Last Updated on September 26th, 2001

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Miscellaneous Methos Stuff
I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to post any regular Quake stuff. Let's see what the gaming world has been up to lately.

Knightmare Invitational Tournament
I was asked by Tim "Gaijin" Winn from Clan Knightmare to be the lead administrator for KIT and I happily accepted the offer. The Q3 TDM clans involved with KIT seem to be very excited that they will get to play starting this coming Monday (Oct 1st). I must say that everything has gone so smoothly in KIT (touch wood) that it almost seems too easy. Although I felt bad that some clans (like abuse and RM) couldn't play in KIT, the 20 clans involved will have a great time.

Quake III v1.30
As most of you know, id Software released Q3 v1.3 yesterday. I've checked it out and I couldn't find anything new. I looked at the readme file (yes, I actually read the manual) and the only v1.3 changes I could see were related to problems with Team Arena. I've heard a few people complain about some bugs, but nothing really major. If you're planning on updating, for safety purposes, back-up your quake3.exe and pak6.pk3 files as those are the only ones replaced in the update.

Save The Redwood!
This news surprised me quite a bit. Sean "Redwood" Martin announced that he will be leaving Stomped as they can't afford to pay him anymore. In a surprising turn of events, Stomped readers are being asked to donate money each month to keep him on board and to keep Stomped running. There are two things about Redwood that I always remember. One is that he is one of the few Quakers out there that is taller than I am (by 1 inch) and the other is that he is one of the few that has been writing on a Quake site longer than I have. I hope that Stomped readers come through and that Redwood gets to keep working there. If not, best of luck to you Sean.

Don't Return To Castle Wolfenstein
The multiplayer test of RTCW was released a few days ago and I was able to download and test this new game. As I predicted a while back, RTCW is just id Software's answer to Counter-Strike, Tribes and all the other "reality based" first person shooters. As I have also mentioned in the past, I don't like these type of light talent, heavy strategy (and camping) type of games. On a brighter note, RTCW should put an end to the Q3 mod called Urban Terror, since it's basically the same game, so that's a nice bonus. :)

Challenge Sites On The Move
Hoony and friends are in the midst of moving all their sites to the OGL servers. So, if you're having trouble connecting / downloading from any site called Challenge-anything, be patient and give them a few days to get setup.

While I'm mentioning the Challenge sites, head over to Challenge-Smackdown and order a copy of the Smackdown 2 cd. It's crammed full of over 400 QW demos for you to enjoy. Get yours today!

Methos In Demand?
No, I'm not talking about my wife asking me to take the garbage outside. I'm actually referring to all of the on-line leagues that have graciously asked for my services since I left CAL. I have been asked by no less than 5 groups that are interested in me joining their organizations. The only one I have joined so far is KIT, but that doesn't mean that I won't take up another offer in the future. One of the nicest offers came from Tapper of the OGL, but I declined saying that I didn't really have the time at this point. He then asked me who I would recommend for the job. The two names I gave were Richard "Hoony" Sandlant and Bill "Wiseguy" Connolly. Either of these two would make an excellent choice to run any league.

Methos Site Stuff
It's almost time to archive this page which I will do once we're into October. It feels really good to be back writing again. After my time in CAL and subsequent postings about leaving for greener pastures, it's time to get back to regular posting.

• My wife (it's cool to say that), [fuGs]Spot has updated her "Spot Light" page with a new posting. Make sure you take a look at her latest adventures which include playing against Czm & Fatality. Oddly enough, she doesn't mention anything about our wedding and honeymoon. :0

More CPL Woes, Final Chapter (I Hope)
I got back from my honeymoon today, (yes, I had a great time, thanks) to find that Angel Munoz had posted his rebuttal on the CPL forum because of my last post. I suppose that I should take some time to respond to his comments, since that's the way he seems to like it. You can read his entire post here if you think that I have left something important out of this article. Angel's comments are in blue.

"DISCLAIMER - I have spoken to Methos once in all of the years he has been criticizing the CPL and the only email exchange I remember is when I sent him my condolences for the loss of his daughter. He is big on evidence and saving emails so I'm sure he will make a correction if I am wrong about this statement."

Angel is partially correct in this statement as we have only talked once on the phone. As for the years of criticism, I have complained about the CPL on my site a few times. Once about the on-line coverage for the RazerCPL tourney and in the last month or so regarding various issues. Although it may seem like it, the comments about the CPL have not only been negative ones.

"Here we are introduced to the concept that Methos is the teacher of the community and that we all should listen to him as the source of truth."

I have never attempted to come across as a teacher for anybody. The teaching analogy was done tongue-in-cheek.

"Here he confirms his role as our teacher, let's see what lessons he has to share with us... oh wait a student raises his hand "teacher do you mean Jonathan?" Oops."

The name Jonathon was chosen arbitrarily.

"Another student raises his hand "teacher do you mean side?" Oops."

OMG, it's a typo. Is this what you've been reduced to Angel? Pointing out typos? That's not going to fix the reputation of the CPL or help CAL become a good league. However, if it makes you feel better by directing people's attention away from the real problems by pointing out insignificant ones, so be it.

"He goes right to the lesson and yes I guess he is infected with the amnesia virus he has diagnosed on others. CPL had a good relationship with the Quake community while we were doing US tournaments featuring Quake. He seems to confuse months with years, but let's look at this closely. How many tournaments has the CPL held in the US since inception? Here is the answer:

(List of 12 tourneys edited)

So Ray please define what class you are teaching because it is certainly not mathematics."

Hmm, I didn't realize that I had complained about the amount of tourneys that the CPL has had.

"Yes, that's the way I run the company: Ten Quake tournaments in four years, $400,000 in cash prizes and $200,000 in merchandise prizes. Without counting the significant number of side-tourneys we held at those events too."

Impressive! Have I ever discounted what CPL tourneys there were or how successful they were? No, I didn't think so.

"A clan member posts on their website: "CPL should kiss our ***" and we are to ignore this? How about if I directed a remark like that to Ray? Would he just say "no big deal, it's ok"? I doubt it and neither did the CPL, and while we respect everyone's right to free expression, we expect people to respect our right to not allow people at our events that do not treat us with decor."

Since all the remarks were removed from KM site and they emailed an apology, what else would you expect them to do. Also keep in mind that the comments by the KM guys were made after you informed them that all their correspondence was being sent to your lawyers. If you or the CPL were to say something personal regarding me, then removed the remarks and issued an apology, I don't think I could ask for anything more. We've both been on-line long enough to have thicker skin by now. I'm not sure what you mean when you say "people at our events that do not treat us with decor".

"Ok so you don't like Thorian, you don't like me and you don't like the CPL. Again I remind everyone that I do not know Ray, never have really interacted with him. Oh well I guess he wanted to know more about me though, as one of our staff members did tell me that Ray was very interested in knowing how much money I made. Why is that even YOUR business Ray?"

I never said I didn't like Thorian or you. I said that I didn't like the way Thorian ran CAL and I questioned some of the CPL's decisions over the past while. Let's not turn this into a pissing contest, Angel. This is not personal at all. As far as my conversation with Frank regarding money, I never once asked how much money you made. I did suggest to Frank that I probably made more money than you. This was in response to the CPL treating people as though they were 16 year old kids without jobs rather than adults or businessmen.

"So now you are a member of another online "league" and its ok to bash Frank for his efforts to get CAL's Quake League back on track? Frank is the hardest working person I know, he is sincere and passionate about CAL, and you knocking his efforts to fix the mess you left behind is a low blow, even coming from you."

I bashed Frank? Saying that Frank is still in charge of CAL and that he's never played Q3 is not bashing anybody. Not that it's my call but, I still disagree with the decision to bring back Thorian and I questioned that, although it's a good idea to have some respected Q3 players on the new committee, that the damage may already be too much to repair. Once again, this isn't personal Angel. The mess I left behind? PUH-lease!

"All I have done is invite the Quake community to solve the differences with the CPL. Am I going to lose sleep if people like Ray ridicule my offer and tarnish it with their bias? Absolutely not. My offer was sincere, that's all that matters and many people took it that way, and let me know via email."

I never doubted whether the offer was sincere. If you think my suggestion of the cpl fixing it's own problems and then presenting the solutions to the Q3 community is biased, I can't change that.

"We can live with the fact that the Q3 players may not care but I still think that at the very least we have a demonstrated an interest by inviting them for a formal meeting."

I didn't say the idea was bad, it just seems to be a case of too little, too late.

"What an over preoccupation with money.... "How much does Angel make?" "I'm sure he makes less than me." "CPL bows down to their sponsors and their money." We are a business. In the USA we have a capitalistic society."

I will say this again, I never said "How much money does Angel make?". Have Frank show you the logs and you will see. As for the point about the CPL being a business, yes, we have heard this time and time again.

"Do you trust Bill Gates? Do you use his products? Do you trust the Pope? Do you respect your catholic friends? Do you trust the US government or the IRS? Do you want to live anywhere else? You see these questions even if answered in the negative do not mean much."

When people have choices, they do mean a lot. To follow your examples, if you didn't like GM or Ford, you would probably buy another brand of car. When there is a decent alternative, people will usually take it.

"How about that, his readers (students?) get to decide. Thanks Ray!"

No problem Angel, people should always be allowed their own choices. Choices like, 16 year olds playing in CPL events next year, players using the game alias they have been using for years, etc, come to mind. Whether it's to play in CAL or with the CPL, or whether it's to read the CPL forum or my site, nobody is forced into these things, people can make their own decisions. However, this can only be done when the choice is available to them.

"Maybe and maybe not. We would have to see, IF we give this meeting a chance Ray. That's all we asked."

Okay, I'll give you that. Like I said, it's a shame it didn't happen a year or more ago when Q3 meant more to the CPL. However, it may be a good idea for the CPL to be proactive and arrange the same type of meeting with CS players so that this same thing can be avoided down the line.

As much as Angel may think so, I don't hate the CPL or anybody involved with it. Do I have the right to state my opinion? Do I have the right to criticize when something is wrong or praise when something is right? Last I heard, I do have all these rights. Having said that, so does Angel. However, fixing problems should be a higher concern for him at the moment.

I also noticed that Frank Nuccio made a post on the same thread of the CPL forum stating the following...

"I hate to rain on your parade Ray but I believe CAL will one day, be the number one online league in America"

The question I have for this comment is... When did I ever say that I wanted CAL to fail?. I worked with the Q3 portion of CAL for 2 months and saw Thorian make some bad decisions that basically ran it into the ground. I wanted CAL Q3 to be the best league in town and let the players decide on how the league should be played. Did this all of a sudden change when I left? Nope. Did I want to see CAL fail because I wasn't there? Not at all.

Let me say this for the 100th time. All I want is for Q3 players to be happy and playing. Whether it's in CAL, KIT, RES, QIL or any other tournament. This is NOT a personal vendetta against the CPL or CAL. I hope CAL Q3 grows into a league where all players can play. How can CAL do this? Here are my suggestions...

• Have 2 of the players that are in the league run CAL. One from east and one from west (Bill "Wiseguy" Connolly comes to mind for the west). The players know what the league needs and what the players want.
• Use the CAL poll results that I posted and change the direction of the league to what the players actually want. I will gladly send the other 3 results that weren't posted, if asked.
• Start from scratch, just scrub the whole Q3 TDM portion and plan to re-open the league in a month or 2 after everything is sorted and the clans have their say in how the league should be run.
• Don't use Thorian for the Q3 TDM league. Although I'm sure that Joe means well and does what he thinks is right, a lot of the players have lost faith in him to do a good job with the league.
• Final suggestion (and most difficult) is to try and keep the CPL and CAL as separate entities.

As I mentioned, those are just suggestions, please take them as such.

I'd rather not be in the situation where the folks at the CPL think I'm bashing them every time I state that there's a problem. If Angel and company would sit down and look at things from a 3rd party point of view, they might agree that there are some concerns, instead of just getting their backs up every time I post something about the CPL. Angel didn't seem to get his back up when I ranted about Qcon having the worst on-line coverage of any tournament. As a matter of fact, he sent a second email to the CPL sponsors with quotes from my site and a link to my page. The Qcon problems weren't his, the CPL ones are.

Well, that should do it for CAL and the CPL. We'll see what happens in the future but, I doubt that there will be much of a change. Although some of the other CAL divisions seem to be purring along nicely, there hasn't been any action in Q3 TDM for a while. With KIT starting in a few days and QIL shortly after, CAL will have a tough road to climb. I wish them luck. (honestly)

Methos Marries A QuakebabeÔ
Yes, I did it. I took the plunge and got married to QuakebabeÔ Spot. Although she had to be dragged, kicking and screaming to the alter, we were able to force her into saying "I DO". :)  Actually, things went as perfect as you could possibly get at a wedding and Spot looked beautiful. It was an easy choice to get married to Julie as she's pretty much the perfect woman. The only thing that would make it better is if her father owned a brewery but, we can't have everything. :) Thanks to all the kind email and comments. They were much appreciated. Starting tomorrow, I'll be off enjoying my honeymoon. Try not to miss me too much. :)

Slow Learners In Q3 or The CPL?
Okay kids, be seated and let's try to pay attention. The question today is whether the CPL are slow learners or whether it's the Q3 players. Now, follow the bouncing ball and we can all learn together. Jonathon, I see you chewing gum, did you bring enough for the whole class? I thought not.

My, my, my. Quake players either have a shorter memory span than I give them credit for or they are the most forgiving people this site of the Pope.

Angel Munoz and the CPL have figuratively slapped Quake players in the face for years. It’s just the way he runs his company. Are we still worried that he dropped Q3 from USA CPL tourneys? I suppose some people are but, most have gotten over it. As for the dropping of the affiliate sites, that’s his call, however, this is where there CPL fails, time and time again. It would have been nice to let the affiliates know *in advance* instead of letting them read it someplace. What would it have taken for Angel to send an email to all the sites letting them know what was happening and thanking them for their support? A little thinking before acting would have helped this situation greatly. Are we learning yet?

The handling of the Clan Knightmare situation was deplorable to say the least. I don’t know of any players or persons outside of the CPL staff that agreed with the decision to ban them. I have read all the postings AND all the email correspondence in this incident and I can assure you that the CPL overreacted to the situation. Once this happened, the CPL couldn’t back out because it would seem as though KM would win. Again, a little thinking before acting would have helped this situation greatly. Are we learning yet?

Then there’s the CAL TDM situation. Thorian and his “my way or the highway” regime was ended. In what could be the dumbest move ever by the CPL (other than the leaked email), they bring Thorian back to run the scheduling and ref part of the league which is a joke because we all know that he is basically back as admin. This is based on the fact that Frank Nuccio has never played Q3 and that Chris King is only advising for CAL Q3 leagues. This isn’t a knock against Thorian as he could probably lighten up and try to make nice with people but, the players are tired of all the CPL BS and bringing Thorian back doesn’t help the CPL solve the TDM crisis. CAL is supposed to be getting better and not returning to the sad state it was in before. Thorian then goes on Shackes and tells people that the CPL and Angel are misunderstood. That sure has changed from some of the conversations I’ve had with him where he was less than enamored with the CPL. Are we learning yet?

What has changed in CAL since my departure? Frank Nuccio is still in charge of CAL. Thorian has returned to basically be in charge of competition days and Chris King has moved to an advisory position. They’ve now developed a Quake Competition Committee with some respected members of the Q3 community. Nothing against the people on the committee but, it brings to mind the old saying, “you don’t put new wipers on a busted windshield”. Hopefully, this committee will be used much more than the CAL Decision Committee. While I was on the CDC, we were asked about 3 different things in the span of 2 months. This was due to Thorian’s “I make the rules and that’s final” type of administration. Are we learning yet?

Keep in mind, I was in the eye of the storm and I saw nearly everything that happened. Nobody was upset when Thorian was removed from his admin position (other than Thorian). Matter of fact, I still remember the night he left CAL, where in the Q3-TDM channel, he asked “do you guys still want me as admin or not?” and nobody answered him. Although I’m sure that many players liked him, there were many more that didn’t and very few of them were willing to speak up for him on IRC or on messageboards. To his credit, he weathered the storm, sucked it up and now he’s back. Will there be much of a league to run? Time will tell. With QIL, Resurrection, KIT and other tourneys on the way, how long will it be before players realize that they don’t need CAL? Are we learning yet?

I noticed a post on Shackes by Angel Munoz where he stated the following…

“If the Q3 community is serious about getting organized, then one of the esport sites should organize the process. I suggest that the issues are brought up and outlined, that representatives are selected by vote, that an organization is formed and the community contributes to it, that delegates are selected to meet with us in Dallas for a day of discussions and regularly after that twice a year.” 

How about that! Angel wants to meet with people from the Q3 world to discuss any issues we may have. I do have a couple of questions regarding this nice offer by Angel…

1. First of all, what company that is trying to fix their tarnished reputation would tell some other venture to “get it together and come see us”? We don’t work for the CPL and we’re not a union of players. If the CPL really wanted to fix any situation, they would find solutions and present them to us. You don’t ask players to fix problems that are not caused by them.
2. Why do Q3 players need to meet with Angel when he is fully aware of the concerns that players and clans have? Is this all new to him?
3. If this was going to happen, why wasn’t this done ages ago when the CPL dropped Q3 for CS in the USA?
4. Do players care enough to do this? From what I can see, a lot of Q3 players have just given up with CAL and the CPL. They’re tired of banging their heads against a wall.
5. What difference will it make? The CPL bows down to their sponsors and, of course, their money. They don’t care about Q3 players and have proved it over and over.

Players in CAL should ask themselves a few simple questions.

1. Do you trust Angel Munoz?

2. Do you trust Mike Wardwell?

3. Do you trust Frank Nuccio?

4. Do you trust Joe "Thorian" Bako?

5. Do you trust the CPL?

If the answer to all of these is "yes", then you should be happy with the CPL and it's staff. If any of the answers are "no", then you can decide what to do. Meeting with Angel will only get new empty promises from the CPL. God knows, we’ve heard enough of them before. Are we learning yet?

What A Clan Wants
Before I left CAL, I sent out a poll that I had made to all the players. In this poll, I basically asked clans to tell me what they wanted in a TDM tourney. When I left CAL, I asked if I should send the poll results and was told, "no". After that, I saw a few people mention the poll but, no CAL person ever asked me for the results, even though I was in their IRC channel nearly every day.

So, for all you people that run on-line tourneys or are thinking of starting one, here are the results of the poll. I'm sure you'll be able to glean some information that you'll be able to use. For interest sake, 18 clans and 113 players answered the survey. The results are given by clan voting, not individual votes. After all, it was a clan tourney.

Question 1: What format would you like to see matches played in?
a) 3 – 15 Minute Periods with scores totaled at the end (current setting)
b) 20 Minute matches, best of 3 games
c) 3 – 20 Minute matches with scores totaled at the end

 Results: B = 10 votes, A = 5, C = 3

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Question 2: How would you like the map selection to be utilized?
a) 1 Map per week?
b) Different map for each game / period played each week?

Results: A = 11 votes, B = 7

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Question 3: How long should the intermission time be in-between games or periods?
a) 1 Minute
b) 2 Minutes
c) 3 Minutes
d) 4 Minutes
e) 5 Minutes

Results: E = 14 votes, all others, 1 vote

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Question 4: What machine gun damage do you prefer?
a) 3 Damage points per pellet
b) 4 Damage points per pellet
c) 5 Damage points per pellet

Results: A = 9 votes, C = 8, B = 1

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Question 5: What day of the week is best for your clan to play?
a) Monday
b) Tuesday
c) Wednesday
d) Thursday
e) Friday
f) Saturday
g) Sunday

Results: C = 5 votes, E = 4, D = 3, F = 3

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Question 6: Please name 2 maps that you would like TDM games to be played on

Results: Pro-Q3DM6 = 9 votes, Q3DM7 = 7, Q3DM14 = 7, CPM4 = 5, CPM9 = 3, Q3DM12 = 2

-------------

Question 7: What type of league format does your clan prefer?
a) Open league
b) Invite only league
c) Ladder type of format
d) Open league with “Swiss Style” format

Results: D = 9 votes, A = 5, B = 4

I removed a couple of questions as they were CAL specific and not relevant for other tourneys. However, that should give you a good idea of what clans wants. Hope somebody can use this info as it would be a shame to waste it.

Methos Quits CAL (Again)
It took me less than 2 weeks to realize the age old prophecy "you can't spit-shine a turd!". When I rejoined CAL as lead admin for the Q3 divisions, (along with Chris King) I asked myself a bunch of questions that I didn't have answers for. I now have the answers I was searching for.

Q: With Thorian gone, could the league become as good as it was suppose to be? The answer is "No". Although Thorian did many things to infuriate players and other CAL members, a lot of the problems in the league were out of his control. Let's face it, the CPL has a bad reputation with Q3 players for many of the decisions that they have made in the past. Neither Thorian, myself or any other person can repair this tarnished reputation, only the CPL might be able to do that.
Q: Had the CAL reputation suffered irreparable damage? The answer is "Yes". Like I have said, once trust is gone, it can be nearly impossible to regain. I think the players and clans in the league were duped into thinking that CAL was a great league to be in, but it's not. Some of Thorian's actions helped in this matter, but it's the CPL that holds the responsibility for the state of the league.
Q: Could CAL be returned to a league where players would want to play? The answer is "No". Basically the trust issue from the last question applies here too.
Q: Could the focus of the league be returned to where it belonged, with the players? The answer is "No". People have been waiting for the CPL to "do the right thing" for ages. Every time we wait to see what happens next, they always do the wrong thing. There is also the fact that the CPL wouldn't let the focus of CAL be returned to the players. If some players / clans aren't in there, then it's not the place for others to be.
Q: Could I keep the CPL corporate BS out of the league? The answer is a definitive "No". Man, what the hell was I thinking? What a fool I was to think that the CPL would keep their nose out of an amateur league. As Angel has stated many times "the CPL is a business". Now, for all the teens out there that don't understand what this means, let me spell it out for you. The CPL doesn't care about the players. Unless you are, in some way, responsible for making the CPL money, they don't care. And that's the bottom line. (cause Stone Cold said so!)

So, I had to come to a decision whether or not to leave. When I took the lead admin position, my conscience told me that I would regret it in the future. With the tentative future plans for CAL being something I disagree with, this decision would have happened sooner or later. What plans are those?

• The fact that all Q3 players will be asked to use real names instead of aliases
• All players must be minimum 17 years old
• Clans will have to pay a nominal fee to enter the league

Last I heard, Q3 was just a game for everybody. Not just for 17+ even though the ESRB says so. I would be surprised if any clan would pay anything for entering any on-line league, let alone CAL. Now, they are also hoping to have prizes to give at the end of that season but, time will tell.

Now, let's get to some facts. Why did I leave CAL?

• Reason #1: I rejoined CAL with the condition that the game could be returned to the players. The CPL won't allow this to happen. It seems as the CPL's only interest is making money and pleasing their sponsors. If a company like Intel wants real names only, that's what they get. If they only want players over 16, they get that too. I'm almost sure that if the sponsors wanted players to wear pink shorts at lans, the CPL would probably make that a rule also.
• Reason #2: Lack of respect from the CPL. I'm sure this comes from dealing with some immature people over the years but, as much as some people may think, I'm not immature and I'm not a kid. I am older (by Quake standards) and a businessman who also has a family. Being treated "like a kid" is demeaning. I don't treat people that way (no matter how old they are) and I expect the same in return. Frank Nuccio seems like a good guy but, nearly every time I spoke with him, he was very quick to get his back up. On many occasions, he has chastised me for questioning him on certain points and reminded me of CAL admin rules (which I never saw until today). I have many examples here but, I don't want to make this personal, so I will refrain from stating them. (I will email them to people for a small fee j/k )
• Reason #3: The Clan Knightmare situation bothers me to no end. I tried my best to get KM let back into the league, even if it was on probation or something, but I was unsuccessful. For those that know the situation, you'll remember how it was just the CPL guys getting their backs up because they couldn't properly answer KM-Gaijin's questions. After he persisted, they threatened him with legal action. After that, they just decided to ban KM, even after they had removed the incident from their site. Getting suspended for 4 months was (in my opinion), way out of line. Some CPL members actually wanted it to be longer. Why did the CPL do this? Because they could.
• Reason #4: My conscience. I couldn't get the nagging voice out of my head that I was doing the wrong thing by rejoining CAL. After years of blunders by the CPL, for some reason I expected them to be better when I got there. Yes, I now know that I was just dreaming. I felt bad that Thorian was ousted from his position as I wasn't trying to take over as lead admin (although he doesn't believe me). However, I felt that I could do a better job in the PR department than Joe had done and possibly get some of the players interested again. I felt that I connected with a LOT of players and that I brought a little respect to CAL that wasn't there before but, sometimes that's just not enough. Would I do this again? As long as it wasn't CAL, yes I would. If another tourney organization were to ask me to join, I wouldn't have the same problems that are inherent with CPL leagues.

A lesson and a warning... I noticed some talk from people about boycotting CAL Q3. Although I respect this decision, it won't help. If CAL shuts down tomorrow, that won't affect the CPL either, other than to give them some bad press. The fact is, the only way the CPL would be hurt is if sponsors pulled out. Since their main game is CS, the Q3 players don't have a voice against the CPL. This is sad to say but, it's also the truth. Angel Munoz won't be sweating if the Q3 world is upset with him or the CPL. Giving Angel some credit, he has set himself in this position so that he doesn't have to worry about this scenario. Having said that, it still doesn't help the players. I hope that Q3 players learn from what I am saying. I will give a warning to CS players too. If you're a CS player in CAL or the CPL, the same thing will probably happen to you. Whether it's after the next great game is released and sponsors change to that one or when sponsors pull out after game broadcasting becomes automated in the future. Trust me, it will happen, it's just a question of when.

You'll notice that I haven't mentioned Chris King in my post. Chris is a very nice guy and I never had any problems with him. He also had the same hopes for the league that I did. The one stipulation that Chris made when he was asked to be admin for the CAL Q3 is that he wouldn't do it unless I was there as well. I don't know what will happen with Chris and CAL after this. The one difference between Chris and I is that he works for the CPL as IRC manager. I hope that Chris continues his role with the CPL and that he is very happy being there.

I tried to state the facts here without going into the gory details (and there are many) but, I didn't want to turn this into a flame war. I have resigned from lead admin for CAL. So, that's it. There's not much more to say except the following. I want to thank all the CAL players (yes, even you quaint) for welcoming me and giving me a chance to try and run the league. I tried to run it the best I could but, it's hard when, in a lot of cases, my hands were tied. There will be one of two responses to this posting from the CPL guys. Either they will come out and say that all is fine with CAL or they will flame me (or send their lawyers after me for stating my opinion). My track record speaks for itself. Should you have any doubts as to which stories are true, talk to the people who know the answers. Those people are the CAL Q3 players. They have endured what I would never stand for.

That's all folks, I'm off to get married.

Respectfully
Ray (Methos)

Methos' Last Days Of Freedom
As most of you know, I will be getting married this weekend to QuakebabeÔ Spot. There is an overlying somber mood which is caused by the fact that my daughter was killed exactly 6 months ago from my wedding day. Some people may think that we should wait longer before getting married but, nothing will change in that timeframe. My daughter Kim really liked Julie and was looking forward to our wedding. That is the main reason we decided not to change the date. The WTC tragedy is also on our minds. Like many people around the world, Julie and I were shocked and saddened by the terrorist acts.

Everything is set to go, so it should be a good time as long as she shows up for the wedding. When we were choosing the Champagne for the wedding, Julie told me to let Hoony know that she decided to get Australian wine to celebrate Richard and his family. I thought this was a nice sentiment considering she has never talked to him but, she knows how highly I regard him as a friend. I'd like to thank all the on-line friends that have sent their well-wishes for the wedding. Even though most have been sarcastic, I still appreciate the effort.

It will be an eventful weekend in a positive sense. God knows, we all need something positive these days. It seems as though the last while has been nothing but heartache. I'll see you all when I get back.

 It feels so good breathe the air, another spin around the sun.
On this speck of life In the universe, The gift of love Is there for everyone.

A Day In The (New) Life
On Monday evening, I was chatting with Kvm from clan Negative Seven. We were discussing his grandmother's leg amputation from a couple of days prior and how she was coping. I told Kvm about my daughter Kim and that she had been killed and mentioned that he should feel better because his grandmother was still alive and things could be a lot worse. CAL Q3 games had started again, we had a productive clan leader meeting on Monday night and all was right in the Quake world. Little did I know what was about to happen the next morning.

I awoke on Tuesday morning from a phone call with somebody telling me "you have to turn on CNN". I turned on my TV and didn't stop watching for the rest of the day. At first, I thought I was watching a new movie similar to Independence Day or Armageddon. Much like people around the world, I wish that it was a movie or even a bad dream. We all know what happened so, I'm not going to go into any details. You can tune in to any news channel or site to see what has happened.

I'm not a religious person so, I won't be hypocritical and say that my prayers are with them. However, like most people watching, I was horrified at the events that took place and all of my hopes and thoughts are with the families of the victims and all the rescue workers. I can only imagine what these people are feeling after the despicable actions of the terrorists.

World Trade Center Tower #2 Colapses

What will become of this situation? Only time will tell. As of today, it seems as though the retaliation will be directed towards Afghanistan. If they are responsible for aiding in these actions, they deserve everything they will get. However, it won't end after that. With the full backing of Nato and the U.N. this will affect nearly all terrorist organizations in a world effort to stop worldwide terrorism.

There are slight glimmers of hope and lots of heroes behind all of the horror. Seeing people being found alive after being buried for 2 or more days is an emotional sight to see. The biggest thanks should go to the people on the flight that crashed into the ground just south of Pittsburg. After one of the passengers (Jeremy Glick) called his wife from the plane, he was told that terrorists had crashed planes into the World Trade Center. Instead of leaving their fate in the hands of the terrorists, they decided to attack the hijackers. They gave their life to help save the lives of people they didn't know.

The actions on September 11th, 2001, won't soon be forgotten. Even if the people responsible are found and punished, even if the buildings are rebuilt, there still won't be any closure. This horrifying day will live on forever.

Hijacked Plane Hits South Tower

One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should
One life with each other: sisters, brothers
One life, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other

I'm so tired but I can't sleep, standing on the edge of something much too deep.
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word.
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard.

But I will remember you, will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by, weep not for the memories.
 

Methos Sells Soul For An Angel?
If you haven't heard by now, myself and Chris King are the new lead administrators for the CAL Quake divisions. This is a lot different than I expected after making a very tough decision and sending in my resignation to the CAL decision committee last night. Did I ask for this new assignment? No. Was I surprised to see my name front and center in Frank Nuccio's announcement? Very. When I was asked to join the CAL Q3TDM league 8 weeks ago, I was excited to be part of a new league. Things changed fast and even though I moved from being on the decision committee, to being a referee to being asst. admin to Joe "Thorian" Bako, the league had lots of problems and was falling fast.

When I didn't get a response to my resignation letter from any of the CPL staff, I was willing to leave quietly back to my little space here on Methos Quake. Ebola from eSa noticed I was leaving and decided to mention it on his site. from there, it spread through the Quake scene at the speed of a Quake 1 rocket. For you Q3'ers out there, that's mucho fast. At this point, I'd like to thank all the people that posted some very kind words about me on the messageboards. From there, this story just seem to grow and grow. I was inundated with messages on IRC all day long.

Late Tuesday afternoon, I received a phone call from Frank Nuccio asking me about my reasons for leaving. Since I had mentioned on Challenge-US that I had all the logs with some very revealing information, and that I was willing to post what was contained in these logs. I gave him 3 examples and that was enough for him to say that he would take some action in this case. He also asked if I would be willing to come back and "help assist with the league" if Thorian wasn't the administrator anymore. This one, I had to think about. I joined CAL because I wanted to be a part of a great league. I left CAL because I felt things were not being run properly by Thorian. With Thorian gone, could the league become as good as it was suppose to be? Had the CAL reputation suffered irreparable damage? Could it be returned to a league where players would want to play?

With one condition, I decided that I would help the league as I enjoyed my time in the league from the first day. Nearly all the players were very cool guys and with the exception of a few, we all got along great. I spoke with Chris King and I gave him my one condition for returning to CAL. My condition was that I wanted to return the focus of the league to where it belongs, with the players. The players are what makes any league or game exist. The players must get a say in what happens in the league and CAL is no exception to that rule. As long as I'm going to be in CAL, the players will have a voice in nearly all aspects of how the games are played. As much at it may be impossible, I'm also going to try my best to keep the CPL business aspect out of the league. To players, most of that is just corporate bullshit and they don't want it in the league.

I received a phone call from Angel Munoz. I was a bit surprised by this as I had just spoken with Frank. he basically had me repeat what I said to Frank 10 minutes earlier. Then he apologized to me on behalf of the CPL. He also expressed concerns with some of the information I was going to post and said that he didn't really need another Methos article at this point. He mentioned that I was well liked and very trusted in the Quake scene and people tended to believe what I had to say. Angel is a very good salesman so, I took what he had to say with a grain of salt. Bottom line is, the CPL doesn't need any more negative press than they've had in the last few weeks. He took the time to call me so, I guess that was part of the impending damage control.

My buddy Hoony asked a question in his latest article on Challenge-World where he says the following...

"It does bother me a bit that after this threat, Methos gets "promoted", because it makes it look as if the guy we are all used to seeing "telling it like it is" on his website was bought off"

I can understand why Hoony asks this question and I had to ask myself the same one. My reasoning came down to a few points...

1. I was with CAL before all this happened
2. I didn't leave because of principal. I left because when you don't like your boss, there's usually not much that can be done. In this case, something was done about the problem.
3. If Joe wasn't there, I wouldn't have handed in my resignation.

Let's face it, we're not talking about world hunger or killing baby seals. There were problems that I had with Thorian and now those problems don't exist.

Chris and I aren't fooling ourselves into thinking this will be an easy task. Once trust is broken, it is a hard thing to gain back. This will be an uphill battle to get CAL back on track and to the point where the players, refs and admins  aren't afraid to voice their concerns in a respectable manner. Both Chris and I will have an open door policy and we will welcome any good suggestions. Whether or not you like me or hate me, give me a chance to see if Chris and I can make the league work. If I can't, I will resign again, knowing that I had given it my best shot.

Methos Left CAL?
Yes. Although it seems like ages ago, I left CAL for some good reasons. I felt that CAL wasn't being run in the proper manner. If you have read any Quake related messageboards lately, you would probably see a post from somebody that complained about CAL or more specifically, Joe "Thorian" Bako. Conversely, you'll probably see a caustic rebuttal by Joe in the next message as he is never shy about stating his opinion. There are many things I like about Joe, especially when you consider that he was the person that asked me to join CAL in the first place.

However, Joe does have some quirks that he needs to work on. Nobody will accuse Joe of being Mr. Personality or that he is open to people opinions. I do believe that Joe did what he thought was right for the league and ran it the best way he could. But, if you crossed him or he didn't like what you had to say, you would subject yourself to the wrath of Joe.

Unfortunately, for the people reading who were expecting a tell-all book about Joe, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to beat a dead horse when the horse has been taken off the track. I will give a couple of examples I was witnessed to during my time with Thorian.

• I called a referee's meeting during pre-season to discuss the rules and possibly make changes if required. During the meeting, I asked if we were changing any rules and I was slammed down so hard that 4 of the other refs sent me private messages asking what I did to piss him off.
• Just 2 nights ago, one of the Ichorvile guys was in the caleague-q3tdm channel and was question Thorian on some of his choices. One of the members of Team Canine was defending Thorian's actions and said that the Ichorvile player "likes to fuck little boys, you nasty ass fucker". I asked the K9 player to calm down and Thorian responded by saying "Methos, it's okay. It's just an illustration". This is from the same guy that banned people from channels for saying things that were pretty tame. But, because the K9 player was defending him, it was okay in Thorian's mind.

Now these may not seem like much and they're not very earth-shattering but, being professional and showing respect is the number one consideration when in a position of authority. Let's take the Gryp situation. I was the referee that he abused on the server, I was the one that reported Gryp's conduct, I was the one that suggested the penalty (for lack of better word) and I was the one that informed Gryp that he was "suspended indefinitely". Two days after this, Gryp was asked questions about his CAL experience on Challenge-US. After all I had done to him in that week, he mentioned the following...

Gryp: "Out of all the admins, Methos is the only one with some experience playing and he is the only one that seems to know what the community wants"

Did Gryp say these things because I'm such a nice guy? Not at all. It was because I treated him with respect. I didn't yell at him, treat him like a kid or think he was stupid. I treated him like a person that deserves respect. This is the way things need to be done in CAL or any other league.

I'd like to apologize to the people who have read this far only to find that I didn't air out CAL's dirty laundry. Now that things have changed in CAL, that stuff is in the past and it won't be that way again if I can help it. Let's move on and see if we can repair the damage to the league and make it a better one. Will this happen overnight? No. Although in some people's minds, it's off to a good start.

Methos Site Stuff
I will update the .plan page tomorrow and I will post Spot's second editorial update at the same time.

New Spot-Light Editorial Page
Methos Quake has been waiting for it's editorial staff to start posting a little more than in the past. Okay, so I haven't had an editorial staff in a year or so, that's beside the point. The latest editorial writer on Methos Quake is [fuGs]Spot. Some of you may know her from the Quakebabe's™ page or from my ravings about her on the .plan page. Yes, it's the same Spot that I am getting married to in a few short weeks (OMG!).

In Spot's first update, she re-lives the first time she played Quake 3 on-line and it's quite a humorous look at being a Quake newb. Make sure you take a look at her update. Spotlight is well worth the visit.

Cyberathlete Professional League Woes [3 Comments]
It's been a banner week for Angel and friends at the CPL as they have caused more controversy during a 4 day span than any other time I can remember. Three separate incidents have worked many supporters into a frenzy and the CPL hasn't been doing a lot of damage control to try and soothe the masses from revolting. To quote an old song.. "They say that all things come in threes, well, here comes the third degree". Let's look at what has transpired.

August 13th, 2001: CPL officially announces that players in their league will no longer be able to use alias names in CPL tournaments. Here's the announcement.

"In an effort to further professionalize the sport of competitive gaming, the CPL will no longer allow players to represent themselves with a nickname in league tournaments. The CPL now requires that all players use their surnames in official CPL matches"

I'm actually surprised that the CS players haven't said more about this. Oh sure, there have been hundreds of postings on messageboards and the CS community is overall, fairly upset by this action but, the majority of CS players don't care. Obviously, the ones that do care, are the ones involved with the CPL's CS divisions. 

I've heard that this is being done to bring in some major sponsors for the CPL. I doubt very much that the CPL will get better sponsors for their tournaments just because players are using their surnames and not the aliases that players of all games have been using since internet gaming became popular. This kind of reminds me of the "payolla" radio scandals in the 60's, where sponsors would decide what songs were played on the radio and if the radio station played songs the sponsors didn't like, they would pull their advertising. The easiest way for Angel to have dealt with this problem would have been to ask players to change their alias if it was deemed offensive instead of making blanket changes to the gaming community.

August 15th, 2001: An e-mail sent by CPL President Angel Munoz to the CPL sponsors was leaked to the community. The letter contains quotes from various web sites regarding some of the negative things that happened during Quakecon 2001. These included the power outage, seedings, swearing, cash prizes, software bugs and more. There was also a second letter sent by Angel Munoz that quoted a few comments from this site about Quakecon's on-line coverage but, that was never leaked to web sites. Here are snippets from the e-mails of what Angel had to say...

"A few of the CPL sponsors have asked us about QuakeCon and how they compare to a CPL Event. Instead of the CPL making that comparison, we will quote the press on a few subjects that seem to be sore points for that event"

(lots of negative press stuff deleted)

"Note: Please do not interpret that the CPL wants to cast a negative light on this organization. We just want to make sure that our sponsors are fully informed"

Here is the apology that Angel posted on the CPL forum...

"As part of our regular business practice, we occasionally send press quotes to some of our sponsors about other events. One such recent correspondence contained negative press quotes about the QuakeCon event. QuakeCon had a number of operational and technical problems at the event, resulting in a few negative statements. None of the quotes were of statements made by any CPL representative.

In violation of privacy agreements, to which the recipients of the private email were bound, this particular email ended up on IRC and has been peddled through the Net. The CPL places a high value on its privacy rights, as does most of the gaming community. No one reading this wants the entrusted privacy of their communications to be breached.

Nevertheless, in retrospect, the CPL policy of forwarding criticism of other event holders is insensitive to those who worked hard to conduct the event, and the practice will be discontinued. The CPL knows better than anyone in the world, how complex and difficult the production of these events actually is.

To the members of the QuakeCon team, please accept my deepest apologies for this indiscretion.

Angel, CPL"

I understand Angel's reasoning behind the two e-mails that were sent. He just wanted the sponsors to know.. hey, this is what happened at Quakecon and it won't happen at the CPL. This is what is called marketing. It is a common practice, but it comes back to bite you when people find out you're doing it. Kind of like sending joke e-mails around the office, it's all fun and games until the e-mail ends up in the hands of somebody that takes offense to it. Then the shit hits the fan. Just like in the movie Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise sends out his company mission statement which is what people know is true but, they would never say it.

Do I think Angel should have sent these letters? Absolutely not. It was a bush-league thing to do. Just because other people do it, it doesn't make it the right thing to do.

August 16th, 2001: Angel Munoz and the CPL announce that they will adhere to the ESRB ratings system in 2002. This mean that nobody under the age of 17 years old will be able to play at the CPL lan tournament or in the CAL CS Invite division. This includes teenagers that have their parents approval for playing. On that note, how will the admins from CAL CS invite league check the players age? Here's the announcement..

"The CPL announced today, that commencing January 1, 2002 the league will strictly abide by the ESRB guidelines. Players only ages 17 and older will be eligible for competition in CPL tournaments featuring M-rated games.

The Cyberathlete Amateur League (CAL) will also adopt this new rule, but initially only for the invitational division of the league"

This decision by the CPL surprises me the most. The ESRB has been ridiculed for years on their rating system so, why should the CPL adhere to it after all this time? The ESRB rating system is basically, if the game has a gun, nobody under 17 years old may play it. Even the Quake strategy guides are listed as 17+ on their list. Of the 3 topics posted here regarding the CPL, this decision will hurt them the most. With such a large portion of the players being teenagers, they will be forced to play in other leagues. When you consider that the current best Quake 3 player in the world (ZeRo4) is 16 years old, he will now be told, sorry, you can't play in the CPL until you turn 17. How will he react to this? By my calculation, approx. 43% (this is a very rough estimate) of the players are under 17 years old. Nearly all of these players have now been alienated by the CPL.

All three of these subjects have something in common for the CPL, they all cause controversy, apathy and frustration towards the CPL. Much like any league or tournament, it's the players and not the sponsors that make the league strong. Accordingly, the players are also the people that you don't want to piss-off to the point where they leave the organization. However, in the end, players will always find a place to play and the CPL and it's sponsors will pay the price for their actions and decisions.

QuakeCon Aftermath
In my last update, I had a posting called "Quake-Conned 2001" where I mentioned a lot of the bad things about the on-line coverage of QuakeCon. I still feel strongly about the things I mentioned and I still hope they can be improved for future events, whether they are Quakecon, CPL or any other. However, I would like to say that I found out some information that affected one of the things I mentioned.

I had mentioned how bad the Zonestats were at Quakecon. I heard some news that gave a good reason for the stats being so screwed up. It turns out that during the power outage that occurred on Thursday, that the tourney database was corrupted. The only way things got up and running was because a|rhea (from OSP fame) rebuilt the database from a backup. So, even though there were still problems with the stats, seedings, winners etc, they had a pretty good excuse.

Another thing I'd like to mention is the final 32 man bracket. I was confused as to why the players played against the opponents they did in the first round of the winners bracket. I asked 15 people this question, only to receive "I dunno" from 12 of them. Rhea finally cleared things up and explained that, if a seeded player like 4muiy (ranked 136th) defeated a higher seeded player, he would basically take over that players seed. That is why 4muiy played BelmakoR instead of Czm. Btw, if you're into downloading Q3 demos, make sure you watch Insano vs ]KM[spanky (thx CH-TV), it was a dandy.

QuakeCon 2001 [1 Comment]
QuakeCon 2001 has ended and ZeRo4 is the champion for the second year in a row. Last year at QuakeCon 2000, he took home a shiny new computer. This year, he gets the second largest prize of any Quake tournament. Only Fatality's $40,000 win at RazerCPL was higher than ZeRo4's $30,000 payday.

Here is a list of the top 8 finishers at QuakeCon 2001...

1. ZeRo4 - $30,000
2. Fatality - $10,000
3. Revenant - $5,000
4. Socrates
5. czm
6. Lakerman
7. Gator
8. Aim

I'm not sure what players who finished 4th and lower will receive in prize money, as it wasn't mentioned on the QuakeCon page (more about that later) but, I'm sure they'll receive something for their efforts. There were some great games in the tournament and ZeRo4 was able to go through undefeated. Other players seemed to have a tougher road to travel to the finals but, in double elimination, it's always tough near the end.

Unfortunately, the final demo from ZeRo4's pov doesn't exist. However, you can download "some" of the demos from the following sites. 

• www.challenge-tv.com (110 demos)
• www.esports-america.com (56 demos)
• www.xsreality.com (15 demos)
• www.cached.net (64 demos)
• Quakecon Demos Mirror #1 - HTTP (105 demos, thx Cached)
• Quakecon Demos Mirror #2 - FTP (105 demos)

If you were lucky enough to be at the event, except for a power outage that lasted 6 hours on Thursday, things went very well. To solve the power problems, id Software brought in a semi-trailer with dual 500 kilowatt generators to make sure their were no further problems. Apparently, this amount of power can run a town of 40,000+ residents. 

Although we've all heard the rumors before, it was nice to get official word from id Software announcing that they are working with Raven Software and using the Doom3 engine to make Quake 4. Raven Software has worked with id products in the past , making such games as Heretic and Hexen. CEO Todd Hollenshed also mentioned that the storyline for Quake IV will be similar to that of Quake2 and that the game was a long way away.

There was also a showing of the game DOOM3 for the QuakeCon attendees only. No cameras or video were allowed as John Carmack narrated the Doom3 game that people were watching. Although I have heard rumors that people thought they were watching a video, I can confirm that this is NOT true. After speaking with id last night, I was told the following...

"It wasn't a movie, it was all in game.  It was all real time in game, we just hooked some scripts together to jump around the level"

I was also told that unlike the previous video that people were able to download, this one will not be made public. :(

Quake-Conned 2001? [1 Comment]
You will notice that I mentioned above that, "if" you were at the tournament, things went very well. This was FAR from the case if you weren't at the tournament. The QuakeCon 2001 tournament had the worst on-line coverage I have ever seen in any major tournament, no matter what game was being played. To say that the coverage sucked would be a huge understatement. 

I'm not talking about what web-sites had to say about the tourney as most of them posted whatever info they could. You can see decent coverage on sites like ShackEs, Challenge-World and a lot of the Challenge sites, Esports, XSreality, Cached and quite a few others.

I'm talking about how the QuakeCon group ran the tourney for the fans that couldn't attend the biggest Quake tournament in 2001. Here's a rundown of what went wrong.

• No GTV or QTV: The only way fans can enjoy a tournament while it's on, is to see what is happening. A few weeks ago, I was asked by the QuakeCon staff if I could help them with QTV. I spoke to Zibbo and Perkele who make QTV and they said that they were willing to help out with the tourney. I passed their info along to the Qcon guys but, for some reason, they decided to use GTV (they didn't even have the decency to tell the QTV guys this). I have no problem with GTV as it is pretty much a clone of QTV and would work fine. However, Fonfon, who makes GTV,  wasn't able to make GTV compatible with v1.29h in time for the tournament. So, all the on-line fans were left with no live games when the Qcon guys could have contacted the QTV guys and fixed the problem.
• Zone Stats: Normally a reliable source for quickly updated statistics, scores, demos and screenshots. This time, a lot of the scores were wrong, winners were listed incorrectly, it was only being updated every 30-60 minutes and nearly all the screenshots and demos were missing. All the 1on1 matches from the 2nd bracket were listed to start on Saturday instead of Friday. I wonder if any players forfeited their games because of this info?
  - Also, it wasn't carrying over the seeds properly. In the final 32 bracket, all the games listed were incorrect since the tourney was going by the 1st plays 32nd, 2nd plays 31st type format. If this was corrected, all the final 32 round games would have been against different opponents. For example, czm ranked 1st,  would have played 4muiy, ranked 136th (last in 32 man bracket) and not against carde who was ranked 20th in the bracket. I sent the QuakeCon guys this information but, nothing was ever done about it.
• No Shoutcast: We were promised a shoutcast for the tournament and except for the final 2 games, they were down for the entire tourney. I'm not sure who was talking on the shoutcast for those two games but, they didn't know their Quake very well and in-between frags there was mostly silence. They never even mentioned what map the two games were played on. Instead, they talked about how Z4's aim was like shooting at clay pigeons and that Fatality didn't really play well and didn't have very good weapon changing skills. (honest) 
  - Most important for the shoutcast is that they were going to broadcast (on a delayed basis), the id announcements and John Carmack talking. Nobody outside the tourney got to hear this.
• Demos: People were asking for demos all weekend, only 5 links on the Zone Stats were working so, until the end when some sites posted them (god knows where they found them), we didn't see any. Even on the sites that posted them, there were 259 games played which should equal 518 demos. The most I saw on an site after the tourney was 110 on Challenge-TV. Where are the rest of them?
• No IRC Announcements: I understand that the Qcon guys were probably very busy but, to come on IRC to post something in the topic or to tell people when things were happening or if they were having problems would only take a couple of minutes. None of the QuakeCon staff made any announcements in the channel.
• No Scorebot: At least if they couldn't get GTV, QTV or shoutcast working, they could have a scorebot. No scorebot was provided at all. The Zone Stats were suppose to be used as a pseudo scorebot but, it was only updated every 30-60 minutes.
• No Site Updates: There were only 3 updates on the QuakeCon web site all weekend. One about the power outage, one about Quake4 and the other was about modeling and maps. Nothing was mentioned about the players, where the demos were, etc. I'm sure this was a case of "being inside the box" (sorry Angel :). Oh, and they posted a dead link to the new Qcon map.

There you have it. I feel sorry for the almost 500 people in the #quakecon channel that waited for news for 3 days and heard very little. Most of the people who joined the channel left after finding out that there was no GTV, QTV or shoutcast for the event. If the QuakeCon staff could have seen the excitement that was caused when the final 2 games were broadcasted, I'm sure they would have wanted the entire tourney to be the same way.

As I stated before, QuakeCon 2001 had the worst on-line coverage ever for a major tournament. Am I going to get in trouble for writing this? Probably, but facts are facts. I'm not going to polish this up and tell you it was lots of fun and a well run tourney on-line because it wasn't. If organizers want Quake or any other game to become a professional sport or similar, they'll have to do much better than this. The games are for the masses of people who enjoy it. To hold a 355 player tourney (lots of no-shows) and not share it with thousands of on-line people that couldn't attend is a shame. Normally, I would list my thoughts on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly for a tournament but, in this case, the on-line portion of this tourney was all Ugly.

I don't blame the companies that sponsored the event. I certainly don't blame the players as they all played great and did their best. Congrats to ZeRo4 on winning. Congrats to id Software and the other companies that made big announcements. Hopefully, QuakeCon 2002 will be much better from an on-line point of view.

Update: I have just heard that CC-Tapper, one of the head guys from the QuakeCon staff, had to leave Qcon on Saturday morning due to a family emergency. The news I received was that his family was involved in a head-on car collision. As far as I know, nobody died in the crash. Since family is something that is very close to my heart, my thoughts and well wishes go out to Tapper and his family. All the best to your family on a speedy recovery.