Interview done by Nightfever. Slightly edited by ph33rl3ss because of grammitcal errors.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your quake history?

I'm Erik Koningen, online known as Ethereal. I have started playing Netquake CTF in 1997 when I moved to the campus of the University of Twente where I got this nice 100 mbit connection. After that I moved on to Quakeworld CTF. I skipped Quake 2 finding it too slow, and after a few other games I started playing Q3 CTF with Clan E in January of 2000.I have played Q3 CTF ever since.

Can you tell us a bit about your CTF history?

Well after fidgeting around for a few months on NQ CTF servers, I met up with a Dutch guy called Frankswaze and later joined his clan called Operating Room 3. The funny thing was that the two leaders of this clan were actually real-life surgeons.
It quickly showed that I was the raving enthusiast of the clan, with the other being more held-back and quiet. During the course of 1998 I actually led the clan mostly, while not being the actual leader. At the end of 1998 when the QW CTF scene 'professionalised' with more veterans and less newbies competing, OR3 made a name for themselves by remaining in the top 5 of the Netherlands consistently. Unfortunately, as the QW CTF scene died, so did OR3.
After my big break, in January 2000 I was approached by Chipie from my former OR3, asking if I wanted to be in a clan for Q3 with some of the bigger names of the former QW CTF scene.
And so Clan E started with Whez, Imiz, Chipie, Rocco and me. During the first 8 months we were unbeaten in Q3CTF and set quite a name for ourselves. In the last 6 months of E however things died down a bit and we couldn't seem to be able to revive the glory of the first 8 months.
Thus E eventually died. 14 months is still a long time for a clan to live actively. After E died Whez and Juliet set out to find us new options, which finally led to WR today.

Did/Do you play TDM/1on1/ra3?

In NQ and QW I never even touched TDM, always preferring the CTF gameplay over 'just fragging'. But in Q3 at the end of 2000 I became a bit bored with CTF, escpecially the same old levels.
So for a short period of 2 months I played TDM and 1on1 actively within a few clans, eventually trialling for Demonic Core. However, that trial took me a bit too long (well over a month) and their indecision finally made me return back to Clan E for CTF.
Today I play TDM with WR, although it is clearly less important than our CTF game. I play RA3 on the side sometimes to practice my aim, but not within a clan.

You recently joined with some ex E members the new q3ctf Clan WR, featuring some very famous TDM names from Allstars/iCE cLIMBER and some CTF stars like Whez, Liech and Juliet. What's the reason for joining this team?

Well actually it wasn't set up by me. After Clan E, Whez and Juliet and I decided we wanted to go on together, but we had no idea yet in what form. Juliet then talked to Liech and Bonecrusher from CN and they were very interested in reviving their TDM clan called WR and making a strong CTF squad for them. Juliet then arranged pretty much everything from there. I don't know how he got the allstars/ic members to get into the clan, but apparently he's 'well connected' =)

What's the purpose of WR? Clanbase, BarrysWorld, Savage, LAN events?

Well we'll mostly be an Internet clan. There are no plans for attending LANs yet, plus CTF events are usually not really worth going to. We'll probably compete in the Clanbase Summer CTF Cup, the BW CTF league and the BW TDM league. 3 leagues should be sufficient to keep us busy =)
Our goal with WR is of course to win a lot. We're already in the process of training hard. But next to this we want to be a very sportsmanlike clan and be an example to the scene. Next to this we want to ensure that the fun stays in the clan and we're having loads of that already =)

So from what you said WR will be playing in BarrysWorld Q3TDMLeague. Will the ic and All* players be playing for you in that league?

No Panicore, Aim and DOOMer will play for their respective TDM clans and will only join us for CTF. The WR TDM squad currently consists of Liech, Whez, Juliet, Bonecrusher, Planta and myself.

How motivated are the TDMers in the clan? I'm specifically thinking about DOOMer and Aim whose last attempt with clan CYD was a failure.

The TDMers are indeed very motivated to play CTF on the same high level as they do with TDM. I don't know the exact reason why CYD failed, but it apparently wasn't caused by a lack of will from Aim or DOOMer.They play actively for WR, contribute a lot to tactics and have also given us some mouse/mousepad setup and aiming tips. Their knowledge of TDM and their knowledge of tweaking Q3 has come in very handy.

About Savage Euro, can you tell me how involved you were in the Netherland team and how come one of the favourites like your team didn't make the playoffs?

Oh I have to be honest there, I wasn't very much involved with the Dutch CTF team. To be honest, I don't think many of the other players were. I guess perhaps part of the problem was to blame on a cast of different players coming together all wanting THEIR tactic to be played by the national team. We needed a strong leader who imposed a certain way of playing. Instead, there were lots of arguments and we rarely got around to practicing together.
I myself only played against Greece and Germany. And in the final match against Germany it was obvious that everyone was 'doing his own thing' and we weren't operating as a team, at all.

How do you feel about Savage Euro in general?

I haven't stayed up-to-date much with the Savage Euro league so far. Partly because the Dutch team went out and partly because I have a league to run myself =).
But from what I've seen the organisation is pretty decent for a cup SO difficult to organise. I don't think there's anything more difficult to organise in Quake than a nation's cup.
The great geographical distances make it impossible to find a decent server some times, and nation's play messes a lot with clan play, as was seen with the nEo vs E and England vs Scotland incident.
I think the participants should try and cut the organisation some slack, it's very hard to organise and since the cup is still running and people are still talking about it, I think they're doing a fine job.

How do you look on the future of Quake3 CTF?

Well the scene is now about 18 months old, and I think it's slowly 'professionalising'. A stage seen in every FPS game, there are less newbie players coming to the scene, while the veterans move around a lot through different clans.
Eventually, I guess in about 6-12 months there will be just veterans left and people will slowly move on to a new game. Perhaps the Threewave maps can revive the CTF spirit a bit, but every game will eventually die down, as will Q3 CTF.
There's nothing bad about it, I just hope a worthy follow-up will be present at the time, where people can play CTF in again.

Could you give us your bets on the 8 best clans in q3ctf scene in the 2 coming months?

Ohhh that is tough. WR currently doesn't practice against all the top clans so it's tough to state which 8 clans are best.
Plus it's unknown if some clans continue with Q3CTF at all. But if I'd have to make a guess I'd say:
CN, IQS, SS, NF, SD, XYZ, WR, MTW
I probably forgot some top clan, so don't slap me if I did =)

What do you think of a Eurocup CTF event with lan finals and a euro/us CTF lan challenge ?(and euro allstar game)?

Well as for a Eurocup CTF event I think that is mainly done already in Clanbase. It's just not called Eurocup, and some German clans are missing from it. I still think mainly the top of the scene is already competing in CB and BW and there is no need for a seperate Eurocup. LAN finals would be nice though and would give such an event a special feeling.
As for a Euro/US LAN challenge that would be a nice impulse to the scene as well, although I'm not aware if the CTF played in the US is compatible with the CTF played in Europe. For example in the US they play 4on4 CTF as opposed to 5on5 here. I think it would be very tough to make it fair for both parties. But it's still events like these that revive the scene.
As for a Euro allstar game, I would be totally opposed. How would you select the top 10 players from Europe? And isn't CTF more about teamplay and less about the individual? An allstar game would seem to me like just another ego-booster for the top players, instead of a memorable CTF event.

Final question. Do you play CS? As it is the up-rising/dominating game.

I still play a bit of Counter-Strike on the side, with my main buddy Mac, who was also in E. I myself just play it for relaxation and fun, not to end up playing in a clan. CS is the rising/dominating game for sure, but the game doesn't appeal to me on a top/professional level.