You were dead last in your group. Who cares what you think!?
Another day, another missed shot to boost my self-worth and improve upon myself. I signed onto the Quake 2 North America Duel League. As usual, I don't expect to win, but I've changed my attitude a little bit. Yes, I'm here to enjoy a few matches, but I'm also trying to win to the best of my ability. Well, I guess I still have the same attitude as any other game tournament I've participated in, but it certainly felt different this time.
The two matches I've played so far were against much higher skilled players. I tried my best, it it obviously didn't do much as I got blown away with a gap of 25-30 frags in each map. It's clear that I'm lacking in every area; tactics, aim, movement, execution, you name it. In every round, I was out aimed and outsmarted. With every respawn, I tried to think things through, but I must have made the same mistake every time as a well-placed prediction rocket or rail continued the cycle once again. I aimed as well as I could, but my aim is nothing against someone with a high percentage rail and chain.
Going specifically into the maps, the first map of the first match was Powertrip. I have no fucking idea why I didn't kick this instead of Rage or Aerowalk. At least in Rage I wouldn't have been spawnkilled as much, and in Aerowalk I could safely hide on the rocket/rail corridor until an attempt for the red armor was launched. No, I had to stupidly believe I could take on kaitech on this infamously cramped map with only 4 spawns.
In the corner of the middle room lies the red armor on a stack of crates. This area should have been where most of the fighting takes place had I played the map properly. But no, I ran into as many rockets as I could, not paying attention to the number of rockets that the opponent spammed. If I had grabbed those two rocket packs in the corner sooner, kai would've been forced to use the chain or rail. Of course, it wouldn't have helped that he had complete control of the red armor and bullets. Not only did I fail to deal out damage when I was in a safe railing spot, but I also failed to grab it when it was possible. It makes things even harder when I don't use the 100+ FPS crate climb glitch, which means I can't climb the crates to the armor from the other side.
I had a surprisingly fair amount of access to the rocket launcher. If only I grabbed a chain sooner and also kept watch on the bandolier room. Kai would retreat there and stock up on the two 25 health packs and the bullet packs for the chain. It was only far into the game when I finally started to fire at the room for the finishing blow. I never managed to get control though. The final score was a crushing 1-38.
Although The Edge saw a better score ratio for me, it didn't soften the crushing 7-35 score. I actually had control in the beginning of the map, but stupid is as stupid does. As I came out of the water after having fetched the rail, I more or less lost control at a battle near the waterside. I didn't exactly die, but my armor was completely shot and my health dwindled to 100 or so, after a megahealth boost. And to a goddamned hyperblaster, aimed from the CG bullets to the waterside ledge! If it was the super shotgun, I would understand my shitty aim kicking in, but I should've been able to dodge enough shots to keep my health a little over 100. But no, I ate those orange bolts of pathetic doom and lost my control, and the game soon after.
Speaking of shitty aim, I managed to lose a bunch of fights with 175/75 CG/SSG vs 100/50 RL. I sure did like running into 2 direct rockets all the time. Obviously, my thought process of trying to get the other guy to shoot himself isn't working, so I have to phase that out as best I can. My execution never seems to improve no matter how much I play. It's pretty sad. My chain and rail are severely outclassed by everyone. If I fought an RA2 player who has never played a 1v1 DM game, I'd lose by at least 10. Actually, I more or less have, against deft. And he was fucking lagging, too! I'll never live it down...or up, it seems. The result was probably as expected for many spectators.
I just finished playing my second match against naymlis a few hours ago. The first map was Chastity Belt. Besides The Edge, I think this was one of the maps I actually had a chance to score a kill. How wrong I was. Naym's rail just totally scared the shit out of me. I rarely attacked at all, and when I did, I was never confident that I could score enough hits before I got railed or chained to death. If only I covered the chain platform more instead of grabbing the chain bullets near the SSG. There, I would be in a better position to retrieve or stop naym from getting the megahealth and yellow armor, able to grab the CG, able to grab the 2 rocket packs and have access to the 2 25 health packs.
Nope. I decided to camp on the little platform above the CG bullets, eating attack after attack from naym as he dropped down from the CG to the RL room. Even though he hit the shards a few times, I was too confused to figure it out before it was too late. A couple of rockets from the YA to the CG bullets also hit me, and I remember getting hit as I approached the jumppad to the grenade launcher platform. I think it was that moment that scared the last bit of me and confined me to the corner of the map. I could barely get the RL at that point, and any spawns at the rail resulted in a sure death before I hit the ground. I even got a lava death when I got shot off the rail platform. Damn, where the hell are those double rails that I sometimes get in RA2? I didn't hit anything, and I think my travesty of a joke of my rail aim is all I have to lean back on. I didn't get a single kill, and ended up with a score of -1.
Time for naymlis to finish his spawn hearing exercise on The Rage. I got 2 kills this time 'round, 1 with a hand grenade after-explosion when he was chaining me near the red armor, and one with a chain, although I'm pretty sure he let me have that one 'cause the game was ending. I wasn't as afraid of his rail this time around, but whether I was scared or not didn't affect his rail and chain hit percentages. As with anyone with a super chain aim, I have about one or two seconds to live if I'm in the same room as the other person. Well, actually, make that one or two seconds of running around like an idiot. I can never get away, and I always try to hide around a corner, hoping the opponent will waste enough bullets before realizing I'm right in front of him. I guess I should keep in mind that I'm playing someone that doesn't have my piss poor aim, awareness and mental strength.
Even if I do have more than enough distance to get away, my sloppy execution and movement will lead me into hitting a wall or corner somewhere. And even if it's 100 times safer to stay on top, I will almost always drop down to my opponent's level, even without a weapon! It's a nasty habit that I should concentrate on fixing quite soon. It's probably better to let a weakened opponent run away while I'm in a better position, unless he has a hard-to-get rail or something.
Back to the match. I had a good amount of RAs and MHs, enough to mount an attack. But I couldn't get past the part where I get owned by a full 300 stock of bullets complemented by the RL. I couldn't snipe him at the RL with such a weak rail, and I rarely got the chance to grab any weapons at RA area. He would always grab both the chain and rocket launcher whenever he had the chance. I was sure that I could do something on this map, though. Unfortunately for me, I can't go anywhere without the proper execution and aim.
For some reason, I remember the use of the grenade launcher in both of my matches against kaitech and naymlis. The grenade launcher netted me a sweet direct hit, flick aim kill against kai on The Edge, and it made naym retreat on Rage when he attempted a chaingun attack at the YA to CG stairway. Maybe I should test my luck and trust in the GL a little more. It couldn't hurt, seeing as how I spam the RL, RG and CG to no avail. Might as well try with a weapon built for it, heh.
Well, those matches went down as expected. I felt I could change things, but no skill nor luck. My next match will be against GYN. I've read a bunch of his demo critiques, first noticing him on CHTV. He seems to be quite knowledgeable but apparently lacks execution as well. Dael predicted his demo watching would give him an edge, and I have to agree. I guess I simply can't try to out aim him, then. No, I will just have to try damn hard to out aim him. I'm gonna do my best to win. If I don't win, then I'm gonna make sure that I have that victory pried from my hands instead of giving it away.
On the Quake 2 side of things, it looks like the playoffs have started. I was unable to contact GYN or advent in order to play my matches, which is a shame 'cause I should've played them while they were still idling #nadl early on in the tourney. As a result, I've more or less lost my chance to participate in the playoffs. Not that it matters, though, 'cause I don't deserve to even play in the first period at all.
I have a few issues that are irking me somewhat, but I've decided not to bring them up to the admins 'cause the tourney has been running a little slow, and little activity has been shown as of late. It's probably best that they proceed as best they can, with little interruptions. It's bad enough that a couple of players don't want to participate, and they don't need my whining on top of this inactivity.
Anyway, most of what I have a problem with is merely how closely the organizers are following the rules. One thing to point out is who is participating in the playoffs. The rules say that the top 4 people in each group will advance to the playoffs. Scooby himself said that it's always been "top 2 + best 4 best 3rd's." I don't know if that means the people in 3rd or 4th with the most points, but it looks like he's implying a 4th place group rank is a candidate for the playoffs. If this was true, then deft and haunted should've been in, seeing as how they have the most points compared to other 4th place finishers. But I don't see their names on the playoff list anywhere.
Also, some 3rd place finishers got cut, including myself. Only those with a walkover loss were left out, it seems. Fair enough, I suppose. I would like to see this tournament finish, 'cause the Q2 NA scene has a knack for leaving tourneys unfinished for quite some time, if they ever finish at all. Having less players will definitely help accomplish this. Also, the playoffs format is already an even 8-4-2. No need to have a retarded walkover match for whoever is lucky enough to get it.
I also don't understand why my I received 0:0 walkovers against GYN and advent. When it was our week to play, and when Scooby asked me about it, I never saw those two in #nadl at all. I even got a 2:0 walkover win against advent, but that promptly changed back to 0:0. And what happened to our wildcard? Granted, no one said anything about it, but it's hard to tell if the organizers took this into account. I guess I should've said something, but then again, I didn't want to make a fuss about it. I was still 3rd in my group, so I thought I'd get to the playoffs anyway. Not that I'm deserving of it anyway.
Whatever, this is behind me already. If I had made it, I would've been destroyed on 3 maps instead of 2. I might bring it up after the tourney's over, but I doubt it. I guess I'm just a stickler for rules. Maybe if daelmun was still running the thing, I wouldn't be having these concerns. I don't want to put anything toward Element or Scooby, though, they've done a great job with the tourney so far. I'll just shut my mouth for now. Maybe I'll bring this up after the tourney's over, but knowing how much of a wuss I am, I doubt it.
Okay, so that's my story. Nothing like living in the bad ol' days, huh? And to further increase your torture after reading this mess, you can check out the accompaning demos if you want. They start with nadl1r1_...