“I didn’t install Quake 2 before the event, I thought it would be really tough to win the tournament, but I was confident with Quake 3 and Quake 4,” says Johan “Toxjq” Quick, the winner of QuakeCon’s Quad-Damage tournament two weeks ago. GGL Wire talks to the Swedish Quake 4 superstar about QCon and the upcoming WSVG tournament in Toronto.
Carmac: How do you feel as one of the very few double QuakeCon winners on earth?
Toxjq: I’m extremely happy with winning QuakeCon Quad-Damage tournament 2007. I knew that I had a good chance of placing well in this tournament, but knew that I was weak at Aerowalk in QuakeWorld. Since I didn’t install Quake 2 before the event, I thought it would be really tough to win the tournament, but I was confident with Quake 3 and Quake 4.
It was a fun tournament with some real money - how much did you go into it for fun and how much for the money?
I really wanted the title as the best overall Quake player, but QuakeCon always has a good prize purse, so it makes the whole tournament more fun to play and watch, when everybody cares about the tournament.
How did you prepare for QuakeCon?
I played mostly Quake 3 and Quake 4 before QuakeCon. In Quake 4 I almost exclusively played vs Naani, and in Quake 3 I was playing most of the time vs Swedish Q3 players like Spartie, Stenad, Naani, Reptile, but I also played a bit vs Linkin, Falcuma, Unity.
Do you think it would be a good idea to have an entire circuit of tournaments ran with the Quad-Damage rules?
No. This tournament was very special if you compare with other events during the years. I like the double elimination style of bracket, but I would like to see 3 maps in the map pool instead of 5 maps. In that way every player will know all the maps better, and it will give us more exiting games to watch.
Do you consider yourself lucky to be the winner of the event? The dice might have rolled QuakeWorld or Quake 2 as the fifth game…
Well of course I’m happy that I got to play Quake 4 as the final map, but I was super confident that I would have won any map in Quake 3 and Quake 4. I felt that I could have a chance on winning DM4 in QuakeWorld, because back when I was playing QuakeWorld I didn’t play Aerowalk, I only played DM4 and DM6 in 1v1 mode.
Was it the first time that the entire crowd during the final chanted your name? How did that feel?
I would say this Final was the most memorable final I have played. What I thought was so great with it was that at QuakeCon only Quake players come and enjoy this tournament, so everyone in the crowd understands the game and know the players who are competing, so it was really fun to play this final, and it felt really wonderful to be the favorite of the final for once :)
How will prepare yourself for WSVG Toronto?
Thanks to the Fatal1ty Brand, I have the opportunity to prepare any way I please. I can travel to different kinds of bootcamps if I want to. I would like to bootcamp with my fellow F-Player, Stermy, before WSVG Toronto, but it’s a bit short notice now since I went to QuakeCon last week, so I think I will ask Naani, my practice partner, to practice with me online as we usually do before events.
Do you think Av3k will be a constant threat to you, or was his victory in Louisville a one-time thing?
I believe Av3k is in a great shape at this moment, and the competition these days is a lot harder than 3-4 years ago back in Quake 3. Av3k will most likely be a tough opponent in Toronto, but it’s nice if you have got something to fight for :)
What do you think of the WSVG points system, where a player that places around the top 8 four times is ranked higher than a player that wins two events?
I understand that WSVG wants all the players to attend at every stop, and I believe its how they try to get all the players to each single event, but the seeds will not be correct, and it will affect the standings in the end of the tournament a lot.
What do you think of the ToD’s refusal to play at e-Stars in Seoul because they did not have air conditioning as promised? Would ever do such a thing yourself and do you see playing conditions as a problem in gaming?
I wouldn’t stop playing because of that problem, but I believe that sometimes the playing conditions can be better, and that’s very important if we want to bring E-sport to a higher level and a more mainstream and professional sport.
