ReDeYe has posted another one of his ranking reports, with the interesting addition of a specific Quake 4 World Ranking. Based on the results of various tournaments, LAN and online, he's ranked the top 50 Quake 4 players. Cooller unsuprisingly heads the list, with Toxic and fox coming in second and third. TooGoood is the highest place UKer, placing seventh, with Deus in at 14th, Zaccubus at 34th, blunt at 48th, and garpy just making the list in 50th place. Winz tops the list for the French, placing 12th, with socrates_ just edging over chao for the top american spot.

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Signups for the ESL's latest duel cup are open now. There are 64 slots, with the games running on Tuesdays from the 14th of March to the 30th of May. The tournament will be double elimination, and each game is best of three maps, out of a pool of Lost Fleet, Monsoon and Phrantic. You can signup on the site.

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Well, the EC is over and as far as I can tell only 1 clan quit before the cup was over so well done to the 3 people who guessed that, I think I went for 5-9 so I guess I should have more faith...

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PlanetQuake4.net have interviewed id's community relations bod, SyncError. The interview is more focused on who SyncError is, how he got the job and what he does, rather than the upcoming 1.1 final patch, but it's well worth a read.

There has been a shift within the Quake community from a casual FPS game with a "competitive vocal minatory" to a game whose multiplayer field is dominated by competitive players. This shift has made many competition friendly features more important than in previous titles. Such features could never be implemented without close communication with the players to build Quake 4 into the product that everyone desires.

GotFrag have an interview up as well, this one with frenchy CB Eurocup finalist Winz, about his history and success so far.

I think they are right, I don't take those wins as a fair reflection of our level. I stay realistic, I know I will have an harder time winning over Vo0 in LAN but I still think I got good chances to take it.

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It's all go in the world of QuakeWorld, and in duelmania they've reached the semi-finals, with just four players left in the winner bracket. Wins for reppie, razer and Locktar put them into the semis, with Rock^ picking up a suprising default over cge. The full bracket can be found on the site.

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Both the Q4Max and X-Battle teams have released updates to their competition mods, both not compatible with the beta 1.1 patch. Q4Max hits version 0.72, which features numerous bug fixes, and some new features, including ref pauses, an old skool no-lobby duel mode, CTFS (CaptureStrike) and a pretty little wiki. The mod weighs in at about 13MB.

• Jolt
• FragStore
• /quit
• Levi
• PlanetQuake4.net

X-Battle's new release is version 0.20, featuring bugfixes and increased "smoothness", instagib mode, ClanArena, old skool duel mode, and a snarky dig at arQon in the form of a hidden gimmick. X-Battle is also a touch larger than Q4Max, at 15.5MB.

• X-Battle
• Levi
• own3d
• clanservers4u.de

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Against expectations, aCtion have defeated GUNK 3-0 in the final match of the Q4 TDM Eurocup, earning themselves the second ticket to the New York Global Finals. All three maps were close, with just a few frags seperating the two on the first two maps (Q4DM1 141 - 135, Q4DM2 170 - 165) with aCtion taking a slightly bigger win on the final map (Q4DM7 157 - 138). No demos (yet), but there's a capture of the video stream from the match available on Levi.

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On the GGL, Carmac has interviewed Electronic Sports World Cup CEO Matthieu Dallon, who takes the opportunity to slam the WSVG, talk up Trackmania: Nations, and generally give some interesting answers. Well worth a look.

The pure FPS category is a historic e-sport category. It’s one of the two basic roots along with the RTS. There’s no way it can be dropped from the ESWC. I’d even say it’s electronic sport’s reason for existing. The duel FPS, Quake-like, is a discipline of excellence, an elitist discipline that you don’t start enjoying until after years of practice and effort – as with many sports.

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Bif finally escaped the hordes of head admin groupies he is continually plagued with, and wrote up a review of the first week's action in the Jolt Q3 CTF League. Just the one drop out so far, in div 1 of course, though they should be replaced by next week. Demos are here, though I don't think the shoutcasts are up anywhere.

Pick of the Week 2 Fixtures – MobacH vs xQ – The champions of Division 1 & 2 last season come up against each other in what may turn out to be a decisive fixture with regards to the title. Few would bet against MobacH but xQ showed they are in good shape in Week 1 and if they can perform to their full potential they will feel they can take points off the #1 side.

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A couple of articles for the budding duellers among us. First up is the third (I think) installment of cha0ticz strategies, this one the first of a two parter that covers spawns. The second is over on SK Gaming, where swedish star fooki has kicked off his series, titled "Mistakes Duellers Make" with an article on weapon selection, in which he offers a little overview of each weapon, and tips on when you should be using it.

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