Quakecon Archives - Dot Esports

In a tournament full of veterans and former champions, it was a young upstart from Belarus who emerged victorious.

Nikita “Clawz” Marchinsky was crowned the champion of the first Quake World Championship, defeating Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager in the final with a 3-0 victory.

One player stood out above all the rest at the Quake World Championship, triumphing in both individual and team competitions.

Nikita “Clawz” Marchinsky was one of four 2z players taking home a $300,000 prize in winning the Sacrifice tournament at the Quake World Championship—2z defeated NOT TO FAST in the final.

Some of the biggest names in Quake’s history will find themselves on the outside looking in at QuakeCon, after a European regional tournament filled with tough brackets and upsets.

Given the long list of great players involved in the competition, there was no doubt that some fan favorites would come up short. Most surprisingly, Sweden’s Johan “Toxjq” Quick’s storied career in Quake and two QuakeCon duel titles weren’t enough to carry him through the last stage of qualifiers leading to this year’s QuakeCon.

The list of qualifiers for the Quake World Championship regionals is set, and it’s loaded with big names and blasts from the past.

Announced in June, the Quake World Championship will take place in Dallas, Texas on August 24 at QuakeCon. The annual event is getting a boost this year in the form of a $1 million prize pool as Bethesda looks to drum up interest in Quake Champions.

Some of the best Quake Champions players are set to compete for a chance at heading to the $1 million Quake World Championships later this year.

Quake Champions is the first entry in the Quake series since 2005’s Quake 4. It’s a first-person shooter, and has been in open beta since May 12, with a full release sometime in 2017.

The only major Quake tournament of the year was a thriller, even if it wasn’t exactly what fans were hoping to see.

This year’s Quakecon featured a what it calls a Tri-Master tournament, a $32,000 event pitting teams against each other in three different game types to crown a winner.

One of the true tragedies of the esports resurgence is that duelling games like Quake haven’t risen with it. This weekend will be the only chance fans have to watch a major Quake tournament this year, a sad state of affairs for a game and genre that’s the progenitor of esports itself.

The best Quake players in the world descended on Dallas this weekend for Quakecon, the yearly celebration of all things Id (and now Bethesda). It’s one of the oldest esports events on the calendar and has featured five-figure prizes since 2001. But it’s also an event that’s stuck in that era, compared to the new esports events that have risen along in tandem with the online streaming business.

This week esports history will be made in Seattle at The International, where $11 million will be awarded to the best Dota teams in the world.

History was also made in Dallas, where Belarussian Quake Live player Alexey “Cypher” Yanushevsky won a record fourth QuakeCon championship.

Esports are bigger than they’ve ever been. This weekend alone, one tournament will award nearly $11 million in prize money. Millions of spectators worldwide tune in to watch events streamed over the internet. ESPN is even tossing their hat into the ring.

The first-person-shooter duelling genre may be an afterthought in the modern esports era, but games like Quake pioneered esports and laid the groundwork for this recent explosion.