I’m sure there are still a number of us who remember good ol’ opinionated and passionate Vert! He’s done a LOT of good for this community in the past, and with ETQW’s competitive scene picking up a little bit again, I figured that there might still be a few loose players to catch in the ETQWPro net! Here’s Verticae’s article, aptly titled “Competitive ET:QW - A First Glance” - Enjoy!
(Note: Some information in this is outdated, such as propub IPs and the IRC guide. I’ll start 2 new threads for server IP soon).
Quake Wars competitive play
So, you and your team have been rocking the pubs lately? Have had the thrills of exciting shootouts, last-second defuses and quick tactics? That’s some great stuff right there. But have you ever wondered if there’s a step beyond that? And if you have, whether it’s worth trying? Well, I’m hoping to answer your questions right now.
Of course, I alone don’t have the knowledge, nor any kind of authority, to make bold statements about the competitive side of ET:QW. Thankfully, I’ve had the help of three others. First of them is rglaf, playing on the top end of EU leagues for 4Kings, previously known as team Point-Blank. He’s been playing with them since release, although their line-up has shifted a lot since then. As an FPS veteran and a high-level player, he could fill me in on the EU community.
From the NA community, I’ve had the help of SniperSteve, playing for The United Force, formerly known as mainLine Gaming. He’s been playing with these guys since midway CAL Season One, and still is going strong.
Last, but not least, there’s the Scotsman of Pro Pub fame: Seanza, leader of Team Explanation, and mostly known for his support of the competitive community through the Team Explanation - ETQWPro Pub server – more on that one later. He also tells what it’s like to start a new, young team within the ETQW competitive scene.
Of course, none of these guys started out as a pro player; we all played pub once. “Although competition is a bit different than playing public games in ET:QW, I did of course play a bit of pub in the beginning. Mostly to learn the maps, weapons and how to most efficiently complete objectives. I can, however, not brag about being a public player in ET:QW, although I enjoyed it in the beginning”, rglaf explains. Obviously, enjoying the very basics of a game is essential to being able to appreciating it in competitive play. However, competitive players feel something is ‘missing’. SniperSteve adds; “I still enjoy playing on pubs, but the full experience the game has to offer isn’t there.”
‘Full experience’? We’re missing out by playing the basics of the game? Is competition really that different? He elaborates; “When you are playing in a public server there’s moments you’re just not going to win, and whats worse, there is nothing you can really do about it. With competition play you can communicate with your buddies, figure out quickly what is holding the team up, make the appropriate changes, and through teamwork and communication, you can take the objective. The full experience I mention come from the elements of teamwork and communication that can only be found in the competitive scene. It gives the gameplay new depth and challenges, and when you win, you know you really had something to do with it, so it is much more rewarding as well.”
Now, that’s all fun and dandy, but in a public game, I can do so much more, without restrictions on deployables, radars, vehicles and whatnot. Is there really so much need to take the game away from its original design? rglaf explains; “If you look at every other competitive game out there, you won’t find any game with that amount of people, and a clan scene that actually is alive. CoD4 is 5on5, CS(S) is 5on5, BF2 was 8on8, ET was 6on6. A competitive game can’t have more than 5-6 people in order for the game to have a playable community, and it’s also because if the game wants to become a game being played at LANs, you have to keep the players on each team as few as possible. Restrictions are needed to prevent spam, and as soon as people realise that and not because someone wants to ruin their game, they could appreciate the game as most competitive ET:QW gamers do.” Seanza, who’s the most ‘fresh’ to the competitive scene, add to this; “The restrictions for me are good, it gives an added dimension to the game. It’s all about finding something new within a game to elongate it’s lifespan and that’s what ETQWPro does to this game. Gives even further depth to such a great game.”
SniperSteve also pointed at the more practical side of things: It’s hard for teams to get 12 players together. After a bit of digging around, I found that in all 12v12 unrestricted leagues since game release, there’s been a grand total of 3 played matches. The rest of the leagues had either a bucket of no-shows, or simply a lack of interest, as clans realized they didn’t have the needed amount of players. Perhaps this will change in the future, but it’s doubtable, as the support for 6v6 and 4v4 (as well as 5v5 in the NA community) clearly is the biggest.
Competitive play also seems to take up a lot of time for people. When asked, SniperSteve and rglaf mention they spend an average of 5 days a week training, for about 2-3 to even 4 hours a day. It must be noted that most teams take breaks once in a while, to cool down a bit and have time for other stuff; 4Kings is doing that right now. However, all the time apparently is worth it. “Ofcourse a lot of time and effort is involved, but it pays off in the end. Especially being a leader/founder of a team or clan. When you put all that time, effort and even sometimes money into building a team from the foundations and seeing it all pay off, it’s a fantastic feeling of accomplishment”, Seanza says.
Now, some people consider the majority of the competitive community to be (and I quote) a bunch of ‘stuck-up whiners’. People that care too much about their own skill, and their vision of how the game should be. Disagreeing with this statement, rglaf states; “Although they sometimes disagree with how they vision ET:QW and what SD should improve, we are still playing the same game and without each other this game is nothing. I can only speak for myself though, but my impression is that the competitive community welcomes anyone interested in playing the game, be it in competition or in public play. But, like with every community, there are exceptions.” SniperSteve elaborates; “I think that statement originated in regards to people’s responses to the restrictions the leagues enforced. It’s great to see everyone interested in the details on how the leagues handle the game, but there are a few who get overly passionate.” All in all, it’s quite simple: Most competitive players wouldn’t try scaring off new teams, because they also see the need for new teams.
And speaking of new teams; it appears that there’s a lot of helpful people out there. Seanza, as the leader of a new team, witnessed this first-hand. “We got a lot of help actually. Especially from vae`valiant (big shoutouts to you!). He and I have spoken a lot about what can help a team to grow, and I’ve obviously taken a lot of advice from him and used it within my team. Another load of people who helped was a great team called Spanky! They trained with us quite a few time just when we were brand new, and gave great feedback at the end of matches, I’d like to think we developed a good friendship with all those guys & gals. Gandza & Decadent especially helped with some 4v4 strats. Even a few household names like POKEMANS, rglaf from 4Kings, Jasonii from Team Logitech.fi, and Holi from EvE too. They’ve all contributed to how we have developed as a team, even if they didn’t do it intentionally, I’ve taken subliminal advice from them.”
Competitive play is based around one mod: ETQWpro. Now, diving head-first into a scrim, let alone a match, on this mod isn’t a smart thing to do; you’ll want to get used to it first. Luckily, there’s a few ways to do this. There’s pro pubs, gathers games, pickup games… Quoting rglaf: “Pro Pubs and gather games definitely are very useful. I would recommend anyone thinking of going to the competitive side of the game to play pro pubs first to get used to the spread (which is a lot less) and just get the general feel for the mod. Gathers are excellent for people who would like to play with different people against each other, and personally I’ve had many great experiences on gathers (as well as some frustrating ones).” SniperSteve, while agreeing, would add one thing; “Playing by oneself is always good for personal skill, but scrimming or playing with the compition team on the promod is better yet. Communications and teamwork are the harder part to master.”
Of course, since Seanza’s here, we can’t afford not to ask him about the most active Pro Pub server in the world: The Team Explanation - ETQWPro Pub server, located at 213.208.119.222:27736. Seanza, of course, gets his 5 minutes to promote his baby: “The Pro Pub is a great place to find out about the world of ETQW competition without having to play competitively. Experience 4v4 & 6v6 rulesets with a 16 slot server. Play with the best of the best and the noobiest of the noobs. Big name teams such as 4Kings, Dignitas, Epsilon/Kompaniet, The United Force & many more! Don’t delay, play Pro Pub today!” And he’s right. As pointed out before, it’s the easiest way to get a taste of competitive play.
So, you’ve read it this far, hopefully learned a lot, and now you wouldn’t mind seeing what this competitive play is all about? Wonder how you’d go about taking it to the next level? Well, my three lovely contributors bring you the following suggestions. rglaf suggests; “First I would probably ask on the community forums which leagues my team could join, and generally ask for guidelines in terms of rules and restrictions. After that I would try and find a scrim partner, a team on the same skill level and play each other several times a week so you can both help each other skill wise. I would also go through set positions on each map so everybody knows what to do on both offense and defense. And last but not least, it’s all about having fun, make sure people have roles they are comfortable with!” SniperSteve takes it a step further, and gives some pointers on getting set up for the first few scrims. “Keep in mind that the league you join should be for your time zone, and the majority of your players should be able to make the default match time, although it can be, and often is changed to a different time/day. Once you have the league selected, have your members install the mod the league uses (if any), and participate in a propub or a gather to learn the ins-and-outs of the mod. During the preseason or even before the season begins, you should create a section on your forums for members to post their ideas on strategies for different maps, then as you scrim the maps before the season, or during the season, you have some basic strategies to pull from.”
I’d like to thank rglaf, SniperSteve and Seanza for their amazing help and friendliness, even though they had to leave early for ‘special showering practice’, something involving Shiv not being a real woman and strange pictures of TreeFrog. I don’t think I want to know.
In any case, I hope this enlightens some of you on the various aspects of competitive ET:QW, but of course, it’s nothing like experiencing the real deal. Coming from #law.qw, to sGs, I can safely say that competitive ET:QW is the best gaming experience I’ve had in a long time, and it’d be a shame if others miss out on it.
All credits to Verticae.
Hope to see you on a pro pub soon!