cba to watch did he ask if he respected the paco?

any WinD references/content in there seeing as they used to bootcamp together ?

"Was there some mathematical formula to spawns?"

Of course there's math to it, there is to everything in game, but he's not doing any of it.

Spawn code is usually based on a few simple variables.

where you died.
where your opponent is.

The game will try give you a decent spawn on the age old assumption that a player should have breathing space off a spawn, which is partly defined by where the designer puts the spawns and whether they assign additional flags like "initial spawn =1", which will always put you at those spawns on initial entry into the game.

But really, the code has no conscious understanding of the level design its self (beyond a very simple one) or how the player can transverse through the level so the method is never perfect and as players get better than the people making the game, they find exploits.

if I knock on someone's door, it doesn't take a genius to realize 99.% of them will answer it and be at that location within 15 seconds of knocking it.

The only perfect way for spawn code to work in a game as intricate as quake is to let players pick their own spawn locations at pre-defined areas, that way, the player can choose the best location which is right for them and not abuse spawning next to a RA, or obviously lucrative spawn locations.

Simple really.