With QuakeCon 2016 on our doorstep and the possibility of it being the last of the annual events featuring Quake Live, duel and many legendary players of old, I’ve decided to take a look at it to summarize some of the story lines coming into the event for people who haven’t kept up, or those who will be watching for the first time. Long-time esports fans and followers will hopefully find enjoyment in reading the article, too.

While the talent pool in the event is shallow compared to what we’ve seen previous years there are still some amazing players and everyone brings with himself something, be it rivalry, ambitions or looking to deal with long time performance demons. Here I’m taking a look at the five most interesting story lines at the event to me!

Rapha’s two in a row

“Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.” Jean-Paul Sartre

Looking at Rapha’s career and measuring the talent he’s got in terms of raw aim it is hard not to consider him the most effective Quake player in history and arguably in the whole of esports. When we take remarkably talented prodigies like immortal, av3k and spart1e; dominant champions like cooller and fatal1ty and examine their trophy cabinets we come to find out they share 0 QuakeCon titles between themselves (for Quake duel). Meanwhile Rapha, who could be argued as the least skilled (aim-wise) Quake champion, is tied for the most wins with Cypher — someone who was a prodigy amongst prodigies. If we are to compare Cypher to anyone we have to go out of the world of Quake and look at names like Flash and Faker that are not only synonymous to the games they play, for esports fans, but the sole most dominant champions in their field. When you are Rapha and go against someone of this caliber coming out on top regularly it’s something to be admired, and especially when you are not someone of similar talent level.

But enough about history, coming into this year’s QuakeCon Rapha is looking at his best, and quite possibly final, chance to take the solo lead from the long time rival (Cypher) and be the one with the most titles at id’s yearly event. Having Cooller, Cypher, DaHanG and av3k busy with Overwatch and the likes of agent and Toxjq simply not attending seemingly leaves only evil between Rapha and his fifth championship title at QuakeCon. And while the Russian terminator (that named himself ‘evil’) might very well be a puzzle too hard for anyone to solve on consistent basis it’s one the American champion has solved multiple times already. Furthermore whilst Rapha is at his best in the big games, having never lost a QuakeCon final previously, evil has shown himself to be mortal in high pressure matches, most recently failing to make it to the 125FPS season 30 playoffs from a group featuring fellow countryman base and the only swede present in the event — Spart1e. This slip up is even more significant when we remember season 30 was played on the exactly same map pool as QuakeCon.

What exactly does Rapha have going for him though, except the lack of tough opposition.

1. He’s been quite serious about practicing in the last few months. Additionally after leaving his Overwatch team he has been dueling like a demon and most recently showed himself to be in good form by easily dismantling DaHanG (and making him hold the door) in the ‘Road to QuakeCon’ final who in turn was pretty convincing versus ZeRo4, even going toe to toe with the legendary dueler on Hektik for a period of time.

2. The best on the map pool: he can play well all the maps and on top of that has maps like „Hektik“ and „Furious Heights“ where a win is almost guaranteed. Having this advantage allows him to instantly ban opponent’s best map, not worrying he will himself perform poorly on one of the maps left in the pool. Him having the map advantage makes upsets even more unlikely and if something odd is to happen, not needing a win on specific maps, he won’t be worrying too much for the rest of the Bo5.

3. Most experience at elite level — while ZeRo4 trumps him in terms of competitive experience, having won his first QuakeCon in the year of our lord 2000, Rapha has been handing losses to the best Quake players in the world better part of the last 8 years during what is arguably the most competitive era until the last 2–3 years where events load heavily declined and players stopped practicing as much.

4.The biggest game player — you know players like ZeRo4 and Spart1e won’t just flop and lose in playoff match for no good reason but you can rely on Rapha to outperform himself in the pressure match. Considering that historically the only one able to outperform him in the clutch has been his Belarusian rival (Cypher) it’s safe to say that should you find yourself in advantageous situation versus the American, don’t play with your food or get reckless. And speaking of Cypher, this leads me to the final point…

5. Alexei ‘Cypher’ Yanushevsky isn’t attending QuakeCon! -since the first appearance of Quake Live at id’s annual duel championship fans have found themselves in the weird limbo where the American and the Belarusian have been taking turns in who wins it. Considering last year was Rapha’s fourth — equalizing Cypher, even the biggest skeptics would have been wary to predict Alexei won’t win should he have been able to make it over the pond, despite the lack of practice and being heavily dedicated to Overwatch.

evil’s last chance for revenge

evil after winning DH Winter 2012

The Russian terminator has been stopped cold 2 times in the QuakeCon grand finals, both times it was Rapha standing between him and the championship. And while the first time in 2013 was 3:2, albeit ended convincingly on a map the American can consider home turf (Toxicity), last year’s finals were quick 3:0 and made us wonder if Rapha simply has the evil figured out similarly to how he did with the Polish power-house av3k. While this will undoubtedly will be weighting on his mind he also has to consider this is very likely to be his last chance for revenge. Between the American Quake mastermind having said multiple times he is looking to make transition to Blizzard’s commercial hit Overwatch and id software saying during the Quake Champions presentation at E3 that they are looking to make the competitive scene more orientated towards team modes, it’s completely within the realms of reality that this is the last in which Duel is the main event in the QuakeCon tournament or at all present.

Rapha has said multiple times that he is interested in transitioning to Overwatch career, most recently in the interview after winning ‘Road to QuakeCon’ he said that even if Quake Champions is good, successful and indeed features tournament circuit supported by id software and Bethesda it still wouldn’t be simple decision, contrary to what many Quake fans believe. Hearing this is especially hard for hardcore Quake fans considering that trough the years the community has lost many talented players to other titles most notably the recent exodus towards Overwatch featuring the legendary players Cooller and Cypher as well as others.

This not only puts some extra pressure on evil to perform this year if he really wants to show he is the best, but could also put an asterisk towards possible future success if he does not secure a win here. The Quake community is one that would question “How much badass he really is if he only became the biggest badass when all of the other badasses left before he managed to assert himself properly?” despite that he’s taken wins off them previously and even won tournaments. That said despite Rapha having many advantages in their potential meeting in the finals evil does not come into the tournament without anything going for him. First and foremost he’s definitely better at aiming (understand tracking and flicking) than the American Mastermind, as a matter of fact if we take the average level across the board he’s very much in a group of his own coming into QuakeCon 2016 in regards of aiming. Someone like Spart1e can have the crazy match or even day he’s been notoriously inconsistent and while Rapha is well versed in positioning and giving himself the best chance to hit his shots and not get hit back, the consistently stunning shots the Russian terminator hits with all weapons can not be rivaled by anyone in the field this year. While this does not directly translate into wins it gives him much better chance on maps he is not as comfortable as his opponents. There’s also the fact that no one who plays and beats him on regular basis is present in the tournament. Players like agent and base might have shown ways to exploit evil when the latter isn’t at his best it is highly improbable someone, other than Rapha, present at the tournament, can use that same blueprint even when the terminator isn’t playing the way we know he can.

Drawing by QuakeCon from 2013’s grand finals.

And while talking about the level we know he can achieve it needs to be pointed that so far he’s won every single 125FPS Sunday Cup during season 31 despite the big group stage upset during the season 30 finals. He might have shown to not be as good in the high pressure games like the defending champion and the probability that Rapha might have just figured the perfect way to deal with the monster aimer but it’s been year since they faced, year in which evil was playing on regular basis, looking to correct the mistakes made in the finals. On top of that, unlike the American mastermind he’s not been playing or looking to compete in other titles. Something worth pointing out is that he’s made it deep into QuakeCon last 3 years, so despite the tendency to underperform if someone wants to put him away he’d need to have plan outside of hoping evil crumbles.

Can k1llsen finally overcome his demons?

the German railgun master being interviewed by @Thooorin for Team Acer’s “Grilled” series

The German, just as notorious for improbable and impossible to return rail shots as he is for over relying on the weapon, has been quietly getting in good form and semi-regularly making it to the Sunday Cup final. Even though he’s not making as much of a splash as German fans would like him to when on top of his game he’s been only losing to evil and agent who are without a doubt the two best active players in Europe at the moment. While it’s partially matter of skill and dedication and partially to the fact that what is his best map (Bloodrun) is the map all Russians love to play, the true problem lies in the lack of consistency when it comes to his performances. If he’s having a good day it is possible for him to reach the finals and even give the eventual champion run for his money. On the flip side though, if he’s having a bad day it’s just as likely for him to lose to some of the unproven internationally North-American and Oceanic players thanks to bad map picks.

If we are to be realistic about his performance his best chance for a good placing outside of lucky bracket would be meeting evil in a semi or quarter final and having the Russian terminator underperform, which does not seem likely considering their personal history and the evil’s previous performances at id’s annual event.

How much damage can ZeRo4 and Spart1e do before dealt with?

ZeRo4 playing back in his heyday on a CRT monitor, because that’s what we had back then

While both are very much past their Quake duel heydays it’s just as clear they are not a player you should take lightly in the arena. To this day ZeRo4 is the player in third place (with three gold trophies) in terms of QuakeCon duel championships after Cypher and Rapha surpassed him in respectively 2014 and 2015. He showed good performance on ‘Hektik’ versus DaHanG in the ‘Road to QuakeCon 2016’ semi-final, winning despite the latter going on a 10 consecutive kills spree but his ability to challenge the best on the other maps in the pool remains questionable.

Spart1e on the other hand, not nearly as accomplished, to this day remains one of the few monster aimers in the Quake scene. Similarly to the k1llsen he’s plagued by inconsistency in performance but unlike him when he flips the switch and starts dominating he can truly take out just about anyone as if he’s facing a guy or a gal launching Quake for their first time.

As veterans in the scene it’s highly unlikely either of them will simply be put away by some of the lesser players in the tournament or have choking and/or tilting issues. That makes them more than enough of a challenge for the unproven players.

In the end of the day the question for both of them largely remains how did they sleep and how do they feel in the moment, it is completely within the realms of reality to see them deep into the bracket, taking out k1llsen and making the favourites sweat more than they’d like to. Having in mind how shallow the talent pool at the event is in comparison to previous tournaments with lucky bracket we can easily see one of them in the finals.

NA‘s future in search of meaningful victory.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” W. C. Fields

Having only evil, k1llsen and Spart1e jumping over the pond from Europe this year provides unique opportunity for the largely unproven NA players. It also leaves room for disappointment considering there are as well 3 players from the Oceanic region, that too don’t often play good players from other areas. Surely those guys are looking at the field thinking all they have to do for a good run is kick some North American butts.

Similarly to evil some of the players like chance and ZorakWar might be looking at their last chance to prove themselves versus someone of note and accomplishments. Considering that DaHanG is already on salaried Overwatch team, Rapha has not been secretive about looking to do the same and ZeRo4 has been playing quite a lot of Blizzard’s game himself, the players after them might have to be the ones taking up on the mantle of legendary American champions Thresh, Immortal, Makaveli, ZeRo4 and Rapha sooner than they’re ready for.

While the ‘Road to QuakeCon 2016’ does not give many hopes for a future champion emerging from the North American pool there are still talented players within the region who can make leaps and bounds in terms of performance if they were to fix the holes in their game.

Though personal perception I have remains that when I watch NA Quake I get much more the vibe hobby rather than the competitive attitude the Russian players give — the same who’ve stepped up and done admirable job in the effort of replacing legends like Cooller and Cypher.

In the end however we need to remember, the attendants are still some of the best Quake duelers in the world, they might not be the best ever or have accomplishments in the world of esports but they still deserve our respect as competitors and what they’ve accomplished in their field in reaching level not many have.