News Archives from August, 1998

Click here for news prior to August 1, 1998

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World DeathMatch Tourney Info
Saw on Challenge.AU that Ignatu has all but stepped down from running the WDT. He mentioned that if he can't come up with a sponsor by September 10th, he will step down.

QuakeWorld v2.30 Thoughts
Since nearly all the QW servers have switched over to v2.30 of QW which was released a couple of days ago. I decided to go and find out what people thought of it. The most common answers were as follows:

• Much smoother
• Bit laggy
• Mouse response is doesn't seem the same
• Is this new?

UK player Aerotus mentioned that since the scores now show packet loss, he'll have to start blaming things on other players. :p

My opinion is that the "cl_chasecam 1" command rocks. Unless you're an hpb like me and it keeps losing frames.

New Nitro Force Proxy
A new version of the [NF]Proxy (0.3) has been released on the Nitro Force home page. It's now compatible with QW v2.30. It's still free and the site now has English on it. :)

DemoPlay Stuff
I spoke with Screwball in regards to the new Demoplay (v2.10). The next version of Demoplay will support QW v2.30 demos. In his words it "shouldn't be too long". The other concern I had was with the "use mod" feature which wasn't configurable in the previous version. You can now edit the file "mod.ini" to include any mod you have in your game directory. Download it from the link at the top of the Quake demos page.

Rainbow SIX Review?
A week ago, I was raving about the Rainbow SIX demo and suggested that people should run out and buy it (before I saw the game). Well, I finally got a chance play the demo. Umm, what I said last week, forget I said it. Aside from the fact that it installs over 2100 files and more than 100 directories, the game just sucks. :)

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan page

QuakeWorld v2.30 Released
Our pal Zoid mentioned in his .plan that the new v2.30 of QuakeWorld available on id's FTP server. Here's some of what he had to say...

"The long awaited Quakeworld version 2.30 has been released. The main archive for QuakeWorld can be found at ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quakeworld/

2.30 doesn't introduce a lot of new features over 2.29 (the most notable is the packet loss meter on the scoreboard), but mostly consists of "behind the scenes" fixes from the 2.29 BETA.

Assuming that no major bugs show up in this 2.30 release, this will probably be the last QuakeWorld release. QuakeWorld has been an amazing project from John Carmack's early origins, to over a year of tweaking at Jack 'morbid' Matthew's and my hands. It is one of the most complete and best first person internet gaming experience available today. It's been a pleasure working on it and keeping in contact and participating with the thousands of players."

Hmm, last release of QW? Why does that sound so ominous?

Who Shot J.R.?... Nobody!
After reports of John Romero being shot & killed in Dallas, he rose from the dead to update his .plan file today. Here's what he had to say.

"Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. I take full responsibility for last night's confusion -- maybe I shouldn't have taken that morbid picture for Texas Monthly magazine, because someone apparently called the Dallas PD and heard that a John Romero got shot last night. Coupled with the actual picture, you have yourself a news story (although a false one).

I was out of touch with people up here at Ion for a while last night, so they couldn't confirm nor deny the rumors, so Adrenaline Vault ran the story and got the "scoop" first. Too bad it was incorrect, eh? Well, don't blame them -- I got a call from their writer who told me where and how he got his information and I would have run the story myself, so don't slam on them, they were only doing their job.

And for all of you who really did care and got upset: I love you all!"

Ion Guys Poke Fun At Death
I guess the Ion Storm guys aren't so squeamish about the possible death of their leader. They even went as far as posting a Top 10 list regarding his death. Here it is. (by William Haskins)

Top 10 Things That Went Through My Mind When I Heard John Romero Was Dead.

10 - Now I’ll never get to drive the Hummer.
9 - He was just starting to like me...
8 - Damn! I was just about to ask for a raise…
7 - I wonder if they even make fly-yellow coffins?
6 - Maybe it was Shawn Green who got killed and they just mistook him for Romero.
5 - All that deathmatching and he still never learned how to dodge a bullet…
4 - Maybe it’s just an elaborate hoax, and John is off on an island somewhere deathmatching Elvis and Jimi Hendrix.
3 - Now whose hair am I supposed to admire?
2 - I always told him that he was going to tell the wrong person to "Suck it Down™"
1 - I hope I’m in his will!

Sleep Speaks (sort of)
In an brief interview with StormTroopers, Dr. Sleep was ask the inevitable question of why he left ION Storm. His vague response was..

"A lot of people have asked why I left Ion for a somewhat smaller company such as Xatrix. I have absolutely no confrontational issues with Ion, so let's just say my reasons were personal with nothing sinister implied."

Challenge.AU Message Board
Hoony sent along word that he has setup an "International Message Board" at Challenge.AU for the purposes of yapping about international Quake issues. Go check it out and bother Hoony by calling him Honey. (as most of the e-mails I get refer to him as :)  I hope Hoony excludes webmasters from posting in the MB, the last thing webmasters need is an invitation to give there opinion in more places than they need. :p

New DemoPlay Released
Not sure whether this was planned or just bad timing but, one day before the new QW v2.30 was released, Screwball has released v2.10 of his wonderful program called Demoplay. You can download it from the link at the top of the Quake demos page.

Top Selling Games for July 98
Incase you're interested in other games besides Quake, here are the top 10 selling games in July of 1998.

1. Starcraft
2. Unreal
3. Final Fantasy VII
4. Deer Hunter
5. Police Quest: SWAT 2
6. Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter
7. Cabela's Big Game Hunter
8. Diablo
9. Myst
10. Titanic: Adventure Out of Time

Site Stuff

• Updated the Quake's Best Players page to reflect the results of the Ultimate Quake Poll
• Updated Methos .plan page
  Uploaded 2 demos to the Quake Demos Page. The dm4 demo is wonderful.

The Aftermath
Wow, incredible responses to the Ultimate Quake Poll results. Many good, many bad, some bordering on stupidity. My thoughts on the poll can be found on Methos .plan page. CheezyPoofs Rule!

Nitro Force Proxy
Keybuzz from Nitro Force Clan sent along word saying that their new NF-Proxy has been released. He made some bold claims saying that it "gives u more features for teamplay than Qizmo or Cheapo proxy". The best news in all this is that the NF-Proxy is free! I had a very hard time finding it on their clan site (it's not in English) so, if you can't find it there, you can download it here (90k).

The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers...
TiGGr from TPC (The Pooh Clan) sent along word that he has opened TiGGr's Arenaland. Go check it out. Umm, did you know the original Winnie the pooh was from (and named after) the city I live in? (that would be Winnipeg)

More New Sites
This time it's demo sites. One from Slash and MalcomX can be found here. And the other called Demo Sktad.

Site Stuff

• Did a huge update on Methos .plan page
• I'm expecting an update from Spookie pretty soon. He's still in shock over being named in the poll results.

Power To The People!
The Ultimate Quake Poll results have been posted. I'm going to sleep!

The People Have Spoken (Damn, They're Loud)
Okay, here's the deal. 40 Categories, 1,009 Voters = 40,000+ names to sort through. Actually, it's only about 30,000 since I threw out approx. 200 votes and not everybody answered every questions. Now, you're probably saying, "Okay, Less Talk, More Rock!". I hear ya and all I can say is "I'm working as fast as I can". My eyes have been going buggy for the last 8 hours or so.

The results "should" be posted tonight. I have a busy day tomorrow so I want to get it finished as soon as possible. I could always just give the most popular answer in the gaming industry, "when it's done"(™). The wait will be worth it, there are some surprising results.

Methos Interview? Where?
For those of you that have e-mailed me saying that you can't find the Interview of me that was posted last week on Challenge.AU, here's a direct link to the Methos Interview. Thanks again to Hoony for posting it.

Back From Summer Slam 98
Just got in from Summer Slam 98 and every bone in my body is aching. I had lots of fun and everybody was very cool. I'd like to thank [TC]-Reaper for being a good host. I've posted a few thoughts on it in my .plan file.

Ultimate Quake Poll Ends
I have taken the link away from the Ultimate Quake Poll. Actually, if you can find the page, it's still there if you want to vote for a few more hours. The amount of votes over the weekend have been amazing. I'll start working on the results later today and hopefully, they'll be out tomorrow. (fingers crossed)

Birthday?
I forgot to mention that John Carmack turned 28 years old on Friday. Damn, I feel old. (and poor)

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file
• Not much of an update today (sorry) as I'm too tired from Summer Slam. I'll do a larger update tomorrow
• Started work on the results of the Ultimate Quake Poll. Hopefully, all the results from the HUGE results file will be interesting to most people.

Mail Server Fixed
The mail is finally working again. You can send me mail at my regular mail address methos@methosq.com again.

Ultimate Quake Poll Update
The votes on the Ultimate Quake Poll have dropped off so, I'll be releasing the results earlier than expected. I've had approx. 700 people vote (after throwing out the multiple votes) in the last 5 days and I will leave the poll open until Sunday when I return from "SUmmeR sLaM '98". Then I'll go through all the results (results file is over 400k in size!) and make up a nice page to display the winners.

I'll be doing the results much the same as Bigfoot did with his UK poll as I like the way that turned out. I'll post the top three in all applicable categories and show the forth place finisher that almost made it.

I have made a couple of changes to the vote results. I won't be counting Methos Quake for the "gaming site" and "news site". It would be unfair for the reason that I held the poll. I will however count Methos Quake in the "demo site" since that is what this site seems to be known for.

The other change is that I will combine the results of the gaming and Quake news sites as it seems that many people didn't know the difference between the two.

A World Clan Tourney
It's finally going to happen. Clans from around the world will compete for the prize (oh oh, starting to sound like the Highlander again :). Anyway, this should be the ultimate in cool tourneys. For more info, you can visit my buddy Hoony over at Challenge.AU as he seems to have his finger on this particular pulse.

Quake 2 v3.18 Beta Released
Hmm, another beta for Q2. I wonder when they'll actually release the final product? :) (j/k) I'm sure it has tons of new features so make sure you download it. Here's the word from John Cash's plan.

"Quake2 version 3.18 beta released

It is at ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/q2_318_beta.exe.

Please read the file 3.18_Changes.txt contained within this self-extracting
zip file for details about the release."

Rainbow SIX, Now In Stores
Rainbow SIX is now available in stores. Run out an buy it as soon as you can. It's the greatest game I've ever seen. Okay, so I haven't even seen it yet, that's not the point. :) The boys over at Rainbow 6 Retreat are already worrying because it turns out that even though the game itself runs well over the internet, there are already quite a few security problems and cheating in multiplayer has already become rampant.

Daikatana Detained Again
Rumor has it that ION Storm's Daikatana will be delayed until January to March of 1999. I haven't heard the reasons for the delay but, I hope it's so they can make the game better than expected.

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file
• Started preliminary work on compiling the 400+ kb results file from the Ultimate Quake Poll. If everything goes as planned, it should be posted early next week. Stay tuned for a few surprises :)
• Getting ready to roll my fat-arse(tm) out to "SUmmeR sLaM '98" early Saturday morning. I should be home Sunday afternoon.

Mail Server Fixed?
I finally got a hold of the server dudes today (after repeated messages to them) and was able to get the mail fixed. It turns out that we just needed to give it a nudge with the patented "llamanet-whapp-o-matic". Thanks to Gremlin for fixing it so that I can receive mail. Now, if I could only send mail, I'd be happy.

Ultimate Quake Poll Problems?
A few people have sent mail saying that they received an error message when submitting their responses in the Ultimate Quake Poll. The error they received was rather vague and said "Front Page Error". If you receive that error, don't worry, the results are still saved. It only means that it couldn't resolve your IP address. This error seems to occur the most with people connecting to the net using a proxy or behind a firewall.

Germany Defeats UK
After some pretty rough internet problems with heavy packet loss, UK & Germany managed to play both legs of their home and away matches. The final scores were as follows.

England Leg: UK 333 - Germany: 135
German Leg: Germany 722 - UK 52

With a few mild surprises, the teams were as follows.

Congrats to all players involved and congrats to Germany of the victory. You can find more info on the matches here.

sCary Talks About Cheating
In his usual timid style, sCary has responded to this article by Dru on cheaters with the following comments.

"Just so you guys know, cheaters are some of the lowest forms of scum on earth. If you cheat you are a pathetic little turd who not only confirms to yourself every day that you cheat that you are a LOSER, but everyone else out there as well. Use cheat codes at home, not when it lessens the gaming experience for the rest of us though. Oh, and you're stupid."

My response? Ditto!

Battlefield Communicator Beta Released
The beta of Battlefield Communicator has been released. A non-proxy real-time two-way voice communication over the Internet or a LAN program. The program can be used with Quake II, GLQuake, StarCraft, and Unreal. It works via peer-to-peer, so server support is not required. (Note: It requires DirectX 5 and does NOT work with a proxy... yet)

EA Buys Westwood
Electronic Arts has purchased (along with a few other things) game makers Westwood Studios for $122 Million. (whoa)

Site Stuff

• Did preliminary stats on the Ultimate Quake Poll results and they are interesting to say the least. The Americans should start voting pretty soon. :)
• Updated Methos .plan for the first time in a week
• Uploaded 4 demos to the Quake Demos Page

Ultimate Quake Poll Popular?
The Ultimate Quake Poll is doing well. I expected a few people would take the poll and I was very surprised when I checked the results and found the file was over 200k in size. Damn, it's gonna be a LOT of work sorting this stuff out. I'm gonna have to drag Excel out of the hdd closet and use that. :)

I hope to get around 1,000 votes and then we'll get a pretty good representation of what Quakers think of the categories. Oh, and the people who decide they will do the poll and put their name for every category (you listening Calvin?), don't bother, those are the first ones I throw out.

I expect that it will be about a week or so until I get the 1,000 voters. If you haven't voted yet, please do.

New WinAmp Released
A new version of everybody's favorite mp3 player is now available to download. The ever-popular WinAmp v1.92 SP1 (588k) can be yours today.

Ted The Dog Interview
Bigfoot's Lair has a very nice interview with Ben "TedTheDog" Lawton. For those of you that don't know Ted, he's one of the head honchos from Barrysworld.

Site Stuff

• Changed the name of the voting page to the Ultimate Quake Poll (yeah, I know, big w00p)
• I will do more of an update tomorrow. (I promise) I have lots of stuff to rant about on my .plan page. I should have some time tomorrow evening.

More Mail Server Problems
There's a problem with llamanet mail servers. If you want to send me mail, please send it to methos@methosq.com instead of my llamanet address. If you've sent me mail in the last 12 hours, please re-send it to the above address.

Methos Interview Posted
An interview with some llama named Methos was posted on Challenge.AU today. It was done a couple of weeks ago but is still pretty cool. If you have trouble finding it on Hoony's site, click on "Interviews" on the left screen, then click on "Methos".

Vote For Me!
Ask not, what your country can do for you... ahem, Okay, it's not an election. But, it is Quake and it is your choice. With apologies to BigFoot and Morticia, I have posted my own version of a Quake Voting Page. Hopefully, we'll get enough votes to get the answers to many burning questions about Quake. Please vote, it's your duty! And you don't even have to be of legal age. :)

Qizmo v2.2 Released
The ever popular QW proxy Qizmo v2.2 has been posted by Perkele and the boys from Finland. Needless to say, if you require a proxy for QW, there's no better one to get.

Demos! We Have Demos!
From the "it's about time" section. Clan [9] has finally released all the tournament demos from all the players in the 9vsDR matches. You can download them here. Here's a local copy of Thresh from NQ Game 5 (2.84 MB) which is the one that I was waiting for. (some really nice frags in this one) Now, if we can get them to release all of the 1on1 and 2on2 demos that were recorded, it would make everybody happy. :)

Site Stuff

• Haven't done much updating lately. I should have a bit more time on the weekend.

Server Problems Fixed
Not only was the mail down but the entire Llamanet server was down for a while. The problems have now been fixed. (thanks Gremlin) You may now continue spamming me at my regular e-mail addy. (methos@methosq.com)

Mail Server Problems
There seems to be a problem with llamanet mail servers to the point where I can't send or receive mail. This has been going on for about 24 hours. For now, please send me mail at methos@methosq.com instead of my llamanet address. If you've sent me mail in the last 24 hours, please re-send it to the above address.

Methos Interview
Hoony from Challenge.AU has announced that there will be a Methos interview in the next day or so on his site. That's funny, I didn't answer any questions. :)  Just kidding, we did the interview a week or two ago but we delayed it. For some reason, we figured people would rather hear about the 9vsDR matches than listen to him and I babble. :)

Thresh Still Talking
Since Thresh posted his article about why DR lost the matches in Sweden, he's had to be on the defensive. Thresh defends his soul to those who would accuse him in his latest "Thresh's Frontline" article. Take a look as he is well spoken and always informative to read.

Did anybody else find it curious that Thresh (who rarely speaks badly of anybody) decided to attack Lakerman the way he did? For those that didn't see it, Thresh said the following.

"Supposedly, Lakerman of SC (who we all consider to be a total egotistical, trash-talkin', pimple-faced, assmunch), was there, but I don't think he had the gall to come up to us because he had talked so much trash beforehand."

Must have been some strong words as Thresh is usually a very congenial guy.

Now Playing Center Field and Quad Pussy...
Noticed this on every news site today. Ken Griffey Jr. (baseball player xtreme) says that he plays Quake and Quake 2 on the Internet from his home in Seattle with his brother in Florida, his cousin in Kansas city and his dad in Cincinnati. He mentions that they play very late at night and have a lot of fun at it. (very cool)

Site Stuff

• Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been sick all week and I feel really crappy. This came just after my uncle died and then work has been busy as hell all week. I'll get back into the updating mode soon.
• Remember, the new e-mail addy for now is methos@methosq.com

Thresh Finally Speaks
Back from Sweden and more refreshed after sleeping quite a bit, Thresh updated his "Thresh's Frontline" page on Gamers Xtreme. He gives a full chronology of events while in Sweden. Actually, he doesn't talk much about the trip itself, he talks about the reasons DeathRow lost the tourney.

Another Point Of View?
Xenon from Clan 9 seems to be the Quake player of the moment. You can pretty well find an interview of him on any Quake related site including 2 of them on this page. One from after day one and another from after the tourney. You can also read interviews by me with D2-B2 Part 1 & Part 2 and [9] Nikodemus from after Day 1 of the tourney. You can also see great coverage on other sites like PlanetQuake and Challenge.AU.

As Hoony mentions on Challenge.AU, BluesNews posted his TnT Vs Voodoo 2 benchmarks. Blue tries not to be involved in the "grass roots" Quake scene these days and rarely posts any clan activity. Hmm, maybe Blue should remember what made his site so popular in the first place. It certainly wasn't video chip benchmarks.

Okay, One More Interview
Nikodemus from Clan 9 talks about the victory over DeathRow. I wasn't going to post this interview because I had already done the interview with Xenon. However, since Niko had some good things to say and was genuinely excited about everything, here it is. This interview was done just after [9] had won the tourney.

   [9] Nikodemus

Methos: How did you feel today when the games started?
Nikodemus: Still nervous, yet I felt pretty confident that we would win the two e1m2 games. The DM3 games was another story, I was pretty sure they had figured our tactics out and would really kick our butts :)

Methos: All the games today were very intense and most were very close. Could you feel this as you were playing?
Nikodemus: Oh yeah, I was surprised at how fast DR learned the E1M2 tactics. At one point I thought they had us. The best game was definitely the second game. Even if I was only spectating the game I started sweating.

Methos: What was the reaction like after you won the second game sealing the victory for the tourney?
Nikodemus: For us, it was a relief sealing the victory though we wanted to play it all the way and really wanted to win as much as we possibly could. The audience started to "ooooh" and "aaaaah" when the DR guys almost won the second game. DeathRow seemed a bit let down, they really fought hard and in my opinion deserved to win the game since they did such a good job. Still, I'm glad we won, the pressure would have been to big when we would play DM3 after prolly.

Methos: After winning the second game and knowing it was basically over. Was it hard to "get into" the next game? Did you want t run out and celebrate?
Nikodemus: Not really, we had decided before the games that whatever happens, we would give it all on all the maps and never let our guard down.

Methos: Were the final 3 games more relaxing knowing that you had already won?
Nikodemus: Indeed, still I felt that we had to win the DM3 games to show that it was not a freak accident that we actually won the earlier DM3 games. The pressure was still on, just not as tight.

Methos: Were you surprised at how hard they came out to play (and win) the 4th game?
Nikodemus: We felt we had lost control somewhere in the middle of the game. They started grabbing the quads in front of our nose and stuff and we lost the 150.

Methos: Have you ever played a more intense set of matches since you've been in quake?
Nikodemus: Never. And I've never played a team with such good sportsmanship that DR showed us today. I think it was the best games of Quake I've had in a LONG time.

Methos: What would you do differently next time somebody decides to arrange a tourney like this?
Nikodemus: Perhaps try to arrange it in a more professional way, though I think that Henrik and the others did a great job. Some things worked out really well while some things didn't (I was told that it was a bitch to connect to the proxies). The audience had to stand up for like 4 hours so if everyone had a seat or something it would have been easier.

Methos: I can relate to the proxies :)
Nikodemus: hehe, I bet.

Methos: Any final words about the tourney?
Nikodemus: I really hope that this is the start of a new era of world professional quaking. Not just in USA but all over the world. With some luck and hard work we might just get to witness the beginning of something really big and hopefully something that u can be proud of in the future.

Methos: Thanks and once again, congratulations.
Nikodemus: Thanks again Methos.

You Smell What The Rock Is Cookin?
Spookie was in fine fashion today and updated "The Spookie Side" with his passionate views on the 9 Vs DR matches. Spookie really hits home and says what's on his mind in a no holds barred update. Make sure you take a look at this one. He also sent along a new picture because he was tired of people thinking he was Arnold Schwarzenegger. I actually think he just wanted to be included with the Quake babes. :)

Things Seen At [9] Vs DR
DaNoLd attended the big match and sent along word that he had a good time and mentioned a few things that he saw.

• All players used Crosshairs 1 (pffff, chicks :)
• Nine used fov 110-130, Reptile used fov 100 and all the rest fov 90
• All players used software Quake and QW except 1 (Frick or B2) used GL

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file
• Spookie updated "The Spookie Side" with his take on the [9] Vs DR invitational tournament and it is an interesting point of view. He has some very realistic views on [9] beating DeathRow. Make sure you check them out
• Spookie updated his picture on the Spookie's Info page. Arnie? Is that you?
• Archived Methos .plan file for July 1998
• Added 2 demos to the Quake Demos page and these 2 are pretty good

Demos Anybody?
I uploaded 7 demos to the Quake Demos page today. The demos include 2 demos from "other" matches at the 9vsDR tourney. A 1on1 with Unholy Vs Spice and a 2on2 with Thresh, Unholy, Nikodemus and Paralyzer (all using fake names, Thresh is "homo"). All those plus 3 great 2on2 matches with Lakerman. I'll have another 9vsDR 1on1 demo to post tomorrow. Just look for the symbol on the Quake Demos page to find them. Enjoy them as they're all pretty good.

Site Stuff

• I just wanted to get the demos uploaded to the Quake demos page. I'll update the site tomorrow.

The Aftermath & Interview
If they gave out an "MVP" award for players in clan matches, the award for this tournament would go to [9] Xenon. Xenon was the top fragger in 6 of the 10 matches. Now, this doesn't make him more important than the guy guarding the armor or the quad but, Xenon's play was very impressive. He did all the little things right.  He hugged the walls for extra speed, used all his weapons to full advantage and played smart. He could've had more frags if he would've remembered it was teamplay 2 and not thrown grenades around corners or shot rox down hallways killing his team mates. :)

Since this interview was done a short while after the matches, Xenon was obviously in a great mood.

   [9] Xenon

Methos: Congrats Xenon, great job
Xenon: Tnx man, We are real happy about our achievement. I cant believe this matchup was so F**king huge everyone is talking about it.

Methos: You were all nervous when you sat down on day 1. How did you feel today when you sat down to play?
Xenon: We were very nervous about the QW matches. We knew DR are really good at turning things around (They were losing vs U4 but adapted to their tactics and went on to win). Basically we were just as nervous during the 1st QW match as we were during the 1st NQ match.

Methos: After the second game, which was incredibly intense, what was the reaction after the victory, knowing that you had won the tourney?
Xenon: It was great, but we still felt that we had to win one more game on dm3, in order to prove that we were good on that level too. I think that the spectators were disappointed that the suspense ended after the 2nd match, but for our players it was a great relief. DeathRow's reaction...your gonna have to ask them, I cant really say. I guess they were disappointed, but they took the loss well. My respect goes out to them. They are truly a GREAT team.

The audience was real happy, and during that 2nd game, when there were 2 min left and both teams were tied, the audience was on their feet. During the last 10 seconds they all started counting the time left :D

Methos: That must have been a great feeling.
Xenon: It was :)

Methos: In the third game (today), DR seemed a bit down and didn't put up much of a fight (understandably), were you surprised at how hard they came out playing (and won) for game 4?
Xenon: Not at all. That was one of the best games in the tourney. Even though I played like a bitch in the beginning, it was fun to lose that game, because neither of the teams had control. That game showed how close the teams are in teamplay and skill.

Methos: Have you ever been involved in anything as tense as the last few days have been?
Xenon: Nope. Not even close. :)

Methos: If somebody decides to do another tournament similar to this one, what changes would you like to see? What would you do differently next time?
Xenon: Hmmm....tough question, I think that the tournament was very well arranged. It might be more fun if there was more then 2 clans involved, then you could actually watch the other 2 in action without worrying who will win. Being a spectator is always fun, especially if you are neutral, only then can you really enjoy the quake skills that the teams display.

Methos: What one memories will stand out in your mind when you think about this tourney in a year from now?
Xenon: Well actually, a few. The first one when I shot thresh up from the water on e1m2 and put a boomstick shot on him, the audience cheered and laughed, that was a pretty damn funny moment. (from Day 1, 3rd Game)

Another one must be when Frick was pinappling me from the water and the bridge when I was in the RL room, during one of the dm3 QW games (think it was the first dm3). I dodged 12 pineapples, then got the RL which just spawned and killed him (bit of luck involved but it was fun).

Of course, the moment when we won that 2nd e1m2 game. We all felt real happy. Not to mention the end when we got the cheap plastic trophy :D (JK)

Methos: Have you ever seen this much attention for a quake match before? What was all the publicity like? Do you feel like rock stars or sports heroes? :)
Xenon: Well its too early to say but, I feel pretty good :) I hear everyone is talking about us :D

Methos: How were the guys from DeathRow after everything was over?
Xenon: We went out and partied some with the DR guys after the matches. It was real fun, they are all nice guys and gr8 quakers. Hopefully we can meet sometime again in the future (perhaps in the USA :D)

Man, they were fucking gr8, best losers I've ever seen and didn't whine at all. They had fun even though they lost. Gr8 guys really. That dm3 game where they won by 3 frags, that rocked :D

We didn't hear any excuses, we had a great time after the matches. Talking about the frags and stuff really rocked :)

Methos: Congratulations again.
Xenon: Thanks man. Talk to ya later

Clan 9 with the two PQ reporters and the "cheap plastic trophy" :)

Day 2 Demos
Since I couldn't find any Thresh demos for game 9 where he finished first, we'll have to settle for the 3rd place fragger in that game.

From Day 2
Match 1 - [9] Xenon POV - 1st Place Game 6 (4.29 MB)
Match 2 - [9] Xenon POV - 1st Place Game 7 (3.97 MB)
Match 3 - [9] Xenon POV - 1st Place Game 8 (4.24 MB)
Match 4 - [9] Xenon POV - 3rd Place Game 9 (4.49 MB)
Match 5 - [9] Xenon POV - 1st Place Game 10 (6.34 MB)

Frag Stats Anybody?
Here are the frag totals for the tourney. Unfortunately, I couldn't do the complete stats with the NQ demos but for those wondering about Frag/Kill ratios, for the QW matches, the highest was Xenon who was a +92 and the lowest was Reptile who was -101. The total frags by clan were [9] with 1331 and DeathRow with 934.

Here are the rest of the frag stats for all 10 matches. They are sorted by total frags per player.

Site Stuff
I'll get back to the regular lame ranting starting tomorrow or monday. :)

Clan [9] Defeats DeathRow!
In what could be considered the biggest Quake matches in the short history of the Game. Clan [9] from Sweden has defeated Clan DeathRow from the USA, 8 games to 2. Today was the second leg of the invitational matches and were played with the Quakeworld mod. I was able to watch 4 of the 5 games today despite some problems with the QW proxy connection. Nine won 4 out of 5 games today.

Day 2 Scores
Game 1 - Nine Wins 234-147 on E1M2
Game 2 - Nine Wins 177-155 on E1M2 (great game)
Game 3 - Nine Wins 114-74 on DM3
Game 4 - DeathRow Wins 100-97 on DM3
Game 5 - Nine Wins 198-149 on E1M2

What can you say about these matches? Nine played excellent. They were well deserving of the wins. I'm sure that DeathRow would like to play them again soon to try and even the score. I'll have more information and hopefully some cool demos soon.

DR Vs [9] Demos MIA?
I'm not sure what the deal is with the demos from the tourney. It seems that every time I find a place with the demos, the downloadable files aren't quite what they're advertised to be. Every site had the wrong demos listed and even PlanetQuake messed up and linked all their demos to the same file.

Here are the highest finishing demos for each match that I could find (so far).

From Day 1
Match 1 - [9] Xenon POV - 1st Place Game 1
Match 2 - [9] Xenon POV - 2nd Place Game 2
Match 3 - [9] Xenon POV - 1st Place Game 3
Match 4 - [9] Paralyzer POV - 1st Place Game 4
 

While I'm on the topic. What's the deal with the size of these demos? On my demos page, I have about 30 regular Quake demos that are 25 minutes long. The largest file size in the bunch is less than 1 meg. All of the demo from 9vsDR are 2.2 - 2.9 megs in size. Does this seem strange to you too?

The Final Countdown
In approx. 1 hour from this posting, the matches for Day 2 will start. I hope that the games hold as much excitement as the Day 1 did. There's a lot at stake here with world domination on the line. :)

Oh, and of course, a nice spot on my Quake's Best Players page. :p

Continuing Interview With B2
I (sort of) finished interviewing D2-B2 a few minutes ago. It was a strange conversation but he answered most of my questions. B2 didn't seem as though he was in high spirits, he mentioned that he didn't sleep at all last night and he certainly wasn't in the mood for chit-chat. I suppose it's understandable with all the pressure that is on DeathRow today.

You should read the first part of the B2 interview before reading below.

    B2 Interview: Part Deux (1 hour before Day 2 matches)

Methos: Hi. How did you sleep last night?
D2-B2: Hello. I couldn't sleep last night.

Methos: Too pumped up for today's matches?
D2-B2: Yes :)

Methos: Of the 3 Clan 9 members I've spoken with, they all mentioned how surprised they were that DR didn't use shotguns against them.
D2-B2: That's not the way that we usually play in the US. In the US, we play on the internet a lot w/ at least a 40 ping and it's impossible to be accurate with the shotgun in NQ.  Plus, doing shotgun rushes and such require a lot of communication and it's hard for us to execute them over the net when we're not in the same room together.

Methos: Most people, who know both clans, were expecting Clan 9 to win the matches on E1M2. Was there any surprise at how one-sided games 3 and 4 were?
D2-B2: It was a big surprise for us. We actually practiced E1M2 in the US and came up with a strategy that we thought would work really well. Unfortunately, it seemed completely useless against the shotgun rushing strategy that they used.

Methos: In game 5, DeathRow had the largest margin of victory so far. What changed from the previous games to put on such a show of strength?
D2-B2: We were very disappointed with our performance with the first four games. Ask around the people in the US - we did not play the way we usually played. We were not sure what we had to do in order to take control back. In game 5 though, we took control of the map early on the game. Using our strategy, once we get the map locked down, we don't lose it. And that's simply what happened. We played our game, everyone really stepped up.

Methos: How well do you think DeathRow will do on QW? Have you had sufficient practice on it?
D2-B2: Quakeworld is not really that different from NQ on Lan. Only that the splash damage is a little bigger and stuff. We did a lot of practice yesterday and hopefully we'll do well today.

Methos: No matter who wins this "tourney", In your opinion, what effect will the outcome have towards on-line Quake & more in general, on-line gaming.
D2-B2: I think it will allow people to realize that there's another place in the world which it's Quake community is just as popular as in the US. More international competitions might start appearing because of this.

Site Stuff

• Archived this page from July. Should be much quicker to load now

Interviews
A couple of very short questions and answer with 2 of the combatants.

    [9] Nikodemous

Methos: Congrats on yesterday's results
[9]Niko: Thanx, the games were tough but I'm very satisfied with the result.

Methos: Now that you've had a day to reflect on what happened, what are your feelings on the matches played yesterday?
[9]Niko: I know for the first game that everyone was very excited and anxious at the same time. We had seen some of them playing here and it's an impressive sight. We didn't know what to expect. I suppose we took them by surprise, both skill and teamplay.

Methos: What do you expect DeathRow to do differently in tomorrow's games?
[9]Niko: Since QW is a lot easier to hit with the rockets (e.g blast radius), the game will be played in a more defensive style I guess from both teams. Broomsticks are the primary weapons and if you learn to use them they can be *VERY* effective.

Methos: Have you learned anything from this past week?
[9]Niko: I don't know about myself but I'd say the team as a whole has learned a lot. We need to be alert at all times if we are to beat DR in the coming QW games.

Methos: What will this "tourney" mean as a whole if Clan 9 wins?
[9]Niko: Tough one... I wouldn't mind being invited to some team quake games in the US if the opportunity arises. That's what we're aiming for, I just hope the DR guys have a good time here in Sweden and that we in the future can get together for some more intense quaking :)

Methos: Thanks for your time and good luck tomorrow
[9]Niko: Thanx, we'll need it

    D2-B2

Methos: After having a day to let everything sink in. What are your feelings about the first day of competition?
D2-B2: Well, the most obvious feeling was surprise. We didn't underestimate them, but we did have some serious disadvantages going into the matchup. Whereas they have access to all these different demos of us dating from years back, we have no demos of them in teamplay. They also all play in the same room together, and have been doing so for at least a year.

Their teamplay is absolutely exceptional, no doubt about that. But part of that is probably due to the fact that they are used to playing together, in the same room. We're more accustomed to the U.S. way, which is the use of binds and such, which is no match for good "talking" communication. And, since we've never seen any demos of their play, we had no idea of the European style of play. Their broomsticks are insane.

Methos: Can you tell us what you were feeling when you sat down to play the first game? Any nerves?
D2-B2: Well, what I felt was extremely tired. :( We only had 5 hours of sleep the night before, jetlagged, etc. I was a little bit nervous the first game. I guess playing away from the home field is really a disadvantage.

Methos: The first game was very close. What happened in the second game? Did [9] do anything different to be able to control the level the way they did?
D2-B2: Well, we were kinda shocked about the outcome of the first game. The style of teamplay was totally different from the one that we are used to. We found out that pretty much the first two minutes of the game are the most important moments and whoever gets control first could prolly lock it down really well. We were out of luck that game.

D2-B2: Sorry Methos, my ride to the hotel is here.

Methos: No problem, Thanks for your time and good luck tomorrow.

D2-B2: Thanks man!

Xenon Interview
I happened to run into Xenon on IRC today so I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions. This interview took place after [9] had beaten DeathRow 4 games to 1 approx. 2 hours prior.

Methos: Congrats
Xenon: Thanks man but its not over yet

Methos: What was the feeling when you sat down to play the first game?
Xenon: I was nervous as hell...I feel that the first match was most important, and I was almost shaking when the countdown began. ppl told me that I was white as snow, then I had my coke hehe :)

Methos: Heh, how long did it take for you to calm down, or have you yet?
Xenon: I think I was relatively calm during the 3rd match, 4th is was too calm, and getting a bit sloppy. I got REAL sloppy on the 5th, and missed the 2nd and 3rd pents (I was the one that got the 1st)

Methos: Going into the matches, what was 9's "general" strategy to stop DR? Did you concentrate on one or two people?
Xenon: Our strategy to stop them was to not let them get control. We didn't focus on who was where or who gibbed who. We concentrated on fragging all the clan, keeping them from having control etc.

Methos: The first match was very close and low scoring, did you feel that the clans were "feeling each other out"?
Xenon: Not really, I think that none of the clans could get complete control. We had the 150 and they had the 200.

Methos: Did anything that DR did or didn't do in the first match surprise you?
Xenon: Well yes, one thing, they didn't try to boomstick us - ever.

Methos: When you played the second game, did you have different strategy?
Xenon: No, but we managed to get control, our strategy didn't change at all (on dm3).

Methos: You won games 3 and 4 on e1m2 with relative ease. many people expected this because DR doesn't play that level much. Were you surprised by the one-sided scores?
Xenon: Not in the first game, but in the second game DR managed to get control back about 12 min into the game. They did it very well, 3 guys rocket jumped up to the 150, then took over gl. When there were 5 min left we got control back, perhaps if they would have kept control they might have won.

Methos: Okay, on to the 5th game. What happened? After winning games 2-4 seemingly easily, how did DR manage such a sound win?
Xenon: They are a Top Notch clan. We lost control of the 2nd and 3rd pents, and that I believe cost us the game. They killed 3 of us, and went on to control the whole level.

Methos: During the talks I had with the DR guys a while back, they didn't seem to take these matches very seriously. This could be due to the poor showing the 9 guys had in the 2on2 matches at E3. Do you think they took you too lightly?
Xenon: Well, perhaps, but from what I read on gamers.com they said that they were taking this very seriously. So I doubt they just slacked off and didn't train, their tactics and teamplay were REALLY good (especially on the last dm3)

Methos: Do you feel that after the way you and your clan played in the first 4 matches, that 9 kind of "let their guard down" in the 5th match?
Xenon: That is probably the case :( But as I said DR are a great clan, and the second we got sloppy they took over and beat us.

Methos: Okay, what changes in the clan lineup can we expect for Friday?
Xenon: I think okkun will jump in, he is good in QW but, I think we will all get to play. i.e. Me Para okkun niko spice and doomer, all of us will play. As for who will play when, that we will have to see :)

Methos: Any strategy changes for Friday?
Xenon: Well, as for the strategy changes, only Friday will tell. Sorry it's confidential. :)

Methos: Okay, fair enough, let's try the other side of the coin. What do you think DR will try to do differently on Friday.
Xenon: Well I think they will try to adapt to our tactics on e1m2. And of course warm up in QW :)

Methos: Do you think that once everything is over, that everybody will say these matches were "fair" for everybody involved?
Xenon: Well yes, I believe they were fair but, everyone has their own opinion ya know and some ppl might think that they weren't fair because of jetlag and dr being in a different country and blah blah.

Methos: Thanks for your time and good luck on Friday.
Xenon: No problem, thanks man.

My thanks to Xenon for the brief interview. Good luck to both clans on Friday.

Where's The Demos?
I'm sure a lot of you came here looking for the demos. Well, it turns out that the Swedes are good at Quake but not so good posting some demos to an ftp site. On the official site, there are 4 files. Supposedly, a collection of demos by each [9] player and ranging in size from 10-13 megs each.

I downloaded the Paralyzer demos and inside the zip was Spice demos. Okay, let's download the Spice demos. What do we have here? B2 demos! Hopefully, they'll get them straightened out soon so we will have demos to watch. I just wanted to get the top scoring demo for each game. I have Xenon from games 1 and 3. I still need to find Paralyzer from games 2 and 4 plus, Thresh from game 5.

First Day Aftermath
The response from all around the world has been a bit surprising. Even people from Sweden, although they thought that clan 9 would win, they never expected games like the ones played yesterday. In the USA, the reaction was MUCH different. Most Americans couldn't believe that a clan from Sweden could beat (what they consider) the best clan in the world in one game, let alone 4 games straight.

I spent about 10 minutes in the DeathRow channel this evening trying to get a feel for what the response would be. I found out the response as I was unceremoniously banned from the channel. Here's a look at the log from that lovely experience. I've edited out the conversations that have nothing to do with me.

Session Start: Wed Aug 05 20:25:34 1998
<susie> happy birthday poooookie
<Pookie_> methos: heheh hi
* susie spanks pookie 23 times
<Methos_> Spank her like DR got spanked. :)
<Pookie_> rofl!
<D4-orion> fuck off methos
<D4-orion> i dont wanna hear a fuckin thing about it
<Pookie_> i DON'T KNOW HOW THEY COULD HAVE LOST
<Methos_> They lost because a) Nine had better teamplay and b) Nine took the matches more seriously.
<H0meGr0wn> methos, can you shut the fuck up?
<Methos_> H0meGr0wn, why?
<H0meGr0wn> dood, u have been going on about how clan9 has beaten dr for the whole day
<D4-orion> methos: your just the fucking quake god arent you
<Methos_> I've only been on here for 5 minutes.
<H0meGr0wn> omg no u havent cause ive been here for like 2 hours
<D4-orion> methos:who gives a rats ass how long youve been here
<H0meGr0wn> no shit, dood just shut the fuck up
<Methos_> Maybe you two should relax and shutit
<H0meGr0wn> im tired of listening to u
<D4-orion> ahaha your tellin me to shut up in my own chanel
<Methos_> Why, I'm not allowed to talk about DR losing a match?
<D4-orion> i said.. i dont wanna fuckin hear about it
<Methos_> lol
*** StarSoft sets mode: +v D4-orion
<D4-orion> =)
*** You were banned by StarSoft (NO Coke FOR YOU!)
Session Close: Wed Aug 05 20:37:43 1998

That was my second and probably last visit to the DeathRow channel. As with every irc channel you take what you get and it's hard to figure out how these people ever get ops. Anyway, it didn't bother me and helped me to prove a point about the attitude of "some" American Quake players towards player in other countries.

Maybe this is a wake-up call for other USA clans. Congrats to Clan [9] on winning the first day of the tournament. The last 5 matches will be played on Friday using Quakeworld which will be tough for DeathRow to compete on.

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file
• I have 4 demos to upload to the Quake demos page which I will do tomorrow

First Day Done, Nine Kicks Ass!
I expected Clan 9 to win all the games in the tourney that weren't played on level DM3 but, I expected closer matches on all the levels. The results for the first days matches are as follows.

Day 1 Scores
Game 1 - Nine Wins 70-52 on DM3
Game 2 - Nine Wins 114-28 on DM3
Game 3 - Nine Wins 146-29 on E1M2
Game 4 - Nine Wins 159-68 on E1M2
Game 5 - DeathRow Wins 132-22 on DM3

The last game surprises me a bit. How does a clan so easily win games 2-4 and then lose so bad in the last game? I find it hard to believe that DeathRow will come back to win 4 games on Friday when playing with the Quakeworld mod. Demos coming soon.

The Gathering Is Upon Us
With all due respect to the Scots, The Gathering is now taking place in Sweden. DeathRow and [9] will duke it out over the next few days in Stockholm, Sweden. All the threats, compliments, respect, taunts and desires have been spoken. It is the time where words stop and actions begin.

"From the dawn of time we came, moving silently through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the gathering, when the few that remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you... until now.

You must learn to conceal your specialty and harness your power, until the time of the gathering. When only a few of us are left, we will feel an irresistible pull towards a far away land... to fight for the prize.

There can be only one!"

As I mentioned in my .plan file yesterday... To clans DeathRow and Nine, play fair, play hard, show the respect due for the other clan and the game itself. Good luck to both and may the best clan win. From those of us which truly love this great game. Make us proud.

Okkun's Last Thoughts
Last night I spoke with long time Swedish Quake player and member of Clan 9, Okkun. I asked him a few final questions before the big matches began.

Methos: Are you playing in the tournament matches?

Okkun: Yeah, on Friday. I'm not playing in the NQ games on Wednesday since I'm not at the same place as the other "niners" so I didn't get the chance to practice NQ.

Methos: What "position" will you be playing? Your role?

Okkun: Actually don't know yet. I'll prolly be fighting Thresh over the RA or Quad on dm3.

Methos: From a player pov, (not a clan 9 pov), how many of the 10 games do you think 9 will win?

Okkun: I'm not sure really, it's really hard to tell when you haven't played them before. So, it could go either way but, I think it's going to be tough for both teams. I'm too chicken to guess. ;)

Methos: Thanks, and good luck.

Okkun: Thanks Methos

New Quake Babe Picture
As I mentioned before, this isn't a contest but, if you want to e-mail me some pics of nice looking Quake women, please feel free.

The latest pic is of WD|LavaGoddess. Sonja was a contestant in the 1998 Miss USA Pageant so some of you may remember this picture from Blues a while back. You can also look at this picture instead if you want to see umm, "more" of her. She hasn't responded to my marriage proposal yet. :)

Spookie Then and Now
Speaking of pictures, I happened to visit the Clan XP's site to look at the pictures from XP-Con2. (for a full report, go to "The Spookie Side") I happened to find 2 pictures of Spookie. One from a year ago when he was known as Jarlaxle-Post and one from this past weekend. It's amazing what a difference a year makes.

  
August 1997                August 1998

Site Stuff

• Spookie updated "The Spookie Side" with all the scoop on what happened at XP-Con2 this past weekend.
• Updated Methos .plan file
• I have 4 demos to upload to the Quake demos page which I will do tomorrow
• Removed the 5 Nations Page from the site. Thanks to Nightwing for his contribution
• Sorry for the lack of Quake news today but, nothing is more important in Quake than the matches to be held in Sweden the next few days
• I had a terrible day today. Sometimes real life jumps up and slaps you in the face. That unfortunately is what happened today. My apologies for the somber mood

Interview with Romero's Mom [Blues]
This is cool stuff. An interview with Virginia Schuneman, John Romero's mother, is up on Gamer's Alliance. You can't make this stuff up.

Qizmo v2.21 Released
Version 2.21 of Qizmo was released yesterday. The ever popular QuakeWorld proxy has even more features and a lot of bug fixes.

CPL Moving to Quake 2
The CPL announced today that they will be changing from Quake to Quale 2 for their next 1on1 tourney in October. First prize in the event will be $5,000 U.S.

Lights, Camera, Action!
No, it's not a new pr0n site. It the incredibly large 2 hour plus Quake 2 movie from Clan Phantasm called Devil's Covenant. Needless to say, the files are HUGE and not recommended for modemers to download. Parts 1 - 10 are available now with 11-16 coming soon. You need to download 2 pak files before you can run any of the demos.

Speaking of Pr0n (sort of)
For a cheap thrill, you can go to this site if you want to see Elexis (the female character in SiN) naked. (big w00p)

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan page
• Uploaded 3 demos to the Quake demos page
• I'll post another gorgeous Quake babe pic tomorrow

Dueling Quake Sites
Hoony posted his response to my reply of his posting (damn, now I'm confused). Anyway, he mentioned the following...

Methos spotted my news item saying that he ought to come downunder and accepted the challenge in a news item of his own! Sounds like he's been swimming in a Great Lake or something cuz he says he's seen surf and bikinis. We'll just have to get him here one day eh?

Well Hoony, I'll guarantee you that you won't find any surf and very few bikinis in the Great Lakes. Even though I live about 1000 miles away from the closest one. Since I live far inland, when I want to see surf and bikinis, I do what everybody else does. I just turn on the tube and put on Baywatch. :)

Spookie Off To XP-Con2
Our friend Spookie left word that he was gone for the weekend to attend XP-Con2 in Los Angeles. This the second time that the XP gang has held this event. Spookie says he'll have a full report when he gets back. (uh-huh, yeah sure :)

Xeno Needs Your Help
Xeno sent along word that he needs some help with CGI Scripts for a mod specific web site. If you can help him, please send him some e-mail.

Quake 2 CTF Server Beta Released
The latest Quake 2 CTF Beta 1.09 has been released on the id Software FTP Site as a server-only upgrade. Good luck downloading it as the site is VERY busy.

More Sexy Quake Gals?
This isn't a contest but, if anybody wants to send me more pictures of gorgeous female Quake players, please feel free to send them to me anytime.

Today's picture is of Bitchy, another gorgeous Quake player. I've actually spoken with Bitchy before but for some reason, she avoids my marriage proposals too. :)

Bitchy

In the words of Homer Simpson, "mmmm".  :)

Site Stuff

• Updated Methos .plan file

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