first one was fun, the second should be fun as well. ty

"North America Cup"

Letting euro(s) play. lol

he plays on your servers, not euro ones so there shouldn't be a problem I guess.

dem0n was top3 playing from europe?

There wasn't any zero4 or dahang in this one...rey might have been able to take demon but they apparently never played.

Is there a newbie cup in NA for everyone under 1900elo? Im tired of getting knocked out by rapha/chance

:-0

This is seriously getting ridiculous. Why can't these idiots understand that constantly having these money cups so the same 1-2 people can easily take home beer money is hurting the dueling scene from developing. I stopped giving fucks, just because some nerds from IRC want to suck up to these guys doesn't mean the majority do. Yea go ahead and flame me how I suck etc..., but I don't give two shits about these "pros" , if I compete I want to know atleast I might have some good shot of finishing good, yea it's selfish. Pls don't give me this "you should be glad to play these pros zomg!" bullshit cause I don't give a fuck.

If you want evidence for this, just look at the sign ups, they have been declining and declining for each tournament, even with money involved, why do you think that is? People stop giving fucks.

Oh and how poor and desperate are these "pros" that they join these amature tournaments so they can win another $50, fuck off rapha, zero4 w/e, assholes...

I await the fanboy flames now.

L2play

well, it's a somewhat valid problem - instead of learning to play he should be organizing a cup for lower tier player then though, which shouldn't be too hard to pull off with the help of qlranks.

yeah, although for example:

You say that participants must be between 1200 and 1700 ELO. Then you have the problem of inactive duellers who are still very good at it duelling. You also have the problem of fakenickers joining, and it is much harder to tell who each player is because alot of them aren't very well known.

It's something that should be looked in to, but at the moment I don't think resources are sufficient to run tournaments like that >.<

See if they have atleast 50+ duels on qlranks? Can that be used as a screen?

Could work yeah :) Depends if admins are willing to go above and beyond to ensure that it's a fair tournament. The checks would have to be done during check-in every time the tournament is held.

What would work best is if it was integrated in to the QL site, much like they have on games like BLC and SC2 etc. Though we can keep dreaming of that for a bit longer I think.

Although I still think the tournaments that are held now are still a good way to get practice in a competitive environment, even if you're 1500 ELO roughly - you'll still get a good game in the first round or 2. Considering the amount of tournaments around, there is still a lot of fun to be had. I don't know if tourney admins are going to offer prizes for that skill range though, JeeSports did something like that last year but I don't think it's going to continue.

I don't think money is a big incentive for the 1700 elo and under competitor. Most of us just wants to be in an organize tournament where we have a chance to be on stream and be cheered on by others.

In a way it helps motivate the lower tiers to practice get better without having to worry about being embarassed in a 10 - -2 matchup against pros. Like you said we need more names in quake, and I too am tired of seeing the same results in major lan tournament and the only way to do that is to hold amateur tournaments where it'll encourage mid tier players to get to the next level.

Again we need new players in order to see quakelive grow... especially in NA where we only have Rapha and DaHanG(Always the final matchup in any major tournament in NA) that can put up a challenge at international tournaments. Like how 4seasonedgaming brought up Dantheking we should be able to grow new names in quake to take out the likes of Rapha, Strenx, Cypher, and Cooller.

Comparing the two quake scenes names
Rapha = Cooller
DaHanG = Noctis
Guard = EG Chance
Spart1e = EG Griffin (no longer active?)
Strenx = KGB
Cypher = Walter?
Mad1x = Everkill_
GarPY = Dkt
Pavel_ = Slugor
Agent = rey

That's all I can name off the top of my head with similar play styles

Nice list but I was always told from other NA players that EG Griffin was the NA 'cypher' in terms of play style. Shame he doesn't play anymore!

Yeah Griffin can take a map or two from the top 5 but a contender? not quite there. He's a step above chance and just half a step below dahang imo. I like to compare him to jibo with his awesome nade usage but I put it with spartie since they both get similar placement at the almost top 5 tier.

PS. I haven't seen you duel that much but.... Ziel = amai or _Ash

When Grffin was in shape he had a good style, fun to watch and he was really strong on maps like aerowalk and ztn...IMO if he still played consistently he'd create the top4 in NA with rapha/dahang/zero4.

Thanks for the comparison although I think you're being generous, I'm not nearly as good as those guys!

Cheers.

Interesting... Who would you say has an equivalent style to mine if you know it ? I'd be interested to know so I can actually figure out my own playstyle :D

demon demon demon..... I remember first seeing you in the highly controversial match with 4kings on dm14. Anyways you strike me as a player without a favourite weapon because all your weapon selection is dependant on the situation you're in rather than how different pro favour a certain weapon (Stermy/Strenx with rail and shaft and cypher/zero4/griffin with rockets).

You do the basics very well while minimizing your mistakes and this works good against player under 1900 elo, but when u start facing bigger names it seems like their name make you not play to your full potential. You respect your opponent too much that you don't do what you normally do to win the match. In a way you let them control the entire game while you sit back and take peak shots to try and get control back. For example last week cup it wasn't until the end of the matches where you decided "omg last chance to try for a comeback" which pushed you to get that lg frag on rapha @dm13RL or those 3 rails near the pillars of dm6. If a pro were to alias with a random nick and play against you I think you would do very well in a bo3. With that said you would be an equivalent to a vamp1re, pfb or chance.

Was a nice read !

I often watch the vods of my lost matches and I come to that same conclusion very often.

I had that same feeling on dm6 and yeah I give some opponents too much respect at times.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try to improve on that point :). Felt the same about dm6 although I believed I had lost the game when rapha knocked me off with the little bit of lg damage while going up the YA pad last cup. I really only tried to keep it close. Wrong mentality indeed but it helps me be more confident for the next encounters.

Yeah mentality is a big thing on quakelive. If you respect too much you'll be giving them control constantly, and you are only playing not to be embarassed by them which will therefore make you lose since your goal is to keep the score close/not win. If you respect too little, you'll constantly be rushing in order to prove you got what it takes to kill them in order to prove to your opponent or (subconsciously yourself). This is equally as bad since it makes your rushes look retarded/uncalculated and you give up a ton of frags this way. You have to find the perfect balance. Never have to losing mentality in the game like you did when u went up the YA and got lged. It's unfortunate but once when u start thinking that way you'll automatically lose. The way our human mind is condition is very much based on mentality. If in your mind you believe you lost, you'll find every reason to back up that claim and you'll use that excuse as to why you lost. For example if I believe my opponent is gonna outaim me with lg for sure, then in my mind I'll subconsciously pick stupid lg fights in order to prove what I thought is true. Or a real life example if I think all girls are snobs and only date guys for their money, then I'll subconsciously only look for girls who are bitchy gold diggers(as oppose to looking for a good girl not at a bar/club) in order to validate the point I randomly made up in my head.

PS. Turn off name popups when u play on the arena and pretend you are playing a random semi pro on a pub server like gda, weird or uareaper. I'm cheering for you and you better help me win that graphics card by appearing on the finals.

swiss system imho

You gain points just for showing up. You play in all 4 and you'll likely make it to the finals. In the instance of z4 or rapha playing they most likely only have to play in 1. These events are encouraged to have players PLAY! Note the map list for this, all non-premium. This was so anyone can join.

How about have two final cups? one between the obvious showmatches between zero4, rapha, dahang, chance, rey_ maybe demon. Then the 2nd one with all the noobs who had to play in all 4 cups to qualify? Money is not really that big of an incentive for us so give the pros 2/3 of the final prize money while our noob winners gets (66/33/15/6)

your points are valid, if this would be an amateur cup. It's a premiere series ran by CSN, and it's nowhere stated that it's an amateur only cup. The fact that it says in an announcement that it's open to everyone does not restrict it for top tier players.

Amateur cups would be nice but also realize the best way to get better is to play in these cups, no matter if they have pros or not. Always strive to get better!

Reach for the stars! =)

you're not thinking about this from their perspective. money is never an issue for casual players. so really instead of whining about it what you should be doing is to organize a tournament (preferably a league) for the more casual players.

Hey, Gimble from SGL here.

The playQuake tournaments that we partnered up with CSN to make happen, are our first step into doing more Quake Live.

Ideally we want higher level players playing, because they bring in more attention, which brings higher viewership, which we can then take to potential sponsors, yadda yadda yadda.

But we're aware that Quake's skill ceiling is very high, so there are plans to run something regular for players outside of the top ranks.

I'm doing an interview with CSN that will broadcast before the finals on Sunday, where I'll go into more detail. If you have any feedback, I'll try to keep a closer eye on these threads, you can email me gimbleb at solargamingleague.com or post on our forums.

Can you please elaborate on the points system? How many points do you get for showing up? How many for 1st, 2nd, 3rd? How do you lose points? How many are needed for the finals?

Sorry but its kind of confusing and there's no clarification on the CSN site.

streaming on twitch.tv/leveluptv

so this rapha streamer likes rapha