So I hear you are testing Quake Live in 4 man ffa.

Stop.

Nobody likes FFA anymore and nobody ever will. It is random and frustrating, pubbies can never get a weapon and duelers will be running the whole map singlehandedly making everyone else very upset. Make the default gametype 4v4 Clan Arena and make it 4v4 Clan Arena immediately.

You could take FFA mode out of the game entirely and nobody newb or pro alike would notice. Everyone across all skill levels can agree that Clan Arena as the default mode is better than FFA for all parties involved.

The only people that play FFA are people completely new to the game, and the only server admins that set up an FFA server are completely new to running servers. New people to any game will always make a beeline for whatever the default gametype is, and I absolutely guarantee you no matter how badly you alienate the hardcore community otherwise, Quake Live could automatically bring thousands of new players into the fold if the default gametype is Clan Arena.

There's no random luck bullshit in Clan Arena, you don't get spawn killed 20 times in a row on a crowded server until you finally pick up a gun. Unlike TDM there's very little you can do to drag your team down except for die immediately whereupon they carry on without you.

There are 10,000 other reasons why CA should be the default gametype, you spawn with all weapons, lack of items on map eliminates need for timing and advanced movement, it goes on and on. It's a feelgood gametype and always what newbies gravitate to in the end.

If this is not implemented by the time the beta goes public, the game will not take off. I understand that the reason Quake 3 and Quake 4 did not come with Clan Arena in the box is that crt was very insistent that he be allowed to make it himself, and the fact that you complied to this otherwise ridiculous request probably hurt Q3's sales immensely in the long run. Any pubbie who finds out about Rocket/Clan Arena is instantly hooked, the problem is that many pubbies don't ever hear about it.

FFA modes are not popular in any game in any genre in any platform. As far as fighting and RTS (smash and starcraft in particular) games go, there are only two kinds of people who play FFA - people who are really bored and people who are really bad. Just hopping on Halo real quick (you know, the game that renamed deathmatch to slayer and completely stole your thunder in the hardcore fps market?) and checking the player population count for today, FFA has been played by a whopping ~5000 people OUT OF THE 750,000 ACCOUNTS THAT PLAYED HALO TODAY.

Pay attention to your demographic, please! Seriously, just look at the FPS games that have been successful on any level that have come out in the past few years.

Counterstrike: First game to kick Quake to the curb. Team-based, modelled on Clan Arena.
UT99: FFA was not quite dead yet when this game came out, but as the game's lifespan wore on, TDM and CTF became the dominant gametypes by far.
UT2k4: Onslaught was most popular pub gametype by a long shot, followed by the VCTF mod. FFA was completely unplayed compared to UT99, even TDM did not get much playtime in the grand scheme of things, and you know why? Because UT finally invented its own clan arena equivalent, TAM!
Halo: Team-based. Respawn based, but the spawn conditions are very generous compared to Quake, which is also exactly why Clan Arena is so popular.
Battlefield: Team-based. Really, really big team based. Newbies just love 8v8 and up. You pick your gun off spawn so you always have the weapon you want and never feel worthless off spawn.
Gears of War: Team-based, anyone? Hits a happy middle ground between Quake style and CS style gameplay, you only have one life but there are weapons on map, and they do respawn if the round drags on for about 3 minutes.
FEAR: Not team based by default. That's probably why they started giving away the multiplayer for free!
Call of Duty: Hmm, I wonder what the most popular game mode in this is? Gameplay design wise it's what would happen if Battlefield took a shred of skill to play instead of none at all.
Team Fortress 2: It's got team in the title, seriously.

If you insist in keeping FFA as the default gametype, then it's clear to me that the guys at id have completely lost all touch with the not only the hardcore community, but the entire FPS demographic, and Quake Live will die faster than Quake 4 did.