Norway

Categories: Norwegian Players | Norwegian Clans | Norwegian National Team

Famous players: Rikoll | Trygve | Arnette | The Chosen One | PreMorteM | TiMMi | Sectopod | Stalin

Famous clans: Game Over | Spawn Clan | The Vicious Vikings | The Axe Men

History

The early history of Norwegian Quake, written by Erlend.

Quake was eagerly awaited and quickly attracted a Norwegian following after its release in June 1996. Home computers and Internet access being fairly common by those days' standards, Norway was a dominant part of the European Quake scene from day one, along with Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

The first few years, clan matches were decided on aggregate score after two freely chosen maps. The TB3-maps DM3 and DM2 quickly became the most popular, but E1M3 was actually more common than E1M2. Other regular choices was E3M3 and E3M7, while the occasional match was played on E1M1, E1M5, E2M1, E3M2 and E3M6. E4M3 is also worth mentioning, a map Norwegian clan The Vicious Vikings made their own. Though hard to picture today, 4on4 matches were also played on DM6 and DM4 (!).

Connection issues and huge ping differences were not uncommon, according to early match logs. Servers were often changed at «half-time» to even out the disadvantages. Thus, winning 100-30 at home could easily be followed by losing the away map by similar figures. As there were few clans, LPB and HPW teams regularly played each other, despite the unfair conditions.

1996

**New clans**
The Vicious Vikings Spawn Clan Cyber Quakers The Lost Vikings	Metalheadz Dead Presidents Klan Nivlheim The Bush Wackers

The first Norwegian clan, The Vicious Vikings, was formed in August 1996. Spawn Clan and Carnage Clan (known as Cyber Quakers in 1996) quickly followed. The trio established themselves as the top Norwegian clans, and Carnage Clan was soon considered as one of the best - if not the best - LPB clan in Scandinavia.

It took about a month before the Quake scene was big enough for matches to be regularly played. The first Norwegian clan match was played October 5th between The Vicious Vikings and The Lost Vikings (the vicious ones won). The Norwegians often had to look abroad for opponents, and The Vicious Vikings and Spawn Clan played legendary clans like Teddy Bears, Swedish Chefs, Crusaders and Nasty Beasts Inc during the fall of 1996.

In November 1996, the clan ranking page A Frag in the Darkness was started, which soon became a meeting point for Nordic clans and one of the biggest Quake pages in Scandinavia for the next couple of years.

1997

**New clans**
Helheim Kommando Zombie Wipeout Chickenshit Commandos Satanic Slayers Comrades in Arms Sitting Ducks Softology Alien Nation Da Gambinoz Sledge Hammers	Sisters in Quake The Chosen Ones Clan gRUS Mikke Mus Klan Ernie Killers Black Force Happy Clan Game Over 7th Sphere Rapid Fire

This was the year leagues and tournaments became professionalized. What A Frag in the Darkness had started the previous fall, now really took off with sites like the duel ladder Scandinavian Mighty Ones, the clan rating site Automatic for the People and the Norwegian Quake League, a national league like in Sweden and Denmark. News and community sites like FragZone and Blue's News became popular. These sites and leagues spawned a lot of activity, and a lot of new players and clans joined the scene.

The first of a series of ten AskerLANs were held in February. These LAN-parties were a huge success and became the heart of the Norwegian Quake scene for the next couple of years. The best Norwegian players were always present, with Stalin and Sectopod battling for the title as Norway's number one.

1997 was also the first year for national teams. Norway had an LPB team and a HPW team, and played against Sweden, Denmark and Finland on various occasions from early 1997 and on. The Swedes conquered the title as best country.

Scandinavia's first all-female Quake clan, Sisters in Quake, was formed during the fall. The strange phenomenon of clans purely for fakenickers also emerged this year. An explanation could be that several Norwegian clans had become so big there simply wasn't enough game time for everyone. Thus, clans like Ernie Killers, Mikke Mus Klan and later on Rectum Intruders could have been an opportunity for players to finally get some 4on4 action.

Three of Norway's top clans were dissolved in November. It started when several of the top players of Carnage Clan, Spawn Clan and Insomnia all left their clans to form the new clan Game Over. Shortly after, the players they had left behind also formed new clans, like The New Breed and 7th Sphere, though several of them would also end up in Game Over eventually.

In retrospect, the biggest change of 1997 was QuakeWorld. Though released in December 1996, it wasn't until the summer before the majority started to make the transition to QW.

1998

**New clans**
The New Breed Brotherhood Clan BAH Verdikommisjonen Clan Best Loser Squadron	Resident Evil Rectum Intruders Shining Force Color Web Airwalkers Brutal Cavemen

Quake II was released in February, but ended up as a disappointment, unable to match the gameplay experience of its predecessor. Other FPS games like Half-Life and Unreal also tried, and failed, to push Quake from its throne as the number one online game. QuakeWorld, which had really taken off the previous fall, was developed with new features like Kombat Teams, Rocket Arena, new spawn modes and the Qizmo-proxy.

The new «super clan» Game Over dominated the Norwegian scene, including the new Norwegian Clan League and existing leagues like AFITD and AFTP. Previous attempts at making a Nordic league had been unsuccessful due to high ping and connection issues between boarders, but with ISDN replacing more and more modems, it was possible for former HPWs to get pings close to 100 on servers abroad. During the summer of 1998, plans for a Nordic league was in the making.

North-European Clan League began in October. NECL was the biggest tournament this year, featuring all the best North-European clans. The top division was won by Clan Z, but the Norwegians did good, with Game Over and The Vicious Vikings finishing 2nd and 3rd - beating clans like Orkney Clan, Schröet Kommando, Nasty Beasts Inc, Medieval Spawns, Demonic Core, Teddy Bears and Wrecking Crew.

Another big league, Heroes, was also started this year, with Nordic clans only, and won by Clan Z. It is unknown if this was a successor or predecessor to NECL.

1999

**New clans**
Urge Lumbago Whatever Evil Destruction	Ultra Lamers Dark Side The Overlords The Blitz

Few new clans, but still very active year

True Gamers Invitational

Villains

Quake III Arena test-released in May. Methos: Downloading of the most anticipated game since Quake, slows the internet to a crawl for days to come.

17th May: First Norwegian Q3A match, GO vs VV

Quake 3: Arena released worldwide on December 5th, 1999

VV arguably 3rd best clan in Northern Europe

Lot of players moving on to CS and Q3A

NECL 2nd season canceled. QW scene in decline.

Rapture 99: July 26th, 1999, Scotland. Duel: 1 Kane DE, 2. Timber UK, 3 Nikodemus SE, 4. Griff DE. TDM: 1. Euro Selects (Kane, DOOMer, Blitzer, Cable) 2. North America (Batch, Pure, Gemini, Genocide)

More to follow...

2000s

**New clans**
2000: Oh My God 2002: Fudoh 2002: The Axe Men 2002: Libidus Animalis	2003: Hixos 2007: Kuve 2007: Naim 2013: The Norse

Feb 2001: For the first time in almost five years, neither Quake, QW, Quake2 or Q3A is the top online game. The Half-Life add-on called Counter-Strike is the number 1. It's popularity will continue to grow.

Norwegian scene consists of The Chosen One & ex-Game Over's

2008: The Axe Men 2.0

European Quake League

Challenge Smackdown (2000)

Duelmania (2001)