Event: ESWC 2004
For many people the name "SteLam" is associated with the golden times of Quake3. After a long period of inactivity people could see you playing the ESo2 tournament alongside zyz. That was the last time we officially heard of you. What happend since then?
Well, gaming wise not very much has happend since then. That tournament was really just an exception for me. I liked the idea behind it and I enjoyed playing 2on2 together with a friend, zyz from Unmatched. So after ESo2 I quit playing again and I just went on with my life and started to study law.
Are you still following the Quake3 scene? Do you watch any demos or follow up any tournaments?
I don't really follow the Quake 3 scene anymore and it has been a while since I watched my last Quake 3 demo. It's not that I don't know what's going on at all, it's just that I don't pay as much attention to Quake 3 as I used to.
What about your former Unmatched mates. Is anyone of the old school players still into Quake3?

No, none of them are playing Quake 3 anymore.
Let's talk a littlebit about Painkiller. Many people were quite surprised, that you showed up on the list of attendees at the ESWC 2004 and the CPL Summer Event. What was crucial for you to return to the competitive gaming scene and attack one more time.
Basically it is because of Painkiller itself. My brother showed me this new game that came out and how it had certain similarities to all of the Quake games with a couple of additional unique characteristics. It seemed to be a very nice deathmatch game after all of those Counter-Strike oriented games that have come out in the past few years. So that is what caught my attention in the first place.
A few weeks later ESWC and CPL announced that they would be holding Painkiller 1on1 tournaments. Since I have always liked the competitive aspect of gaming, I was immediately interested in competing in those tournaments.
I heard that zyz has tried Painkiller too. Can we expect to see more of him in the near future?
Yes, zyz has tried Painkiller and I think he was inclined to play it but unfortunately he has got a lot to do for his studies and many of his exams coincide with upcoming tournaments. So he might play it from time to time but he's not playing it competitively at the moment.
Many people had very high expectations concerning Painkiller. Quite a lot seemed to be disappointed with the outcome. What makes Painkiller for you interesting?
As I have already said, I like that is a new deathmatch game that has similarities to Quake. I especially like the movement physics and the game's fast pace in general.
However, it is not a perfect game, so I can understand that some people may be disappointed by how Painkiller has turned out to be. There are definitely some things that need to be worked on but the developers seem to be willing to listen to the community to a certain extent. So I think that we will see the game improve over time.
As a quaker you have a reputation for your deadly aim and your calm and forsighted play. To what extent could you transfer those skills to Painkiller?
I think that I can bring both of those aspects into Painkiller. Having played a game on a high competitive level before is obviously a very different situation from just starting out with your first game. Quake 3 was the first multiplayer game I ever played on a competitive level, so I had to learn everything from scratch. It was hard to compete with all of those players that already had a lot of experience from playing other games like QuakeWorld and Quake 2.
Now I have a basis that I can build on and I just need to adapt to this new game. Of course there are new things to be learned, but having been in certain situations in a game before definitely helps a lot.
However, in comparison to Quake 3, Painkiller is much less dependant on aim because of the stronger armors and weapons. In Quake 3 you could compensate for lack of armor and health by outaiming your opponent in fights. In Painkiller you can be killed by an opponent with weaker aim because the weapons cause more damage. Therefore aiming alone won't get you that far in this game.
There have been quite some discussions and critics about Painkiller using only one weapon (RL/Chain combo). People claim that this is a proof of imbalance. Whats your opinion on that?

It is true that the RL/chaingun is by far the dominating weapon in Painkiller. Apart from trying to score a lucky stakegun hit there is nothing that can counter that weapon at the moment.
There are very few situations where one would chose another weapon over the RL/Chaingun since it is good in close combat because of the RL and also in long range combat because of the chaingun. This might be a design flaw but maybe the developers can counteract it by making the ElectroDriver beam stronger than the chaingun and by letting the shotgun cause more damage. Judging from the latest news about the 1.2 patch it seems that this will be the case soon.
What chances do you see for Painkiller after the ESWC and the CPL tournaments. Do you think, that Painkiller is something like another "AvP2" phenomenon, or do you believe that Painkiller has the ability to establish itself as a serious eSports discipline on the long run?
Although I have only taken a very short look at Aliens vs. Predator 2 just to know what the game was about, I think I can say that Painkiller has much more potential to be a competitive game that will be played over a long period of time.
However, a multiplayer game cannot exist without a strong community. So as long as people keep on playing a game, it will be alive.
Now with that being said it is still up to tournament organizers to continue holding Painkiller tournaments since that is what attracts players.
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