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First Person Shooters (Games) Quake Entertainment Games

Pro Gamer Fatal1ty Talks Tactics, Endorsements 58

Posted by simoniker from the fatal-l33t-speak dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Quake master Johnathan Wendel, better known as Fatal1ty, talks about his life and the professional gaming scene over at ZDNet. Asked how he keeps his reflexes sharp, he said: 'I use the same tactics in 'Quake' that I used in tennis. It's all about mind games, knowing what your opponent's thinking, knowing where a shots going to go. Anything in a computer game, I can relate it to something in sports I've played. The rail gun (the heaviest weapon in 'Quake') -- that's like going for the overhead slam in tennis. You set 'em up and then you drive it home with your hardest shot. It's like all the shots in tennis are, back and forth, trying to get them off balance. And when you do, you slam it down their throat. Same as gaming.'"
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Pro Gamer Fatal1ty Talks Tactics, Endorsements More

Pro Gamer Fatal1ty Talks Tactics, Endorsements

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  • hehehe (Score:5, Funny)

    by Goldberg's Pants ( 139800 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @12:09AM (#8245428) Journal
    He says he plays tennis...

    I wonder if he blasts one into his opponents skull if he yells "HEADSHOT!"
    • ...or throws his mouse on the ground and swears at the top of his lungs everytime he loses...
    • Quake III does not discriminate where a shot hits. It uses a standard bounding box.

      A Counterstrike player may be more likely to yell this, but then counterstrike is not about reflexes and more about team gaming.

      (doubles tennis and hitting your partner in the head?)
      -grin-
      • Actually, the first game to announce it was Unreal Tournament. While headshots have always been in CS, the voice that announces it on some servers is stolen from Unreal Tournament. (Also "Multikill", "Monsterkill", "Ultrakill" and "Godlike". Think that's all of them.)

        And Counterstrike is about getting pwn3d by cheaters:)

        • UT2K3 added "Mega Kill," "Ludicrous Kill" and "HOLY SHIT" to the announcer's vocabulary. Incidentally, it's interesting to hear how...excited the Aroused announcer gets once you start racking up the consecutive kills.

          Perhaps bellowing "HUMILIATION" in a low voice would be more appropriate for a tennis ball to the head.

        • Seems like you are also partial to 'real' FPS. ;)

          Not that I don't play CS... it's really fun MP (even more fun than Q3 RA3)

          It's just that I love the level of skill one can strive for and learn in Quake 3 for example. (Accuracy, Rocketjump, strafe-jump, circle-jump, plasma-climbing, armour/map control, grenade jumping) Can't wait for Q4 to build and expand on these... :)
          • I prefer realism. Okay, CS isn't exactly realistic, but I got bored of the Quake series. Still have a soft spot for UT though. Why? Two words. "The Redeemer".

            Of course then it goes the other extreme, with Call of Duty... One shot often kills. Harsh.

            It's all good:)
      • The Quake 3 engine is capable of hit detection. I play a lot of Urban Terror (Q3 mod), and it has head shots and hits on various body regions.

        -prator

  • Ten-nis? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cosmik ( 730707 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @12:14AM (#8245470) Homepage
    Tennis? Ten-nis? What on this green earth is that?

    Sorry, I only follow the professional sports, like Quake.

  • Nitpick... (Score:2, Informative)

    by OgdEnigmaX ( 535667 )
    The railgun didn't officially appear until Quake II, though I gather the railgun and Quake mentioned above is III.
    • Almost no proffesionals play quake 2. It's the ugly ugly third child.
    • He says he played it for 2-3 hours on one quarter. If he could be more full of shit, I'd be amazed.
      • I'm assuming he meant in vs. mode.

        Back in college we always had people queued up along whatever arcade fighter was popular at the time.
        • I'm assuming that too...I never saw anyone last that long without getting beat and going to the back of the queue for a little while.

          Then again, I never saw anyone spend that much time on MK when Street Fighter 2 was around and much better.
      • I've actually SEEN two/three hour game sessions on a single quarter. Mind you, this was back when the game first came out-- oh, 1992 or so-- but you could go down to arcades and find lines of people surrounding a game like MK. I recall very specifically seeing a line of nine people taking their turns against some grand master-caliber player who was taking on and beating every challenger. When I left a few hours later, he was still undefeated. That kind of thing HAS happened in the past..

        Good odds though th
      • Not Mortal Kombat, but I've seen people spend over 2 hours on a single credit. One time it was a fighting game (killer instinct) and the other time it was a pinball game where he got the "free game" like 10 times in a row (and setting high scores each time..).
    • Nice detail, but the "rail gun" style weapon did appeared in quake, it was the thunder gun, since is a weapon that can go through enemies in a single burst. Actually the quake model of guns has never changed (just like the capcom Hado And Haryu Ken and Shempe kick combo) the ID fps (since doom) have had mostly the same weapon combination. Melee. (punch, chainsaw,axe, gauntlet) MachineGun (pulse, nail and machinegun) Shotgun (no explaining required) *Railgun (since quake, thunder weapon, railgun) grenade/l
      • While its shots might have passed through enemies, the lightning gun did not fire in bursts, but rather continuously fired until you released the fire button or your cells ran out. The only time it fired in a burst was if you used it underwater, and in that case it had a (albeit painful) BFG-like splash spread if I'm not mistaken :)

        As for a railgun-style weapon being "impossible" in Doom, while you definitely couldn't make a projectile trail animation (though you can in the modern remakes of the engine)

  • He's getting into the PC manufacturing game? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBraynard ( 653724 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @12:42AM (#8245686) Journal
    That is impressive. He says he isn't going to be a commodity white box shop, either, but is going to make his own components. I wonder if he really understands how difficult this will be.

    Really, he doesn't earn much money and probably would be earning more money had he gone to college and gotten a decent job (at least 50k) and I'm sure he's capable.

    But he says he wants to create a company that makes the whole she-bang and doesn't just buy commodity parts. Lets presume that he will actually buy his chips from AMD/Intel. But he is actually going to create a company that is the equivilant of, say, Abit (motherboard) plus Nvidia (video) plus Creative (sound) plus Micron (memory). Seriously. He may as well start making his own CPU, too.

    So if he thinks he can pull that off, well.... just never mind what I said about him making more money going to college. Stick to the parent's basement / gaming career.

  • Sports (Score:5, Interesting)

    by leadfoot2004 ( 751188 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @12:49AM (#8245749)
    It's interesting that he mentions in the article that in order to keep his reflexes up, he exercises and plays sports. This has two implications. First, this breaks somewhat the stereotype where professional gamers spends 20 hours a day sitting in front of the computer and practise, not getting much exercise. Second, professional gaming might argubly be categorised as sports. You'll never know. One day you might see a Quakefest on ESPN2.

    • Re:Sports (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Neppy ( 673459 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @01:35AM (#8246070)
      You'll never know. One day you might see a Quakefest on ESPN2.
      I really doubt it. Videogames tend to focus on a single players perspective, as opposed to established sports like basketball, football, soccer, baseball etc. Notice how all those games use a ball to focus attention, and are readily viewable from an "exterior" point of view. Watching someone play quake when you get only a single person's perspective is pretty shallow compared to watching a whole team. until games jump this gap they wont be taken seriously as sports.
    • He does claim to put in 8-12 hours a day in the weeks leading up to a tournament. I know there were a lot of gamers out there expecting Fatal1ty to say "practice, practice, practice" somewhere in this article. (For those that haven't read it yet, no, he doesn't say it.)
    • But definitely on ESPN3.

      I mean, Quake 3 is a lot more exciting to watch than Magic: The Gathering...

    • In other sports, the professional athlete doesn't just play that sport all the time in order to get really good - what he does is break down the skills involved and then work on them individually.

      I'm experimenting with something similar myself. I'm running a little site( Video Game Trainer [videogametrainer.com]) where we try and break down video game playing into the fundamental skills, and then work on them individually. So for example, you work on your hand-eye coordination for a while, then you work on your reaction speed. I

  • played fatal1ty (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @01:19AM (#8245974)
    Or maybe I was played by him.

    One of his sponsors had him set up in Kentia Hall at the last E3, going head to head on UT2k3 with hapless fools like me. I'm about an average to slightly above average player (I end up right in the middle when I play online)...with fatal1ty I think we wound up at around 0-30 after five minutes.

    Before seeing him in action, I wouldn't have believed that there was such a huge difference in hand-eye coordination and reflexes between a normal player and a pro. Pretty impressive. He said that he had a perfect record for E3 - he hadn't been killed once.

  • Serious ego problem (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DeathPenguin ( 449875 ) * on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @01:45AM (#8246117)
    Comparing himself to Micheal Jordan? Oh puh-leeze. Jordan could piss in a bottle and sell it as perfume. This "professional gamer" is worth nothing compared to a real athlete.

  • I'm not to sure about this Fatality guy, (Score:5, Funny)

    by Clockwurk ( 577966 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @01:58AM (#8246178) Homepage
    he sounds pretty gay.

    You set 'em up and then you drive it home...back and forth, trying to get them off...And when you do, you slam it down their throat.

  • Not the first athlete gamer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ReyTFox ( 676839 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @03:46AM (#8246659)
    Thresh played tennis in high school too, IIRC.

    Not that anyone remembers him these days. The current world-champion DM player seems to be different every time I look >.>

  • Disadvantage of going pro in computer games (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TheLink ( 130905 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @09:50AM (#8247950) Journal
    Games like golf, tennis, basketball, chess, etc have been around for a long long time. If you're pro in these games, by the time the game changes significantly due to technology you'd have retired or something.

    In contrast with computer games, people tend to _change_games_ quite rapidly. OK so people are still playing counterstrike and starcraft, but will enough people be playing it in years to come, in order to make it worth being a pro? Not many people are still playing Doom, or Quake 1.

    Thresh was very good at Doom, Quake but is he still a pro-gamer?

  • Fata1ty speaks of a basic priciple.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by StressGuy ( 472374 ) on Wednesday February 11, 2004 @11:32AM (#8249027)
    of combative sports.

    In the course of my life I've participated in various forms of swordplay (sabre, shinai, boken, medieval styles, etc.) and have coached others on the same. In all forms of combat, there is a fundamental truth - the person who controls the space between the combatants wins. This is true for his tennis match, a football game, a chess game, hand-to-hand, swordplay, or total war.
    .
    During a typical contest, there will be moments when you have control and moments when you don't. When you do, you strike - immediately. When you don't, you get the hell out of the way and re-engage under more neutral circumstances. The whole trick is to get control of the space between you and your opponent and strike before he can react.
    .
    Between novice fighters, combat is like a game of "rock-paper-scissors" as both opponent throw various moves and techniques without much thought as to what the other person is doing, where his center of gravity is, etc. However, between experienced fighters, it's like watching an intricate dance as both opponents try to out position and out think each other....very cool to watch.

  • But don't get too jealous. He travels too much to settle down and still lives in the basement of his father's house.

    Did you HAD to mention that in your article Zdnet? I pretty much doubt this guy HAS to live with his parents, you already stablished he makes enough money NOT to, I also doubt he doesnt have at least a girlfriend (/boyfriend if thats his taste I dont care) you are just mentioning he is not married or in a serious relationship the guy is 22! what was the point of making hardcore gamers l

  • Fatal1ty is a tool. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Akira1 ( 5566 )
    Now im gonna go out on a limb here and explain a portion of the community as it existed back around 1999 and 2000, and perhaps after that..

    Fatal1ty was straightedge in a community of partiers and drug users. If they ever instituted drug testing in these competitions, 90% of the participants would fail. Weed, speed, coke, underage drinking were some of the things that were quite prevalent from what I saw.

    John visited some friends of mine in Illinois and we all went out to dinner at a local TGI Fridays. He

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