Norway
- Categories: Norwegian Players | Norwegian Clans | Norwegian National Team
- Famous clans: Game Over | Spawn Clan | The Vicious Vikings | The Axe Men
History
The early history of Norwegian Quake, written by Erlend.
Quake was eagerly awaited and quickly attracted a Norwegian following after its release in June 1996. Home computers and Internet access being fairly common by those days' standards, Norway and the Nordic countries were a dominant part of the European Quake scene from day one.
Clan matches were decided on aggregate score after two freely chosen maps. The TB3-maps DM3 and DM2 quickly became the most popular, but E1M3 was actually more common than E1M2. Other regular choices was E3M3 and E3M7, while the occasional match was played on E1M1, E1M5, E2M1, E3M2 and E3M6. E4M3 is also worth mentioning, a map Norwegian clan The Vicious Vikings made their own. Though hard to picture today, clan matches were also played on DM6 and DM4.
Connection issues and huge ping differences were not uncommon, according to early match logs. Servers were often changed at «half-time» to even out the disadvantages. Thus, winning 100-30 at home could easily be followed by losing the away map by similar figures. As the clan scene was still small, LPB clans and HPW clans regularly played each other.
1996
The first Norwegian clan, The Vicious Vikings, was formed in August 1996. Spawn Clan and Carnage Clan (known as Cyber Quakers in 1996) quickly followed. The trio established themselves as the top Norwegian clans, and Carnage Clan was soon considered as one of the best - of not the best - LPB clan in Scandinavia.
It took a few months before the Quake scene was big enough for matches to be regularly played. The first Norwegian clan match was played October 5th between The Vicious Vikings and The Lost Vikings (the vicious ones won). Norwegian clans had to look abroad for opponents, and The Vicious Vikings and Spawn Clan played legendary clans like Teddy Bears, Swedish Chefs, Crusaders and Nasty Beasts Inc during the fall of 1996.
In November 1996, the clan ranking page A Frag in the Darkness was started, which would go on to become one of the biggest Quake pages in Scandinavia the following year.
1997
This was the year clan wars became professionalized. What A Frag in the Darkness had started the previous fall, now really took off with sites like the duel ladder Scandinavian Mighty Ones, the clan rating site Automatic for the People and the Norwegian Quake League, a national league like in Sweden and Denmark. News and community sites like FragZone and Blue's News became popular. These sites spawned a lot of activity, and a lot of new players and clans joined the scene.
The first of a series of ten AskerLANs were held in February. These LAN-parties were a huge success and became the heart of the Norwegian Quake scene for the next couple of years. The best Norwegian players were always present, with Stalin and Sectopod battling for the title as number one.
1997 was also the first year for national teams, and Norway's LPB and HPW teams played against Sweden, Denmark and Finland on Death32c in the spring. The Swedes quickly conquered the title as best country.
Scandinavia's first all-female Quake clan, Sisters in Quake, was formed during the fall. The strange phenomenon of clans purely for fakenickers also emerged this year. An explanation could be that several Norwegian clans had so many players there simply wasn't enough game time for everyone. Thus, clans like Ernie Killers, Mikke Mus Klan and later on Rectum Intruders could have been an opportunity for players to finally get some 4on4 action.
In November 1997 three of Norway's top clans were dissolved. It started when several of the top players of Carnage Clan, Spawn Clan and Insomnia all left their clans to form the new clan Game Over. Shortly after, the players they had left behind also formed new clans, like The New Breed and 7th Sphere, though several of them would end up in Game Over eventually.
In retrospect, the biggest change of 1997 was QuakeWorld. Though released in December 1996, it wasn't until the summer before the majority started to make the transition to QW.
1998
Heroes
Quake 2 released February
June: Announced that Quake 3 will be dropped, instead Quake 3 Arena, multiplayer only. This announcement seems to shock the gaming world, according Methos.
More to follow...
1999
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Few new clans, but still very active year
Quake III Arena test-released in May. Methos: Downloading of the most anticipated game since Quake, slows the internet to a crawl for days to come.
17th May: First Norwegian Q3A match, GO vs VV
Quake 3: Arena released worldwide on December 5th, 1999
VV arguably 3rd best clan in Northern Europe
Lot of players moving on to CS and Q3A
NECL 2nd season canceled. QW scene in decline.
Rapture 99: July 26th, 1999, Scotland. Duel: 1 Kane DE, 2. Timber UK, 3 Nikodemus SE, 4. Griff DE. TDM: 1. Euro Selects (Kane, DOOMer, Blitzer, Cable) 2. North America (Batch, Pure, Gemini, Genocide)
More to follow...
2000s
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Feb 2001: For the first time in almost five years, neither Quake, QW, Quake2 or Q3A is the top online game. The Half-Life add-on called Counter-Strike is the number 1. It's popularity will continue to grow.
Norwegian scene consists of The Chosen One & ex-Game Over's
2008: The Axe Men 2.0
Challenge Smackdown (2000)
Duelmania (2001)
Demos
Achievements
- 2009: 4th in Quake Nations Cup
Servers
Qizmo
- Catch-Gamer Qizmo - 193.69.8.153:27500 (32 slots)