John Hill joined id Software as the company's Esports Manager in February this year, and if experience with Quake is important for the role, he's probably one of the most qualified people for the job around.

The 32 year old is a former professional player going by the name of Zero4, and over the course of his career he won over $160,000 (£120,000) in tournaments.

Now, it's up to him to make sure the esports scene of Quake Champions, the latest game in the series, thrives, so that more young professionals can make money from it.

Quake Champions is in Early Access, but the esports scene around it is starting to take off

Various versions of Quake have been esports games for over a decade, Champions is the latest

'I go to QuakeCon every year, and last year I tried one of the very first versions of the game,' Hill told Mail Esports.

'We were there to play test the game and provide feedback. I decided to approach id and asked if they needed any help.'

It turned out they did, and Hill successfully applied for the role of Esports Manager earlier this year.

It'll be an important job, as he will need to put Quake back on the map in a time where the first person shooter esports scene is dominated by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with newcomers PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Overwatch threatening to become huge as well.

Much like with PUBG, it'll be an interesting task to further an esport around a game that isn't actually finished yet.

There were two Quake Champions at DreamHack Winter last weekend, for Duel and Sacrifice

In April, Quake Champions was released into closed beta for a select few players. Then in August, it went onto Steam's Early Access program. So, you can buy and play it, but the game is technically still in development.

Hill has plans, of course, but right now he's not trying to compete with other games in the space.

'It's a great new chapter for Quake, but right now we're focused on our own scene. We're looking to improve the player base and the number of viewers, and we're also focused on developing the game.

'It's in Early Access, and at the same time we're trying to develop an ecosystem for the game. We're testing the number of modes, the features, the gameplay. We're just seeing how it performs for players and viewers.'

Team Liquid came out on top in Sacrifice mode, which pitted the 12 teams against each other

So far, he thinks it's going well. There have been a number of esports events already, including the World Championship at QuakeCon this year, DreamHack Denver, as well as multiple community events.

'We've learned all kinds of stuff about the game and about the esports aspect from these events,' said Hill.

Just this weekend there was a tournament at DreamHack Winter in Sweden which had a combined prize pool of $350,000 (£260,000).

8 players were invited, and 16 more came through qualifying tournaments to make it to the group stages.

The winner of the Duel tournament, Tim 'DaHanG' Fogarty, has been competing at a high level since Quake Live's release , and performed well at the World Championship and DreamHack Denver too.

He plays for Team Liquid, who also came out on top in the Sacrifice tournament.

Team Liquid's DaHanG also won the Duel tournament, and won $50,000 of the $150,000 pool

Team Liquid came away with $70,000 of the $200,000 prize pool in the Sacrifice tournament

Also invited to the tournament were the likes of Sander 'Vo0' Kaasjager and Anton 'cooller' Singov, both of whom are over 30 years of age. cooller first entered the Quake esports scene in 2004.

'The player base has a mixture of these veterans, and the young blood coming up to challenge them,' said Hill.

'It's great because you have all these story lines going on. The veterans are coming back to compete to see if they still have it at the high level. But at the World Championship this year it was a 19 year old player who came up to beat them all.'

Nikita 'clawz' Marchinsky is from Belarus, and he beat Vo0 in the grand final of the World Championship to take home $100,000 (£74,000).

He was knocked out in the group stages of DreamHack Winter, but his team 2z came in joint third in the Sacrifice tournament, so he didn't go home empty handed.

The team modes are all action, but it's the 1v1 Duel mode that John Hill is most excited about.

'Quake Champions is a great product, and with our Duel format, there's no other game that does it quite like us.'

In Duel, players select three champions from the roster to form a team, taking into account what their specialties are, and what could possibly counter their opponent's picks.

Duel mode has players select a team of three champions, who are eliminated if they are killed

They then take their first character into the arena, unknown to their opponent until they spot each other down a corridor. When you die, you respawn as one of the other champions on your team, until your squad is fully depleted.

The format naturally sets up situations where you often seen come from behind victories.

'It's fun to watch, and the players are enjoying it,' said Hill. 'It's easy to follow, and there are lots of exciting moments.'

The magic mixture of exciting moments, good prize money, and recognisable players is exactly what Quake Champions will need to take off as an esport.

Some of the veterans are still around, Zero4 fans may be disappointed to learn that John Hill has no plans to return to competition any time soon.