Thomas "H41" Avallone, Stermy's young brother, just released his very own frag movie.

Recently, the Quake Live Premium Pack 14 introduced 2 brand new duel maps:

- Sinister by Mike "Yellack" Schreiber and Gary "akm" Turner.
- Terminatria by Russell "bst" Vint.

In the spirit of the last Silence Cup, we want to host a Sinister Cup to test the map first hand and see what the best dueler can pull off. Terminatria and Windsong Keep will follow in the future.

The cup will feature a 1st place prize of 100 $ sponsored by the donations to the Kevin "Strenx" Baeza's Streaming Project. The cup will be run on the FACEIT platform.


Links: faceit.com, #faceit, Spawn Vis

Hi Luke, tell us about yourself in real life?

Hey! My names Luke, I live in Dublin, Ireland and I`m 16 years old. I`m currently on my summer holidays but I shall be going into my 2nd last year of highschool in september.

You`re one of the youngest Quakers in the scene. When did you start playing Quake, and in particular duel?

I started playing Quake around this time of the year in 2009. I only played duel because at the time I found it hard to find a CTF team and TDM wasn`t very active (or I wasn`t in touch with it) so I found it easiest for me to play duel as I only needed myself and an opponent to play.

Your father traveled to dreamhack with you. How has that trip influenced his view on the game? Did you discuss about Quake after you came back home?

My dad is beginning to understand how quake works. We discussed the main problem with Quake LANs is that players after receive any prize money so they have no real motivation to come other than to socialise at the events.

Did you watch the demos of your match against weird? Did you learn something from it?

I have tried to watch my demos, yes, but it isn`t easy! I`ve mainly watched the Aerowalk game and the main mistake I made was that I paniced, I`ve done this plenty of times versus players and I never seem to learn from it. Take for example last weeks zotac, I had p0ni in the first round. We were playing on ZTN and the score was 4-4 with 5 minutes remaining and I had just ended a fight coming out as the obvious winner (me: 200 100, him: <25hp). He restacks on the 50hp and YA and hits 3 rails in a row and then shafts me on the red without me dealing any damage. I`ve made this mistake time and time again against "top" players and I know about it myself (I hate it) but it happens every time I come close to taking the lead against higher skilled players.

At Dreamhack you said that you don`t really time to the clock. Is this really the case, and if yes, do you feel this is something you gotta change to step up your game?

I think I will only begin timing if I seriously start playing duel for a tournament but I`d rather practice my positioning,combat skills/dodging before I focus on timing.

What would be your favorite map pool?

ztn,aero,tox,dm6,t4

Sound is a crucial component of the game. There are some questionable design choices (like the fact that you cannot walk down stairs silently), and technical limitations (the visibility-sound coupling, creating problems like the one of battleforge, where a window in the middle of the map screws up everything). Imagine you could influence the next Quake, what would you like to see there in terms of sound features? You can go as crazy as "YA armors making you silent for 10 seconds", but motivate your suggestions!

Well I think that id software has to fix the sound in general in quakelive but thats another story I suppose. I`d like to try some sort of silent powerup where you make no noise at all for 30 seconds (weapons and movement) just so you could suprise your enemy. However the main problem I see is if you pick it up in duel the enemy knows you have it and they will just be super-cautious. This is what we have qlfocus for though, so we can try these things out and see if they work and if they don`t we can just remove them.

You once proposed the idea of allowing weapon drop in duel as a way to bait your opponent. Can you expand on this?

Heh, I did mention this at dreamhack. I approached rapha and cypher about it and cypher seemed against it as he thought it wasn`t very realistic and if you accidently hit your drop weapon bind in the middle of a fight you`re doomed. Rapha said he had thought about it but that cypher was right. However I don`t see why idsoftware can`t add it anyway, I mean whens the last time you`ve accidently hit your drop weapon bind in a TDM game? Just because its there doesn`t mean you HAVE to use it.

Can we expect to see you at one of the next lans, in the Netherlands or Italy?
I`d love to, I had a great time at the last event with you guys (even if I didn`t get to go to the after party :D). However I really don`t know, we`ll just have to see in the future.

Any final shout out?
Basically to anyone who I talk to on a regular basis!

pic - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/14939633/IMG_2190.jpg
demo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8SGWFkgqeI

Hello maza. Can you start by introducing yourself?
Hello world. I'm a 20-years-old dude from Finland and probably the current Finnish hope in QL dueling scene. Some people might recognize me from Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a game which I used to play until I found about the lovely quakelive. At the moment I'm working but I'm going to start my studies this august and hopefully I'll be able to carry on practising QL!

Tell us about mazaa in Quake. When did you start playing and which modes? What about today?
Like mentioned, I played ET since 2003 or so and in 2010 I started following quakelive tournaments. ET didn't suit me very well due to various reasons, I started noticing it in 2010 as well. It was a team game so the outcome wasn't always in your hands. Also the main format 6on6 required staying up too late for my taste so I never got into that. But most importantly ET lacked the challenge and it was frustrating for me to notice how low the level of play was in ET and how easy it was to dominate in. As I got very good in ET I realized I must have some sort of talent in me as well. Then QL stepped in, in august 2010 I began to play QL and started liking it more and more. I tried playing both ET and QL but that didn't work out, I couldn't play good in both games at the same time. So in may 2011 I decided to go all-in in quakelive and not once have I regretted that =). Since then I've been focused on getting better, and eventually the best, in duel. To summarize, I started playing QL duel almost 2 years ago and been doing it hardcore for a bit more than a year.

Describe what you like of the game in one sentence.
It's 1on1 and the player who plays better wins.

As dueler around 1900-2000 ELO, how is your experience in terms of finding practice partners in EU? Have you ever had specific training buddies? Do you see it as an advantage over playing random opponents? What is your practice routine?
Depends on who you are ready to play, I for instance don't like playing boneheads or cheaters so that makes it a bit harder for me. But yeah you can get practice any time you want but the quality of practice varies hugely. To mention one, I've been practicing with Sc00t every once in a while and nothing beats that practice. I mean, usually if I want to play versus good players and I lose I need to find another server or wait 10-20 mins in the queue because there are always other players in the row. You might be searching the game for 60 minutes but in the end you get like one or two games max. When you have a practicing buddy, like I already have a few, you can potentially play 6 games per an hour. And then again, atleast for me, playing players that are on a level below me can get extremely demotivating for some reason, maybe just because I've had enough of winning and noob-bashing in ET and now I actually enjoy getting to play players better than me =). If I had like 2100+ ELO it would be easier to get practise because there would be nobody that wouldn't consider me as a contender and therefore decline from playing me. Now there are still guys who think I can't give them hard time, but getting good practise was a lot harder 6 months back so it's only getting better from now on. I'm likely to purchase pro account in the following months and that should make practicing more efficient also, because on your own server you can make sure you can play all the time. My practice routine is pretty much playing for a few months and then I'll do a mazamovie and doing it I analyze my progress and the cons and pros of my game. Recently in the last 4-6 months or so I haven't played necessarily for the win and instead tried out crazy/different stuff that comes to my mind. Also I've played a little CA and stuff to get better in combat. Now I should put the crazy stuff in balance with safe play and I'll be good to go. I play to get better, not to win =) Obviously another story in zotacs and such.


Are there features you would like to have included in QL webpage that would make your experience better? Or do you feel the current external tools (irc, QLRanks) compensate well enough?
Well, noobs don't know about IRC nor qlranks so they (id) should at least integrate qlranks with QL. Few days ago I was skill matched with 990 elo guy... Then maybe some sort of introduction to configs and HUDs because QL is one of the few games you can modify endlessly! Why not having some community shiat and link to esreality.com too?

TODO: replace youtube video with this demo:
http://www.upload.ee/files/2492743/QLetmazaa_...dm_73.html

You seem to play all maps of the official map pool evenly, except for toxicity. Is there anything particular about this map that makes you like it less? Or do you feel that map requires less practice than the others?
I somehow dislike the way toxicity works, it depending on spawns and combat situations hugely. You mess up one important situation and you might find yourself 5-10 frags behind. In dm13 you can switch control via positioning and thinking, in tox you gotta be aim-wise awesome instead. But I'm gonna start practicing it more now that my combat skills are getting better I'm automatically getting better in tox too, right?! D:

If you could decide how the duel map pool should evolve, what would you do? Are there maps (either in QL or Q3) you would like to see played? Are there non-played maps that could fixed and become good?
I'm not anybody to answer this really, I never played Q3 or the 'underground' maps in QL but from ET I know new and unknown maps never get the attention the should, which is a shame but not much you can do about it really. The ongoing map pool of dm13, ztn, t7, aero and toxicity would be perfect if you removed toxicity and put hektik back in. I kinda even like toxicity how it's different but I find it horrible to play so I would prefer hektik. Maybe try having both for a while and see which one is preferred?

Looking at your records, you did beat players like Baksteen, Scoot, and Evil. Were these lucky matches, or do you feel that on a good day you can play at that level? What do you think separates these players from you?
I don't think those were lucky by any means, haven't played evil much but I've won baksteen and Sc00t multiple times. When I'm warmed up and happen to hit decently I feel like I can beat pretty much anybody excluding likes of cypher. Then again there are games where I pick up a rail and use the 10 slugs and haven't hit a single one. Tough to play if your aim lets you down like that. Also I'm very warmup dependent player and I never can be bothered warming up before casual practice, can't help it :(. I think they're on a level above me simply because they've played the game like twice the amount I have. You just gotta grind the maps and situations hundreds and hundreds of times, which I haven't yet done enough. Doing that you dodge better which already can decide matches, leave alone the aim part. The biggest bottle-neck is combat skills but also map knowledge sets me apart from players like Sc00t.

Are you going to attend LAN events in the near future, like Adroits in the Netherlands, or UGC in Italy? What about Dreamhack winter?
I don't think I'm going to attend those LANs unless I get sponsored. If I do happen to get a sponsor I have no reason to not to go. I simply am not good enough to enjoy LANs yet. When I'm pretty much guaranteed to go playoffs I'll start considering going. That's probably next year or the year after when I'm supposed to be dh14 champ :x Although, there are rumors that there would be a minor Finnish LAN which I might attend if it ever becomes reality.

Thanks for this interview maza. Any final word or shout out?
I'm just gonna thank you Memento_Mori & twister for the cup and invite, you're doing good job keeping quake alive and kicking.. and the same for zotac crew (donathan)! :)