Formerly a cpm player in Quake 3, Andreas "Andeh" Wahl was convinced by his friend  LocKtar, whom he had known essentially since birth, to play QuakeWorld instead of Quake 3.

Reluctantly, he tried the game on LocKtar's request and LocKtar decided to destroy him on dm4 by a score of 60-0. Demoralized as he was, Andeh still realized the beauty of the game by spectating what LocKtar did in order to win and decided to start his grind to become a good player.

On the 10th of October, 2011, Andeh managed to finally defeat his good friend LocKtar in an official tournament for the first time, solidifying himself as a good player and proving that grinding for hours on end can be worth it.

Hello Andreas, welcome The QUAKE PUB, a virtual pub that helps me with my midlife crisis :-)
I mean, comon, everybody wanted to have his own pub once in a while.

I love how you were introduced to QuakeWorld, it's a story I can identify with and sympathize with <3
I believe many players have exactly the same story as we do. Owned by a friend and got really intrigued by the magic of Quake.

Why do you think, unlike other communities of Quake, players in QuakeWorld are sticking with QW even though they are at the retirement age (Hi  Link!)? What is that magic you see in QuakeWorld?

Well, many are so far into their lives that the time and effort it takes to learn a new game becomes a barrier that they don't have time to overcome.

Further, I think many are just happy with the state of QuakeWorld.

It's sort of a constant in everybody's lives, a game that doesn't change, doesn't need patches or balance updates, it works exactly the same now as it did 20 years ago. It's a familiar face that remains a comfort when our lives change drastically around us as we get older.

Just out of curiosity, how old is the oldest player you have in QW?

I think that would be the Finnish player  Anza, born in 1963. Though I'm sure there have been older players that are no longer active.

We have a wide range of players though as we seem to attract younger people
who are looking for a hardcore arena FPS experience.

There are other similar games out there, but none of them with nearly the same scene and activity as QuakeWorld, which is why people turn to our 25 year old game, rather than play a newer game without any consistent activity.

QuakeWorld changed alot throughout 25 years of it existence. 

We are about to celebrate 25 years exactly on 13th December. Anything special prepared for the anniversary?

Hah, well, we have a bunch of running competitions but I've heard rumors of a few events around the world.

Mostly though, I think we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

Since prehistoric era, where we were able just to post and compare demos against Frog Bots and Omicrons for example, through the early days of ClanBase to the magnificence of Quakeworld.nu.

When you look back, did you imagine that QuakeWorld will be there for such a long time, and if you should name a few personalities that were important for holding the community together?

There are so many factors at play here.

Many thought QuakeWorld would die with the release of Quake 3, and then with the release of World of Warcraft, and then the death of X or Y tournament, but all the while we've persisted.

There are a few very important enthusiasts in the scene that have helped it stay really active, but it's hard to single out a single person.

I believe as long as the ability to host a server is there, people will keep playing even if there wasn't any tournaments or scene. For that reason, I don't think QuakeWorld will ever truly die.

The QuakeWorld community created various tools that set you up for a game nQuake and ezQuake, and allows you to broadcast it with all modern features like item timers.

What is the best way for new players that got interested in QuakeWorld to jump in?

QuakeWorld is very rookie friendly, simply go to www.nquake.com and download the client.

Then use either the in-game server browser, or bookmark the homepage badplace.eu for easy server browsing.

I would recommend joining the official QuakeWorld discord through discord.quake.world, and make use of the QWiki!

It is a very helpful tool, and it even has its own rookie section.
You can find that here: www.quakeworld.nu/wiki/Qwrookie

Does the new Quake Remastered somehow help the community to see new players in multiplayer and do you still see newbies in QuakeWorld?

Given the play time and experience all great QW players have in game, is there chance for new players to reach that Div1 Tier?

To the first question, Quake Remastered (or KexQuake as we, and many others call it) doesn't really interact with QuakeWorld.

It is its own thing, and hasn't helped us, but it has brought some attention to the game "Quake" which is always a good thing regardless. 

To the second question, I already kind of answered that in a previous answer.

There are many beginners in QuakeWorld because we tend to attract the personalities that are fit for the space, whether it's arena FPS players from other games that have faded into history, or if it's a youngster who wants something a little more hardcore than some of the mainstream games. As to skill levels, some pick up the basics very quickly and some take longer.

For example, the American player  Zorak has only been playing since July 2021 and is already one of the absolute best North American players.

He has a background in arena FPS, but his skill quickly translated into QuakeWorld. Fear not though, because even if your skill level is on a beginner's level, there are plenty of other players at that level as well, so you will always be able to find games against similarly skilled players.

Whose idea was it to settle “disputes in the Community” in Organ Grinder? And are you happy with the impact of that show?

The idea as a whole all started with  Jehar. It's taken some time to get the QuakeWorld community to understand what Organ Grinder is about, but it seems people are catching on.

We've had a couple of interesting fights already, culminating in that amazing 4on4 battle between  Suddendeath and  Slackers.

WATCH VOD

I think Organ Grinder is the perfect platform to fight someone specific, and it's a very different experience to the traditional bracket tree, plus everyone gets paid!

We were also really lucky to see such an amazing series - it could have easily been a 3-0. We were truly blessed.

One of the main reasons I'm so glad you accepted my invitation is to ask you about GetQuad! Draft 5

What is the main reason behind doing draft tournaments in 4on4?

The concept of draft tournaments started "for real" back when the European Quake League (EQL) realized that their league was coming to an end.

The teams started becoming very top heavy, with the best playing only with the best, which created this incredibly skilled but also exclusive division 1, a division which no other team wanted to be in unless they had a legitimate chance of winning. This led to a very stale situation with only 3-4 teams wanting to actually play in division 1.

From the ashes of that, a draft tournament called Salvation was born, and it was a success! The teams were mostly balanced, and players got the opportunity to play with people they never expected to play with.

After Salvation closed its doors, GetQuad was founded and took the role as the main draft tournament, and has been going ever since

QuakeWorld 4on4 is one of most structured Team Plays in AFPS, if you should describe the main rules of how teams are usually working in the Arenas. What would they be?

What are the main tasks team and are players usually appointed to some specific roles?

This is probably a deeper question than you realize.

The strategy involved in 4on4 QuakeWorld is so developed and evolved
that it might be difficult to grasp, and sometimes intimidating.

I could write an entire book about it,
but normally you'd want a good mix of players in your team.

You need to have your version of a superstar, the guy you expect to win the important fights and run the quads, but you also want a support "grinder" or two, who excel at being in the opponent's faces even without a weapon.

It's hard to describe how annoying a good support player can be with only a shotgun. Not only will they connect with their boomstick shots while dodging a lot of your damage, they'll also always be at the right place at the right time, supporting their superstar players making sure that they survive even if the support dies.

Every game is unique however, so in a perfect world, each player is ready to take any of the roles in a certain situation in a game. Aside from the overall 4on4 strategies out there, there are also map specific strategies.

A good example of that is DM2, where a good team will have set positions for each player whenever they are in control, in order to capitalize on as many frags as possible during the time they manage to stay in control, in what we call a "map lock".

To try and prevent myself from getting carried away, I'd say you want at least one superstar on your team and ideally two, together with two support players, who may not get top frags but do the dirty work of things that need to be done throughout a game.

When I saw yours sdCup #5, I could not resist the cold spreading through my body.

What is Frozen Five? And how much does it change gameplay on dm2 and dm4 for example?

Hah! How nice that you've heard of it.

The Frozen Five originated as a very random idea by  bps. He's one of the best players in the scene, but he moonlights as the occasional map-maker and a part from creating the starting map of almost all the servers (maphub), he has recreated a few other maps.

This time he had the idea of adding snow and ice to the Big Five.
Ironically, he started the project during the summer.

When it comes to gameplay, it is changed slightly due to the removal of lava. Lava is now snow or ice, which means you won't burn to death. That could open up interesting angles that didn't exist before, or it may do absolutely nothing, who knows?

We'll see if the players manage to get creative, or if the games play out the way they normally would.

Sign up and try them yourself!

12th of December, 19:00 CET - be there!

Thank you for your time, and we will see each other on the GRAND FINALS of GetQuad!
where  Milton's Mutants and  Bps' Badboys face each other!

Thank you! Yes, don't miss the grand finals on Thursday!! It'll be awesome!