Recently I had the chance to sit down with James "TooGoood" Harding of Team dignitas and talk to him about his future in Quake 4. It was a pleasure doing this interview with TooGoood. He is quite the goof ball if you can't tell by his website, and I had a lot of fun. Enjoy!

For those that don't know who you are, please introduce yourself.

Hi new friends! I'm James "TooGoood" Harding, and I play Quake 4 woohoo. You may also recognize me from other such gaming titles as Quake 3 (alias "Jay") and Mechcommander (alias "LuckyHands")

You have been playing really well as of late. You had some nice wins in the VIA ESi UK Invitational, and inquake.de tournaments, despite your recent disappointment during EC XII Playoffs - due to internet troubles - what have you been doing to improve so much since Winter CPL 2005?

I've been trying only to separate the gap between me and the scene really. I trained after the New Year to make sure I was in good shape to take the title of number 1 dueler at VIA ESi. I'm not actually the most practiced player; I'm more of an analyst of other players. I'll happily watch someone and pick out there strengths and weaknesses then change my style to win. You'll often see me lose my first map then come back to win the next 2. I did this against akiles and RocketBoy at CPL winter and OoZe in EuroCup. So unlike some other top players who play the map, and will train a lot to learn where they feel comfortable fighting and all the sneaky rail shots they can hit. I'll play the player... a lot more fun that way, but training I find is one of the most interesting things about computer games because there are no coaches, so I think very much about what I want to train so I probably get more out of my hours training than others, though interestingly I'm actually reading a book to try improve my game. It is called "Mind GYM, An athlete's guide to inner excellence" though [EYE]Anak1n calls it the "How to beat Fatal1ty book" :)

What are your plans for the upcoming 2006 CPL World Tour and are there any other major events that you will be attending? In addition, we were wondering if we could expect to see you at all stops on the World Tour?

I honestly want to attend everything and maybe I can. It’s January and my hard working manager ODEE is in talks with renewing our contracts with Sponsors :) so if all goes well I'll be attending everything! And if all doesn’t go so well maybe not all :(

What do you think of the current CPL tournament format? Do you like the straight forward double elimination, or would you rather see it done more like other tournaments, where players go through a group phase before entering bracket play?

I'm honestly not fussed either way, I always think "well you gotta beat them all to win", so I don’t mind who I play in tournaments and when.

What do you think of the current CPL World Tour format? How do you feel about the point system, and do you agree with the situation we saw last year where Vo0 dominated the entire tour, but lost the "Finals" and therefore was not considered the 2005 World Tour Champion? What do you think would be best for an event like this to make for the most excitement possible?

A tricky question!! I mean it’s probably more exciting to have the finals to decide the world champion, but I wouldn't have all the players from all the stops compete. Only the top 8 in points from the previous stops, as it would feel more like a final then and the people who have proved themselves over the other stops would of earned something; the right to compete in the finals. I mean the finals with all players can cause upsets, Imagine if Fatal1ty and Vo0 weren't in the finals because of a bad playing day, someone who was around 16th had an amazing day and actually won! Would you consider him the world champion? I don’t know. Maybe some system like that would be better but those upsets are exciting. I do think a point system like f1 racing isn’t so media friendly as you can actually have a winner before the final stop and people wouldn't watch with such passion as they did when Fata1ty and Vo0 played in 2005

2006 looks like it is going to be the biggest year in eSports yet. With Counter-Strike and Quake 4 already announced as the World Tour games for 2006, old timers and young guns alike have come out to compete for a lot of money. Summer CPL 2006 alone boasts the largest cash prize for Counter-Strike and Quake in history. What is your take on the future of e-sports, and what will it take for Europe to bring gaming to the level it is in Korea?

I don’t think it can for a while, I think Koreans love games more than other countries, but I put it mainly down to they love stars more, they go crazy over popstars and TV stars, anyone who's someone over there is a star! Europe is definitely going the right way, we just need more of what we've got really... and in an American fashion, it has become bigger and better than the year before and that is exactly what is happening :)

What do you think of the CPL's decision to use LCD's during the World Tour this year?

Hah, well I actually play on a 8ms grey to grey LCD now! So I'm excited to play on a 2ms, but on a serious note I don't think it will make a difference to the performance of top players, I was tempted to buy one the other night, but a little voice in my head kept telling me what if CPL change their minds, or is this a marketing deal between the 2 companies :) though I've been told it isn’t. Maybe I'll buy one

How do you feel Quake 4 compares to other FPS games you have played competitively in the past? Is Q4Max headed in the right direction to make sure that Quake 4 has the longevity of its predecessors?

It felt kind of like a clone, but a successful one. I honestly like it a lot, it has everything a FPS should have, I've only ever played quake3 competitively before and at the moment Quake 3 did feel smoother, But Quake 4 this game is still being developed and modded. Q4max is definitely heading in the right direction. I found their default config and GUI settings easy to use for CPL, and it felt reassuring everyone was on the same config. It didn’t encourage those horrible thoughts like is he better than me because of his config? What lg settings he use? Maybe if I'd been using a different config for the last 6 months I would be twice as good! :) Its also good that q4max are in mod competiton with x-battle as it seems to spur them both on, and in all honestly there doing great, but I think q4max has the edge right now, even in tdm I prefer to use q4max..it seems smoother.

What are you doing to get ready for the 2006 tournament season?

I'll wait and see how much support our sponsors want to give us this year, then it will be bootcamps! Every player who wants to really go for top5 at cpl stops should be looking to bootcamp, it won't kill you not to and just train online, but I do think you get more done at a bootcamp... so that’s how ill be getting ready hopefully :)

What kind of advice can you give fans out there that want to pursue gaming as a career?

Try to utilize your time in front of the pc so you train but still have time for exercise and social life :) In addition, you must want to learn when you play, practice isn’t about winning, so see past the scores and try to train an aspect of the game. Enter everything you can,
tournament experience is one thing you can only train in tournaments, and if you haven’t had a lot before a large tournament you might not know how to handle the pressure of the finals! Learn to win when your playing bad never give up, the mind misses more shots than the body, so learn to train your mind as well as your hand eye co-ordination!

I was looking over your computer specs at team-dignitas.com and noticed you used a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty. What are your thoughts on the sound card?

It’s probably the best thing I've got in my PC! A lot of gamers think that yeah a graphics card is the most important gaming hardware, you can spend 500euros on most cards and get full fps for quake, but there is only one soundcard worth spending money on and will improve your game so much! That’s the creative X-fi! No joke, buy it, try it, and love it. I have only praise for this card I had one before dignitas got sponsored by creative and part of getting sponsored by creative was me nagging my manager and telling him how good they are and how he should go get them to sponsor us so we can all have them! So...he did and... we have :)

What event are you most proud to have won or competed in?

Probably CPL, it was my first CPL ever and I think it’s just a more prestigious tournament so even though I didn’t win, I was happy with my result and just enjoyed being there

Who's the best player in the world right now, in your opinion?

Well in Quake 4 its obviously cooller but not by a long way, there is so many great names out there who can take #1 this year, Quake will be something special for the spectators this year I'm sure :)

Who hasn't lived up to their potential yet?

Well not everyone's had the chance to play in some of the LAN tournaments yet so there's actually quite a few. I see a lot of upsets in the online tourneys, Admittedly these are online, and for most players losing online doesn’t mean much, but if I had to name a 2 known players I'd say Jibo and Fooki, their gaming style and learning curve should let them progress to a better game then there at now

Could you give me one player that no one is looking at that you think has a good chance of pulling a lot of upsets?

Breccias and dreg.

What are some things you like to do outside of gaming?

Normal stuff really, watch movies, pubs and clubs with mates. I try and exercise 3 times a week either at the gym or sports, but it doesn’t always happen! Instead I train my crazy micro in DOTA! I seriously think my manager is going to come delete that off my hard drive soon, it’s becoming a problem! P.S looking for DOTA CLAN I have leet micro!

What is your favorite band you are listening to at the moment?

Arctic Monkeys

Best restaurant you have eaten in either at home, or on your travels to events?

Hah! I don’t eat out, I'm a gamer its all about the take away! However, probably Gee Gee's Italian place near me :)

Have you ever thought about releasing your own website like fnatic/Vo0?

Thought about it!? I already have www.team-dignitas.com/toogoood ! RESPECT!

TooGoood, thanks for taking the time out to sit-down with me and answer some questions. Anyone you want to thank, or give shoutouts to, now is the time! Good luck in 2006!

Ok! Well thanks to all my sponsors who support team-dignitas, ABIT, Creative, Qpad and Game-hosting and all the people who want to sponsor us in the near future and should go talk to ODEE *wink wink*! Also everyone in the gaming scene and all the guys in dignitas! o yeah and my Mum for not kicking me while I was trying to ... PLAY HARD GO PRO! :)