Pro Gamer Fatal1ty Talks Tactics, Endorsements

An anonymous reader writes "Quake master Johnathan Wendel, better known as Fatal1ty, talks about his life and the professional gaming scene over at ZDNet. Asked how he keeps his reflexes sharp, he said: 'I use the same tactics in 'Quake' that I used in tennis. It's all about mind games, knowing what your opponent's thinking, knowing where a shots going to go. Anything in a computer game, I can relate it to something in sports I've played. The rail gun (the heaviest weapon in 'Quake') -- that's like going for the overhead slam in tennis. You set 'em up and then you drive it home with your hardest shot. It's like all the shots in tennis are, back and forth, trying to get them off balance. And when you do, you slam it down their throat. Same as gaming.'"

Comments

Re:Sports

[Neppy]

You'll never know. One day you might see a Quakefest on ESPN2.
I really doubt it. Videogames tend to focus on a single players perspective, as opposed to established sports like basketball, football, soccer, baseball etc. Notice how all those games use a ball to focus attention, and are readily viewable from an "exterior" point of view. Watching someone play quake when you get only a single person's perspective is pretty shallow compared to watching a whole team. until games jump this gap they wont be taken seriously as sports.

Fata1ty speaks of a basic priciple....

[StressGuy]

of combative sports.

In the course of my life I've participated in various forms of swordplay (sabre, shinai, boken, medieval styles, etc.) and have coached others on the same. In all forms of combat, there is a fundamental truth - the person who controls the space between the combatants wins. This is true for his tennis match, a football game, a chess game, hand-to-hand, swordplay, or total war.
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During a typical contest, there will be moments when you have control and moments when you don't. When you do, you strike - immediately. When you don't, you get the hell out of the way and re-engage under more neutral circumstances. The whole trick is to get control of the space between you and your opponent and strike before he can react.
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Between novice fighters, combat is like a game of "rock-paper-scissors" as both opponent throw various moves and techniques without much thought as to what the other person is doing, where his center of gravity is, etc. However, between experienced fighters, it's like watching an intricate dance as both opponents try to out position and out think each other....very cool to watch.