Team Sweden at the ENC Finals in Cologne, 2010

Excerpt:

You have already played tournament favourite 4K in the EC and lost by only a few frags on both Maps. Did you expect the match to be so close? And did this result give you confidence or frustration?
purri: I was very frustrated afterwards. It felt like such a waste from our side. I claim that our inexperience (How can you call a team inexperienced when we have more than 40 years of TDM in our lineup!!) did cost us the game. What I mean is that this particular game felt like ours to win, and to take. In particular the 2nd map where it felt that we were controlling the tempo and items/quad from start until last 2 quads. I think we were worthy to play a 3rd map. However we did not, and 4K won fair and square! I have to say they are a good team, and their caliber will never be easy to beat no matter what lineup you have! There is some good news though. I don’t know from 4K’s side, but I know for sure we could have had a better lineup and we have practised a lot since then. So they will have to play better next game to win, since we will and I’m looking forward to it myself already! Bring it plz!

Damiah: To be honest before the game I didnt expect much, but after the game I thought that we should have won it. Even that we were underdogs before the match it was really annoying to lose it like that ?
I think we have really good potential if we are just able to use it.

To enjoy the rest of the interview, click here.

A few days ago he launched his own blog, CyrusMalekani.com, where you can read all about his adventures in Japan, where he is currently studying.

From the website:

PRO GAMER and GENTLEMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE at your service!

Cyrus ‘proZaC’ Malekani is now on the path of mastering his way and perfecting his quake.
Always moving forward with a never-say die attitude he approaches all his challenges with a calm samurai-like state of mind.

Follow him on his crazy adventures and you just might learn something

OSU!

Click here to check out the new site, or click here to follow proZaC on twitter.

Johan ‘tox’ or ‘toxjq’ Quick is one of the most revered Quake players of all time. He was kind enough to share some insight concerning Quake Live and his potential future as a competitive player. He also spoke of his feelings on being such a dominant champion of Quake 4, and what he must do if he is to continue to perform at such a high level.

nomadic: First, could you catch us up to speed on what you’ve been up to? Are you still into your fitness? Working / Studying? Do you still participate in Horse Race Betting?
tox: Gopher and I work for my father’s smaller business as sheet metal and ventilation technicians. And I still try to keep the fitness going, but nowadays I usually keep it to twice a week. On Saturday’s I do enjoy the major horse races that take place every Saturday in Sweden.

nomadic: Will we be seeing you come back and train Quake Live as hard as you did for Quake 4?
tox: I don’t think I will play as active as I did during Quake 4, since I was then sponsored and had more time for practicing and traveling. But things can change in the future with more events and so forth. I have vacation atm, so I have been playing some the last couple of weeks. Fazz came and asked me to participate against France in the TDM cup because Fox had holiday in Greece. I knew that they really wanted to go to the LAN finals, so I felt obligated to take part with them. I only practiced a bit before that game, and then I have just kept on playing for now.

nomadic: Speaking of TDM – It has become much more active in 2010. Do you or your brother have any interest in reviving a certain TDM clan?
tox: Gopher has been talking about starting to play a bit for fun, but he doesn’t have a proper monitor for Quake atm, so I think he might start to play some more for fun if he finally goes and buys a new monitor. But I don’t think we will play TDM for online purposes, it could happen that we would make a team again if there would be TDM lans as it were back in Quake 3 OSP. I rather prefer if there were more 2v2 events, maybe together with 1v1 so you had two types of a game at the same event. In my opinion it’s too much hassle to gather 4 people, and much easier to practice 2v2 then 4v4.

nomadic: But don’t you think 4v4 TDM is more fun than 2v2, both as a player and spectator?
tox: I would say that 4v4 is more fun when you travel to an event together with your team and play the serious matches with a lot of pressure. But in my opinion, 2v2 is more fun to play for practice purposes and also to watch online.

nomadic: In your September’09 Fragster interview you said, “I would like to decrease the hitboxes a lot”. How do you feel about the hitboxes now?
tox: I think they have been improved since they made the changes, but if you play an opponent that has a higher ping than you, there are many shots that go right through. It seems like it depends on what situation you’re in on the map, you really have to think about what height you are firing your shots from. But that’s probably more something that comes with experience.

nomadic: So for LAN play – do you think the hitboxes are perfect, or would you like to see further tweaking?
tox: I have yet to play Quake Live on lan, so I don’t know how the hitboxes work there, but most likely they will work better if both opponents have the same ping. I’m also interested to find out if there is the same amount of firing delay for the weapons on LAN. This is mostly what I feel could be corrected. If you look at plasma gun, for an example, it has a lot of delay while playing online. You cannot use the plasma gun in the same way as you used it in OSP and CPMA; like a close range weapon. It’s mostly for spamming corridors and just annoying your opponent now. In my opinion its way to risky to use plasma vs lightning gun in close range atm. So I would like to see some changes with plasma, so you had 1 more weapon you could use in the game.

nomadic: Would you favor plasma or shotgun at close range in Quake Live as it stands now?
tox: Online I would definitely prefer to have a shotgun instead of plasma atm. But it might work perfect on LAN, I really can’t have an opinion about that since I haven’t tried Quake Live on LAN.

nomadic: We haven’t really seen you play T7 or T9, what are your thoughts on those maps?
tox: I have been playing more and more of these new maps lately, and I think T7 is a balanced map so far. You can play the map very different if u want, both super aggressive and also very slow and safe as well. T9 I haven’t been playing as much as T7, but it feels like there can be so many spawn frags on that map. In my opinion, that’s a weakness, as I think luck should be involved as little as possible.

nomadic: Do you favor any maps over others?
tox: I would say that ztn, dm13, and T7 are good maps for competitive play. Dm6 doesn’t work as well in Quake Live than in Quake 3. As for T9, I can’t say there is much you can do on that map. You are kinda forced to play a certain way and it’s hard to find out a different way to play that map. Then again I haven’t been playing it as much as the others have. But I’d rather not see any Quake 3 maps in Quake Live map pools. I think we’ve had enough of that already, and it should only be new maps for competitive play.

nomadic: Would you be opposed to the addition of Hub?
tox: Yes, even dm6, phrantic, ztn, t4, hub, edge etc. I believe there has to be changes to get some new blood into the competitive scene, and since Quake Live is a new game, they should not use maps that have been played for years and years. There isn’t much to explore and it’s hard to come up with a new way of playing each map.

nomadic: Understandable, so in this way you favor T9 to be included in tournament map pools?
tox: Yeah so far I would. As long as they make new maps, it is important they are tested thoroughly. But you can’t announce new maps 1 week before an event like Quakecon, that’s really bad of them and unprofessional. There has to be some kind of organization that decides a map pool, and that map pool should be used for all the events of that year. If people wanna change maps, or add maps, it should be announced at least 6 months ahead of the tournament.

nomadic: What about other changes or additions you would like to see in Quake Live?
tox: I would like to see what happens if machine gun makes 6dmg instead of 5dmg. Its way too hard to defend yourself with machine gun atm, but then again I think 7dmg is way too much. And as I said earlier, I would like to see some changes with the plasma gun. Maybe it should fire a bit faster or the bullets should be a bit larger, because the hitboxes are smaller atm.

nomadic: I think it was obvious to everyone that Quake 4 suited your play style best. Do you feel your game can be adapted to suit Quake Live like it did in Quake 4?
tox: I think the key is to always find a new way of playing, and it’s all about making your opponent unable to play as he is used to, or how he has been practicing to. It doesn’t really matter if you play aggressive or defensive, just if you make your opponent off his game style and his “plan” he brought to the game.

Quake Live is mostly about timing and controlling the items like RA, MEGA, YA. But if you look at Quake 4, it was just as important to control the weapons of your opponent as it was to take armors and megas. Since the weapon respawn is 5 seconds in Quake Live, it’s impossible to keep your opponent from getting the weapons he wants after a period of time. You can be successful for a while, but in Quake 4 it could be better to give your opponent an RA if you could take the lightning gun or rail or rocket. Because then you would win the next fight without any trouble at all. But in Quake Live you are pretty much forced to take all the fights at all armors and megas. And since Quake Live doesn’t have as much dodging involved as Quake 4 did, you almost have to get more armor and health than your opponent if you wanna win the next fight. Sure you can win certain battles if you position yourself a bit better, but in general you pretty much have to be equal or have more to win a fight in Quake Live.

It’s just another way of playing a game, and you do what you have to do to get better at the game you are playing. But that’s kinda the guideline for Quake Live, only control armor and health and get the best position you can for the next fight.

nomadic: Does this guideline favor or hinder you?
tox: In the beginning it most likely would not suit me. I like when I have more options I can choose from, but I do miss that there isn’t as much weapon controlling with the fast respawn of the weapons. That way if you play someone with a strong rail, it could be better to control rail as opposed to taking all the YA’s on the map when you already are 200-200, but its just 2 different types of play.

nomadic: Let’s go back a few years to WSVG finals vs. Fatal1ty.
After you won, and silenced the “99% Bias Against Toxic” room, you said you felt like you had something to prove; that you were the best Quake 4 player. Do you still feel like you have anything to prove?
tox: No, I mean you can always look back on players as they’re talked about on the shoutcast, “Do you think this guy would beat this guy etc.” It’s just speculation and ultimately a waste of time. Everyone who wins tournament after tournament is already the best at that moment, and I guess these players have the potential to be one of the greatest.

But you cannot take a player from 10 years ago and compare him with someone today. I’m sure that player would have been as good as all the rest if he had his prime today. For myself, I already won a lot in Quake 3 TDM, and I think I placed 5th in almost all major Quake 3 events I attended. In Quake 4 I won a lot of 1v1 tournaments and the Quakecon Quad tournament as well as every 2v2 tournament with whomever I teamed with.

I think the difference between me and the other players is that I don’t talk about winning as much as they do. I don’t feel like its any surprise for me, and I’m always aware of every good player at a top level. It’s important never to feel like, “Yes I made it,” because that should be just an average day for you if you want to stay at the top for a long time.

nomadic: When you were dominating Quake 4, everyone was very curious about how you practiced. You said you didn’t like to train with other top players, but that you instead preferred players that were of a “mid tier” range of skill.
Can you tell us the advantages of this type of training regiment as opposed to training with your peers?
tox: I felt that I already knew how to play the map and opponent when I was attending a tournament, so I already knew how I was suppose to play my best game at that point. If you play someone that’s equal in skill as you are and make 1 mistake, you usually end up losing the game, or not getting any items or weapons for a long period of time during the game. In my opinion, you don’t get to practice all the situations as much then. If you play a medium skilled player, you can always get back control much easier then if you’re playing a top player.

So my thoughts were – if I play vs a medium skilled player I get to practice all the situations over and over, many more times during a game then I could if I played a top player. Of course now and then you can also play someone of your level, to improve your tactical game and also see if these things even work against someone at the same level as yourself.

nomadic: Is this your preference for Quake 4 alone, or would you apply it to Quake Live also?
tox: I definitely would use this in Quake Live also, but probably a bit more games vs equal skilled players to first find out how to play a serious game. When you get that right, you can go off and find out different ways to play a certain map or different ways to attack or play defensive etc.

nomadic: Are you planning to attend Quakecon or any other events in 2010?
tox: I’m not going to attend Quakecon this year, but I have been practicing with Stermy and Cypher before this event to help them get in shape. Cypher and I made a deal – if I helped him to improve his game and found out his weaknesses, and if I gave my view of his game to help him, he would give me advice and help me improve on ztn for an example. So Cypher and I have been playing a lot this past week. We had our warm up session; talking about positioning and some things I know about the opponents he is going to play and so on. Stermy and I have also done the same.

I don’t know if I’m going to attend any events in the future, I hope I will but I don’t know when it will happen. Atm I’m trying to get a feeling for the game, and I will see what tournaments come up. But I want to be sure of knowing all the maps before I attend a tournament.

nomadic: That’s a nice trade off, have you found anything on them yet?
tox: Yes, I think we both have learned from doing this. Maybe he got another view of things he hadn’t previously considered, and I have seen things that I hadn’t thought so deep about either. Anyway, since I’m good friends with both Stermy and Cypher, and if I’m not participating in a tournament, I’d like to see them go as far as possible.

nomadic: Last time I spoke with you, you were planning to buy an apartment. Where are you living now?
tox: I’m still living in the same city that I grew up in. There hasn’t been a good time for this kind of market since the crash.

nomadic: Is there a significant other in the life of The Toxinator or is he looking to acquire a target?
tox: Nope, not at this moment.

nomadic: Thank you very much, I really appreciate you taking the time. The final words are yours.
tox: You are welcome, it will be interesting to see if there are new maps being played at Quakecon and let’s cheer for Stermy and Cypher.

Thanks to Nomadic for the much-needed interview from one of the all-time Quake legends.

Disclaimer: All thoughts expressed are the opinions of the individuals and were said without reference to id software/Quake. The talk of maps which are not currently available are simply just speculation.

Alessandro Avallone goes by the name of “Stermy” in video games. This young Italian has recently turned 20 years old but has already accomplished a lot in his short lifetime. In 2005 he was a Painkiller professional, taking 3rd place at the Cyberathlete Professional League World Tour finals. Alessandro is one of the top professional Quake 4 players today. He plays under the “Free Player Organisation”, a team set up by gaming legend Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel himself. Alessandro has many fans around the world who admire his gaming style and success. He could be a pin-up boy for young teenage girls. But what goes on behind the scenes? Is Stermy more than just a name that you’d be frightened to run into on a Quake 4 server?

Born and raised in Andora (a small town near Genova), Italy, Alessandro started gaming at an early age. Like any other gamer he has interests outside of killing opponents online and on LAN. Alessandro is a huge fan of football (or soccer for all you Americans). His favourite team is Inter (Internazionale Milano, a football club based in Milan). His current favourite player is Adriano, “even though he’s going trough bad times since 2006″. Alessandro never misses a match. “In the past my idol was Ronaldo, he was an amazing player but one day he got injured. I still remember when that happened and I was waiting his return. That night, Inter was playing vs Lazio, another Italian team and Ronaldo joined the game just for the last few minutes. After few seconds on the field he fell down on the field again and he got the same injury again. I still remember him crying. I guess that was his last chance to  become as good as he was before”. Ask Alessandro anything about soccer and he will be able to give you a lengthy answer, claiming, “I know everything about soccer (smile)”.

Being a fan of soccer Alessandro also enjoys to play from time to time, both in “real” life and virtually. “Every Monday night, my friends here in Andora, organize a pro evolution tournament 1v1 or 2v2 with little prize money. Soccer here in Italy is a big thing, and most of the people from 10 to 40 years old play Soccer video games (Pro evolution soccer is the most famous).” Unfortunately in the latest tournament, Alessandro missed out on the 100€ first place prize. Besides from playing virtual soccer, Alessandro also played a variety of sports when he was at school; “I played different sports besides soccer, like basketball and volleyball for my school team and I did pretty good in all of them”. Playing these sports when he was younger would attribute to his hand-eye co-ordination which helps him have such amazing aim in games.

Being a professional gamer means a lot of time on the road away from family and friends. Alessandro is used to it though, since despite having lived in Andora all his life, he has been travelling around since the young age of 1 or 2 years old; “My dad works in the travelling business (travel agency, hotels etc) so I was used to going on a lot of trips with my family”. He has seen the world before he’s even left his teens. When Alessandro is on the road he keeps in touch with his friends and family over the phone. After tournament matches he usually receives a call from them. They follow all his tournaments online through video streams or Quake 4 TV; “they always have supported me in everything I did and I’m really thankful and greatful to them for this. When I was playing soccer my dad always drove me to every match, practice or test. He almost never missed a match. When I started gaming it was the same and now they keep following my events”. When he isn’t travelling to various gaming events or visiting his beautiful girlfriend Sofi Byström (from the top Counter Strike female team Les Seules) in Sweden Alessandro lives in Andora, Italy with his parents, little brother and cat. Because he is travelling so much, he didn’t feel the need to move in to his own place because he’s never home. When he does come home, it’s like coming to visit his family instead of really living there.

We all know that nerves before something big (like an important match for instance) can really screw with your stomach. Alessandro is very aware of this and claims “I usually just eat a bit at breakfast and I bring with me juice (not orange juice, it’s too “sour” and that doesn’t help at all for your stomach sometimes), so I go for apple, or peach with some chocolate or energy bar in between matches. And a lot of WATER.” Alessandro really knows how important it is to stay hydrated to keep your concentration at it’s maximum. He is a health concious person who plays a lot of sports to stay in shape. When he’s home he does three days of soccer and three days at the gym, with a “relaxing day” on Sunday. He is also always trying to eat good food but finds that hard to do when he’s on the road and usually ends up losing a lot of weight. Anyone that has been lucky enough to stay with Alessandro knows that his mothers cooking is top notch and can’t be replaced with any other food.

Italy (Milan especially), is one of the fashion capitals of the world and is home to fantastic luxury brands such as Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, GUCCI and Armani. I guess it must be in Alessandro’s blood to have a taste for nice, expensive clothing. He is always seen at tournaments sporting nothing but luxury labels. I wasn’t surprised to learn that he is also a platinum member of Armani Exchange, where he receives discounts and special sale opportunities on their products. This young man knows how to dress and he really does have a great sense of style. This is something that other gamers are starting to pick up. According to Alessandro; “I definitely think that gamers have to be dressed in a good way, especially at professional tournament. It’s not only good for yourself but also for promote gaming in the right direction. Most of the teams right now are getting good clothes for their players. That’s a good thing and I’m looking forward to seeing it more and more in the future.”

In his youth, Alessandro was also a model and an actor. He worked (and still sometimes does) for an important agency in Milan. When he was younger, Alessandro would go there every week and do auditions for movies, TV commercials and photo shoots. He has been in a variety of commercials on the largest channels in Italy for various products like clothing and chewing gum. Alessandro even made it to the big-screen, playing a leading role in a movie about a famous comic group that does comic shows. However, playing soccer was his main priority; “I was really busy in my soccer career and also school that I didn’t want to go to Milan every time they called me. I was young and I wanted to do what I loved.” Despite his TV and movie apperances, Alessandro mostly gets recognised on the streets in Italy thanks to his gaming career! This is because he has been in a lot of important media in Italy over the past years. Often seen at events wearing a Radio Deejay cap, the explination behind it is that Radio Deejay is one of the most popular radio shows in Italy. Many famous people are invited to speak on the show and Alessandro has been a guest there three times. Along with that, all the Italian gaming magazines follow the large gaming events Alessandro attends and they always have a page about him.

So as you can see, Alessandro Avallone is a lot more than just a top contender in games with deadly aim. There is a lot more to this young Italian than meets the eye. Make sure to watch out for him at tournaments as this young star is a truly talented player.

Stermy is still very active in Quake Live today and I hope to bring you an updated lifestyle feature from the great Italian.

Links:
Stermy.com
@Stermy
@HelloLiefje (Let me know what you think via twitter!)

Tweet your thoughts to @holysh1t

It was really nice to see some old faces and also meet some new ones in the Quake scene. It was great to meet especially spart1e, rapha and noctis. ESL hosted an IEM tournament there in Quake Live. There were 16 slots, 10 invites and the rest of the slots were filled by lucky lottery winners.

I was one of those “lucky” participants so I got to play in the tournament and my first opponent was the Frenchman Strenx. I lost badly, but at least I got a telefrag on T9 hehe. You can download the demos here.

Of course there are also lots of galleries up! You can view mine on ESReality, or check out the ones on ESL, Fragster and derquaker.

Next weekend it’s a couple of colleagues birthdays (so close to mine too) so we should be having some fun on a certian bierbike.

If you’ve been reading my msn then you’ll know on Friday we did the first VFBL (Virtuelle fussball bundes liga) games. It was fun to be a host even though the stream was too laggy for anyone to watch. At least if there was about 2 other people watching, it was worth it! One of the players totally lost his shit and threw juice all over the room. Release the passion, HAHA.

Hopefully I can get some pics from my colleague of the stream soon.

Since then i’ve been playing a few more ladder games, winning some, losing most I know I need to heavily devote more time into duelling and practice, but I have too much fun playing Clan Arena right now.

On that note, I have some really exciting news about the girlz 0f destruction. Now this doesn’t happen often but we have recruited a new player to the ranks by the name of Videl. It’s a beautiful story… she sniped me on ESL, I sniped her back and the love began to blossom…. haha! Anyway needless to say, i’m very happy to have her on board.

And again about Quake, the AGP site has been launched, and there you can go and read my interview with Karl “fooKi” Johannson. GOOOOOOO