Hi Wiktor, welcome to The QUAKE PUB and thank you for accepting the invitation. First of all, let me congratulate you on winning the Elite Division of Polish Quake League. How are you doing?

Hey, appreciate the opportunity and thank you for the congratulations. Doing absolutely fine. At the moment, taking some time to reflect on my performance and what let me to that victory.

You are a member of Vexed Gaming, how does cooperation work with them and how does the team support you? Does the team somehow coordinate and help you with social media for example or they are just your own business? 

The cooperation itself is quite a delight with Vexed. People that are in charge of the organisation, whether it’s  Mark Weller (CGO),  Dan O'Hare (Head of Esports) or  Stephen James (Marketing Manager) have been involved with esports one way or another for a long time.

If I was completely honest, being involved in esports for the last four years has taught me a lot about players worth, and truth be told, it does not stop on just being a player and representing the organisation in-game. In order to be a successful asset to a company, you have to understand how the industry operates that you work in. Therefore, we all help each other out with social media.

Playing games does not give much recognition to players, unless they have very specific personalities, what does though is being present throughout your socials, such as Twitch, Twitter and Instagram (potentially TikTok nowadays). I am always eager to work on creating assets that can be used on my socials as well as Vexed’s, whether it’s branded posts, sponsorship photoshoots (which we have done twice) or other collaborations.

Do you consider yourself a pro player?

Does gaming earn enough for living or do you have some regular job?

In niche games, it is quite problematic to call yourself a professional. One of the definitions is “a person engaged in a specified activity, especially a sport, as a main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.”

By that definition, sure, why not, but on a grand scale of things, being a professional in niche games becomes problematic. Unless you are a Top 3 player and have support from Tier 1 organisation, the likelihood of you making enough money to SAFELY live and save up, is pretty much non-existent.

Even players who are in Tier 1 orgs in niche games have part time jobs.

Without going into much detail, I myself work two jobs, as a graphic designer and video editor. As much as I would love to earn money through playing video games, it is not likely to happen very time soon, unless Quake goes BIG.

What do you think Quake needs to go big? Is it purely about involvement of Bethesda or do you think that people does not care about "theirs community" all that much?

That Quake Family actually care deeply, but are exhausted of state of Quake, or there is no way how to address most of players base?

I mean, my guesses can go even wilder :-)

I don’t think there is much that can be done. I believe that AFPS popularity was due to those three factors:

1. The graphics and genre itself was like nothing before, people wanted to explore it.

2. Lack of variety in shooter games.

3. If I’m not mistaken, it was the first shooter esport, so there was the hype. Nowadays, games are easier, have fancy graphics that appeal to wider audience, have easier learning curve and you can easily jump in with your friends and get some nice accomplishments.

If I have the time, I myself would rather play other games with friends. What I do think might help regain some of its popularity though is introduction of a Single Player Quake and have a separate MP, kind of like the new Call of Duty and Warzone. Don’t force people to only play multiplayer, have that amazing SP campaign experience and in addition, a free MP.

Bethesda also needs to evolve how they think about esports and viewing experience. Fans and viewers often watch esports teams or players for their personalities, they need some sort of attachment, a storyline.

Quake’s current storyline is “who will beat  rapha”. The single-minded pursuit is horrible and people wonder why nobody is excited to watch Quake anymore.

Even IEM events from 2010’s were better than the current QC production.

You are one of the players that are trying to succeed in multiple AFPS. You had results in Reflex, Diabotical, Quake Live as well as Quake Champions.

If you could combine those games, you play together and pick one feature that you love on each of them, what would they be?

Out of all the four mentioned, I only had success in two, Quake Champions and Diabotical. Even though I have placed quite well in Reflex Arena and Quake Live tournaments, both games either had little to no players or were past their prime. As for the features:

Quake Live – Team modes

Diabotical – Esports & Community support (huge shoutouts to  James and  Mojo)

Quake Champions – SFX & Models

Reflex Arena – Nothing actually

You just finished first in the Polish Quake League and with all respect to players in Elite Division, you run them over. Polish Quake is quite a strong community and there are some big names in it.

Would you like to have more top tier players in PQL for next season?

Yes, that is quite a statement, I didn’t even believe what was happening at first.

Truthfully, all of the matches were challenging, mostly mentally. I am one of those players who has trouble controlling their emotions in duels. Team modes, not at all, I can IGL all day long, and no matter how badly things go, I will just keep pushing forward and trying to learn and soak as much of information as is needed for myself and the team. Simply put, the more competition, the better, the more stakes, and the harder you push yourself.

 SaintNoMore and his crew created a product that is worthy of the Quake Pro League level of production and I would dare to compare it to Ironfist LAN.

Did you know how crazy bois will go with Elite Division Finals?

How was the whole organisation of League going from your point of view? 

Let’s be honest, from viewers standpoint, Ironfist did not deliver in the way I thought it would. Given that this is what I do as my job, creating assets for companies whether to be shown on TV, film or broadcasts, I believe they could have done way better job at preparing for this tournament and for the first time, actually taking the initiative and create a family-like show where you don’t just show brackets during break-time, but you go and interview players, sit on a couch with them, having a conversation, play mini-games, have them show their setup. This is what is missing from Quake broadcasts.

As for the PQL, the guys did a fantastic job on a very small budget. As soon as I heard the plans, I knew that they would do their best to perfect the craft that they are creating and boy, they delivered.

You know what is even more funny and interesting?

They just had a laugh, didn’t take things too seriously (nobody should be wearing ties and suits for Quake tournaments) which made it feel like the family-show where you get to experience honesty and realness.

PQL is won, but you are not able to break it thru Quake Pro League Challengers.

On the other hand, TastySpleen announced they are about to hold a 2on2 Cups in 2022. GetCracked holded Sacrifice Draft Cup, which was amazing from viewers perspective.

What Modes would you love to see more supported by tournaments? Do you set your goals in QPL and DUEL, or do you rather see yourself in some team mode?

This might sound very egotistical from me to say this, but breaking through to the Pro League would not be as much of a problem if I didn’t work two jobs at the same time.

Unfortunately, as mentioned before, Quake does not provide any players with sufficient amount of money to live off, therefore I think it’s a waste of time to even bother at this point. I am twenty-four years old, I am getting older and not younger, therefore my priorities are more family and stability driven rather than just passion.

I think Sacrifice and proper TDM would be great for us players, but unfortunately, given how fast the game is, it would become problematic for the viewer and therefore hurt the viewership in the long run.

If I was to really grind again, it would have to be for team modes. I am not a dueler, never have been. My whole live I enjoyed team modes, CS 1.5, Overwatch, CS:GO, QL TDM. Duel was fascinating, and still is, but not to me as a player, but rather a viewer.

Let me throw back to 2018, where you did a great interview with Shazzik - that's exactly where Quake Fam should go, to know how you started and what “made you” man you are today. If you can look back to all those years with Quake and AFPS, what do you think about the continuous escalation of esports and are there some memories you cherish from the past? 

Honestly? I keep beating myself over for not choosing CS over Quake.

Don’t get me wrong, I cherish every moment I spent in the AFPS community, from players to viewers, my experience has been amazing, especially thanks to  rapha,  2GD,  Av3k and  Cypher, without those players and people, I wouldn’t be where I am today, whatsoever.

In regards to the esports escalation, from the very beginning,
it’s been a mess of decision making
and the WRONG PEOPLE are in charge of it.

Those people who manage esports at Bethesda, have completely lost the touch with reality and understanding of how to engage viewers with their product. That shit gets me everyday and makes me wonder what is actually going on over there.

There are so many amazing productions (not from technically stand point but from creative) that Bethesda can take inspiration from, yet Quake seems to be still stuck in 2010’s. Shame really.

Is there any young blood, you see in the Polish Quake Community, that we should look for?

Yes, there is one player that stands out to me the most,  Zwiros.

The potential is there, but not too sure whether he has the time to do it. Players often overlook how important it is to study other players VODS and yourselves.

Time will tell!

Thank you for your time and good luck!

Thank you very much for this opportunity and I wish you for a fruitful future with your Quake Pub endeavours!

Thank you, bro! <3 It was pleasure having you here, and I hope you and Quake Family will like where I would like to continue with The QUAKE PUB ;-)