Quake SM '97

The Swedish Championship (Svenska Mästerskap) of Quake was a LAN tournament held at Café Nine in Stockholm from the 19th to 21th of September 1997. It was supposedly the biggest Quake-event in Europe this year.

Summary
Quake SM '97 was open to everyone wanting to participate, and more than 150 players showed up. As the tournament was held on Café Nine, every player had identical computers and hardware to make it as fair as possible. All matches were recorded, and two big screens in the tournament room showed the finals and other importants game live to the audiences there.

The tournaments started at around 19.00-20.00 in the evening, a classic, all-nighter LAN. The 1st prize was the computer they were playing on. There were also prizes for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place.

Friday was deathmatch tournament day and Sunday was clan match day. Saturday was supposed to be duel day, but the tournaments took hours longer than planned, and the 1on1 tournament was canceled.

Tournament Information

 * Website: Old page here (working)
 * Gametype: FFA & 4on4
 * Number of players: Around 150
 * Admins:
 * [[Image:flag_se.gif]] Stefan aka Stiffy
 * [[Image:flag_se.gif]] Mattias aka Mr Kill
 * [[Image:flag_se.gif]] Peter aka Deceptor
 * [[Image:flag_se.gif]] Tore aka Totte
 * [[Image:flag_se.gif]] David aka Euphoria
 * Hardware: Every player played on a Pentium 233 MMX, 64 MB Ram, Matrox Mystique 220Mhz, 8MB, 21" Monitor, Microsoft Mouse, Ethernet 100MBit and Intercom-system with head set.
 * Maps played: All DM-maps and E1M1-E1M6
 * Time: 2x15 min deathmatch, 2x20 min clan matches

Deathmatch
Six players played simultaneously, every man for himself. After 2x15 minutes, the three players with the best aggregate frag score went to the next round.

Hobbex of Devil's Advocates reported the following: «The DM part is now over and done with. DOOMEer won (true to his habit) and oKKun trailed by just one frag, Mr Kill by just two. To call the final a thriller would be an under-exaggeration, it was truly amazing. I had expected the final to be close, but not that close. We held count, and it was in the last minute that Doomer took the frags that put him above Kill and Okkun after a terrible performance on e1m2. I guess some people are born winners :-). All I can do is congratulate everybody.»

Final results:
 * 1) DOOMer of Teddy Bears
 * 2) oKKun of Da Swedish Mob
 * 3) Mr Kill of Teddy Bears
 * 4) Sniper of Teddy Bears
 * 5) Sniket of Clan 9
 * 6) Nikodemus of Clan 9

Full list of deathmatch results

Clan tournament
Each clan could field two teams, if wanted, with four players each. The clan tournament had a looser's bracket, giving every clan at least two chances to advance in the tournament. Clan 9 defeated Teddy Bears 283-212 in the final after a 244-167 victory over Da Swedish Mob in the semi-final.

Hobbex reported the following before the final: «The clan matches tomorrow are going to be amazing displays of excellence. The Teddy Bears had no less than three of their players in the finals, the last one falling out in the second last round. Of the three people from Clan 9 who competed, two made it to the finals, Para falling just short in the semis. Mob have an amazing duo with Honk and oKKun, and reliable players to back them up. Clans like BD, GuN, CMC, and of course Crusaders are not to be forgotten either. Honestly, your guess is as good as mine as to who is gonna win.»

Final results:
 * 1) Clan 9
 * 2) Teddy Bears
 * 3) Da Swedish Mob
 * 4) Crusaders
 * 5) Black Lords of Inefficiency
 * 6) Brutal Deluxe

Full list of team deathmatch results

Demos (YouTube)
Clan tournament:
 * Clan 9 vs. Euthanasia, DM2 (Paralyzer's POV)
 * Teddy Bears vs. Da Swedish Mob, DM4 (DOOMer's POV)
 * Icon of Pain vs. Swedish Legion of Lobotomizers, E3M3
 * Teddy Bears vs. Swedish Legion of Lobotomizers, DM2 (Jesper's POV)
 * Teddy Bears vs. Crusaders, E3M2

Deathmatch tournament:
 * Deathmatch final, 1st map, DM2 (DOOMer's POV)
 * Deathmatch final, 2nd map, E1M2 (Mr Kill's POV)
 * Deathmatch semi-final, E1M1 (Mr Kill's POV)
 * Deathmatch semi-final, DM3 (Mr Kill's POV)
 * Deathmatch semi-final, DM6 (DOOMer's POV)
 * Deathmatch semi-final, DM4 (DOOMer's POV)
 * Deathmatch quarter-final, E1M3 (Akira's POV)
 * Deathmatch group game, E1M5 (Honk's POV)
 * Deathmatch group game, E1M3 (Sniket's POV]

Detailed summary
Hobbex' final comments on Quake SM '97:

«In summary I think that SM went very well. Just the risk of big technical problems when over 150 games of Quake are to be played over a weekend are enormous, but with the excellent computers at Nine it never went further than a few restarts and one computer that did not start (but was fixed). The first games were slow in coming, but as soon as players and admins had gotten the routine down, matches got started in matters of minutes. Time was of course an issue, but it always is, and I really think that both players and admins did their best to hurry up. I am sure that demos, pictures, and dozens of commentaries (if you write one tell me) will make it to the web in the next few days, but here are my general impressions:

Deathmatch

After this event, I have mixed opinions about whether deathmatch is suited for this type of competitions. In one mixed up sentence: DM is bad because the matches are so close, and DM is good because the matches are so close.

What I mean with this, the three top players in the final were separated by a measly two frags, which, given that they all had around 80, is nothing. In a deathmatch game, one frag is just a tiny bit of luck, maybe and RL coming at the right time, much less than getting a Quad. To say who of DOOMer, oKKun, or Mr Kill is the best Quaker based on the final is rubbish, two frags is beyond all measurement of skill. At the same time, the final was the most exciting game of Quake I have ever watched, the entire audiences collective breath was held in the last seconds, and the pulses of both players and spectators could almost be heard over the silence. During the clan final most people who hadn't left were sleeping on the floor. The seemingly unfair end paved way for a match that as far as excitement went, was sport on its highest level. One frag may be little, but what are the tenths of seconds that separate skiers and runners on the finnish line? I just don't know...

Whether one chooses to take the results with a grain of salt or not, one thing is for certain, the level of deathmatch played in the last games of SM was one seldom played before. The players who made their way up to the final games were pretty much the ones everyone had expected. DOOMer and oKKun were returning favorites, and the 9's (Sniket and Nikodemus) have proved their skill many enough times. Mr Kill and Sniper were a little surprising, especially after having varying performances in the beginning of SM. A few players that fell out in the quarters and semis were ones that had yet to make a name for themselves, but mostly, experience was king. Next time the Americans have a big tournament, I really hope they accept some of our players, but if they do, it wouldn't surprise me if they then regret it...

Clan tournament

Most people agreed that the part of SM where most honor was to be had was the clan competition. It is so much harder to blame a clan victory on luck and somehow playing with friends is always more fair than playing alone. Also here the level of gameplay was amazing towards the end, with a classical six great Swedish clans getting the top places. Time plagued these games as they started dragging out towards the end, and a lot of matches were played in 2x10 minutes, which is really to little. Not only does a 2x10 minute game change the way a match is played (the start is everything), it also does not give either clan time to really lock down a level, meaning that the results like in DM, were very close. In three 2x10 minute games, Crusaders defeated CMC with two frags, defeated BLI with five frags, and than lost to TB with another five frags. Everyone had high spirits, but results like that can mean, with a little bit of luck, that one Quad decided the game.

In comparison, the semi finals and final were not very exciting. In all of these one team managed to lock down the GL area on E1M2 (which ended up being the map which decided all three battles) and then the game was pretty much over. It is so hard to analyse a clan match, but Clan 9 did something right on this level, while Da Swedish Mob definitely could not handle it. Maybe these demos will begin to clear it up, maybe not...

In Conclusion

The only big problem that this event suffered from was time. Time meant that people were rushed, that matches were shortened, and maybe most of all, that time between the evening last matches and the mornings first were just a few hours, leaving everybody exhausted when the end finally arrived. Many players played far under their potential in the final clan matches, which really shouldn't have happened. Having both DM, 1on1 (which never came to be) and clan in one weekend was far too optimistic, and was doomed not to work. Next year I really do hope that DM and clan will be separate events. Probably the best would be to decide that one is held in the spring, and the other in the fall.»