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esports
How the Quake Champions esports scene has evolved over the last 12 months
QuakeCon 2018 set the scene for more frenetic Quake Champions arena blasting, but much has changed since the latest Quake first hit the pro scene – we investigate the game’s year-long evolution.
QuakeCon has long been the destination for Quake esports, and that was definitely true for Quake Champions at last year’s event. Champions – a modernised take on the iconic lightning-fast first-person shooter with a newly-added array of differently-skilled heroes to choose from – had just launched in early access, and id Software splashed out $1m on the prize pool to put some momentum behind the competition. It was the long-awaited renaissance of the ‘original’ esport, well before esports was even a thing.
Naturally, Quake Champions was back for QuakeCon 2018 – but this time, the circumstances had changed. The 4v4 Sacrifice team mode was swapped out for a new 2v2 offering, and the total 2v2 and Duel prize pool sat at $200,000. Add in a smaller stage and it stood in stark contrast to last year's big Quake Champions arrival party. But it's still top-tier Quake and the pros didn't disappoint – both tournaments delivered thrilling showdowns and impressive victories, and showcased a game that's improved and changed over the last year.
Quake Champions might not have another million-dollar payday on the horizon, but its esports scene has expanded beyond the bounds of QuakeCon over the past 12 months as id Software work on a sustainable competitive ecosystem. We spoke with pro players and the team behind the game about what's happened over the last year – and what's next in Quake Champions’ evolution.
Familiar faces, fresh fragging
Clawz is now the back-to-back QuakeCon Duel champion
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Quake Champions' 2v2 mode is a new offering that debuted competitively at DreamHack Tours in May, and it was no surprise to see the duo left standing at the end of QuakeCon 2018's tournament: Team Liquid's Tim ‘DaHanG’ Fogarty and Shane ‘Rapha’ Hendrixson. Both are longtime pro Quake legends in their own right, and have shown the dominance of their continued collaboration since Quake Champions started up.
They won the 2v2 tournament at Tours, and did so again at QuakeCon 2018 in a 4-0 smackdown against Blind Trust's Nikita ‘clawz’ Marchinsky and Johan ‘toxjq’ Quick. Liquid claim that they game-planned well for champion picks and bans and played their style of game well, but despite the sweep, they say that Blind Trust's incredible precision kept them on their toes the whole time.
"I felt like I had to just play position even more so than I typically would, because I couldn't really out-deathmatch them, so to speak," DaHanG tells us. "I think their aim and movement skills are stronger than mine. I was playing extra position-oriented, but also trying to make sure I was communicating good information so we could continue to make the best decisions as a unit."
They've been on a roll together across every major event following QuakeCon 2017, winning the Sacrifice tournaments at both DreamHack Denver and DreamHack Winter, along with the 2v2 event at Tours. One QuakeCon commentator suggested that the 2v2 mode feels like it was built specifically for this team's talents. When we mentioned that after the win, Rapha smiled and gave a laugh, chalking it up to their chemistry and strong in-game collaboration.
"I think our communication and coordination is what sets us apart," says Rapha. "It's also our play styles. I tend to do a lot of scouting, and most of the game I scout a lot and give him information. I'm the one that typically goes in first and weakens them, and DaHanG cleans them up. He is such a dominant force because he didn't take much damage, and he holds good position. Then we trade directing either other, and it's a revolving thing. We just do a great job at it."
The eight top teams from the 2v2 championship were then split up and dropped into the Duel bracket for the final day of QuakeCon 2018, and again it was DaHanG in the finals. He won Duel at DreamHack Winter against toxjq, but this time would face off against last year's multi-event champion, clawz. And while DaHanG might have had momentum coming in from the 2v2 win, these two had never matched up in a live Duel before – and clawz crushed him with incredible accuracy to become the back-to-back Duel champion.
"It was nice to play an opponent who isn't used to my style of gaming, because I never played DaHanG in Duel," says clawz. He used his favourite champion, Nyx, who he says is off-meta, and it was his favourite map as well. The stars aligned, and after a first round that went the distance, the next two were strong wins for clawz. It was a moment of redemption following the 2v2 defeat, and a sign that the young gun could be a true Quake threat for some time to come.
And as he strapped on the gauntlet trophy and raised it to the sky, you could see the emotion in clawz. It was excitement and joy, but also relief after a weekend of tense match-ups. "I was shaking, that's how I feel! It was a disaster," he says with a laugh. "It's amazing, amazing."
Sacrificing Sacrifice
Team Liquid has been dominant in Quake Champions
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Sacrifice was the big draw at QuakeCon 2017, as the new team-based mode featured frantic, objective-based action, and seemed like an ideal fit for an organisation-focused esports world. The problem was, as much as the pros loved to play it, Sacrifice was incredibly difficult to follow as a viewer. It was exciting when big moments occurred, as in any esport, but the frenetic second-to-second chaos of Quake Champions gets messier as more players are added to the mix.
"We noticed that a lot of viewers and players, especially coming on to Sacrifice… as much as we love it, it was something that they felt they couldn't really get their heads around fast enough to make it so that it wasn't just a highly, highly competitive mode only," says Joshua Boyle, community manager for Quake Champions.
When we asked players about Sacrifice before the start of this year's tournament, they were all effusive in their love for the 4v4 mode – but it's out of the competitive spotlight for now.
"I really loved Sacrifice," says DaHanG. "It was tough to play 4v4 [at the time] and have good performance on the PCs, but the game has progressed so much – now the game is so much smoother with these patches that have come out. The other issue was that it was tough to spectate sometimes. There were so many things that could be done at the time, with all the camera switching, and things like that. I'm sad to see it go, but happy that they still at least have a team mode."
The new 2v2 mode obviously brings four fewer total players into the fray, but it strikes a smart balance between the legendary Duel mode and something like Team Deathmatch. It still puts a premium on teamwork and communication, as Liquid's success exemplifies, yet it's closer to Duel in terms of needing careful movement and to play the map's angles. Best of all, it's dramatically easier to understand and spectate than Sacrifice was.
"The 2v2 is a more natural extension to that than the 4v4," says Pete Hines, Bethesda's senior vice president of global marketing and communications. "I felt, as a spectator last year, it was just a lot harder to track what's going on, because there's so many people dying as opposed to 2v2, where it's – look, it's you and one other person against them."
Duel will probably always be the heart of competitive Quake, given its long and rich history in the scene and the past QuakeCon champions that have become legends because of it. "We will always honour Duel. Duel is pure, pure Quake, absolutely to its core," affirms Boyle. On the other hand, Duel has always been a big draw in Quake, and even with its Champions-centric tweaks, some pros are eager for fresh experiences around the fragging core.
"I love Duel, but it's nice to see them willing to shake it up a little bit for a year," says Rapha about the focus on 2v2 at this QuakeCon. "I've been playing Duel for so long that it's been really refreshing to play more team modes. It's not like they're not gonna have more Duel tournaments in the future, so I'll definitely have more chances to play it then."
Continued evolution
We're one full year into Quake Champions, and the game just went fully free-to-play to draw in a potentially massive number of new players. Much like DaHanG said about the performance tweaks, Boyle suggests that the myriad improvements and enhancements to the game, while perhaps individually small, add up to a much smoother and more compelling Quake experience. "This has been a monumental year for the game, and how much progress we've made," he says. "It's really exciting."
What's next, then? Now that the core Quake Champions experience is pretty polished and freely downloadable for all, id Software plan to expand. The game will see Capture the Flag added, alongside a new objective mode, Slipgate, and even more diverse champions are sure to be in the mix as well. By the time next year's QuakeCon rolls around, the competitive meta could be entirely different… and the game mode might be, too.
"That's the fun thing. It's kind of like, you don't just have to be stuck in, 'OK we're only doing Duel, you have to be good at Duel, and that's the only professional Quake you can play,'" says Boyle. "We're definitely changing that up and listening so that we can respond, and make it so that we're always putting out things that people think are fresh and are excited about playing competitively."
As for the meta, Boyle says that "like a fighting game, it's ever-changing," and that they're constantly playing with the balance of champion speed, health, abilities, and other traits. In his view, "the depth is infinitely more than all of the other Quakes we've made. And it's a cobblestone of every single other one." It's a view that DaHanG subscribes to, and the reason that he sees Quake Champions enjoying a long competitive life ahead.
"It's cool because Quake Live, for example, was going on for several years, but nothing ever really changed – maybe a new map here or there," says DaHanG. "But with Quake Champions, these patches could really impact the champion balance, and it's almost like you're playing a new game in that respect, at least, because then you're practicing different champions. It's cool that things are being mixed up every few months based on the meta."
QuakeCon 2018 didn't have as much money on offer as last year's blowout, but it's one event in a gradually growing full-year calendar of tournaments. Following QuakeCon 2017, there were three different DreamHack tournaments, including the last in France. Next up is the US$50,000 PGL tournament in Romania in October, followed up by the US$200,000 DreamHack Winter 2018 in November. Rather than have one big, centralised event, the goal is to create more frequent competitive opportunities in more corners of the world. Supporting Quake esports remains paramount to id, says Boyle.
"It's hyper-important to us. With QuakeCon, this is what it was always all about – finding the best players in the world and having them playing in the lowest-ping, most beautiful LAN setting where we can all be together and have this celebration of Quake," he explains. "It's definitely something that we're in full support of. It's really about finding the best opportunities for the modes and the players. Since even last year, we're doing it all around the world now. It's not just, 'Hey, come to QuakeCon. We've got this one North American event. Come join us.'"
The Quake elite will undoubtedly continue to compete at QuakeCon each and every year. But if Quake Champions can continue drawing in new players, surprising fans with its meta shifts, and adding steadier LAN tournaments into the mix, then hopefully we'll find the entire international scene even stronger by the time QuakeCon 2019 rolls around.
