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Between Two Quads #2 - Interview with Rampage

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  • Between Two Quads #2 - Interview with Rampage

    If I do no more interviews from this day forward I will retire as a happy man. This next interview is the reason I went into Journalism… The guy needs no introduction other than his name flashing across your screen as he pounces over your dead corpse. However, I am going to give you an introduction. This Quake legend is arguably the most skilled and famous player after Thresh or the time period I refer to as Quake: AT. (1999-Present). He is what we call a triple threat in the quake community. He can beat you at CA, CTF, and DM. Gentlemen, please help me in welcoming…. R A M P A G E !!!!!!!!



    Quakeone:Rampage, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to stop by Quakeone.com and, enlighten us with your Quake memoirs. I would like to point out a guilty pleasure of mine really quickly. Above this, in the introduction, the last word is your name spaced apart with multiple exclamation points. I almost always say your name like this in my head when I see you pop up on a server. I have no idea why either. It could be the countless hours of sitting in front of Nintendo playing Rampage or the numerous MMA fights watching the person who stole your name. Regardless, I don’t think I am the only one that takes notice when you join a server. How did you come up with that name?

    Rampage: hahah, yeah Rampage used to be one of my favorite fighters in Pride too (not so much in the UFC), but he’s not the reason I came up with the name (didn’t know him at the time). I’m not really sure to tell you the truth. My first nickname I ever used in Quake was when I started out on multiplayer at around 12-13 was ‘Dead Angel’, I then moved onto ‘Happy Gilmore’ once I started playing more regularly (having just watched the movie I decided to take on that moniker). At some point in my teenage years age 15-16 I made the switch over to Rampage because I thought it was a bad ass name, and it represented some sort of suppressed aggression I had inside as a teen. By the way it’s kind of creepy that you say my nickname like that every time I join a server, but we’ll let that slide J



    Quakeone: I would say that most people know you by your first name and as much as I would like to continue saying your name, would it be alright if we continued this interview addressing you by your birth name, Tal?

    Rampage: No. Kimp would like that too much, and start asking me random questions about my life, or telling me he loves me in Hebrew (“ani hoav otha” – as he puts it).


    Quakeone: Okay…. Rampage it is.

    Quakeone: I want to be truthful with our audience today and explain to them how long I have been trying to get you to do an interview with us here at Quakeone.com. I have begged and pleaded with this guy for MONTHS until he finally caved in. Again we are grateful that you chose us as your primary media outlet and I hope we can live up to our reputation.

    Rampage: I don’t think I deserve that kind of praise. I spent some of my later years in Quake trying to be cool with people and make up for being mostly a douche teenager who didn’t know himself too well, as well as being a good influence in the community – and I look at this interview as an extension of that; that despite the fact I’m not really playing anymore and I’m living overseas, that I can still do something for a game that is many years past it’s expiry date and somehow still has a bunch of people who care about each other whether they admit to or not.

    I honestly spent a lot of time in my earlier years trash talking, clan hopping, and involving myself in shit throwing battles with people who saw me as some sort of a competitive threat to their Quake being (it didn’t help that I had a short fuse and a few words could trigger me to respond). For me, this interview is all part of a self-discovery process that lets me connect with people who I’ve played with for a long time. I’ve played many other games competitively (StarCraft, counter-strike namely), and many console games as well, but somehow I always shelved those and kept Quake around despite how many fucking times I’ve deleted it because I had some sort of inferiority complex about being addicted to it. Nothing really ever gave me an adrenaline rush like this game.


    “Rampage has always been an extremely talented player. He's been a great friend (if you can call these e-gaming relationships those, I can and DO) throughout the years and I'm 100% positive that we'll stay in touch even after a thick blanket of dust covers this game we love and hold so dearly in our nostalgic minds and softened hearts.”

    –MindfieldzX!


    Quakeone: Rampage, I have to ask you right off the bat, no bullshit, how, are you so good at Quake? This is not meant to flatter you or meant to embarrass you. This is a question that has been pondered by thousands for more than a decade, and demands a scientific answer. How did you become so great at Quake? You know what, don’t answer that right away. We will come back to that.

    Quakeone: I have played Quake since about August of 1996… I have never been a great player but I have had the opportunity of watching many great players over the years. All different mods from the original DM, CTF, CA, RA, etc…. These great players make the average player like I look like neophytes, but once in a blue moon (not the beer); a truly epic player is witnessed. Epic old generation players like Thresh, Unholy, Rix, Frick, Gollum, Xenon, Nikodemus, Lakerman, Chaoticz, Reptile, and next generation players like, Lenny, Bruce, Spoon, Cata, and Wolv. These are some of the top players to have ever played the game of Quake and you are right there with them if not better in some aspects. We are talking about 10s of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of players over the last 17 years and you are easily in the top echelon of players, the top 1% of people to have ever played this game. That impresses me on so many levels and I am going to touch on that later. For now I want to give you the floor. Please explain yourself. Explain what separates you from the other 99%.
    Last edited by Solecord; 09-21-2013, 04:43 PM.

  • #2
    R ampage: Whew alright, let’s hope I can address the entirety of your question. First I’d like also state that I’m glad you included guys like Wolv in the next gen category. I really think most of the other guys get their due respect, but most people don’t mention Wolv, if at all, when bringing up some of the best recent-to-current players talent wise.

    As for myself, I used to have a lot of issues with looking at past accomplishments and being really hard on myself, and I think in a weird critical kind of way, that has always been a motivator to make me achieve more in whatever area I’m putting my mind into.

    Nowadays, I look at every aspect of life as an evolution. As a parallel, I’ll use working out as an example. Right now I’m into working out, I hit the gym 3 times a week, and I’ve been going for roughly 4 years. But if you look at me 4 years ago, I was chunky and out of shape, and today I have a lot of lean muscle and I’m still progressing because I’m never quite happy with where I’m at – and this allows me to look at everything as a learning process where I have to keep improving. When I started out I didn’t know what I was doing, and I had little motivation to keep going, but I stuck it out, and today I can’t see myself not working out – I even get angry when I miss one gym day. This isn’t to talk about how I work out, rather, to look at anything in your life as an absolute evolution – much like a video game. You start off being a newbie in every aspect of anything you try, but repetition/practice, competition, and sticking it out will result in you being the greater sum of the parts that led you there in the first place. I think every part of life is a journey in that sense.

    When I look at Quake, I started off as an absolute newb. I would play my next door neighbor modem-to-modem (he got me into trying Quake in the first place after my childhood friends and I would regularly get together to play SNES games). He would stock up on items before I connected and knew how to use a mouse, and I was a keyboarder. I would run and bump into walls, I would take my time to aim, and I was just atrocious. Not to get too much into the history of things because I think that would put people to sleep, but I have a lot of pride and a competitive edge when I play and this helped me get better naturally over time. As far as what makes me different is in my opinion my mental edge and creativity. When I play – this is not to sound egoistic - as a motivator and in order to play well – I always get excited when good guys are on the server and I tell myself that I am going to absolutely dominate the game and make sure I win and come out on top at the same time – both of those are my goals every time a game starts out against high level guys, and I think that’s what pushed me to become a top player. I go out of my own body in a lot of ways and lock into my mind/visuals, and I get into a zone every time I play, I’m not thinking really, the game just becomes an extension of me and I’m able to creatively manipulate things the way I want them to happen. Take CA for example, I never used to RJ like that, but a lot of that came with time, where in the middle of a game I’d suddenly pull out a new move in the middle of the action because I was reacting to another player. Later on when I reflected on the particular game where I pulled specific moves off for the first time, it hit me that I just did something I’ve never done before – I’d then recreate that same move and continue using it from thereon – and it was a complete spur of the moment thing.

    While hardware is important, I think it essentially comes down to the practice/repetition aspect, but that you also have to have certain genetics/natural talent play a role – like your hand/eye coordination. I think there are guys who may not be as good as me who definitely played more than I did, and I attribute that somewhat to having superior genetics, and I think that’s the case in a lot of things, be it video games or professional sports or most aspects of life. I suck at ping pong, and even if I practiced my ass off, I still wouldn’t be as good as a top guy despite putting in the same amount of hours or more, so I think there has to be a certain level of passion and giftedness in anything you succeed at – because hard work + talent can get you further than someone who only has the hard work part down.

    Moreover, from a logical/tactics standpoint, I would also say that the game slowed down for me over time because of experience. When you’ve seen so many things in a game, and you’ve played a lot (across various mods + maps), you get a sixth sense for certain things. When I play, I can feel where my opponent is going or what their motive is, and I use that intuition to put myself in superior positions or make prediction shots or wait on them at the right spot, and it helps me be one step ahead of that person.

    Believe it or not, I also have a memory of almost every single person I play against. If I play you more than twice, I will likely pick up most of your tendencies and I will learn pretty quickly what your patterns are (where you like to go, which weapons you rely on, where your strong spots or weak spots are, etc.). I think this helps me tremendously when I play against people, because it comes down to me knowing your tendencies, and putting myself in a greater position to succeed because I took the time to map out my opponents’ skills (this is mostly applied on a subconscious level the first few times when I play people, and later on I bring it to the surface when I’m facing people over and over again).

    I would say all of these areas are interconnected and helped me become a top level player. Like I stated before and to reference your original point, in order for me to become one of the best players, I need top competition and guys who will keep me grounded by making me realize that I still make mistakes game-wise and that I still can always learn new things and get better. I’ll use some examples of particular players who helped me evolve:

    In 3wave CTF, Kwong-Lo was always a step ahead of me for a long time. He would wipe his ass with me on most maps. The more I played (and the less he played), it got to a point where I was able to pick up some things from his game sense and all-around defense/middle/offense skills. I was able to develop, and eventually overcome him with my own skill and game sense. I learned so much from him, sometimes we’d be up at 2-3 in the morning just hooking around, we’d compete for faster flag caps, or he would show me how to run a flag faster than my conventional way of doing it, and these little things accumulate and help you when you’re in actual game time. I think he had a genius for map control, and he’s one of the most underrated CTF players of all time (and rarely mentioned for that matter). What I took away from it was to dissect people who were better than me at the time, and I’d spend time 1v1ing guys or just shooting the shit on a server with individual players (Residence HDz, DO Arcane, Nightmare, Woods etc.).

    I also spoke about this previously in other threads, but watching Unspoken just kept me in awe. It showed me what pure talent could do. When I was not as good at 3wave back in the early 2000’s I would sit around with guys like Woods and toiletduck alone on a server and literally just watch them hook around Red Alert and Elder for long periods of time. I didn’t even understand why I did this, but I had a lot of reverence for those guys because I felt like they were pioneers of the new generation style of hooking (especially if you watched them play against each other as LPBs – it was pretty incredible). Guys like Visine taught me that you can go under the radar and still dominate a game. If you’re smart, you don’t need the fanciest tricks in the book, you can just be a solid teammate and be at the right place at the right time, have good aim/game sense/map sense, and be in control. I think having people who grow with you at the same time is equally important. I used to play often with guys like Voodoo and Alphabet HDz (as well as Enemy_X, Colon aka Koops, and Darkbird), we were all mostly HDz members or recruits at the time and got to develop together and play a lot. At that time I was like a sponge, and I was just taking so many skills from so many different places by watching guys and making sure I always faced high level talent – which led to me becoming a much better player.

    In CA, guys like Spoon, Cata, Wolv, and even Goblin, kept me in check. I got to the height of the CA ladder only to face those guys and realize that I still had to maintain a high level of play, and had to bring my A game every time those guys stepped on the server. I saw all these guys bring different things to the table. Spoon is the most elusive, he had a natural way of mirroring his opponent and one-upping them, but he’s one of the best ever at evading damage while dishing it out. He’s a horror to face in water, and it’s very hard to pick up on his patterns because he knows what you’re thinking he’s going to do – and he does the opposite – it’s always a big counter-game chess match with him. Even in team games, you can tell he always has an objective, and it’s usually to wipe out the other team’s top player, so he makes sure to reserve himself for when that moment comes – in that sense I have a lot of respect for what he brings to the table, and I’ve probably faced him in 1v1 5000 times – it really transcended my own abilities and helped me become much better at CA. When Cata came around, I thought I was flawless, and the guy was just bringing in all kinds of new RJ’s and dodges, he was really innovative but he had incredible aim on top of it. I was actually practicing my aim daily (particularly shaft) to make sure that I could keep up with him – and eventually be able to kill him regularly – most of our fights always ended up 50/50 and I would take the blunt end of it when I’d kill him.

    Comment


    • #3

      Guys like Goblin reminded me so much of myself, because no one really thought much of him, but the guy was like a sponge. He’d be the only one on servers daily just waiting to play anyone and everyone. The guy would demo himself and top players consistently and watch demos all the time to analyze his own mistakes and apply himself better next time. He would ask me questions when we were alone on a server, and he would always want to play me when no one was around because he wanted to do nothing but get better. He told me of how he would apply a mathematical sense to the game, he would look at it logically and how he could get better, and that’s exactly what he did. I saw this guy evolve right in front of my eyes from a low level talent to a very solid player that gave fits to everyone (and he did it within a matter of months – much faster than my own evolution by all means). Lastly, with Wolv, I saw a guy with a fearsome LG. I prided myself on the fact that I had one of the best LGs in the game, but wolv pretty much took it to another level. Every time I played him I made sure to play smart, I had to use angles and RJs just to keep a distance because I didn’t want to get into a shaft fight with him. Facing Wolv at mound pretty much meant death. The thing with any of these guys and other top players is that it becomes a pick your poison type situation. In a lot of ways, you have to be aware that you have a high chance of dying, or if you win, you won’t have much health after a straight up battle. So you have to play super smart, pick your shots, stay away from their strengths, and play evasive cat and mouse type hit and run (especially by having a strong RJ game to boot to compliment that – which makes it easier). I’m not sure where my aim ranks in CA amongst the top guys, I think I hit a lot of great shots, but my strength lies in my speed, I hit and run and come back around pretty fast for a few more.. My strategy has always been to leach damage over time and by then I’ve taken little damage while knowing that I’ve drained their health dramatically.. This allows me to go in and finish them without having to worry too much. This has always been my strategy against top guys for the most part.

      What kept me playing within the past 5-6 years is that around 08 there was a brief resurrection in CTF and in CA as well. Guys like Bib from U4 (jack burton) came back along with Cata, and it made everything super competitive. As for CTF, CD/HW/Shaolin/Bosh came back around 08 and we got great games in each and every single week. It was really nostalgic, and I didn’t know CD from the olds chool 3wave days, so seeing how good he and HW were really made it fun. They loved to team up against me and it was a hell of a challenge trying to win games and take on them both.

      So all in all, it wasn’t an overnight thing by any means, I didn’t just wake up one morning and suddenly I knew how to play Quake, it was cumulative. I faced a lot of amazing players, I used my own creativity to evolve my own game and bring new things to the table (I think I can argue that a lot of my in-game RJs in CA were things people never saw before), and I applied logic to the game in that I learned who I’m facing and how to adapt on the fly to whatever they were doing. Even when I thought I’m at the top, someone else came along who made me realize that I can still enjoy the game and still learn more because I’m not the only one that’s good out there.



      “Ramp has a unique style I like to call ninja shaft. I guess I have played with ramp a lot in the day you know. He is able to RJ around map with speed and agility of a Ninja while maintaining 30+% Bot shaft. Similar to Tool and other Ninja styles but a lot more trampy'er. RL's to the Ninja's kneecaps for bounce is key. And Ninja's cannot swim. Anyways ramps tier 3...fine... 4 ... playing style is to be ph33r'd by most tier 3... I mean 4... players”

      -Lust



      Q uakeone: Going back to what I wanted to touch on earlier… I believe there is a direct correlation between success in a video game and success in real life. As controversial statement as that is, give me a chance to explain it, and I believe you will understand my point. I don’t necessarily mean being successful at an online video game will translate into success in real life. Come on, how much success does it take to sit in your mom’s basement and play WoW 24/7 so you have the most epic gear? I’m not referring to those types of players. I’m talking about the ones that just seem to be on another level than your standard player. The ones that can consistently out level you in a MMOPRG. The ones that are always getting the checkered flags first in racing games. The ones that are always on the top of the scoreboard in FPS games. These are the players that somehow seem to know something you don’t. They seem to glide where you stumble. They have some super-secret cheat book that gives them an edge that you can’t obtain but whatever H4X you envision them having, it isn’t that. It is skill, either natural or honed over the years, coupled with a never give up attitude that keeps them ahead of you, and those same attributes are what can lead you to having a more successful life. What are your thoughts on this and does this apply to you? Are you successful in life outside of games?

      Rampage: I think I’ve coincidentally answered the majority of this question in my previous response. To answer the second part of the question, I think the ideas I had about being successful compared to now (I’m 27) are vastly different. What is perceived as success and what defines success means something else for every individual person. I used to think success was represented by what you gained monetarily, but over time I realized it’s my ability to influence others (my friends, my family, and even strangers who you happen encounter for a brief moment).

      I think what changed for me is that I’ve been able to create really meaningful relationships with great/honest people. I had a lot of bad influences in my life early on, and as I learned more about myself and matured, I met more positive and likeminded people and I stopped resenting others. I was an introvert throughout most of my teenage life (I just liked hanging out with a few childhood friends). I didn’t really like social situations, and I’d hate the idea of say - setting up a social event (like a BBQ) and having a bunch of people that I only got to know recently come get together and have some fun and learn more about each other.

      As you get older, you learn to cultivate relationships and nurture them, you become happy by being around people who mean something to you, you share ideas, and you help open doors for one another. I would say that’s been my greatest lesson in my late 20’s, because I had a pretty dysfunctional teenage life, I liked to smoke weed a lot and play video games in order to have a mental escape.

      As far as my monetary success, I’ve taken some big financial risks, I dropped out of school to grow a business despite a lot of naysayers around me – I went against the grain, and that’s something that’s built into certain character types. There have been plenty of mistakes and failures along the way, I’ll continue making them, because that’s what helps me get better. I’ve been running a small business for 3 years now (I had another one for 3 years before this with an ex-partner), so overall I’ve been in the small business game for 6 years. I would say I’m definitely hitting my stride, I have clients both in Canada and overseas (recently had one in South Africa), and I also have clients here in Hong Kong. I made the move to Hong Kong because of my girlfriend, I had to sacrifice pretty much everything back in Canada and move to a place where I didn’t really have any footing, but I think it’s been one of the greatest moves of my life. I live in a densely populated area, and it forced me to come out of my shell and meet people on a daily basis, and it’s been hugely rewarding, and I couldn’t be gladder that it happened.



      “For a Canadian, he grapples just as well as me. With a little practice, he may end up even better than WhipKid.”

      -Monoz



      Q uakeone: Whew, let’s take a break from the seriousness and find out some of your background that we are all eager to learn. First, when did you start playing Quake and how did you get started? What was your first memory where you were blown away by this game?

      R ampage: Wow my first memory when I was blown away by this game.. It’s tough to say, there are many.. I can probably cite a few. The first time I ever 1v1’d in 3wave, I was pretty much thrown into the lion’s den. Nuke HDz was sitting on a server by himself with 200 ping, I had no idea who he was, and I really didn’t know CTF8 strongbox (the first ever map I saw in 3wave). We somehow got into a 1on1… and he pretty much just did anything and everything he wanted.. I thought to myself “this is the greatest Quake player I have ever seen”.. I mean I was coming from a place of ignorance because I was always playing pub CTF scrag servers and stuff so I had no idea there was a world outside of that with 3wave.. To this day I remember how impressive everything Nuke did was, especially at his ping.. He had a great hook, shaft, and rocket aim; it was probably made easier by the fact that I was a complete newb facing one of the mainstay guys in CTF at the time.

      As I’ve already spoke about Woods and toiletduck, another eye opening experience was watching Unspoken xUx play Quake.. it was poetry. The guy used to sit mid in CTF1 and just perfectly aim through the rail cracks at the bottom of people’s feet in mid action surrounded by chaos with guys firing left and right around him. I would just see him man handle 2-3 guys in mid with no problem and not even sweat. He had a smooth hook ala Woods/TD (toiletduck), but he had better aim than either of them combined bar none. The guy is probably the greatest CTF player of all time, and half the population of Quake doesn’t even know who he is. He pretty much wiped the floor with every top level player. I’ve seen him with just an LG defend the flag/base on red alert for 5 minutes with nonstop action coming at him. It made me think that it was possible for me to achieve that level of play as well, and it gave me an appreciation for certain skill level (as I had never seen such a wide discrepancy between one player and another).

      Comment


      • #4
        The last experience I would say is watching clan nwo (no way out) in CTF (this pre-dates unspoken and those guys). I just thought they were totally bad ass, they had a cool website, and they had all these elite guys in their team that no one really gave credit to (dubious, ice, visine, and a bunch more guys). This was one of the most skilled teams I saw in Quake. All now members were good individually and as a unit. It gave me appreciation for clans, it got me more serious about Quake, and made me want to be in a clan and be part of something.

        Most of these experiences stem from 3wave CTF, because CA came later on and at that point I didn’t really feel that anyone stood out per se (CA/DM had a lot of cheating scandals going on at that time as well which kind of diluted the scene).



        Q uakeone: What did you play in those days? When did you make the jump to CTF full time? When did you decide to make the jump to Clan Arena? What prompted the switch? It seems like Quake went through its first slow down circa 1999 or about the time Quake 3 came out. CTF was the reigning king of popularity at the time but over the next few years it seems like RA and CA started to become popular.

        Rampage: At the beginning I played on mplayer with my neighbor. We would play in pub Scrag CTF servers, eventually my neighbor stopped playing and I carried on because I really enjoyed the action. One of my first experiences (outside of the Nuke thing) in 3wave was Ramled from RuM playing a lot on pubs with me and telling me to join in on RuM 3wave practices. I was still a keyboarder at this time (was about my 2nd or 3rd year playing Quake overall). I got into 3wave and started playing on a private RuM server with maxed out with around 30 people. It was the most absurd thing you’ve ever seen, we would regularly have 8 on 8’s, and it was just chaos and a lot of fun as well. When they learned I was a keyboarder, they helped me transition over to using the mouse, and it took a couple weeks but it made such a dramatic difference that I was better within a few days of switching over.

        I didn’t make the RuM cut (I know, right??) because I was really bad at that time. I took that quite personally, and decided to branch off and make my own team. We called it FoX, and I was able to get guys like DaKnown and Flesh to join, and we actually became quite formidable, but we weren’t together long enough to make it work because certain guys had cancerous personalities and wanted it to be about them.
        After FoX I just kept playing alone both on pub servers and in CTF and I got a lot better over time from all the pickups. I joined HDz for a bit, and shortly thereafter I was playing with Toronto guys regularly (Kwong, BB, Bosh, Nightmare). We made the clan X5 (which was all Toronto guys) and pretty much ruled the east CTF scene for a while, while DO was handling the west.

        What happened around this time is that Quake3 just took over, CTF guys were leaving left and right, and I heard about Erols CA and decided to check it out. I was pretty good at CTF at this point (nowhere near dominant, but definitely a tier 2 player), and wanted to try myself out in another realm. CA had a really live scene, there were clans like Bogo, d3m, iov, tem, DOOM, in10sity and many many more taking part, and it was so competitive and fun.

        I still would play CTF here and there but CA became mainstay once I joined Bogo with Sting, l33t, azure, etc. I just liked how you didn’t have to commit to 20 min matches (especially if you were short on time), and it was just fast paced nonstop action, you could always get your reps in and leave at any point; that’s what prompted me to stay over, especially once we got into scrimmaging on a regular basis.



        Q uakeone: What mod were you the best at? Which one is your favorite and why?

        R ampage: “Were??” That’s a tough question. I guess you would have to ask people who knew me from both mods (CA and CTF). I would argue I was one of the top level players in either mod, but I believe I’m a better CTF’er than I am a CA’er. In CTF I am one of the best at controlling all 3 positions simultaneously (defense/mid/offense). I react really fast to what’s happening and I have good map awareness. Some of my risk taking comes out full force in CTF, you’ll often see me grab flag, and instead of running back to base, I’ll even go back to the enemy base to retrieve my team’s flag if I see my teammates are unable to do it, especially when the game is close and being decided by a few captures.

        I just feel I’m more of a complete player in CTF than I am in CA. In CA some people can still have my number if they out-wait me in the right spots, and occasionally I go away from my RJ game (which is the backbone of my CA style). You won’t really see this type of drop-off from me in CTF if ever, I manage to help bring my team back even when we’re down by lopsided scores and win games, and I don’t really think there are people who are able to game-plan for me as far as CTF goes because I have better all-around skills in that particular mod whereas in CA it’s easier to develop patterns (especially because of repeating DM3 over and over again – your patterns become extremely pronounced).

        My favorite mod would have to be CTF hands down (since you’ve seen me bring it up several times now). I just think it’s the most complete mod. CTF allows you to see behavior types as well, you can see who is selfish, you can see who’s a team player, and if you work cohesively it’s a thing of beauty. Visine and I were on a team once and ran up the scores to 600 each in a 2v2 on CTF1. It was probably the most dominant performance I’ve ever been a part of, and we weren’t facing scrubs either. We weren’t chatting or sharing locs, we were just connecting based on our compatible skill levels. When I would come in for a cap, within seconds of me touching the flag, he would be off and running for the next cap and I’d be on defense, we would transition seamlessly between defense, mid, and offense, and to me CTF requires the most skill.

        You have to know what is going on with your teammates at all times, you need to be at the right spots at the right time, you have to know how to cut off flag runners, you have to run quads (sometimes multiple quads at once), and you need everyone playing their part correctly and covering for each other if there is a drop off in any of the three major positions (defense, mid, offense). Like DM, CTF is very momentum based; if one team suddenly goes on a flag run the entire game can change. I’ve lost some epic games in tournaments where my team literally lost by a cap in the closing seconds after a see-saw affair all game long. In CA, I can still blink and take a breather, most of the time when I’m playing CTF (especially against the best guys) my eyes tear up and I’m not even able to blink because of the constant action and focus required to multi task. I just think the added elements of capturing flags makes for such exciting games, that it’s the best mod to observe from an action standpoint. There is nothing more exciting than when you’re chasing a flag runner down with a minute left and you’re down by a cap, especially when you’re holding flag yourself, if you retrieve it, you have to run your ass all the way back and cap it while the clock is winding down, and to me that’s just intensely fun. I’ve had games where we were up by a few points with literally no time left, and I would suicide and spawn close to their flag, take it, and I’d be running away from 3 guys with very low health and just having to use evasive tactics and shortcuts to get away.. There is really nothing like it as far as Quake goes, and I think any true CTF’ers can vouch for this as well. So yeah, it’s hands down my favorite mod.



        "Look, Rampage is somewhat you have to hate to love. He'll beat you to death five times over before you recognize him for the heart, the skill and the love for the game he has. Rampage and I have not always seen eye-to-eye --- we've had conflicts before that I hope are long since passed --- but let me tell you --- this guy is a Quake patriot to the core and everyone with any Quake in their blood knows it."

        -Baker



        Q uakeone: Can you remember all the clans you were in and would you mind listing them for us? Any of them stand out for any reason? Which was your favorite one and who did you make the most real life friends with?

        Comment


        • #5
          Rampage: All the clans… I might have to pull out a scroll parchment here.. The list is far too long lol. It’s probably better if I just list some of the first clans and the major teams I was a part of.

          The first clan I ever joined was called CD (**** demons – no really I don’t remember what CD stood for).

          In the CTF scene I’ve most notably been a part of X5 (Kwong, Nightmare), HDz. I was more in the second generation of CTF guys when a lot of clans had died off already, because while I was pubbing teams like GuN, Hifi, Anti, and a few others were dominating the CTF scene.

          In CA, I was a part of Bogo, i0v, in10sity, and DOOM.

          I would say DOOM stood out for me in CA, the reason being that it drove me to ultimately become a much better player. Originally, Killa and Prone both thought I wasn’t good enough to join their team, and I didn’t make the cut during a tryout phase. I kept playing, and soon enough I was pretty much dominating them both, so there was definitely some added vengeance there because I felt like I should’ve made DOOM the first time around. Once Killa/Prone started moving away from Quake, Chronage immediately recruited me to the CA division and we went from there.

          As far as the most professional team leader I ever had I would say it’s a tossup between Lennox and Nate. At the height of i0v, Lennox would run regular practices, and we had a water/bridge heavy style that gave fits to a lot of teams. It was really hard for teams to deal with Spoon/Iceberg in water, while I was outside controlling bridges; it was a nightmare to deal with because we all brought really complimenting styles to CA. As far as in10sity, Nate was able to recruit an all-star cast of CA players, and having Tool and I on the same team was always dangerous as well because we have very similar CA styles and aim.

          At the height of my playing and CA activity, Tool and I also played on DOOM together, featuring a lineup of Chronage, Spoon, Tool, and myself in tournaments. During the CQL tournaments, they had to resort to cheating the system in order for us to lose. CQL West had taken down our “home server” where Tool, Spoon, and I all pinged 20, and forced us to their home server in the finals where we all pinged 50+. There was a lot of bullshit aside from this, and I really wish Quake tournaments ran better, but apparently people only have enough attention span for a one day thing, not something that lasts over a long period of time.

          I didn’t really make too many real life friends or any long lasting relationships as far as video games go. I’ve met Kwong, Killa, Prone, and Exalt in real life, and we’ve lanned together at Exalt’s house. I’ve lanned with Kwong about 3 times, which is more than I can say for any other Quake player, so I’m most familiar with him outside of Quake.



          Q uakeone: I am sure over the years, many players have wanted to emulate your style of play, learn from you, use moves you have copyrighted, etc… Is there someone that you have modeled your play after? Someone that taught you? Someone that opened the doors for you and taught you how to play the way you do?

          Rampage: I alluded to this earlier in that Kwong helped me become a much better player but that was more from a game sense thing. Honestly, while many people bitch about obs’ing games and such and having to sit out because of “pros”, when I wasn’t as good, I used to gladly sit back and watch a ton of CTF action between the big guns and I picked up so many nuances from each different person. That it all helped me with my own evolution.

          Think of it like mixed martial arts, back in the day you had one karate specialist, one muay thai specialist, one Brazilian jiu jitsu guy, nowadays, you have the complete package. Young fighters growing up are good at all disciplines and we’re seeing it come together.

          I feel I was part of a new era, prior to us, you had guys like GuN Chris, Ziggurat, Wolff, hifi exile, and a bunch of others who were the old school original top guys in CTF, however, I feel the new wave/crop of CTF players that came thereafter (Nightmare, Kwong, Unspoken, deadeye, Airwalk, Hero, Loop, Woods, Toiletduck, Bludshed, Pulse, Bosh, Vis, Nuke) would’ve wiped the floor with those guys after the hook was modified. Those guys were forced to use slow hook, whereas the newer 3wave modifications brought in a faster hook speed and faster bunny hopping as well. I think the players coming up with this new modified hook just treated it as the norm, and therefore it really helped mold them into superior players. I think if you watch any old school demos compared to early 2000’s ones in CTF, you’ll see what I mean, I find myself utterly bored trying to watch old school CTF action with slow-hook.

          In CA, I think Spectre and Flashlite come to mind first and foremost when talking about the RJ’ing. I would sometimes sit and observe him and see them just do ridiculous tricks. Flashlite would RJ from bridge to bridge with such smoothness and grace and control the upper parts and keep people stuck in water because they didn’t know where he was every second. If you watch me play bridge on DM3, you’ll see I’m never staying still and always RJ’ing between different parts of bridge to keep guys in the water guessing and controlling the top parts. I think those two guys had the strongest impact on me taking note of their RJ, but to be frank I think I evolved it in my own way. I started utilizing it but doing new moves that no one else had seen, so if you watch any of us RJ (between myself, spectre, and flashlite) you’ll see a stark variation in styles.

          When I really felt myself transition from a mid-tier player to a top player was in CCM, believe it or not. Their leader Pang was amazing, sometimes we’d be in practice and the guy is just wiping the floor with everyone, he was really underrated in the CA scene. Playing against him constantly helped turn me into a beast, I really was much more of a mid-level guy before joining that clan, and somewhere along the lines playing for them, I just noticed myself hitting a new level where I was just toying with guys on pub servers and controlling games, and in large part I can really thank all those guys who came before me, and helped me become a better player.



          Q uakeone: Speaking of moves and styles of play… You have a way of inventing moves and thinking outside of the normal box when playing Quake. I remember one time I think back in 2009 or 2010 you taught me a Capture the Flag maneuver that was awesome. I remember thinking at the time; this isn’t an advanced move or something way off the charts, why have I never thought about doing it? I have been playing CTF off and on since 1997 and it is something I never thought about doing. The scenario played out like this… I was standing in a hall way that connected like a T shape to another hall way. I was in the Vertical part of the T and you were in the hall way that ran horizontal. We just had a brief exchange of fire and you were down the hall a ways but I knew you were coming back. I think we both had quad so this was pretty much a 1 shot battle. I had the drop on you because I wasn’t moving and was aiming at the ground in front of the wall you would be coming past.. Then it happened, you flew by the opening in a blur of speed and was gone past the other side before I had a chance to click my mouse button for firing. Meanwhile, a rocket was flying at my face and hit me at the same time. This happened in basically a fraction of a second. I had no warning; I heard no grappling sound or shots. When we discussed this later you showed me what you did and this probably seems like something common to everyone now, but to me, at the time, I just didn’t think about doing it. It also takes a little practice. It is the same principle of grapple hooking around the map just a bit more advanced. You grappled hooked the ground right in front of your quake guy and jumped at the same time. In Quake physics, this propels you into a very rapid bunny hop sling shot. That still didn’t explain how you shot me though. This is where the skill really kicks in…. As you slung shot yourself past that opening, you turned and shot at my direction then turned back down the hall so as not to change the course of your trajectory. An amazing feat of dexterity, to make those small mouse movements all within a fraction of a second and still have the pin point accuracy that only you have. I never really mastered that move but it is something I think about trying from time to time when the scenario presents itself. Now that I have provided you with a LONG example, are there any other moves that you invented over the years? Moves that you see people using that have no idea who was the original author of it but picked it up from someone else?

          Comment


          • #6
            Rampage: I appreciate that you saw what I’m doing in terms of snapping my mouse and reverting back to my regular course to continue jumping, I think you have a really keen eye. I’m going to assume the map you’re talking about is elder, but who knows (That’s usually where I use that ground-hook double jump regularly).

            I can’t say that I can take credit for the ground-hook double jump (sling shot hook to propel myself as you call it), it may have been something I subconsciously picked up from someone else myself and started using regularly in games because I saw it as having a greater use than how people applied it. For example, on CTF1, a lot of guys like to play defense on the outer staircase and blast rockets down below, a lot of times I’ll wait for the right timing, that fraction of a second where they stop firing the rocket, and I then ground-hook double jump across that very narrow opening, snap up the stairs with a quick rocket and, and keep my momentum going and make my way around like this. I use it as a momentum for a lot of my hooking, whether to shoot at people, make quick snap shots in tight quarters, or to totally surprise people who expect me to just regularly strafe back and forth conventionally and see who’s able to hit the most, my objective is always to take the least damage while dishing out the most, I think this is what every Quaker should aim for because it’s a recipe for success/winning. A lot of guys let their ego get in the way and think oh I have to prove that I can out shaft this guy or I have to prove I can out aim him in a strafe up fight, and if you suddenly RJ away they think you’re a ****y, but my mentality is live to fight another day, so I get a better position or I come back around and start picking them apart without facing them head on, so while some people may hate this type of style, I think it’s what’s helped me make all kinds of creative moves on the spot whether to get away or to quickly go by.

            To answer your original question, I’ve seen Goblin pick up my double RJ jump to pick up speed and make some quick shots. This RJ consists of entering bridge from mound, and then RJ’ing to the top right, and then RJ’ing again to where yellow armor meets mound. The other one I’ve seen several players use is RJ’ing from RL window up to top bridge, I really feel I originated this move (obviously anyone can feel free to dispute me), because I used this live in game before seeing anyone else do it, and I mid-air strafe and take a quick shot into pent window and go down to the other side of bridge. The other one I’ve seen people use is again entering bridge from mound, and strafing to the top left and taking a quick shot to bridge/RL stairs. This is because the wall protects me as the RJ momentum takes me there, in both scenarios whether RJ’ing toward yellow armor side or RL side, I’m being covered by a wall/bridge, and it makes it harder for a lower bridge shafter (like Krix) to hit you, so you can get a quick rocket in there and you disappear behind the wall without taking significant damage.

            To this day, I still have some shots/RJs that I’ve never seen people use, and I really wished that I would’ve been able to make a bigger impact on some people utilizing certain RJs to their advantage regularly in games. This is not to say that I’m the only one who can do it, on the contrary, I think if people paid attention instead of always thinking “kill, kill, kill”, they would start picking up bits and pieces from players around them (the way Goblin did), and putting those in their game).



            “Tal will have you wondering one of two things.. "How did he do that?" OR "Does he ever shut up?"

            -Spoon



            Q uakeone: I reached out to numerous players over the last few months and had to actually cut out multiple people’s positive comments about you from this interview. We simply didn’t have the room or the time to address them all. However, I want to visit the dark side of the moon for a bit. You haven’t always been Mr. Popular. In fact, you have been downright hated by many people over the years. It is a common theme, a prodigy, disliked by his peers for not just being good, but being so great, that he humiliates enemies and teammates. Is that what the dislike can be attributed to or is it simple jealously? Wait don’t answer that yet… I can, as your friend, harshly point out some of the reasons for the hate I have heard and witnessed over the years. Words like Ruthless teammate, slave driver, perfectionist, sore loser, ****y, brilliant, winner, as$hole, snob. Unflattering words but in a sense can be flattering, and can be used to describe many of the minds that have challenged and dominated their fields over the centuries. Are you any different from them? Are these statements accurate? Would you care to explain your side of things?

            Rampage: I think I was a pretty controversial guy a lot of the time. If anything, the blame gets placed squarely on me, there were a lot of guys who tried to get a rise out of me (like Drama2, and Omicron, even Muller at some points) and succeeded. It turned into a shit throwing fest, and there were a lot of other people on the server who saw it go back and forth and it definitely made people think differently of me because I wasn’t acting neutral and avoiding that kind of garbage. Guys tried to get in my head and stuff when it came to playing, but I think that’s the competitive nature of human beings (and some people in Quake have always had jealousy issues – and therefore naturally hate when someone is being hyped up).

            Look man, I’ll admit, I’ve often thought that I didn’t have too many fans in Quake. I knew I had people who liked me, and I knew there was probably an even larger crowd of people who hated me. It comes with the territory, I think that to state that you have a ‘mental edge’ will rub most people the wrong way, I mean heck, even this interview probably fuels the fire for some guys who think I suck or I’m overrated or whatever else they want to say or already think of me. I don’t really have control over that stuff, all I know is, when I fire up Quake, I chew on a piece of gum, and I tell myself no one is going to beat me.

            I think that you have to have this kind of ridiculous belief in yourself to truly achieve something (be it in a video game or in real life), sure, it’s egoistic, but it separates the greats from the average. I didn’t have this kind of thinking when I was a mid-tier player, and as I got better, the confidence came with it. So whether it’s tittering on the brink of complete narcissism or supreme confidence, it’s up to people to judge. I just control the way I think, and let the results speak for themselves.

            Even you have good intentions, people already have built up an image of who they think you are. A lot of times I’d spend my own personal time staying after games with guys and teaching them cool moves, or how to do something better, or just playing nonstop 1v1 to help them improve. The reason I’m stating this is because, again, I think people took this as me subliminally saying “look, I’m so fucking good that I can teach people.. That’s how good I am.. so suck it”.. and in reality I just really came from a place where I was thinking hey.. I was in your shoes once.. I wanted to be better.. I was tired of getting rag-dolled by top players.. and I want to dominate the competition.. so it was really more about empathy and also my reasoning was that if I can make players around me better.. it will raise the overall talent pool and make more people want to stay and play Quake.. if it becomes diluted where you have 1-2 guys just beating up on mediocre to below-average players.. a lot of those guys are going to leave the game because they’re tired of being dominated (and a small % will stick it out and try to improve).

            Another example is me creating “the Grunt vault” on Quakeone forums (for those who don’t know, the Grunt Vault consisted of me talking about different up and coming players who I thought had a lot of potential – and me listing their respective Quake strengths/weaknesses/full analysis). I will wager all my money that a few guys went around and talked about it and said wow who does Ramp think he is critiquing other players? But again.. it comes to a few different things.. I’m not sitting there wasting my time shit talking players.. I’m trying to do something to inspire interest in the multiplayer community.. I created it because I genuinely thought hey if we can all start analyzing each other’s’ skill sets, you’ll start to tune yourself into the game more and we can all improve our skill and be more aware of what guys around us are doing.

            Lastly, I think a lot of guys who spent time shooting the shit with me (mindz, phocus, you, goblin) really stopped hating me or having preconceived notions of who I am as a person based on my Quake-alternate-ego-personality. You guys stayed with me long into the night, not playing, and just chatting on DM3, and you got to know me as a person and see that I’m not the ****y douchebag people said I was. Of course, when you’re fired up, you’re into the game, you want to beat people, you’re going to make controversial remarks and you’re going to get into peoples’ heads, and I think that’s what’s caused this polarity between people who like me and appreciate what I’m able to do, and people who think I’m the biggest and ****iest asshole Quake has ever seen.

            So to sum it up, it’s all good, hate, love; it doesn’t really make a difference in the end, because the results speak for themselves.

            Comment


            • #7
              Q uakeone: Do you still play Quake anymore? Why or why not? Is it personal life or is it a something related to the game? I have to say, the logs aren’t lying… You rarely log in anymore and when you do, it is just to say hi. What is going on in Rampage’s life?

              Rampage: I can’t login because I only have a laptop here (it does have Quake set up). My desktop is back home in Canada, and I only come back to Canada two times per year now (I reside in Hong Kong for 10 months of the year, and 2 months I spend in Canada seeing family, meeting with clients, etc.). I would love to continue playing Quake, I don’t think there is anything wrong with having a side hobby as long as it’s not addictive, and it’s not killing important things in your life. If you’re putting off far more important things to play Quake, then you have a serious issue and you have to face it head on. In that sense, I feel that I have enough time on the side to play every once in a while, but it’s something I can only do when I’m back in Canada, because I really wouldn’t enjoy trying to play with 200 ping from here in Hong Kong.


              Q uakeone: I am going to ask you something that is starting to be a trend in all of my interviews. Where is Quake 1 heading? Is it on the verge of dying?

              Rampage: That’s a good question man, I think it’s reasonable and realistic to say that Quake is well past its expiry date, and you rarely see anyone log on anymore, and it’s only getting worse. It’s a sad state of affairs, because it’s a beautiful game, and I prefer it to the generic Qlive any day. It’s sad for me to see guys like Jack Burton and Bruce go to Qlive and play there regularly, but who can blame them when you have regular scrimmages, and you have full out stats like your aim %’s and kills and a reward system, and that’s a big thing for people nowadays, because if you’re going to invest that much time on something, you want to feel rewarded for those hours you put in (not that it really matters in a video game though because all those hours are a waste as is).

              The game has been dead for probably 10 years truly – but to be nice I’ll say it’s closer to 5 years), because in 08 we had a revival across all mods where there was peak interest. As some people have stated (you, Mindz, r00k), it’s likely a summer time thing where people are enjoying their summer, and as winter rolls around you tend to see a bit more activity as people come back to play. I mean heck man, you still see guys like Tical make come backs every few years, and the same goes for me and other old school guys.



              “I've known Rampage for a long time but not really from CA. More from CTF. Tal is an honest and upfront person, always looking to help when & where he can. I consider him to be one of the best quake players be it in match or out. In game he's always willing to share strategies or moves, or even offer advice all in the name of helping you tune your game. He's went as far as to watch me play whole matches then discuss it afterwards, all while seeming genuine in his effort.”

              -Rambo



              Q uakeone: Is there anything additionally that we can do that we aren’t already doing that can help revive Quake? Can maybe give another spark to the dying fire that is Quake?

              Rampage: I think there are a lot of things that can be done, but it requires certain individuals coming together to do something. I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus, but we had a Quake revival ideas thread about 4 years ago where amazing ideas were brought up and never implemented by guys who knew exactly how to get the job done.

              I’ve seen plenty of opportunities for revival even in the current day. One great example is if guys bombarded Quake one related videos with sly comments like “hey Quake is still alive and kicking.. You can check it out at Quakeone.com”. Take for example the video on YouTube called “if Quake was done today” it has like 2 million + views or something ridiculous, so comments like that can easily get a big % of people watching that video to check out the site.
              Here are some issues in my mind that need to be addressed and haven’t for many years:

              Lack of map diversity in CA (basically has ruined the game for a lot of people who left out of sheer boredom).

              Not having a reliable/regularly updated statistical database. We should have leaderboards on the website, where guys can regularly check into their profile and see their efficiency with weapons, which mod they’re best at, their CTF stats; it should be server wide encompassing Quake through the engine. If personal player/team stats were kept, you bet your ass there would be a lot more interest.
              Being able to fire up Quake from the website directly. If I see people on a server, it would be fantastic if I could just click the server and it launches my default client, and bam, I’m in and playing within seconds. I can’t tell you how many times I saw a server full, by the time I fired up Quake and got in, it was totally empty, this was an issue for me more than a few times.

              Even small things in the game make a difference; take DM/CTF for example, why isn’t there a 5 second protective bubble around players who just spawned? Why haven’t we cut down the respawning time of weapons? Guys have to sit around with shotguns getting blasted by superior players who are fully geared and don’t even have a chance. We did a test before for CTF where r00k cut down weapon respawn time to 20 seconds and it made a drastic improvement in player enjoyment, a lot more people ended up with rocket launchers, game scores were higher, and the action was more exciting. Aside from the weapons though, I think spawn whoring and spawn kills are a big issue that’s been a thorn in Quake’s side for a long time and something that should’ve been addressed aeons ago.

              Promote highlight videos. I’m not going to say Mark has had many worthy highlight videos, but he’s made a great effort and started something. Wolv put together some awesome post-tournament videos but they didn’t really go viral because they weren’t marketed properly on YouTube with the right headings and words, and could’ve easily earned more views (and the same goes for many other videos out there).

              CA and DM should both have forced map rotations. 5 top maps that everyone enjoys rotated evenly, at least in CTF there is already a culture where people start voting a new map as soon as the game ends, and this is accepted within CTF, and yet in DM, people don’t give two shits about any of the other maps, so it’s a rehash of the same old. This has made Quake so stale (especially DM and CA).

              End of games should have podium standings showing each of the top 3 players in the right order, it would be a fun little gimmick to stick in there, and give people bragging rights.

              Other than this, if you visit that Quake revival thread from a few years ago, you’ll see what I mean. People brought up some amazing ideas, and r00k started playing around with some stuff, but never got around to finishing it unfortunately. It would’ve been a great help to Quake if people (and no I’m not talking about r00k here) capitalized on these opportunities when the time was ripe, and this would’ve extended Quake’s shelf life by who knows how many years.



              Q uakeone: Is it time to move on? I have thought about this over the years. Why the hell do I still play the game or even log into QuakeOne ? (Owned and Operated by the amazing and talented Solecord).

              Rampage: I think it’s up to each individual person. I have money to buy a new computer, but I think in new games you risk not really being well known unless you stick to playing at one pub over and over (a rarity given the loads of servers with players on them). You’re either a “pro gamer”, or you’re just wasting your life hours away trying to get better at something where you’re competing against thousands of other anonymous people. You’ll get into clans, yaddi yadda, and the same rinse and repeat with every new game that comes out every couple of months. For me, I don’t really have time to sit around buying every new Call of Duty or Battlefield game that comes out, despite how fun they are. This is why I stick to a tried and true game, I like the people I play against/with, we know one another, and it’s still fast paced fun action, that’s all I can ask for from a game. Nevertheless, I don’t fault anyone for moving on and playing new and fun games that offer different things (like Payday2 for example, or even QLive). It really depends if you’re a person who plays games consistently, then I can see why you would want to try your hand in games where there is definitely a much stronger player base. If Quake still had a strong player base, people taking time to create new and fun maps, and there were clans and scrimmages, then I can’t see why people wouldn’t want to continue playing.

              Comment


              • #8
                Q uakeone: Do you think there is something that unites all of the Quake One community? All of the players, the modders, the resource providers. Is it some flaw in our psyche? A defect in our mental abilities? Are we all united by a common thread of laziness or fear of letting go? A trait of staying with what is comfortable? Maybe it was just the right thing at the right time for this select group of misfits. Maybe it was like Disco ( ) from the late 70’s. We don’t understand that now but at the time, a select group of people loved it and still to this day have a white suede suite in their closest in case it ever makes a comeback. What are your thoughts on this?

                Rampage: I would argue that people are able to live under alternate egos online, have a ‘Quake nickname’ where they’re well known. Some dudes don’t have many friends in real life, or a great social life, or they just want to escape every once in a while to a different place, and this is a mental escape as much as anything. Especially when you log on, and people say hi to you, you feel welcome, you chat it up with guys who have like interests, and you’re known based on how skilled you are, you take away all the face to face social aspects out of it, and essentially we’re all living as an alter-ego and not our true selves; I think this is what draws people to come back, is being recognized by their peers online, because they largely aren’t receiving those rewards in real life, or find solace amongst other guys who enjoy doing the same thing. This is of course a generalization, but I would say that I think a lot of guys who still play Quake at this point fit this schema. Other than that, it’s just pure old fun, and so you can’t fault people for wanting to come back and enjoy it and let off some steam from their day to day lives.


                “I can dig up some ol' 10 year old demos, but back then Ramp was only a teen-ager and totally focused on teAM-SHip, yet he enlightened himself to be the flag of valor... if only because he talked to much,, (he typed 100wppm) omg: he has tailored hi experience thru brunt gameplay, no lie there..beyond the normal gaRBLE, he walks his talk.”

                -Rook



                Quakeone: I want to take this personal for a bit. Some quick fire, put you on the spot questions that the fans are all fond of.

                Q1: Are you married/GF/Gay/Details?

                R: I have a girlfriend for 8 years, she’s a Hong Kong native and I moved to Hong Kong to live with her.


                Q1: Where were you raised and did you make a mark on your youth or are you alate bloomer that is going to shake the world later in your life?

                R: I was born and raised in Beersheva Israel, my parents didn’t want me to go to the army (Israel has conscription), and so they immigrated to Toronto, Canada. I would definitely say I’m more on the late bloomer side, but life is a learning process, and I don’t know my future, I can only control my present day and live life every day and see what comes to fruition from that. I wouldn’t say I made a mark on my youth because I had a troubled/tumultuous upbringing, and therefore I confided in getting high a lot and playing video games for escapism (Brood wars, Quake – at the time). I’m so far removed from playing video games at this point that this is why I identify better with ‘late bloomer’.


                Q1: What do you do for a living?

                R: I own an SEO (search engine optimization) and Web Design company. I operate it both in Canada and Hong Kong for clients. The idea is that they want people to find their products and services on Google, and so we get their website listed when people type search phrases, this raises their overall revenue by bringing them targeted traffic to their site. A lot more goes into this, but this is as much as I can summarize it. You can find my website at Beyondsearch - Website SEO Services & Search Engine Marketing if you ever need something, or contact me at [email protected] (#shameless plug )


                Q1: Who could you truly be friends with in real life out of all of the Quakepersonalities you have met in your career?

                R: Wow it’s hard to say man, I think as far as lounging back on a hammock and smoking a joint and shooting the shit, it would have to go to Mindz. I think he and I would get along splendidly outside the internet. Another person would be Lun, because we often delve deep into different topics and have interesting conversations, as well as you because you have a good head on your shoulders and you look at things from different angles/perspectives, and I apply that model to my own life.


                Q1: What other games do you play these days?

                R: When I do play anything, it’s usually console games with friends, namely sports games (NBA 2k, NHL, FIFA). I was asked to fire up league of legends, but two seconds of walking some avatar around and shooting cute looking monsters made me puke. The most recent game I played was Torchlight 2 and Diablo 3, but I got bored of both rather quickly. I will be getting a PS4 and will play games on that - Assassins Creed black flag because I love that era, and a few sports titles to boot – since they don’t require a long investment of hours and I can just quickly fire it up and play friends/people online in quick 1v1 matches and go back to my business.

                I have Starcraft2 available to me as I bought it a while back, but I never got into it – and again – it’s more of the learning curve thing where I don’t really have time to invest in RTS games. I would be glad to play some FPS games in the future, but I’d rather be wealthy first



                Q1: Wine or Beer? Any favorites?

                R: Weed.. haha.. I like a little red wine with my steak and mashed potatoes.. but I don’t have any particular favorite.


                Q1: Favorite songs?

                R: I have favorite genres like Trance, Hip hop, underground rap, some lynyrd skynyrd songs are great (free bird, simple man), but no particular favorites.


                Q1: Boxers/Briefs/Thongs/Commando?

                R:Lol.. definitely boxers.. Calvin Klein usually.


                Q1: Marvel or DC Superheroes?

                R: Marvel.. I always found that DC characters for me were harder to get attached to.. I grew up watching x-men and Spiderman religiously.. and most of my comics went that way as well. I just think x-men is the baddest thing ever put together as far as comics go.. so I was always attached to that growing up. I love the batman movies of course, and I wish the x-men movies followed suit (at least First Class was a step in the right direction).


                Q1: Blonde/Brunette/Redheads?

                R: Brunette for me. Blondes are nice sometimes but more for a good fuck (and often featured in porn), brunettes are smart and sexy.


                Q1: Microsoft/Apple?

                R:Microsoft’s computer errors are annoying as fuck (I already have a blue screen disk error all the time with my current laptop, and I’ve only had it for 3 years).

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quakeone: I want to touch on another possible sore point for you. What went through your mind when you lost to Wolv back in 2011 at the last cash prize tournament (Clan Arena) Quake One has seen? I have to tell you… I had you as a lock to win that tournament. I thought your biggest threat was probably Spoon and he didn’t even play. I knew Wolv was good but I didn’t realize how good until that tournament. So as myself and Badaim, moderated the tournaments 1v1 after 1v1 it became clear…. Two guys were tearing up the competition like it was amateur hour… On a collision course of epic proportions, you and Wolv made it to the finals. In the best of 3, five round matches, on the map DM3. Epicness is too short of a word and not even real, or epic enough to describe what I was about to witness. In my heart and mind I was sure this would be a quick match, with Rampage declared as the winner. Then, the crazy happened. I was shocked beyond the edge of the asteroid belt to see that Wolv was not only holding his own against you, but actually winning. I thought to myself, surely not… What is going on here? This is Clan Arena Mod, AKA, Rampage’s mod. How is Wolv, a classic DM’er winning? Thank the one and holy Quake God, Baker, that I decided to make this a best of 3, five round matches. That way it wasn’t decided on a luck shot, or lag, or any other excuse. There were plenty of rounds to be had. It came down to the final round of the final match and Wolv killed you in awe inspiring battle on the outside portion of the map in DM3. Check and Mate…. What went through your mind at that point in time? Is this something you even comprehended as a possibility? Bleed your soul for us.

                  Rampage: It’s funny that you asked me this because recently on Wolv’s website, we spoke in the chat window and I mentioned to him that it hurt to lose to him in that way.

                  I came into that game having just beat Vis, so I was definitely confident in my ability to win.

                  It stung at the time. Whether Wolv admits this or not (and he can feel free to dispute it), I had his number in numerous 1v1s prior to that tournament, and I felt pretty confident going in that it would play a role in our game.

                  What I’m disappointed with isn’t that Wolv beat me, because he’s a very good opponent and can beat anyone on any given day, it was that I don’t feel I implemented/imposed my own game plan/style on the game. Spoon afterwards immediately asked me why I didn’t play like my usual self, and I had a plethora of excuses ready. The truth is that I basically went away from my RJ game completely, if you watch the demo, you’ll see that we kind of played a wait/hide-and-peek game and exchanged shots from distance until eventually we got into some close range fights. I think this happened because we both were playing it safe and didn’t put it all out there with money/reputation riding on the line.

                  My style has always been this aggressive RJ heavy game where I go in and blast people and get out and do it all over again from different angles, and it didn’t play out like that at all because he out-waited me (he was wisely staying at the pent window side, as well as lower bridge) and we would also get into some fights outside and also at mound.

                  When I watched the demo over again a second time, that’s probably the main thing I took away from it. I also realized that I missed a lot of shots by a hair because he dodged them in the last second, so it could’ve just as easily gone the other way. It was a close match with a lot of back and forth rounds and exchanges, and I commend Wolv for playing well and beating.

                  Lastly, I think the thing that hurt the most during that time is that I basically walked away from the game with that being my last memory. I haven’t really played exclusively since that tournament, and so it stuck with me at the time because I would’ve liked to walk away the champ of that tournament. I don’t really have any regrets as far as Quake goes, but that is one that I would’ve liked to redeem myself if I ever had the chance to do it all over again.



                  “This guy is a force of nature… He has reflexes that belong to Mayweather, the precision of Manning (Peyton), the dominating will of Ali, the Eye of the Tiger… Woods, and the gravity defying skills of Jordan. He is by far my most favorite person to play against and be humbled by.”

                  -Disco



                  Quakeone: One of your closest friends in Quake decided to stop by the studios and give us an exclusive Q/A about yourself. I think it is great that you two have had such a good friendship over the years. Without further delay, here is the one and only… Spoon.

                  Q1: How long have you known Rampage?

                  Spoon: I can't remember exactly when we met, but we've known each other for quite a long time. I believe he was in a CTF clan back in the late 90's early 00's shortly after I was. Gibbering Idiots [GI]. People have probably seen me use that tag on occasion. Though we didn't really start to talk and play together often until we started running into each other on CA servers.

                  Q1: How did you guys meet and was there any memorable moments from those early days or the day you met?

                  Spoon: Just by playing each other on the servers. It was so long ago I'm not sure which server. Erols? Who knows. No memorable moments, though I'm sure there was plenty of me accepting his lightning gun. He'd rather me say accept his shaft I'm sure, seeing as how he loves to make homo-erotic comments towards me. But I won't give in.

                  Q1: Were you fast friends, bitter rivals, competitors, or just casual friends?

                  Spoon: I'd say from the beginning, it was casual friends/competitors on the servers. I'd like to think there was a mutual respect for each other and what we could both do within the game. We each had our strengths and this would often lead to some tight contests. Though I've always tried to avoid a straight up shaft fight with him since I'll lose that more than I'll win it as shafting has never been my greatest strength and it is definitely one of his. As the years went on we played together and against each other countless times, learning and getting better from our many 1 on 1's. We became better friends during the process, even though I'm pretty sure each of us would get a bit salty at times after losing to each other.

                  Q1: Were you guys in any early guilds or clans and if so what were the names?

                  Spoon: See above answer, GI. Also, he was in IOV with me at one point back when CA was still very active. Probably together in in10sity as well.

                  Q1: Did you guys win any tournaments playing CA together in the same clans? Any memories from those or cool stories?

                  Spoon: I know for at least one season back in CQL, we had an absolute nightmare of a line-up. Myself, Ramp, Nate, and Tool. It wasn't often all 4 of us would be available at the same time but, when we were, it was absolute domination.

                  Q1: Any jabs you would like to take at Tal, in jest, humorous, etc. Anything related to pulling him through a game where he was playing bad, etc?

                  Spoon: I'd tell Tal that he could've been even better if he hadn't constantly talked so much . Freakin guy types a mile a minute, doesn't much care if it's mid-round sometimes. But that's more a bi-product of his passion towards the game and the Quake community. He's very in-depth in his "analysis" of other players. I've seen it rub people the wrong way actually since some people take it as arrogance. But his heart's in the right place and I'd rather have someone be brutally honest and sincere than a living, breathing cliché of an internet gaming troll like some people who shall remain nameless.

                  Q1: Anything about him that inspired you, or your play style?

                  Spoon: I wouldn't say he's inspired me on a personal level. My play style, on the other hand, he has definitely influenced. About as much as anybody in the community along with Efess, Exalt, Chronage, Sting, Cata, Visine to name a few. As I mentioned earlier, I tried to avoid situations where he'd have an easy time shafting me to death. He was one of the most dangerous players I've played against in terms of just sheer speed of how quickly he can kill you (not to mention speed of moving around the map). That really helped my situational awareness and reaction time. Playing against his caliber of opponent really led to my play style focusing more on being elusive, patient and unpredictably aggressive.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Q uakeone: Some interesting back stories there. I am grateful to Spoon for contributing to this interview. Any responses or your side of the story you would like to add?

                    Rampage: I'm glad I got to face someone of his caliber regularly, and that when I'd check the servers and he was on, I would immediately fire up my Quake to play him and looked forward to every minute of it, because I knew I'd get an amazing challenge every time, he made me totally focus 100% when I played, because you can't take your eyes off the screen when you're playing against Dave. I'm happy that I got to meet cool people like him, because it kept me playing much longer than I should have.

                    I guess to cap it off, I'll say that I'm glad I met all of you people while I've Quaked (both the good and the bad in the community), and the hundreds of Quakers that I've seen come and go over time. If I was still in North America regularly, I would definitely still be up for Quaking once in a while, but being in a different place changes things.



                    Q uakeone: Well Ramp, I have to say that I am a little sad with having to wrapping this interview up. I feel like we have been losing you as a Quakeone member and Quake player in the last year. I fear this interview might be your encore and we won't see you that much anymore.

                    So regardless if you stay or go, I would like to say on behalf of the Quakeone Team, thank you. Thank you for all of the years of dedication, fun, moderating, friendship, and competitiveness you have brought to the community. You are a legend and will never be forgotten.



                    Personally, I want you to know that I have always enjoyed your friendship and I am going to miss CTFing with you. Thank you very much for giving your fans and I this interview. It will give me something to look back on in days of the future, when your absence has grown too long. If you are half as successful in real life as you have been in Quake; you are going to be a very wealthy man. Good luck with your Girlfriend and your business.

                    Best Wishes and Good Fortune

                    Your friend

                    -Planetnine


                    Rampage: Thanks for asking some profound questions, as well as exploring the more dark side of my Quake "career", I think it made this interview real honest, and I wish everyone who still comes in to the forums (regardless if they play or not) much luck in their personal endeavors.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      are you on speed ?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        No mention of Clan MFR -=CLAN MFR=-

                        OR IHOC.
                        Forshame
                        Want to get into playing Quake again? Click here for the Multiplayer-Startup kit! laissez bon temps rouler!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          hahah, sorry mindz.. some times when you're recollecting stuff it's easy to forget things.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Rampage View Post
                            hahah, sorry mindz.. some times when you're recollecting stuff it's easy to forget things.
                            Does that member list bring back memories or what! ^_^ eeeeeeek !!

                            RuM has an and the one and only, IHOC server. (Crash of RuM)

                            XMD (Jackhole) might be running
                            Last edited by Mindf!3ldzX; 09-21-2013, 09:05 PM. Reason: XMD ammendment
                            Want to get into playing Quake again? Click here for the Multiplayer-Startup kit! laissez bon temps rouler!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              haha damn son.

                              that was a very in depth interview Tal.

                              Thanks for the shoutouts from you and spoon both. Real shit!

                              That lineup was def crazy with Nate. memories mang

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