Challenge Smackdown North America

Introduction to the NA division by ZzJohnzZ

At the beginning of the North American Challenge Smackdown 2 season the field looked wide open. The season 1 champions, American Gangsters, would lose many players who formed new teams. Daw and Snakes left AG to team up with many members of LoD, the season 1 runners-up, to form clan DG. DG would also have Nitro playing as a LPB for the first time in his Quakeworld career. Skitter left AG to play with EG. EG would be composed of such big names as Czm, Fatality, Cleansweep, Gemini, and Monster. EG also picked up Arcane and Hetfield from FiTH, the forth place finishers in Challenge Smackdown 1. In a stunning development, Fiend left clan [5] for EG. XX added Lorak and Tang to its arsenal of players and looked extremely strong in the pre-season. GQ who had the most stunning upset victory in Season 1 defeating EG, would add Anti and Xoque to their roster. In addition to these extremely strong teams, a new powerhouse was formed calling themselves The Crimson Guard. Put together by the rapidly improving player Getafix, Crimson Guard would have such stars as Gator, Bb, Amp, Hobbes and Wombat on its squad. FFF would also make its return to Quakeworld. The team from Quebec had many old school greats like Dnx3, Twistkill, Cyberknight, Koss, and Pangolin.

Things didn’t look so great for AG. In addition to losing many players to other clans, Haze decided to stop playing Quakeworld and start playing Quake 3. Punisher was recruited for AG but had too much school and work to deal with. Bulldozer, Yogic, and Strych9 were added to the AG roster. Def was the only core member of AG’s season 1 team who made a commitment to play in all of the games of season 2. AG would be a completely new squad. They lost many games in the pre-season trying to find the right combination of people to play. With the huge pool of talent in Challenge Smackdown 2, the championship title was anyone’s to win.

Teams were divided up into 3 groups. Teams would play every team in their group. A match would be the best 2 out of 3 games. Each team would pick a home map to play from amongst the maps dm2, dm3, dm6, e1m2 and e3m7. If after playing 2 maps and the score was 1-1, the third map would be chosen at random by computer. The top 2 teams from each group would advance to the play-offs.

AG would definitely advance from Group 1. They quickly disposed of all opposition. Old school clan RB, Challenge Smackdown 1 sixth place finisher clan [5], and new-school clan ST would fight for the final play-off spot. In the end ST would defeat both RB and [5] in some very exciting games.

Group 2 was quite interesting with DG, GQ, and FFF battling it out for 2 play-off spots. CAG could have been up there, but they had other commitments to attend to and didn’t play many games. GQ defeated DG in an epic battle. DG was not happy with the loss and this would create tension that lasted throughout the entire season. FFF defaulted a few key matches giving the top 2 play-off spots to GQ and DG. The final game of group 2 was between GQ and FFF. Although it was clear that GQ and DG were advancing the Quebec players put up one heck of a fight giving GQ all they could handle. GQ won dm6 by a mere 8 frags to win the series 2-1.

Group 3 was brutal. XX, EG, and CG would be the top contenders. CP3 had too many HPB players to fight with the other LPB teams. XX would go undefeated in their group. Their closest match was versus EG. XX won 2-1 winning e1m2 and dm3 comfortably but losing dm6 by 8 frags. XX then beat CG 2-0. CG would then play EG to determine who would advance to the play-offs. CG won dm3, EG won dm6 and the final game would be played on e1m2. At the start the lead would change rapidly. EG then built a small lead and looked like they were going to pull away. Eventually through some inspired play by Amp and Bb, CG got extremely close. CG was running quad after quad spawn fragging EG until one fatal mistake let EG take back control and win the match. Although CG didn’t make the play-offs they won the B Division championships over CP3.

The play-offs or A Division would be a war of attrition. The 6 teams to make it into the play-offs would play each other 3 times. A match would the best 3 out of 5 games. Each team would pick a home map and the other 3 maps would be drawn in random order. A team would get 3 points for a match win, 1 point for a loss in which they played, and 0 points for a forfeit. The idea behind playing more games was two-fold. By playing more games people would have more fun. After all part of organizing the league is to get more Quakeworld games played. The second reason to play so many games was to leave little doubt as to which two teams were the best. For example if team A lost an extremely close game to team B, they would have 2 more chances to prove they were the better team. At the end of all the games, the two teams with the highest point totals would advance and play the finals. The finals would also be the best 3 out of 5 with the maps being chosen in random order.

At the start of the season 3 things became very clear: The first thing was that ST was in a bit over their heads. ST had talent, make no doubt about that. Titan was a former member of FiTH, Carnage and Exoduz were two up and coming players. [-1] was a great dueler and one of the first people I have ever seen bunny hop. He was also the first person in NA that I saw do the dm2 steps to gl/mh jump during actual matches. Unfortunately for ST, [-1] was never around and Titan was HPB for almost all of the games. Despite their problems ST would have to be named The Best New Team award for Challenge Smackdown 2. They defeated [5] to make it into the play-offs and were the only completely new team in the play-offs.

The second thing that became clear was that AG was definitely going to make the finals. Right before the start of Challenge Smackdown 2, Def got a new computer. Finally he could play at 72 fps and a decent viewsize. For Def’s game, this made all the difference in the world. He went from just another one of the top players, to being the best Quakeworld player in North America. AG also became much more serious about timing items. Losing in the pre-season made them re-think how they played the maps and what it would take to win. AG would also try to practice each night for at least 2 hours, even if the games were intra-clan 2v2 games. Yogic would prove to be the season 2 recruit of the year. Despite all of the other big names in Challenge Smackdown 2, night after night Yogic would put in solid performances for AG. More good things happened for AG during the play-offs. Bulldozer, Haze, Punisher, Strych9, and Gibz would play games when they were available. With a solid line-up and strict practice regimen it was clear that AG might lose a few games here and there, but they were going to the finals.

The third thing was both obvious and exciting. The other finals spot was anyone’s to take. DG would beat GQ, GQ would beat XX, XX would beat EG, EG would beat DG. It seemed that on any given day any of these clans could beat or lose to any other of these clans. It all depended on the line-ups, pings, and how people would play in a particular match. ST would also play a key role in determining who would make the finals. The final standings for the play-offs were:

1) AG 15 wins 0 loses 0 forfeits 45 points
2) GQ 9 wins 6 loses 0 forfeits 33 points
3) XX 9 wins 5 loses 1 forfeits 32 points
4) EG 5 wins 7 loses 3 forfeits 22 points
5) DG 5 wins 7 loses 3 forfeits 22 points
6) ST 2 wins 9 loses 4 forfeits 15 points

As one can see the race for the final play-off spot was quite close. EG and DG had a tremendous amount of talent but they also had their fair share of troubles. One huge problem for DG was that their star player Nitro had severe connection problems. Snakes and Daw would not show up for every match and on a few occasions DG didn’t have enough people to field a team. Towards the end of the season DG would play 2 key matches against GQ. This would be the third and forth time the two teams met. GQ had won the first two meetings against DG and DG was not happy about it. If GQ would have won the third match they could have cruised into the finals. DG then beat GQ to make the play-off race tighten up. Tron, Rapture, and Defiant played some very inspired quake to win that match. DG looked like they were finally coming into their own stride after some early play-off troubles. In the final meeting between GQ and DG, GQ had to win to make the play-offs and win they did.

EG also had its share of troubles. Several of the big names on the roster didn’t play for various reasons. Czm, who was around for the preliminary rounds, would frequently miss games or show up for games with lag. EG had 2 very dedicated players in Fiend and Cleansweep. However EG would have a hard time finding four people to play each match. Their starting line-up was always changing. Despite this EG managed to play brilliantly at times and participated in the most exciting match-up of Challenge Smackdown 2. April 30th, 2001 will be a day that lives in NA Quakeworld infamy. In 5 very exciting games EG would upset XX 3 games to 2. EG would take dm6, lose e1m2, win dm2 and then lose e3m7. All of the games were exciting but the best was yet to come. XX has so much raw skill and depth on dm3 it is amazing. Clown, Claw, Cano and Tang would be facing Fiend, Skitter, Cleansweep, and Arcane. Normally I would expect XX to win with not much resistance. There are games where one player will raise his level of play at the end of the game and lead his team to victory. Fiend had one of these games. Down by 30 with about 4 minutes to go Fiend, aka The Real TM [5]Fiend and former clan [5] star, killed an XX player at the quad. He then got tanked up and killed XX after XX. He ran the quad throughout the rest of the match and played some spectacular Quake. EG won the game by 20 or so frags in the most exciting game in season 2. In fact this game from Fiend’s POV is awarded The best demo of Challenge Smackdown 2. EG and DG tied on points but EG did better when they played head to head. EG gets the forth place spot overall and DG finishes fifth.

XX is a great team. They had Stitch and Deez who recently relocated from the United Kingdom. They are brothers and had the advantage of playing from the same room. Chuga is master of dm6 team play for Dos Equis. XX also had Clown, Cano, Jestr, and Tang. These four are very highly skilled players and dm3 experts. XX had some troubles in Challenge Smackdown 1 fielding their best players during key matches. Challenge Smackdown 2 would be no different. Despite Claw’s great managing of the clan, XX would forfeit 1 game to ST and this would cost them dearly. They beat GQ in 2 matches and lost 1. Had XX just shown up and lost to ST, they would have made the finals. In that scenario both GQ and XX had 33 points and XX had the better record in head to head matches. Equally tragic is the fact that any 3 of XX probably could have beaten ST as ST won their only 2 games by forfeit. XX had a chance to make the play-offs if they managed to beat AG in their last match-up. Unfortunately for XX they lost the final meeting 3-0 despite some great play by AngryBeaver in the series. Because of the great depth of XX, AngryBeaver didn’t play much all season. Perhaps he should have played more because he put up one heck of a fight against AG.

Part of being a great team is being consistent. GQ is a clan that is exactly that. They always showed up for games on time. They took their games very seriously and acted very professionally. They won the games they should have won, minimized random loses and put in solid performances all season. Kingstud is one of GQ’s top players. However he couldn’t participate in many Challenge Smackdown 2 games. Kingstud is remembered for pulling off an incredible series of 3 direct mid air rockets at the end of the deciding dm2 game versus EG in season 1. Killing the enemy going to quad with less than 5 minutes to go, Kingstud helped his team win over a heavily favored EG team. This had to be the upset of season in Challenge Smackdown 1. Despite the frequent absence of Kingstud, the team of Anti, Xoque, Kukabuka, Cobra, Ziploc, Useless, Virgil, Grig, and Hazard performed at a very high level, week after week all season. They went 2-1 versus DG. They went 3-0 versus ST and EG. They had losing records of 1-2 versus XX and 0-3 versus AG. Despite their losing record versus AG, GQ is also the only team to win 2 games off of AG in 2 seasons of Challenge Smackdown. In their last meeting before the finals GQ gave AG all they could handle. On e1m2 GQ played a great game controlling most of the map and won 116-89. The next game was on dm3 and Punisher could not be contained despite GQ’s best efforts. The game was extremely close as AG squeaked to victory 100-84. On e3m7 Punisher had to leave. Def who had missed the first two games replaced him and AG won 179-65. The dm2 game would be very close with AG hanging on at the end to win 104-84. GQ definitely gave AG all they could handle in their last meeting before the finals.

AG’s road to the finals was for the most part smooth. In AG’s first match Terror did everything within his power to prevent Def from getting 100 frags. Outside of this minor setback, in some games every AG would have over 100 frags. In many matches an AG player would average over 100 frags a game. In one match AG|John averaged over 150 frags a game. AG|John also scored most frags in a single Challenge Smackdown NA game with 167. The core of AG would have to be Def, Yogic, and John. They played in a majority of matches. Bulldozer played in quite a few matches as well. When Bull couldn’t play, Haze came back for a few games. Towards the end of the season Bull and Haze couldn’t play so Strych9 and Punisher stepped up and answered the call. One cannot forget to mention Gibz. He played only 1 game, which was on e1m2. For his short 20-minute stint in season 2, he didn’t die. He is probably the only person to average 100% efficiency for the entire Challenge Smackdown 2 season. Wang and Fuman would do there best to help AG when they were available. While they didn’t play many official matches they played countless practice games for AG making sure that the skills of the clan were as sharp as possible. Towards the end of the season AG did have trouble fielding a team. This was most evident in the AG versus GQ game. Def had to see a dentist that day and was under heavy medication. At the scheduled time of the match only Yogic and John were prepared to play and no other AG’s were around. Before the forfeit deadline, Punisher showed up and AG played GQ 3v4. Despite losing the 1st game and being a man down, AG rebounded back winning the second game. Punisher then had to leave. Def, feeling the effects of heavy medication, ignored the pain and dizziness he was experiencing and led the AG squad to 2 more game victories and the match win.

Although AG and GQ had distinct routes to the finals, they both made it to the big dance. In a best 3 out of 5 anything can happen. AG would take no chances making sure to field four players against the GQ squad. The map order would be dm6, dm3, e3m7, dm2, and e1m2. AG would field Def, Yogic, John, and Punisher. GQ would field Xoque, Ziploc, Anti, and Kukabuka. Both teams played close to their strongest line-ups for the finals. The finals turned out to be more of the same for AG. They won all 3 games comfortably: dm6 369-299, dm3 194-77, and e3m7 224-100.

It was a long and tiring season. AG proved that they again were the dominant Quakeworld clan in North America despite their pre-season troubles. In North America AG is the clan everyone loves to hate. From time to time they lose games in practice but when it is an official league match they seem to always win. In Challenge Smackdown 1 and 2 they had a combined match record of 26-0 and a 69-2 record in games. One game loss was due to forfeit because one player forgot to use Qizmo. The other game loss was a 3v4. Love them or hate them AG took on all contenders and won. If there were an award for most valuable player in season 1, it would have gone to AG|Haze. In Challenge Smackdown 2, AG|Def carried the torch for AG leading the league in almost all statistics. Love him or hate him, Def was clearly the best player in the league. He helped AG retain an undefeated match record and led them to their second consecutive Challenge Smackdown title. For these reasons Def is named the most valuable player of Challenge Smackdown 2.

Finally, no season summary would be complete without thanking everyone. Thanks to Jjonez for organizing the Challenge Smackdown league. It was his vision that brought this worldwide league to life. Thanks to Hoony for providing hosting our websites. Thanks to Def, Cl, and Dk for administrating games when I wasn’t around. Thanks to Amp, Def, and Lorak for running cameras so people could watch the games. Thanks have to go out to MommySue for letting us use her servers for special events like the Challenge Smackdown all-star game. Thanks go out to Rb-DotyRaty the North American minister of propaganda and publicity. Thanks to Dk and Yogic for adding all the demos to challenge-tv. Finally, Thanks to Cobra for doing the NA reports on the Challenge Smackdown page.