Friday November 27 2009
Quake
Forum Threads
Official Design Partner
Story Header

Quake: WSVG Fallout: What's Left For Quake 4?

By: Joe Szymkowicz - Published September 19, 2007 at 6:30 PM EDT - Writer Archive
Joe "nineX" Szymkowicz talks with the world's top Quake 4 players to get their take on the decision that has left the world's Quake 4 community in shambles.


After a fairly successful WSVG Toronto event, the tournament series looked to be heading into the home stretch as fans and players all looked forward to the rest of the events with intense excitement. On the North American side of things everyone seemed to be rallying for the possibility of a first place finish by EG-member Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty, as well as strong finishes from other fellow countrymen. At the same time, the European scene was ramping up for its first WSVG event of the year, scheduled for London, with many players already announcing their attendance. Nothing could have possibly prepared players or fans for the news that would drop. Last Thursday news came down that the tournament was being discontinued and the WSVG would be closing its doors.

At least from the North American view, the community went into a state of shock, leaving many with unanswered questions. The Quake 4 community has collapsed just as fast as its predecessor, Painkiller. With no more decent sized competitions for professional players left to participate in, its spectator base is simply nonexistent. This, in turn, trickled down through the ranks to even the lower-skilled players, who have also seemed to move onto other kinds of games to occupy their time.

GotFrag got a hold of some of the top Quake 4 players across the globe and asked them how the WSVG decision has affected them personally and how the Quake 4 community in their respective areas has reacted in response. Could this be the end for Quake 4?
Continued (1/5) »
Page:

User Comments

1
11% Ranking 11% Ranking 11% Ranking 11% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

nice readup
2
9% Ranking 9% Ranking 9% Ranking 9% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

Av3k #care mode as always ;)
3
6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

very good read
looks like av3k doesn't care too much about pursuing anything professionally beyond Q4

This comment was edited at 09/19/2007 6:54 PM
wat
4
20% Ranking 20% Ranking 20% Ranking 20% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

Nice read, gives me a little bit of comfort :]
5
3% Ranking 3% Ranking 3% Ranking 3% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

I really hope that there will be a huge duelling tournament soon!
6
19% Ranking 19% Ranking 19% Ranking 19% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

counter-strike saves tournaments
7
26% Ranking 26% Ranking 26% Ranking 26% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

good read
2+2=5
8
8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

sort of depressing how all of the players just jumped the wagon. What ever happened to playing games for fun?
9
23% Ranking 23% Ranking 23% Ranking 23% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

if ut3 is as good as i hope it is,and if it plays well then it looks like we (the ut community) could grab some of the worlds best quakers! awesome!
e6850 (@3.2ghz)+afp7 cooler:gigabyte P35-DS3R:2gb DDR2(800mhz):ati HD4850:black icemats
10
6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

#6, counter strike killed dueling in NA
see CPL winter 2004/2005?
and #8, im still playing Q4 for fun, plenty of people are and will continue to
wat
11
13% Ranking 13% Ranking 13% Ranking 13% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

#10 he meant good ppl
12
17% Ranking 17% Ranking 17% Ranking 17% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

yeah i think a big failure was wow i mean teams signed up but the spectators that were used to watching fps like myself didnt really like wanna watch wow
#sadpandas #confederacy
13
42% Ranking 42% Ranking 42% Ranking 42% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

ill start a tourny downstairs in my kitchen, your all welcome to play in the tournament. I'll name it Quake_is_the_bomb invitational. Prize's include a mouse a soundcard and 50$..... whos in?
14
21% Ranking 21% Ranking 21% Ranking 21% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

meh :(
15
5% Ranking 5% Ranking 5% Ranking 5% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

chz u have no clue who shiv plays with so shush
16
4% Ranking 4% Ranking 4% Ranking 4% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

I wouldn't say WoW killed it at all.....I would say a good portion may have been if cbs backed out along with other sponsers. Im pretty sure there are alot of details to it. It just didn't kill quake 4, It killed another event in north america worth attending
17
4% Ranking 4% Ranking 4% Ranking 4% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

rofl pro gaming, go to college, get a job, have some kids.

#17 ftw :-)
Ya'll need to start playing the TF2 beta and buy the game and start playing FOR FUN because... it's why we all started playing...
The first FPS game you bought and played was probably not because you thought "Hey I'll win $$$ for this in a major event"... and if you did, then I'm happy you're disapointed.
Life is what you make of it. Dreams are what you live for.
19
38% Ranking 38% Ranking 38% Ranking 38% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

quake 4 is awful. good riddance to it.
mormon fanboy -- #penos #internet.explorers
20
14% Ranking 14% Ranking 14% Ranking 14% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

av3k is a cool rebel because he's like 13 and acts like he's too important to care about anything.
21
8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

rofl #20 true :P

"nice predict"

This comment was edited at 09/20/2007 12:59 PM
22
67% Ranking 67% Ranking 67% Ranking 67% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

yeaaaaa big meh... I'm sure one of the new organizations will see that they're lacking in games and pick up an fps game. Hopefully the cpl will but you know how that goes.
David Marquez | Art Director | www.GotFrag.com | #gotfrag
23
8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

av3k wow...pole up the ass?
24
87% Ranking 87% Ranking 87% Ranking 87% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

such a nice article, Good questions and good answers. Quake community is on the edge though :|
"fRoD doesnt cheat" "#7 online/north america, you do the math" -qu4kE_
25
42% Ranking 42% Ranking 42% Ranking 42% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

#10, it was bound to happen; the popularity of team-based games in general throughout the 21st century is proof of that.

btw, nice read, I personally hope CPL picks up Quake -- doesn't matter which one, but I'll make sure to attend in that case.

This comment was edited at 09/20/2007 4:39 PM
[b]#q41v1[/b] - Quake 4 1v1 | [b]#ut31v1[/b] - Unreal Tourney 3 1v1
26
22% Ranking 22% Ranking 22% Ranking 22% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

Photo captions, credits?
higs_
27
24% Ranking 24% Ranking 24% Ranking 24% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

dunno why people are hating on av3k, dude just tells it as he sees it =/ not everyone takes gaming seriously
[aB]
28
8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

Why is everybody saying this was a good read? Lies, there were only four questions asked and there were too many answers, with no form of a comment nor a conclusion whatsoever from the article writer. Of course it's good to have an article on the subject matter, as it's quite serious for professional gaming and Quake 4 in general, but this looks way too hastily put together.
29
1% Ranking 1% Ranking 1% Ranking 1% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

boring
bunch of ppl givin their comments about what they will do in life and wat they think of wsvg...ya so interesting
Too many comments.

did that ERMAC play sof2?
sorry.
31
8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

isnt avek smart. haha
32
6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

Smart? The faster he leaves the better off we all are.

Have fun getting a little beaver, drinking yourself silly and having apathy at the world - midget (Avek). You won't be missed. Aren't you cool?

Good Read : ) Thought it was good incite into what the REAL players thought, and not what eSports nerds like #28 and #29 had to say about things. Go troll some Linux forum. Av3k is the man. It's awesome to see players that still have real lives and don't cry when a game they play isn't played for money anymore. Where was quote from zei0 or k1llsen?
34
127% Ranking 127% Ranking 127% Ranking 127% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

definitely a sad deal for the DM community. i was, still am, a part of it for most of my gaming career and I've never seen it like this =/

hopefully ut3 has a presence.... also PK2 is coming out next month
35
8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

#33 Yeah, and criticism at all equates to being a nerd. Idiot, you're on a site reading an article relating to professional gaming in and quite a drastic decision by one of the major tournaments to shut down completely and you're calling *me* a nerd when you're interested in the personal thoughts of the players without any reasoning behind it or comment from the article writer? Wise up.

Linux? I lol'ed.
36
4% Ranking 4% Ranking 4% Ranking 4% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

dkt, too bad your not in minnesota or I would love to drink to that :<
37
22% Ranking 22% Ranking 22% Ranking 22% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

In all honesty, only five percent of this site's regular readers are capable of recognizing good journalism. That isn't to say this is Gotfrag's fault. Fact is, mainstream media (CNN, Time, Newsweek, any network news, etc.) has been dumbed down to a middle school, maybe early high school level. The sad truth is half of my college professors are forced to dedicate a class to grammar and proper sentence construction because today's youth couldn't write themselves out of a paper bag.

Some of Gotfrag's work recently has been very good. This piece is not one of those. This is merely a conglomeration of multiple responses from an email survey. It isn't terrible. It's useful, maybe even necessary, but it's not "such a nice article."

Again, though, it is common courtesy to provide photo captions for your readers and photo credits for the hard working (and almost always under compensated) photographers.
higs_
38
20% Ranking 20% Ranking 20% Ranking 20% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

gg on interviewing someone who really knows nada about wsvg. Just someone.
39
6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

#38, every person he interviewed was either A. a world class player, B. attended a WSVG stop, C. a well-known player in the community, or D. Was going to attend a future event.
wat
40
41% Ranking 41% Ranking 41% Ranking 41% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

Thanks for the comments you guys. I try and read every comment of every piece I write. I try and remember all the suggestions you guys make and try to take them to heart. Like if someone tells me I should do some things with the CPM community, I'll interview a major player (like vamp1re) and post some demos from some CPM matches, hoping to expose some people to some things they might not have otherwise tried, or even heard of.

I honestly worked pretty hard on this piece, finding all the players and trying to give everyone an idea of how serious this decision by WSVG really affected a broad range of people (hence the different skill levels and locations).

#37, sorry to hear you didn't like it that much. It's also unfortunate to hear you speaking so poorly of the other GotFrag readers. Maybe all of them can't analyze writing or haven't studied Journalism, but I'm sure theres fans of eSports out there that still like to read the thoughts and opinions of their favorite players.

#35, does this article really need to be explained? I wanted to show people that though Quake 4 may not be in the global spotlight of competitive gaming anymore, but these players aren't done with gaming. Life will go on, and in many cases, we'll probably see many of the same names playing the next big deathmatch game. Though you guys may not have found this article appealing to your tastes, there seemed to be other readers that did enjoy it. Theres still many gamers out there that like watching these players but don't have the means to ask them over IRC or some kind of messaging. For example, if I was a fan of Chance or DaHanG (which I am), I would want to know whether they are moving on to the next dueling game or not. Or for fans of av3k, I'm sure it was kind of odd to hear their favorite player saying that he was done with gaming (hopefully this isn't the case for Maciej).

Nonetheless, there are still people who love to play/watch deathmatch games, and for those of you who do, keep it here on GotFrag. I'm still hoping to get a few more staff members to work with me as we head into the release of UT3 and possibly a new section to cover it. Thank you all for your comment and I hope you guys continue to read the section. In general though, GotFrag really has some of the best reader base of any of the eSports sites, and it's all thanks to every single one of you.

,Joe "nineX" Szymkowicz
41
20% Ranking 20% Ranking 20% Ranking 20% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

#39 lies.
42
20% Ranking 20% Ranking 20% Ranking 20% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

I'm not complaining about the article. I'm complaining about how someone shouldn't have been interviewed. And now it has been explained to me. He couldn't find the people who he needed, so he added a substitute.

Very good read though.
43
11% Ranking 11% Ranking 11% Ranking 11% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

Paincakes has a point :D. And yes, good read.
44
127% Ranking 127% Ranking 127% Ranking 127% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

bandros, i'm still in MN :P Maple Grove!
45
22% Ranking 22% Ranking 22% Ranking 22% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

It's not that the piece is poor, as I said earlier it achieved what it aimed to do, it's just not groundbreaking (and not all journalism needs to be). And it isn't the GotFrag readers' faults that they're accustomed to poor journalism because that is what the entire public has received from mainstream media for a long time (and GotFrag readers are part of that "public").

I didn't mean to attack your piece or your readers. Cheers for your mature response.

This comment was edited at 09/25/2007 8:39 AM
higs_
46
16% Ranking 16% Ranking 16% Ranking 16% Ranking
0 Frags
+   -

I only read the highest quality articles online.
seclusion | team chode | sup

Submit Comments

Registered Users Only

In order to post comments, you must be a registered member. If you have not registered, it's free and easy!

Latest Poll