Recently, Joel "
Nude-fox" Fox met up with the current QuakeCon 2010 Amateur Champion and upcoming North American Duel Pro,
ziel. Fox asked him about his humble start, his experience as a new pro dueler and what he expects out of life and his competitive chances at this years 2011 QuakeCon.
Ziel touches on his role as the 'new North American pro', his passion for learning and playing the drums and so much more. The questions are good, but the answers are better! Well worth the read.
Before Quakecon 2009 I hadn't followed eSports since the Painkiller CPL World Tour. I saw that QuakeCon was having a Quake Live duel tournament and I was interested in seeing what Quake Live was so I made an account. I enjoyed playing it because it was easier to find people to play than it was in Quake World.
Seeing rapha dominate QuakeCon 2009 made me want to play the game even more. The mental aspect of the game was something that I hadn't experienced before. I started playing Quake Live with a good friend, KovaaK, who had a little bit of Quake 3 experience and it took me several months before I could start to control maps and time items properly (I had never timed items in Quake World...everything was by feel). Over time I just kept playing and playing and getting better and better. I knew I wanted to win the amateur tournament at QuakeCon 2010. Afterwards, ESL announced the Intel Extreme Masters North America Finals and I knew I wanted to try and qualify and go to New York. I knew I was good enough to get there when I nearly beat Chance in the group stages.
Check out the rest of the interview over at
CSN
![shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann](/files/avatars/2007/51852-shaftwhore.gif "shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann"){kind=small}
snob
