As I mentioned in a journal earlier, due to circumstances beyond my control, I am not attending QuakeCon 2010 this year in person. I had planned on providing on-site coverage for Crossfire and TeK-9. You can find more information on that here and various other places around the net.

QuakeCon 2010's first day is over and a long one it was. In what seems to be a theme year after year, the QuakeCon tournaments did not start at all today, fueled by an electrical fire in the tournament area, and continued by delay after delay, which resulted in the decision to call it a day to the dismay of unhappy and tired viewers.

Brackets for Duel and CTF have been released with some interesting match-ups ahead.

chance and destrukt will meet each other in the second round after their heated encounter at the IVGHOF last weekend which saw destrukt forfeit to chance in the end out of frustration. According to DaHanG, destrukt has already proclaimed this "to be over already." proZaC has been practicing and is trying to make a real run at this year's event, but will have to face a tough sparks in the first round, and a determined stermy in the second. A stermy who's still one of the very few to take out rapha in a set of maps. On the other side of the bracket, unless draven can continue to impress and LoSt-CaUzE can make a next to impossible comeback, we will most likely be seeing Cypher versus strenx and Spart1e versus Cooller quarterfinals.

Update: Final standings:

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1. Shane "rapha" Hendrixson - $800
2. Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty - $500 + Qualified for AC Playoff
3. Chance "chance" Lacina - $300
4. Brian "destrukt" Flander - $200

VOD's can be found at djWHEAT's ustream (click Videos on the bottom) - High quality VOD's will be uploaded at Blip.tv soon.
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The first Quake Live LAN tournament since the game's official release yesterday is taking place this weekend at the Big Bang event in Ottumwa, Iowa. The best four American Quake Live players are in attendance to battle it out as a precursor to next weekend's QuakeCon.

Shane "rapha" Hendrixson, Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty, Brian "derstrukt" Flander and Chance "chance" Lacina will all be in action, starting soon!

Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham and Rod "Slasher" Breslau will be broadcasting the event.

VOD's after the event is over can be found at http://www.djWHEAT.blip.tv

Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham and Rod "Slasher" Breslau will be having a special Quake Live broadcast edition of Live On Three this week, with coverage of the finals of the Silent Gamers Cup. The event features several of North America's top duelers including Shane "rapha" Hendrixson, Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty, Chance Lacina and Tom "griffin" Wall. The following is a rough schedule of the final day of the event.

19:30 CET Pre-game discussion, predictions, interviews
20:00 CET UB Semifinals: ZeRo4 vs tehnewbz
20:35 CET UB Semifinals: rapha vs griffin
21:10 CET LB Rnd 5: Chance vs DaHanG/ whaz
21:45 CET LB Rnd 6
22:20 CET LB Rnd 7
22:55 CET UB Finals
23:30 CET LB Finals
24:15 CET Grand Finals

The final video interview of QuakeCon 2007. The Europeans came, saw, dominated, and left America with titles in both tournaments. Although the only European team in attendance this year, the strong squad defeated a field of teams who should have been more prepared than they were. After getting dropped down by HOT to the lower bracket, Dignitas stormed back and full held HOT in the grand finals. One more event for Europe to brag about. Gameriot.com caught up with team leader Thomas "sondac" Sorensen along with Frederik "huggo" Christensen and Peter "utr" Mogensen at the airport for some questions. Dignitas talks about their thoughts on ET:QW competitive play, Battlefield verse ET:QW, their comeback from the lower bracket in the grand finals, and explaining their involvement of denying HOT scrims.

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We already played team HOT 2-3 times. We saw quickly that they were the favorites to win this event, so we decided not to play them anymore. We didn't talk to Check-Six or 20id at all. We played them instead; they were not so good so we felt it would be better to train tactics with them since we'd meet HOT in the finals.

Watch the full interview at Gameriot.com.

Being one of the few teams to be have been granted access to the closed ET:QW beta, Team HOT went into QuakeCon 2007 as the number one seed and the favorite to win. Europe's only team in attendance, Dignitas, thought differently, and snatched away the championship just inches infront of HOT's face by coming from the lower bracket and defeating them twice in the grand final. HOT's Kyle "dep" Tramtham sat down with Gameriot.com to discuss the team's road through the QuakeCon 2007 ET: QW tournament, their troubles verse Dignitas in the grand finals, and some interesting drama regarding the champions, 20ID, and Check-Six leading into the event.

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We had a lot of boycotting, sandbagging from certain teams. 20id, Check-Six and Dignitas decided not to scrim us. If there was no boycotting of scrims, it would be 2 US teams guaranteed up there [in the finals]. When we first started scrimming Dignitas, we were teaching them things, they were going leaps and bounds in scrims since the first time we played them.

The interview has been split into two parts with a third bonus clip.

Watch the full interview at Gameriot.com.

A video interview and response from Team Dignitas will be posted tomorrow.

Id Software's Executive Producer Marty Stratton sits down with GameRiot.com's Rod "Slasher" Breslau about the new Quake game as well as Quake Zero, and how Quake Zero's development process will effect the next Quake game. Did I mention that the next Quake game will be an Arena game a true follow-up to Quake 3? Well, I did now. Marty discusses many details about the upcoming new Arena title and how id Software will be making leaps and bounds in matchmaking, balancing, testing and the use of professional Quake players in their aid. Also discussed is the current view on professional gaming, professional Quake players, and how the focus on the next Arena game will be in terms of a sport.

Marty Stratton: "On a high level, it'll be very much like Quake 3 Arena in that it's fast paced, primarily a dueling game but will have team aspects to it. High action, high energy, likely built on id Tech 5, and stylistically from just about every aspect including user interfaces, scoreboards and stats, we will be thinking of the game in terms of a sport. That means different things to a lot of different people but that's the core of what we want."

Head on over to read the full interview.

The seedings, brackets and schedule have been posted for the upcoming WSVG Dallas event. Please note that based on community feedback after Louisville, the huge registration rush in the last week, and our interest to still run the competitions on time, group play has been eliminated, and moving forward with a double elimination structure for World of Warcraft, Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2.

The following are the top 10 seeds of the Call of Duty 2 event:

Call of Duty Top 10 Seeds:

1. Eximius
2. Pandemic
3. TeK-9
4. Team Dignitas
5. Flow Gaming
6. Team Speed-LINK
7. Check-Six
8. 20ID
9. 50cal
10. Pure Gaming

The full 32-team bracket can be found at this location. All matches with their schedule info with days and times can be found at this location.

Information scorebots should come shortly.

Seedings, brackets and schedules for Quake 4 and World of Warcraft can found on thewsvg.com.

Online registration for the World Series of Video Games, Presented by Intel, Dallas circuit stop will be closing on Tuesday, July 3rd at 9pm ET (July 4th, 03:00 CET). Those interested in competing after Tuesday will have register on site as competition spots may or may not become available. Individuals who seek to participate in Fight Night Round 3 and the Guitar Hero II Open will also have to sign up on site. Top teams confirmed for the Call of Duty 2 event are as follows:

Team Pandemic
Team SPEED-LINK
TeK-9
Check-Six
Flow Gaming
Team Dignitas
20ID
Eximius Sports

Those wanting to register may do so at www.thewsvg.com.
A full list of top competitors for all games including Quake 4 and World of Warcraft can be found at this locaton.

Crossfire's own Stuart "TosspoT" Saw has written an extensive report for GotFrag of RTCW and Enemy Territory tournaments throughout Quakecon's history, as well as adding some thoughts on this year's tournament.

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In 2006 the favourites are idle.ee after their unbeaten Eurocup victory earlier his month. The side has long dominated ET under a variety of names. The side features 1 Quakecon winner from last years Check 6, and Eurocup winners from more than one team. The man to watch is undoubtedly Night from Estonia, a powerful leader and all round player. The team most likely to challenge them is Crossfire.nu, this is an all-star team picked from the community website Crossfire who all came together and paid for the team to attend Quakecon, it features 4 Eurocup winners and 1 Quakecon winner, but has only been around since Quakecon was announced this year and lacks any history as a team. Most likely to come in third, but possible to cause an upset will be KiH, of whom some are former iNfensus players (from their online roster, not LAN roster), famed for their success at previous Quakecons and domination of the RTCW scene.

Read the entire article at this location.

Additionally, my extensive Quake 4 1v1/2v2 article including player reactioncs, predictions, and seeding projections can be seen here.