulat

CPIK INGLESH PLIZ

    — to some illiterate imbecile

BULAT NO ENGLAND

    — saying that Bulat has nothing to do with England

VSE RL AMMO U TAKE

    — whining that Reppie took all the rockets

DA A CHE NE CHE DRUGIE VON CHE I TO NE CHE

    — impossible to translate, causes instant brain damage to native speakers

Hi ping no lag. Pl lag. Ping time wait

    — explaining what lag is in qw

Bulat unikom taktik

    — after camping 100h on dm6 2on2

I am cofe

    — replying to someone who said he's making food

30 min move work

    — stating that he has to go to work in 30 minutes

Bulat kill lamer

    — threatening stupid people

i return woman bulat go sleep

    — saying that Bulat is about to go to sleep with his woman

pliz talk i am time play 24 04 10 k ? time sleep move vork

    — scheduling his Ownage game against Avenger

bulat wait #ibh no avenger. bulat want blood

    — trying to contact Avenger to play his Ownage game

bulat no play 3b no win

    — explaining why 3b lost to tVS in EQL while playing without Bulat

OUT TIME

    — said in a game when in lead vs LocKtar, stating that LocKtar has run out of time.

[translation] Once a quake player, always a quake player. It's in your heart.

    — original from #qw.ru: "Квакеров бывших не бывает. Это в душе."

YA TOLKO PRISHEL I NERAZOGRELSAY KAK SLEDUET POETOMU NESMOG VIIGRAT DM4 NO SHAFT VALLA VERI NAICE TAKTIK VERI BAD

    — occasional tatar-english train of thought after official game vs Valla

bulat win strong unikum taktiks. bulat naice aim NO NERAZOGRELSA NADO BILO PRAC A NEVISHLO

    — describing his victory against Avenger and whining about being unable to practice enough before the game

i am move!

    — saying that Bulat comes to QHLAN

I AM PLAY VS BOT 2 HOURSE ALL DEY 3 YAERS

    — about his practice regime

will not drive in a game, will drive in love

    — after hearing that BLooD_DoG who he just beat got married the day before

you pick map, bulat play all

    — showing he is not afraid of new-school kenya maps in a tournament game

Quotes about Bulat

Since early age Bulat has been fascinated with electricity.

Bulolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Bu-lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Bu. Lo. Lee. Ta. He was Bu, plain Bu, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. He was Bula in slacks. He was Bully at school. He was Bulat on the dotted line. But in my arms he was always Bulolita.

    — Humbert Humbert

Versus bulat I started getting a bit nervous because everybody was talking about how good bulat is and so on. We played some really tight games, and he has a very weird style of play (in a good way), attacking when you least expect it and stuff. I remember last map as being really really tight :) He was really good.

    — Mawe

That dm6 was hardrape, bulat style.

    — Stev

bulat kill all

    — Pyta

BULAT BEST AIM WORLD

    — Hooraytio

Milton doesn't stand a chance against allmighty Bulat

    — Zepp

Yeah!!!!!!! RUSSIA IN ATTACK!!! :) div1 lames :) BULAT DIV0!!!!!!! Grrrrrr :))

    — Armadon

Bulat king kong! Bulat strong!

    — Spoink

Be afraid, be very afraid of Bulat's LG, even at ping > 60... ;)

    — Anonymous

bulat russian beast, go own them son!

    — Anonymous

My Bulolita, butterfly of gore,
the cruel mistress governing my soul,
How could you, in the gloam of DM4,
Have martyrized hysterical Rikoll?

He was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By rays of lightning damaging his brain,
He was the smudge of ashen fluff and high
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.

    — Humbert Humbert

go bulat!

    — bent, suddenly

this guy, so epic, im his fan right away tho i've never watched quakeworld :D pure win :D

    — Kaide

Bulat is the best thing happened to quakeworld in recent years. His character is SO EPIC that I don't really care much if he is any good or not in 1on1.

    — Anonymous

fuck, bulat signed up!

    — Reppie

prepare to get 70% in your face

    — Jissse, frightened about Bulat using his lightning gun at QHLAN

BULAT shaft. BULAT kill. BZZZZZ!

    — hanslolo @ esreality

Interview

The following interview was taken for the now-defunct NQR site in 2008. First, Soma wrote the questions in English. Then, Exile translated them into Bulat-speak. After that, Bulat wrote the answers in Bulat-speak. Finally, Exile translated the answers from Bulat-speak to both English and Russian. BuurVrouw did the linguistic polishing of the English version. If you are a native speaker, feel free to fix any of the surely present mistakes.

Soma: "Hello BuLaT. First of all, thanks for letting us interview you for NQR. For those who don't know you yet: Could you please introduce yourself to us?"

Bulat: "I, Zakirov Bulat Zinfirovich, was born in the city of Ufa, which is the capital of Bashkortostan. I am an electrician. Married, no kids. 27 years old."

Soma: "Could you please tell us about your gaming history? When and how did you get into gaming? Did you play anything before QuakeWorld? When did you start playing QuakeWorld?"

Bulat: "I began playing at the age of 10. I had a computer, a keyboard, a tape recorder and a TV set. My favourite game at that time was Elite. At the age of 16 I bought a 200mhz pentium and began playing RPG and StarCraft. One fine day in 1998 I dropped in at my neighbour's and met his uncle, who offered me to play QW versus him. My helplessness had amazed me! As a result, I became a QW addict, which took a lot of years of my life. The fact that I became successful only in 2002 can, obviously, be explained by the absence of a decent internet connection. At that time, I could play against real people only in internet cafes, which was way too expensive. That's why I played with bots most of the time."

Soma: "What kind of computer do you play QuakeWorld with? What is your hardware and client setup?"

Bulat: "Celeron D 2.66ghz, 1.5gb DDR2 RAM, NVidia 8600 512mb, IE30a mouse, Mitsumi keyboard, Technics headphones, X-Trac Ripper Pad, 17' CRT Monitor LG, Genius microphone. 128k ADSL connection. Fov 110, m_pitch\m_yaw 1, sensitivity 0,13. Independent physics On, Fakeshaft Off."

Soma: "Describe Ufa, the city you live in. Is it a big city? Is there a noticable QuakeWorld community? Are there any local lans? What other notable players are from Ufa?"

Bulat: "Ufa is a very beautiful city with a population of over one million people. When the whole world will sink because of the global warming, Ufa will survive, since it's located on a highland. Our city is famous for such celebrities as Maxim Chudov -- russian biathlon rocket, tennis player Marat Safin, Quake player Bulat Zakirov and, at last, hockey club Salavat Yulaev (this year's russian superleague champions). A lot of factories do poison our life. Currently, QW is dying. One new player comes for every two players going away. Very good players: Bublik, Exile (stopped playing almost a year ago), and a very strong player Ron1n (who hasn't played for many years). Local lans have ceased due to appearance of a decent affordable internet connection two years ago. Before that, we used to gather on holidays at the apartment of that guy who had infected me with QW, and arranged the beerlans -- oceans of beer, vodka, and only four computers, which we brought there by ourselves."

Soma: "So... as we all know now, you have been playing QuakeWorld for a long time without actually having an internet connection. What other training, if any, did you perform during your offline times, besides frogbot?"

Bulat: "Between 2002 and 2005 we used to play 1x1 and 2x2 twenty hours per week plus 4x4 once each month in a gaming club, where we were granted some free-of-charge time. It is there where we have learned to play. Generally, we watched demos of such players as Griffin, Dag and Paradoks, which had costed Yurik tons of money to download with a 14kbps modem."

Soma: "The years you spent playing offline vs frogbots obviously explain your absolutely stunning aim. What other qualities do you hold, and what part of your gameplay do you feel you still need to improve?"

Bulat: "Yes, I feel quite confident about my aim. Movement and tactics are something that certainly could be improved."

Soma: "Do you have any tips and tricks about how people can improve their aim?"

Bulat: "Try playing on Povdmm4, Dm2dmm4, End and Endif versus stronger opponents."

Soma: "Do you enjoy playing any maps except for tb3 in 4on4 and tb5 in duel? If so, which ones?"

Bulat: "I don't see the point in playing on other maps. Also, I'm lazy. But for a tournament with a decent prize fund I would train all the required maps."

Soma: "Describe how you learned ztndm3. The legend is that Ztndm3 became popular in Russia because it was played 24/7 at MGU, but MGU is in Moscow... All a rumour, or is there some truth about this?"

Bulat: "In truth, when we met Moscow and foreign teams for the first time, Ufa's Ztndm3 and Aero were much stronger because we usually play all 5 maps in rotation without concentrating on particular maps. Ztndm3 was the home map of Ufa from the very beginning, long time before Aerowalk, which appeared somewhere in 2000-2001, when we saw Reload's games for the first time (downloaded by the mentioned Yurik). I want to say that we have always been informed about how Quake is being played in the world. As far as I know, in 1997 the legendary team AMD had arrived in Ufa to play in a tournament. It was then when Muscovites saw which maps were being played in Ufa and decided not to lag behind. I had just started to play at that time. We played Ztndm3 and Dm6 most often, Dm2 and Dm4 were much less popular, and somewhere in 2002 we started to play Aerowalk. After that, we began to play all 5 maps equally in rotation in order to prepare for a tournament in Tjumen."

Soma: "Have you ever considered going to QHLAN or perhaps Dreamhack in Sweden? Is traveling abroad to play QuakeWorld something you would consider at all?"

Bulat: "I'd do that with pleasure, but finances do not allow me to save up 800$. In Tyumen, there was a tournament called TQA. Organizers had invited Paradoks and Darklord, for whom they had paid all possible expenses. If I was invited like this and got paid for everything, then I'd certainly come (and took Exile along as a translator). In any case, I plan going abroad someday."

Soma: "Bulat Zinfirovich, tell us about the clan you're currently playing with. How did the season go so far and what do you expect from the playoffs which are about to begin on Monday? Who is your toughest opponent in Silver Cup?"

Bulat: "I play in a team called "Bear Beer Balallaika", which appeared almost right after a proper internet connection appeared in Ufa. It took us a great effort to finish the last season of EQL, but we have done a brilliant serie of games in this NQR season and I presume that we'll do as good in playoffs. The only team that can stop us, in my opinion, is Sega Gubbar. I'd like to mention our top line-up: XN (unnamed), Bulat, Bublik, SS, Del and Ihalainen (who started to play seldom for some reason). XN -- a very experienced player, supergod div1; Bulat -- poses a threat with quad; Bublik -- midfielder, equally good in all aspects; SS -- manipulates us; Del -- at least used to be a good quadrunner in the past; Ihanainen -- midfielder, equally good in all aspects. In last year our team was div4, but this year we are div2, thanks to two new players, Bublik and XN."

Soma: "Tell us about the Russian QuakeWorld scene in general. And who do you consider to be the best players currently active in Russia (both teamplay and duel)? Are there any talented NEW QuakeWorld players in the Russian QuakeWorld scene -- someone we should pay attention to in the future?"

Bulat: "XN, Dot, XPR etc... cock knows who... New talented players are Bublik, Bulat and ZEPP."

Soma: "Do you currently play any other FPS (first person shooter) games except for QuakeWorld? Any newer games like Quake4 perhaps? And why do you still play a game that is almost 12 years old? What does QuakeWorld have to offer in comparison to other games?"

Bulat: "In QW I like its community. Everyone is amicable and helping each other. I don't know why do I play, but I enjoy it a lot. No, I don't play any other shooters."

Soma: "Is there anything in NQR11 you are particularly happy or unhappy about? What can we do to improve? What should we change?"

Bulat: "I like the flexibility given by the league administration -- the ability to play games out of deadlines. Also, I like that NQR has fewer divisions than EQL. It means greater skill spread inside each division. Weaker teams are given an opportunity to play vs stronger teams. Also, the playoff results have greater value with smaller number of divisions. In general, NQR suits me fully."

Soma: "Any last things you want to say? Shoutouts, greetings, rants, comments?"

Bulat: "I consider the best players at the moment to be Griffin, Gamer and Milton. It would be very desirable to win NQR. I wish everyone to have a proper internet connection!"

Trivia

The house where Bulat lives, as seen on Google Earth. (54°48'35.52"N, 56° 8'7.76"E)

Since early age Bulat has been fascinated with electricity and recently fulfilled his dream of becoming a high class electrician. His rank allows him to operate in high altitude environments and work with ultra-high voltage. This fact of biography might give a slight hint to the elusive nature of his ability to harness the power of the Lightning Gun.

Occasionally Bulat gives show-off performances as a regional Ski racing legend. Some day we might see him competing for medals at the Winter Olympics.