ProMode #1

PC Feature | Putting the kills in skills.

Most of us online gamers have seen them around. Ridiculous aim, insane reflexes, near-clairvoyant predictions. Gamers that tend to rarely appear in public matches, but when they do they leave a big and long lasting impression. Those gamers that dwarf everyone else in the arena - the 'pro' gamers. Some people question whether they're human or some kind of cyborg, because damn, hitting your face around a corner while running at about five kilometers an hour? That can't be a human playing.

Well, sorry to burst the bubble, but they're almost always humans (let's not talk about the cheaters), and we're here to take you to their world and show you what the world of fragging and tagging looks like from their eyes. Welcome to ProMode, your fortnightly dosage of ridiculous displays of gaming skill. We go out of our way and blow our own bandwidth apart to find the best videos and info of those top class gamers so you don't have to.

ProFocus: Quake 3: Arena

For the first episode of ProMode, we're taking a trip through time and going back to one of the most fast paced and frenetic FPS games ever made, Quake 3: Arena.

Known as Q3 for short, the game was widely regarded as one of the most competitive and reflex-intensive FPS games ever made, and it pretty much still is regarded as that today. The competitive scene for Q3 was massive back in the day, with the title making constant appearances in professional gaming arenas such as the World Cyber Games, Cyber-Athlete Professional League and Electronic Sports World Cup. Many players attended these events and displayed a staggering amount of skill and ability. Players such as ZeRo4, Vo0, Cooller, and most notably, Jonathon "Fatal1ty" Wendel showed the world that competitive gaming isn't 'just' a game - it's a sport, with thousands of dollars being the prize of claiming first place in duels.

So, we've just established that Q3 is a game not just for mortals. So what? That's boring. Let's get onto the displays of skill shall we?

ProSkill

We're dedicated to finding awesome frag videos for our viewers to be entertained by, so with that, We've got three Q3 videos to show our viewers today: 'FRA3', 'vo0 vs CZM in CPMA' and 'The Badge 3.0'.

FRA3

'FRA3' is a frag video showcasing the abilities of the French Rocket Arena 3 Community. For those that have no clue what Rocket Arena 3 is, you can check it out right here. In basic terms, it's Team Deathmatch that works like Counter-Strike in that it's round based and when you die you have to wait till next round. You also start off with all weapons, health and armour, and take no self-damage. Now think about all that, imagine what you can do with rockets and jumping, then watch this video:

Yeah, we barely were able to follow at points either. Insane reflexes from the French there. It must be the food. If you'd like to download this video and in much higher resolution, head on over to Quake Unity and download away. Onto the next video!

Vo0 vs CZM, CPMA

This video is not a 'frag highlight' video, but an actual recording of a duel between two well known players, Vo0 and CZM. The only problem here is that the duel is held in CPMA (Challenge Pro Mode Arena), Vo0's territory. CPMA is a mod for Q3 which changes the physics a little so that players have more control in the air, weapons switch instantly, and they can move much faster than normal. Vo0, a German professional gamer, basically owns the CPMA territory and is renowned by the community to be insanely good. Now that you understand what CPMA is, watch Vo0 play and be amazed.

And you thought 'FRA3' was fast? This makes it look slow. Vo0 is definitely not the kind of guy you'd want to fight on a first day in CPMA. Unfortunately we couldn't find a higher resolution version of this video, but alternatively you can get Vo0's frag video right here. It's just as entertaining as it is difficult to follow due to the pace it moves at.

The Badge 3.0
Our personal favourite, The Badge 3.0, is a frag highlight video based off traditional Q3 duels, so no modding bar from some personal player configuration changes. It's a stylish video to watch and slows down at points to make things a bit easier to follow.

Notice how all these high-skill videos feature Europeans? We need to figure out what their diet is. For a high resolution version of this video, Quake Unity is your friend.

Interested in becoming as good as those guys? Too bad, Q3 is clinically dead online. That being said, Quake Live is alive and kicking, and it's free too, so you can start your Quake career today. To give you a bit of a head start, we've researched some tips for you.

L2Play

L2Play (or Learn To Play in the English tongue) is a gift from us to you, where we do some research in tactics, strategies and tricks in games so you get that little bit better. Whether we can do it or not is not the point, we just supply the info.

For Q3 beginners, we're going to straight out suggest you begin learning how to 'strafe jump'. Strafe jumping is one of the most important forms of movement in Q3 - it allows you to swiftly move across the map at breakneck speeds. Learning this technique will help you enormously in your Q3 adventures, and there's no better way to show you how to do it than with this video we've dug up.

Though it may take some time to learn, practice makes perfect, and if you're playing Quake Live actively we're sure you'll pick it up pretty damned quick.

And that concludes the first episode of ProMode. Next episode, we'll be looking at the Call of Duty franchise and seeing how the competitive scene is going. Which of the CoD games we'll be looking at depends on your feedback - feel free post your opinions in the comments section on the forums. Until next time, ProMode out.

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29 Comments

Jaws

3 years ago

Great article.

ZNMS

3 years ago

Quote me on this:

Quake III: Arena - The way deathmatch should be.

Frozencry

3 years ago

ZNMS wrote

Quake III: Arena - The way deathmatch should be.

Quoted and going in my sig tbh.

ObsoletE

3 years ago

some of those video's are simply insane...

Did Quake 3 have the same variable view angle that the UT's had? so that people played as though they were playing through a fish-eye lens?
cos some of those frags you wonder how the frag-er even spotted the frag-ee, unless they use the fish-eye view.

Frozencry

3 years ago

^Yep, Quake has a fov change. Default is 90 on both UT and Quake. Most high tier players play Quake at around 110-120. I personally play at 120. Very fish-eyeish, however it's EXTREMELY fast. One of the best UT duelists in Aus that I actively play with uses 80 fov however, which is ridiculously narrow.

That being said, he averages 70% accuracy. Scary player to duel!

samiboi

3 years ago

*Waits for Eyce to whinge about hackers/cheaters on PC*

EDIT: I should also mention that the article was great.

Aftershock

3 years ago

I read this while listening to the megaman rap. I nearly came. Great article.

Constructive criticism : i think there might possibly have been too many subtitles, seemed to break the flow a little too much. Otherwise it was great.

ace_mclean

3 years ago

Man, I already though i sucked at multiplayer shooters, but this makes me realize that perhaps i was not made to hold a virtual rocket launcher

Matt Bassos

3 years ago

Some great skill there, amazing at the speed of movement and shots, especially midair frags with the Rlauncher. Though as someone who grew up on UT, watching Quake there is something unsettling about it.

I'm pretty sure the default fov for UT3 is 100 as well, as I just reinstalled in recently. It's interesting that you mention Quake users play at 100+ because most pros I duel in UT3 generally prefer it lower like you said. Perhaps due to the greater use of hitscan and prediction with combos to begin with rather then rocket prediction followed by railgun hitscan.

Great article overall, almost makes me want to stomach getting trounced enough in Quake Live to learn it.

And you still owe me a duel in UT3 Denny!

RhysDeschain

3 years ago

Great article, but I honestly find it hard to think of this stuff as cool. It's part of the reason I don't really like multiplayer; losers who spend all day everyday playing these games to the point that a casual gamer like me who only plays a couple times a week can't compete. Sure, that's what rankings are for, etc, but come on. These guys obviously have absolutely no lives.
Oh, what's that? You can snipe someone in mid air and get a one shot kill? How about talking to a girl without breaking out with hives?
I'm sure everyone would be this good at games if they lived in their parents basements, had no jobs and their only friends were the ones in their clan but in actual fact lived in other cities, states and countries (also in their parents basements).

drinniol

3 years ago

RhysDeschain wrote

Great article, but I honestly find it hard to think of this stuff as cool. It's part of the reason I don't really like multiplayer; losers who spend all day everyday playing these games to the point that a casual gamer like me who only plays a couple times a week can't compete. Sure, that's what rankings are for, etc, but come on. These guys obviously have absolutely no lives.

Oh, what's that? You can snipe someone in mid air and get a one shot kill? How about talking to a girl without breaking out with hives?

I'm sure everyone would be this good at games if they lived in their parents basements, had no jobs and their only friends were the ones in their clan but in actual fact lived in other cities, states and countries (also in their parents basements).

Hahahahahaha. Bitter much? You think you're playing twice a week against pro gamers? Dude, you're playing 99% with other casual gamers.

Benza

3 years ago

RhysDeschain wrote

Oh, what's that? You can snipe someone in mid air and get a one shot kill? How about talking to a girl without breaking out with hives?
I'm sure everyone would be this good at games if they lived in their parents basements, had no jobs and their only friends were the ones in their clan but in actual fact lived in other cities, states and countries (also in their parents basements).

HAHA! GENERLISATIONS ARE AWESOME!

Most of these people are pretty normal, they just practice playing quake or street fighter instead of sitting around on forums bitching about how people that practice quake and street fighter don't have a life.

I mean **** look at some pictures of Daigo the world champ at street fighter. That dudes hot.

drinniol

3 years ago

Benza wrote

I mean **** look at some pictures of Daigo the world champ at street fighter. That dudes hot.

Hell look at me - I'm hot, own a house, work full time & have a beautiful partner, plus I pwn noobs in CoD and raid in WoW.

Frozencry

3 years ago

RhysDeschain wrote

Biiig generalisation there. Most if not all professional and semi-pro gamers do indeed have lives, they just play enough of these games to get to the level that they are at.

As an example, I became a pretty high tier player in the UT2004/UT3 scene, while at the same time still had much of a life to live in. Hell, the best UT2004 duelist and one of the best players in the world owns his own shop in Melbourne and works really damned hard.

A lot of these guys are genuine people, and they don't mess with the more casual scene very often - they generally have private servers and set up scrims to fight against their clan mates and other more high tier players.

There are the ones with no lives, but they are few and far between

Matt: Yeah you're absolutely right on the lower FoV usage for UT3. Due to the high reliance on hitscan based weaponry, the lower FoV really helps out in aiming. That being said, I personally can't stand using lower, I always go 110 or so in UT3. My playstyle is preferably very fast so the FoV really helps.

And bah, I don't play UT3 anymore, haven't played it seriously for like a year now! Might jump in one day though

Benza

3 years ago

Any chance of us seeing these done up for games that arn't FPS?

I'd love to see a write up on some of the Street Fighter champs.

Frozencry

3 years ago

Benza wrote

Any chance of us seeing these done up for games that arn't FPS?

I'd love to see a write up on some of the Street Fighter champs.

I've definitely looked into those areas. For the moment it's going to be FPS for a little, as the article will be more focused on the PC gaming scene, however there are 'specials' I'd like to do with certain console games. Well aware how awesome Daigo is to watch play, and hell even the RTS guys like BoxeR from Starcraft and Moon from Warcraft 3.

Ton of things that I can do for this series of articles!

Sin Ogaris

3 years ago

Wicked idea Denny. You should throw up a few of your own videos as well in later installments, hell even throw out a few tips and tricks direct from the mouth of a pro.

Skiller

3 years ago

Nice article, shows exactly why I don't like playing fps games on console, once you've played at that level on PC it's very easy to get frustrated with a controller being too slow (even when you are winning) and the skill base being too crap.

Wish I was still that good but sadly I diversified my games collection drastically so I've lost alot of my skill in favor of a broader collection of skills. Fortunately I had so much skill to begin with that I can still dominate on public servers when I'm having a good day

.

As with some of the others I'd also like to hear about the competitive world of other genres as I've never been particularly competitive in them and would love to know what I've been doing wrong

stick_theory

3 years ago

considering these guys play for hours a day, every day, the chances are really high that most of these are just flukes.

Benza

3 years ago

stick_theory wrote

considering these guys play for hours a day, every day, the chances are really high that most of these are just flukes.

No one was saying they were?

I think just from a spectators point, RTS games are probbably the most boring games to watch on a pro level. I mean you watch those quake videos, or some of the high level fighting game tournies and they're practicly playing a different game to us mortals, RTS games just don't have that same feeling watching them.

That said, seeing some dude destroy his opponent in Warcraft 3 using nothing but the uprooted NE buildings and an army of whisps to repair them was awesome.

Smurf80

3 years ago

WOW nice topic Denny. Those guys are awesome, would be cool to see some of you playing UT3.

Would like to see some of the pros using the control pad as well.

Jaws

3 years ago

I just hit up Quake Live and it sure brings back memories. Runs flawlessly and is a ton of fun.

Frozencry

3 years ago

stick_theory wrote

considering these guys play for hours a day, every day, the chances are really high that most of these are just flukes.

You'd be very, very surprised how often these kinds of shots happen. From playing with a lot of high tier players, I can easily vouch some people pull middies (mid-air rocket hits) and flick rails (the really fast rail shots) a few times per match.

@Benza: yeah RTS can be very boring to watch. I think if I were to do an RTS game I'd have to show some really outstanding content - so that's something I'd have to look into.

Also, general question to everyone: Which CoD game would you most prefer to see in action next episode? I've got plenty of content.

Smurf80

3 years ago

Hahaha Denny you know what the answer to that question is going to be dont you?

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