| Muiy: Why'd you decide to organize the North American division of Smackdown? You had to know from the start that it wouldn't be the easiest league to run. |
zzjzz: Well I like quakeworld alot. For the most part I like the people that play and I want more people to come back and play quakeworld. I think having NA participate in smackdown would breathe a bit of life in the NA QW scene so I decide to give it a go.
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| Muiy: Were there any competitive leagues in QW before smackdown? (in recent history, at least) |
zzjzz: Hmm. In Europe there are lots of leagues like Villains. In the USA there was QIL and a few others, but nothing was happening recently. There have been some 1v1 leagues, but no team leagues with the past few months.
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| Muiy: What's been the most satisfying part of the league so far? |
zzjzz: Well seeing some old school players playing again is great. Also there are alot more pickup games going on. Also the fact that alot of the NA players are playing teamplay on other maps is good to see. I guess the fact that more people are playing qw is the thing that makes me happiest about running the league.
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| Muiy: How easy is it to find a pickup tdm game in QW these days? |
zzjzz: Right now it's quite easy to find a pickup. you can find teams that want to scrim from time to time, but a pickup is really easy to find. I play in pickups almost every night.
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| Muiy: There's been a lot of rules discussion in smackdown, both in the AU league and the NA one. Can you first outline what the latest controversy is for your division - and then could you explain why there's so much rules trouble? |
zzjzz: Do you have a few days to listen?
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| Muiy: Well i can watch tv while you type, so sure :) |
zzjzz: The latest controversy in NA has just been getting qizmo set up. Some of the old school players can't seem to get it set up, or they can't get rid of their modifications like changed sounds/models. One of the main reasons we use qizmo is so people can't use hacked shafts or sounds. We don't want people to use modified models or sounds and qizmo checks for those. I think the main reason there are rules trouble is that most players don't read the rules. Night after night I hear things like "you mean i have to use qizmo? why? can you dcc it to me?" I think the NA players are used to playing without a proxy because thats the way they played in the other leagues. It just takes the players a while to set up
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| Muiy: And I guess that just adds to the hassle of a qw league. It's probably hard enough for clans just to get together on a night with four ppl ---- then they had to deal with more shit after they accomplish that "feat" |
zzjzz: Some clans have had 4 people show up, then 1 guy gets sick of trying to set up qizmo, then this guy usually cusses me out then drops :) It's kinda funny
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| Muiy: You have, by my count, 13 teams that have played in a game. Are these the only teams left in the league, and do you think they'll all last until the end? |
zzjzz: Well thats hard to say. One team played in a game, then didnt record. I told them they had to record before the game, and its in the rules. One guy asked me how to record and I told him how to. Since they didnt record and I told them they had to play the match over and they were furious about it. So I hope they play again, but I am not sure they will. I know most of the teams are serious about playing, especially the new teams. Some of the old school teams have had a bad attitude. They only want to play dm3, so when they are forced to play a new map they lose or dont play so well. Then they are angry this isn't a dm3 only contest. So I see lots of teams finishing the competition, but I also see a few teams dropping out.
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| Muiy: Is there going to be a playoff at the end of the league? |
zzjzz: Yes there will be.
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| Muiy: How many teams qualify for that? |
zzjzz: Tentatively the plan is to have the top 2 teams from each division go into a final round of 6. Then the final 6 play another round robin. Then the top 2 teams will play in 5 map final champioship game. I think once we have the competition down to the 6 final teams things will go alot smoother. Unfortunately 1 division has almost all the talent. So some good teams aren't going to make the cut.
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| Muiy: that division is what, div B? |
zzjzz: yes. hidden power is almost all Evil Genius clan memebers with Dr_punisher. Ag is the top team in that division. they also have Zero Tolerance with CZM and company. The funny thing is Hidden Power lost to another team, SAH which just shows the strength of that division.
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| Muiy: What will make this league a success for you? |
zzjzz: The league is already a success. If people want to play in a league, I will try to run one, even if there are only 4 teams. More people have played quakeworld as of late. Even Fatality was planning on playing in smackdown and I got to play with him a few times. On the servers you see guys like Haze, punisher, gemini, Drakken, and czm playing. So I think the league has been a success cause alot of the new players get to play with the "old school".
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| Muiy: Anything else you want to say about smackdown? |
zzjzz: I would like to thank all the players for playing. I would also like people to watch some of the demos. There are alot of new players playing quakeworld and some old players that have gotten alot better. I think the demos are worth checking out. I also want teams to get ready for season 2.
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| Muiy: if someone wanted to d/l a demo of two of smackdown, which ones would you recommend? |
| zzjzz: Well any demo of Haze or Punisher are worth watching. They are probably the top 2 dm3 players in NA right now. I think any demo from team AG is also worth the download. They can play every map well, and have alot of talent. |
