Razer-CPL Qualifier coverage

Highlights

If you do have the time we strongly recommend that you at least scan through everything, but if you're short on time here are the pages which you definitely shouldn't miss -

Full Index 1 Index Pre-Event Build-Up 2 Introduction The Competitors 3 The Rules Qualifier Groups Seeding Free For All Matches 4 Group 1 5 Group 3 6 Group 6 7 Group 8 8 Final Seedings First Round Matches 9 Wicket vs Oriental Hero - Q3Tourney2 10 PuppetMaster vs Mace - Q3DM13 11 Ride vs Aerotek - Q3Tourney2 12 Acronym vs Captain - Q3Tourney2 13 The Pope vs Silent - Q3DM13 14 Blokey vs Death2Mullets - Q3Tourney4 Acquiesce vs Duellist - Q3DM13 15 First Round Overview First Round Scores First Round Losers Bracket 16 Crystaltips vs Mobius - Q3Tourney4 17 First Round Losers Bracket Overview First Round Losers Bracket Scores Second Round Matches 18 Mace vs Wicket - Q3DM6 19 Ride vs Mozilla - Q3Tourney2 20 Second Round Overview Second Round Scores Second Round Losers Bracket 21 Acronym vs Aerotek - Q3Tourney2 22 Yeti vs Herring - Q3DM6 The Pope vs Meths - Q3Tourney4 23 Second Round Losers Bracket Overview Second Round Losers Bracket Scores Third Round Matches 24 Jayz vs Billox - Q3DM13 25 Acquiesce vs Kalliath - Q3Tourney2 26 Third Round Overview Third Round Scores Third Round Losers Bracket 27 Kalliath vs Nightwing - Q3DM13 28 Third Round Losers Bracket Overview Third Round Losers Bracket Scores Quarter Final Matches 29 Blokey vs Acquiesce - Q3Tourney2 30 Quarter Finals Overview Quarter Finals Scores Quarter Finals Losers Bracket 31 Quarter Finals Losers Bracket Overview Quarter Finals Losers Bracket Scores Semi-Final Matches 32 Luke vs Billox - Q3Tourney4 33 Semi-Finals Overview Semi-Finals Scores Semi-Finals Losers Bracket 34 Billox vs Acquiesce - Q3DM13 35 Semi-Finals Losers Bracket Overview Semi-Finals Losers Bracket Scores Final Match 36 Luke vs Blokey - Q3Tourney2 Final Losers Bracket 37 Billox vs Silent - Q3DM13 38 Billox vs Luke - Q3DM13 Grand Final 39 Blokey vs Luke - Q3Tourney4 Interviews 40 Saracen from Gladiators 41 Sujoy 42 The Pope 43 Billox 44 Luke 45 The Pope 46 CrystalTips 47 NightWing 48 Billox 49 Luke and Blokey 50 Blokey 51 Ed Watson Conclusion 52 Event Round-Up 53 Photo Gallery

Thanks to our hosts The Playing Fields, and event sponsors GamePlay.com.

Introduction

The Razer-CPL tournament in Dallas this April will be the biggest Quake 3 tourney so far, with 512 players taking part and $100,000 in prizes up for grabs! You have to be pretty dedicated to fly out to Dallas from Europe though, and that's where the local qualifiers come in.

The UK qualifier is taking place at our old haunt in the heart of London, The Playing Fields. And thanks to sponsors GamePlay the winner will get flown out to Dallas, a free room at the hotel, an automatic place in the last 64 at the Razer-CPL event, and £500 spending money to paint the town red .. well, a nice shade of pastel pink maybe.

OK, so the prize is pretty modest compared to the $10,000 plus prizes common in the USA, but it's better than a kick in the teeth as we say up north... Besides, the winner gets a chance to more than double their money if they place anywhere in the top eight when they reach Dallas.

And as ever, EuroGamer will be there bringing you full coverage of all the key matches!

The Competitors

We've picked out a few of the favourites who are in with the best chance of winning this weekend... Chris "Blokey" Hoare

17 year old Blokey from Brighton is a member of British super-clan UNR, and has won a number of competitions including the free-for-all contest at the big EuroQuake tournament a year ago. He was a contestant at EDL (a big European Quake II duel competition), and was also a member of the victorious UK Team that defeated the French at LAN Arena 3 last November. James "Billox" Page

Sadly 22 year old Billox is still probably best known outside of the UK as the British chump who got beaten 56 : -1 by Thresh at Quakeadelica... He's now a member of Eat Electric Death, was part of the team that won the UKPCGC (defeating all comers at both Q3Test and Unreal Tournament), and helped teach the French a lesson as part of the UK Team. Luke Coulter

19 year old Luke is travelling all the way down from Glasgow to take part in the Razer-CPL qualifier in London. Another member of UNR, Luke was runner-up in the duel competition at EuroQuake last year, and took part in the EDL alongside his clan-mate Blokey. And he was a member of the UK Team at LAN Arena 3. Do you see a pattern emerging here? Other Personalities

Hakeem, the British winner of Frag 3 and a member of Sweden's Clan 9, picked out Ride and Silent as his favourites for the competition. There was also a lot of support in IRC for Crystaltips, the only female player taking part in the qualifier (as far as we know).

EuroGamer's own Geoff "The_Pope" Richards is also taking part, though given that even I beat him last time we played together competitively he's unlikely to get very far. ;) Another member of the EuroGamer Empire taking part is Smirnoff, editor of the soon to be launched ModGamer. And SumFuka, the original Quake reporter and the man who covered Quakeadelica and EuroQuake with me way back in the PlanetQuake days, is going to be there.

Of course, there's always the chance that somebody may catch us all by surprise, especially as many of the players taking part in the qualifier are relatively unknown. Whatever happens, EuroGamer will be bringing you all the results on Sunday night, and full coverage starting as soon as I wake up on Monday...

The Rules

If you want to read the full rules, you can find them here on the Playing Fields website. Otherwise, here's the condensed version...

All the players will be using the standard systems down at the Playing Fields (TNT2 powered Athlons), including the mice and keyboards installed. So no funky ergonomic keyboards and Razer gaming mice I'm afraid. Headphones are also mandatory.

The 64 players have been split into eight groups, and each group will play a free for all to determine the seedings for the main section of the competition, which is one-on-one double elimination. In other words, you are only out of the tournament once you have been beaten twice.

The free for all matches will take place on Q3DM12. Duels will be on the traditional trio of Q3Tourney2, Q3Tourney4, and Q3DM13, with a modified version of Q3DM6 also thrown into the mix. Q3DM12 and Q3DM13 have been edited to remove all the powerups (quad damage etc) in the interests of balance. You can find the edited versions of all the maps here.

Also worth noting is that forced respawn is set to ten seconds, which should help discourage the kind of unsportsmanlike behaviour seen in a few of the XSi matches, where players occasionally sat out as much as 20 or 30 seconds of a game before respawning to help maintain their lead...

Qualifier Groups

These are the eight groups of eight players for the initial free for all round which will determine the seedings for the rest of the competition.

RoCket8 Smile >Z< Dekkard BG Billox Courier Fusion Death2Mullets   Erazer Rasher Ride Silent Yeti IcingDeath Acronym Wicket Liquid NEO VENO KILLOLOGIST Duellist [angel]fs Oriental Hero Blokey The_Pope   HARLEQUIN Jayz [WTF]Ade Strudles Z Herring Aerotek Kajun Requiem SumFuka Namistai Acquiesce Mace Nightwing Execute DC.WAR18 Gutboy   Worlddomination Kaine Helta Kalliath [CAT]pRoToSs Crystaltips The Gimp Varies Evilpete Meths Smirnoff AL The-dr Sabre Jack [SS]Mozilla Mr Mauve   Beero The Zero LaWbRiNgEr [UNR]Luke Vampire The Chojin Mobius Vegan Eater IQ

In the several players (including SumFuka unfortunately) failed to appear on the day, and were replaced by some of the spare players who were at the event, including PuppetMaster, Addict and Meths.

Group 1, Q3DM12

Group 1 favourite Billox got off to a good start, grabbing the plasma gun and then the rocket launcher before taking down Dekkard. Rocket8 managed to melt him with some plasma, but Billox got revenge as the rocket from his dying shot took down Rocket8.

Billox picked up a third frag by killing Dekkard again, and then scored two in a row thanks to Death2Mullets, who seemed to be struggling already. Billox started to build up a healthy lead, and within two minutes he was on 10 frags with the nearest competition three behind.

Courier picked up another frag to take second place, but Billox had already developed a cunning strategy for winning the match - "I've just got to find Death2Mullets as much as I can".

With three minutes gone Billox picked up a megahealth, soon racking up his 16th kill of the match, with the second place man now five frags adrift. Dekkard managed to catch Billox, taking second place in the process, but Billox got him back with the plasma gun on respawning.

Five minutes in the score was still fairly close though, with Billox on 25 and Dekkard on 20. Death2Mullets finally got his revenge on Billox, taking him down with the rocket launcher, but he was still trailing in 5th place... Meanwhile Dekkard was closing in on Billox, reducing his lead to just one frag! Billox took him apart with the plasma gun though, and stayed ahead.

The scores were now 34 to Billox and 32 to Dekkard, with Rocket8 hanging on to third place with 25. It wasn't long before Dekkard equalised though, and Billox seemed to be in trouble as he lost the lead temporarily.

Dekkard was getting some bad luck though, being killed twice and then somehow managing to melt himself with the plasma gun! He was now level with Billox on 35. Meanwhile Fusion had come up to third after spending half the game lobbing grenades around seemingly at random.

Billox was back ahead, and after eleven minutes of play he had amassed 46 frags, with Dekkard now trailing on 42. His lead wasn't to last long though, as Dekkard picked up a couple of quick rocket kills followed by a plasma barrage. With just three minutes left to play he got a nice mid-air rocket strike as he came off a bounce pad, closing to within one frag of the lead again!

Billox managed to hold on to his slim margin though, stretching his lead with a double rocket kill - nice. In the final minutes he took control of the game again, and with just a minute to play he was five frags ahead of his nearest rival. A pair of last minute rocket kills ended the game.

Billox - 62 Dekkard - 57 Fusion - 49 Rocket8 - 46

Group 3, Q3DM12

EuroGamer's very own Geoff Richards, aka "The Pope", surprised everyone by taking the early lead with the rocket launcher. Sadly it wasn't to last long though...

Veno was soon pulling out a comfy lead, as group favourite Blokey got off to a poor start, even getting fragged by The Pope! With two minutes gone Blokey was back in third place though, just one frag behind Veno and Liquid.

Within seconds he had taken the lead, picking up a pair of quick kills to extend his lead over second place man Veno to 11 : 9. He soon got his revenge on The Pope, melting him with a stream of burning plasma, and went on a rampage, pulling out an impressive 18 : 11 lead.

The Pope went down to him again for his 20th frag of the match, but Veno was closing on him rapidly with a run of kills, and a dry spell for Blokey left him hanging. With five minutes gone Veno took the lead again, and the game turned into a Veno - Blokey duel!

Blokey came back at Veno with the machinegun, only for Veno to respawn, grab the plasma gun, and melt him. Blokey wasn't happy, and with just his machinegun for company he finished what he had begun. The two players were matching each other frag for frag, until eventually Liquid and Veno pulled ahead again.

With seven minutes gone Liquid was at the head of the field on 28, with Veno just one frag behind and Blokey still chasing hard in third. Plasma was flavour of the day, with Liquid dissolving Duellist and Bloke on a plasma run of his own.

Liquid took down Oriental Hero with his machinegun, but then took a nosedive into the deadly red mist. Oops. With three minutes to go a kill with the lightning gun gave him the lead again, and a nice rail shot against Blokey took him to 39 frags, with Blokey now second on 35 and Veno third just a frag behind him.

The field closed up a little at this point, and the top three players all seemed to be very evenly matched. With ten minutes gone there were just two frags in it, and after briefly extending his lead Liquid fell to Blokey.

The two players were all even at the top now, with a couple of quick railgun kills for Blokey equalising the game, only for Liquid to pull back ahead again. With two minutes left to play the first three places were seperated by just four frags, and any of them could have won.

A trio of rocket kills for Blokey kept him in contention, and with less than a minute to go he retook the lead! It wasn't to be though, as Liquid came back to take the final victory with a shaft kill in a gripping endgame that left the top three each just one frag apart!

Liquid - 65 Blokey - 64 Veno - 63

Group 6, Q3DM12

Varies took the first frag with the rocket launcher, and was soon joined by Kalliath (one of the ubiquitous UNR boys). The Gimp (no, really) got two quick rocket kills to take the early lead, but he was still just one frag ahead after one minute.

Kal was soon in the lead again though, and starting to pull out an impressive margin. Within two minutes he had notched up eleven frags, with his nearest competitor trailing on just four! This was the beginning of a truly dominating performance, although the rest of the field were closely matched.

Meanwhile the tournament's sole female entrant, CrystalTips, was off to a terrible start, failing to score a single frag. She was soon back in the game though after a pair of quick grenade kills, and although she was still last she was at least back up with the rest of the field now.

Kal was still way out ahead though, reaching 20 after just four minutes while the rest of the players were still on five to ten frags. Protoss was second, but he was soon struggling to hold that place as everyone else closed in on him.

The rockets were flying now, and third place in particular was hotly contested, with the holder changing constantly, with Crys now well back in the running. At half time though Kal had run off into the distance, fighting in a class of his own to pull out a massive sixteen frag lead over his nearest competitor.

It was very much a game of two halves - Kal, and the rest. Crys picked up the megahealth but couldn't make it stick, and to add to the confusion "spectator joined the game", and almost got fragged! Meanwhile a railgun toting Gimp was taken down by Kal's macinegun, and to complete the humiliation he respawned and leaped straight into the red mist. Whoops.

It was closing up at the front a bit now, although Kal was still a comfortable thirteen ahead with four minutes to play. Varies took third with a series of rocket kills in quick succession, and Kaine was now second. It was still close in the midpack though - with ninety seconds to go there were no less than three players on 35 frags, from second to fourth place!

Varies now took second, with a whole string of rocket kills giving him a strong eight frag lead over third place. Kal was still fifteen ahead of him though, and although Varies tried hard there was nothing he could do overturn that deficit in the final minute.

Kalliath - 59 Varies - 46

Group 8, Q3DM12

Group favourite Luke grabbed the red armour straight away, then took down OH-IQ to gain the early lead, catching Beero with a shotgun blast soon afterwards before Mobius rocketed him.

With two minutes gone Luke had notched up nine frags after a series of rocket kills, with Mobius second with four. It was already looking like being another rather one-sided match, and that was before Luke picked up the red armour, rocket jumped to the megahealth, and picked up another string of rocket kills involving Beero and IQ.

Luke's run ended as a rail shot took him to within inches of his life, and the fall to the ground below finished him off. With four minutes gone though, Luke was already 15 : 8 up on his nearest rival, and on another rocket run.

He narrowly missed out on another megahealth, rocket jumping across the length of the central courtyard only to see another player grab the powerup as he landed on the ledge in front of it. He was soon up to 20 frags though, double the score of his nearest opponent in a commanding performance.

From third down was still close though, with IQ just ahead of the pack on 13 at half time, and closing on Dommo who had taken second. Luke was still way ahead though, with an impressive 42 already. With nine minutes gone IQ took second place from Dommo, who was beginning to fade.

Beero had soon taken third, only to be overhauled by The Chojin. All of the players from second down to fifth were now within a couple of frags of each other, and (apart from Luke's victory, which was now a foregone conclusion) everything was still to play for...

With three minutes left Luke reached 56, with IQ trailing on just 24 and just holding on to second place. In just sixty seconds Luke had notched up another seven kills though, and looked set to take the top seeding by scoring the most frags of any player in the free for all rounds - could he do it?

With just a minute left he reached 68 frags, now almost 40 clear of IQ! The game had turned into something of a weenie shoot, and by the end Luke had totalled 73 kills, easily taking the top seeding as the qualifiers drew to a close...

Luke - 73 IQ - 31 Chojin - 29 Beero - 29 Dommo - 28

Final Seeding Results

Here are the top six seeds after the free for alls -

Seeding Name   Frags 1st Luke   73 2nd Liquid   65 3rd Blokey   64 4th Veno   63 5th Billox   62 6th Kalliath   59

Nice to see all three of our own picks for the top (Luke, Blokey and Billox) making the top five seedings! That should give them an easy ride through the first round of the double elimination duels, as the top seedings play the bottom seedings...

Wicket vs Oriental Hero - Q3Tourney2

Wicket soon notched up a quick lead, taking it to 5 : -1 within just two minutes, as the Oriental Hero took a dive into the red mist, no doubt curious to see what was down there...

Orient was on the run now, and just kept going down as Wicket dominated the game. Within a minute the score had doubled, 10 : -2! Ouch. Wicket was lurking in the pilar room a lot of the time, popping through the teleporter to grab the yellow armour and lightning gun. A pair of mid-air shaft kills helped stretch that lead by another five frags by half time (five minutes).

Orient ran into Wicket again on the bridge, and his rocket launcher was no match for Wicket's accurate shaft as he got hosed down. The game was becoming something of an exercise humiliation, as Wicket reached 20 frags with almost four minutes still to go.

Wicket was actually down to 20 health at one point, but the supposed Oriental Hero just couldn't find him to finish the job. With just thirty seconds to go Wicet charged through the teleporter and almost collided with Orient on the bridge, just managing to fire off a rocket to take him down, and take the final sscore to 28 : -2.

Or so he thought... Something had gone wrong with the server, and the game ran on regardless. Wicket was obviously surprised, and Orient took advantage to finally frag him, retrieving some of his pride as he was now just one frag in the red.

Wicket soon recovered his balance though, and as the game finally ended (a couple of minutes later than expected) the final final score was 33 : -1.

PuppetMaster vs Mace - Q3DM13

PuppetMaster seemed to get off to a good start, picking up the red armour and a shotgun, and then grabbing the rocket launcher. There was no sign of Mace though, and bizarrely PuppetMaster actually avoided taking the megahealth as he ran past it...

It was only after Mace gave chase that PuppetMaster doubled back round the top and dropped down to grab the vital powerup. It didn't do him any good though, as Mace soon picked up the first frag of the match, chasing PuppetMaster through the teleporter with almost two minutes gone.

A minute later he got his second, taking down PM with the shaft in the courtyard after a short skirmish. PM went for the megahealth, but with Mace closing in on it as well he changed his mind and grabbed the yellow armour as he made a dash for the exit. Mace had the upper hand by now, and shafted a rocket toting PM in the courtyard again to make it 3 : 0 at half time.

PM was having a hard time of it, getting knocked off a ledge and into the lava by Mace's shaft, then diving into the lava two more times. I guess he just took a fancy to it. That lovely shade of orange. Mmm. Lava. Can't beat it.

It was now 3 : -3 with four minutes left to play, and PM knew he was beaten. Mace caught him out in the open with a rocket, and with an impressive collection of health and armour powerups he was almost invulnerable to PM's retaliation.

PM managed to overcome his aversion to the megahealth, picking the next one up, but he was soon back down to 30 health again after another run in with Mace. With three quarters of the game gone, a rocket battle in the corridor around the back of the map extended Maces' lead to 6 : -3.

Meanwhile PM seemed to be having mouse problems. Either that he was just banging it against the desk in frustration. It didn't help though, as Mace narrowly escaped a rocket attack in the courtyard and ran off to hide for the rest of the match. PM never even caught sight of him again, and so the final score was 6 : -3.

Ride vs Aerotek - Q3Tourney2

They might have been clanmates, but neither player was taking any prisoners as they fought for a place in the second round. A fierce shaft battle broke out in the pillar room, with Ride picking up the first frag after a minute of play.

Aerotek went down again near the rocket launcher half a minute later, and Ride had soon caught him again with the shaft to make it three in a row. Tek was starting to hoover up the armour now though, grabbing the yellow armour and shards in the pillar room.

Another shaft battle in the pillar room left both players heavily injured and running for cover, and neither player could make the kill. Eventually Ride found Tek again, chasing him through the teleporter down to the bridge, and knocking him into the red mist with a close encounter of the rocket kind. 4 : -1.

Tek managed to pull back his lost frag, but Ride had soon pulled out another of his own to take the score to 5 : 0 at half time. A battle broke out in the pillar room, with Tek hosing Ride with his lightning gun. Ride made a break for it, leaping through the teleporter. Tek was in close pursuit .. a little too close actually, as he received a rocket in the face as he passed through the teleporter.

With six minutes gone Tek pulled back another frag to take it to 6 : 1, and then caught Ride with a well placed rocket as he flew off the central bounce pad in the pillar room. Tek was making a late come back, but it was really too late - 7 : 3 after seven minutes.

Tek picked up another rocket kill in one of the corner rooms, but was now down to just 4 health himself! Ride respawned nearby and machinegunned him to make it 8 : 4 at three quarters time, catching Tek again with a rocket near the lightning gun soon afterwards.

Ride's shaft glanced off Tek as he made a dash for it across the pillar room, but a fall into the rocket launcher pit finished him off. Tek got two quick frags back, and then rocketed Ride in the pillar room to make it 9 : 6, rather too close for comfort for Ride.

Ride starting to lurk around the teleporter in the pillar room, quickly ducking through and running away as Tek appeared. Tek still managed to catch him again in the last seconds of the game though, rocketing him in the pillar room pit to make it 9 : 7.

There were just fifteen seconds left now though, and Tek couldn't find Ride again. FInal score, still 9 : 7.

Acronym vs Captain - Q3Tourney2

Acronym went straight for the lightning gun, and had already mowed down Captain twice with his shaft in the first minute of the game. Captain staged a brief comeback, getting one back with the rocket launcher in one of the corner rooms at the bottom of the level, and then watching Acronym take a stumble and fall off the bridge.

With two minutes gone it was 1 : 1, and a fierce rocket battle left the scores unchanged, as Acronym blew up both himself and his opponent. Captain scored an own goal by falling into the red mist, but had soon got the frag back again to even up the scores.

Acronym's rocket launcher took down Captain by the lightning gun, but with just over three minutes gone Acronym returned the favour in the pillar room to equalise again. Acronym soon picked up another frag though, and was 3 : 2 up.

Until now the game had been very close, but Captain's game seemed to fall apart as Acronym began to pile on the pressure and pull out a lead. Captain was shafted in the pillar room, then blown up again near the lightning gun. Clearly under stress now, Captain managed to blow himself up as Acronym took control.

By half time it was 7 : 1 to Acronym, and Captain was going down heavily. He was shafted again in the pillar room, and then after going for the rocket launcher on respawn he was flushed out of the pit by a hail of rockets, with Acronym finally catching him on the stairs at the side of the level with his shaft. To cap it all, Captain lost his last point as Acronym chased him into the red mist.

Acronym was now totally dominating the game with a whole string of rocket and shaft kills, taking the score to 13 : 0 with seven minutes gone. Captain managed to pull one back, and then saw Acronym blow himself up, but the score was still 14 : 1 and it was far too late for Captain to do anything about it.

Captain indulged in a little computer rage as the game drew to a close, shaking the mouse around violently and hammering at keys and buttons as he headed for the losers bracket. With a minute to go it was now 16 : 1, and the final minute saw Captain lose his hard earned point, with Acronym shafting him in the pillar room and then blowing him up on the bridge in the dying seconds of the match. Final score, 18 : 0.

Acronym told us "I was so nervous at the start - I didn't get a good start at all". It had started off very close, but as the game went on Acronym's confidence rose while Captain lost his cool and the game.

The Pope vs Silent - Q3DM13

Silent was seeded in the top ten, and there was little doubt that he would defeat EuroGamer's own Geoff "The Pope" Richards. The question was just how painful the lesson in humility would prove to be...

Silent started off by grabbing the first megahealth, the most important item on this map. Spotting The Pope he gave chase, and sadly without the protection of his Pope-mobile Geoff proved an easy target, getting sprayed with Silent's shaft and then finished off with a well placed rocket. 1 : 0 with just thirty seconds gone.

Silent got the next megahealth as well, and blew up Pope in one of the corridors round the back of the level, and he was soon dominating the game, going 5 : 0 up in the first two minutes. A whole string of shaft and rocket kills took the score to 12 : 0, and by this point Geoff had decided that his goal was to avoid getting a negative score as any slim hope of winning went out the window.

Sadly even that modest ambition proved to be impossible to attain, as a glancing blow from a rocket sent Pope spiralling into the lava trailing smoke. With four minutes gone it was now 16 : -1.

Pope finally managed to get a megahealth, grabbing the yellow armour near to it on his way out. He couldn't make it count though, and after a short pause in the killing Silent was on the offensive again, hurling Pope into the lava again for his troubles. By three quarters time it was 24 : -2.

And the hurting still wasn't over for the poor Pope, as Silent sent him to the lava god for a third time. After respawning, a shaft attack left the Pope scurrying for cover with just one health left, and Silent gave chase. It didn't take him long to finish the job, a rocket blast spraying Pope's innards over the walls.

In the final minute Pope finally managed to get some small modicum of revenge, taking Silent out with the rocket launcher to reduce his frag deficit. Silent wasn't going to let it rest at that though, and picked up a couple more frags to take the final result to a crushing 32 : -2.

Blokey vs Death2Mullets - Q3Tourney4

What can I say? Blokey was off to a strong start, and one of the top seeds after the free for alls, whereas Death2Mullets had spent most of his first match getting fragged by Billox.

The end result was never in any doubt, and Blokey's awesome rail skills really paid off on this map as he cruised to an easy victory. At the end he was just playing with D2M, taking him down a couple of times with the gauntlet!

The final score was a rather embarrassing 45 : -1, nicely showing the difference between a merely good gamer and a true professional.

Acquiesce vs Duellist - Q3DM13

Meanwhile former QuakeWorld UK team captain Acquiesce was demonstrating the art of war to our old friend Duellist, who we've met at several events at The Playing Fields in the past.

Again it was a rather one sided match, with Acquiesce ending up 24 : -5 ahead after hurling Duellist into the lava in the middle of the map several times. Another impressive example of the gap between the good and the truly great in Quake 3...

Acquiesce once again proved himself to be a capable gamer, and I'm sure that with a little more practice he has a great future in pro-gaming. In fact, he was only knocked into the losers bracket after coming up against Blokey in the quarter finals, and even then he gave him a good run for his money...

First Round Overview

The first round went pretty much as everybody expected, with the top seeds working up some impressive scores. Luke had defeated Vampire 28 : -2, Billox took down Vegan Eater 31 : -1, Fusion ripped apart EuroGamer's Smirnoff 36 : 0, Liquid blew away Kilologist 42 : 0, and Blokey topped the score sheet with his 45 : -1 victory over Death2Mullets.

In fact there were no real upsets, with only three players beating a higher seed - Meths defeating Courier in a close 1 : 0 match, Mace winning 6 : -3 against PuppetMaster, and Rasher beating UKPCGC player Smile 12 : 6.

As the second round kicked off though things began to get more interesting, with several of the better players finding themselves playing each other. Who would get through to the third round, and who was destined for the losers bracket? Read on to find out!

First Round Scores

Luke 28 Vampire -2 Z Herring 9 [CAT]pRoToSs 7 RoCket8 13 Strudles 4 DC.WAR18 23 Addict 2 Namistai 20 Execute 3 Courier 0 Meths 1 PuppetMaster -3 Mace 6 Wicket 33 Oriental Hero -1 Billox 31 Vegan Eater -1 Smile 6 Rasher 12 Jayz 20 The Chojin 0 Nightwing 28 Worlddomination 0 Mozilla 29 [angel]fs -1 Ride 9 Aerotek 7 Requiem 36 Doom2 -1 Neo Veno 21 BG 1 Blokey 45 Death2Mullets -1 Ade 23 Kaine 4 Varies 19 Evilpete 3 Acquiesce 24 Duellist -5 Erazer 17 Beero The Zeero 0 Kajin 19 Crystaltips 1 Kalliath 35 Mobius 0 Dekkard 17 Neutrino -2 Warhog 15 IQ 6 Mr Mauve 18 The Gimp -1 Silent 32 The Pope -2 Fusion 36 Smirnoff 0 Harlequin 26 Dommo 3 Helta 9 Yeti 1 Liquid 42 Kilologist 1

Crystaltips vs Mobius - Q3Tourney4

Having lost to Kajun in the first round, lone female gamer Crystaltips was now in the losers bracket and had to take on Mobius to stay in the running.

Crys seemed to be back on form, getting off to a strong start with two kills with the rocket launcher in quick succession, making it a hat trick as her plasma found its mark. Two more plasma kills followed to take the score to an impressive 5 : 0 as Crys dominated the map, leaving Mobius scurrying for cover as she rained death and destruction down upon him from on high.

Her killing spree was interupted for a second as she took Mobius down at point blank range with a rocket and blew herself up in the process, but the score had soon stretched to 8 : 0 after a trio of quick kills in the central slime pit room.

Crys picked up the next megahealth and chased down Mobius again, sparking off a running battle around the edge of the level. Finally Mobius ran out of ammunition, and as he vainly tried to machinegun her, Crys took him down with some more burning plasma. After respawning he didn't last long either, as she soon tracked him down to the central room and melted him again to make it 10 : 0.

A whole string of plasma and rocket kills took the score to 13 : 0 before Mobius finally managed to get one back, blowing her up with a well placed rocket. Mobius was soon on the run again though, after a mid-air battle left him perilously low on health. Falling to the ground far below he was left with just five health and a sinking feeling as Crys picked him up on the bounce.

As the game drew to a close Crys picked up two more rocket kills, one of them a nice mid-jump shot. The score could have been even worse for Mobius, but a fierce battle in the last seconds almost gave him a second frag. In the end Crys managed to blow herself up before he could finish her, and so the final score was back to 16 : 1.

Crystaltips lives to fight another day, and Mobius gets the early train home.

First Round Losers Bracket Overview

Again, no shocks and no surprises. Besides, most of the players in the losers bracket at this stage were there for a good reason...

EuroGamer's own Geoff "The Pope" Richards surprised us all by making it through to the second round after a closely fought match with The Gimp, ending with Geoff grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat in the final seconds of the game in an exciting match that, sadly, I missed seeing.

PuppetMaster sent the Oriental Hero home early in a crushing 20 : -2 victory that saw him through to the next round as well, while Duellist narrowly beat out Beero The Zee