Another Basic Dueling Guide :>

Every game (especially in sports) requires a positive attitude. If you are behaving to some extend 'lame' (i.e. you frequently disconnect, you start chatting about lucky frags or insult your opponent) just because you lose and in turn become frustrated, then it’s time to work on your attitude. If you refuse to change your attitude into a positive manner, you’ll automatically lose the fun and delight to play Quake and end up unsatisfied. A positive mindset towards the game is the first and foremost principle for beginners, otherwise you’ll lose your focus and once you have lost your focus you will lose your match and become as mentioned - lame. Believe it or not, being lame is easier than behaving mature and sportsmen-like. It is hard to suppress emotions, but when you realize that focus is essential your performance will increase by 50%.

Always respect your enemy, no matter whether it is an unknown one, or a buddy of whom you already know you are probably ‘better’. If you respect your opponent, you become automatically more concentrated and focused, which is very important in duels. I met several people and to be honest, I was one of them as well, who believed, once you have won a meaningless duel against a good player, you are automatically better than him. Furthermore, it’s also illegitimate to benchmark your improvements on the amount of wins or losses. For example, when I faced exactly the same player in a meaningful game, i.e. within tournament, I got raped. Although I thought I became better, the true story was that I didn’t. You have to understand that winning does not really indicate that you become better. One way to become better is to analyze your own demos, because most of your games you lose really provide information on how to improve.

Try to imagine the following example, which you see more often than you might wish: Your opponent is leading with 9 frags and the match looks anything but promising to you. Some people automatically interpret such a score as a lost games, but former pros like LeXeR will prove you wrong (search the web for LeXeR vs. Chaotics at Qcon 02). Don't yell, stop smashing your mouse on the desk, stop chatting or whining in-game about your opponent plays a +back or cs-camper style! Rather try to stay calm and relax - you’ll see that you might win such games in the end. It’s also a matter of self-confidence; don’t become immediately impressed after you went down several times by your opponent’s sophisticated aim. You hit decently as well. Try it and don’t be scared to go into combats. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to turn such scores, but even if you know that you’ve lost your game and the clock is still running, try to stay focused although it’s not decisive anymore for the current match. The reason is, if you finish your game with a last beautiful frag or move, you’ll start your next game with a much better and more positive attitude.

As I said, stop justifying about why you lost a game. You should realize that it's more of an honor to play against experienced opponents, because these guys are the ones who teach you how to play and become better. Always consider lost games as another tutorial instead of a reason to complain about the bugged matchmaking system. I can already tell you at this point, a lot of tutorials are awaiting you, but everybody needs to jump over these obstacles. Once you have done it, you’ll see that all the effort was worth it. Keep in mind, there is always a better player than you out there who is waiting to push you to your limits. Don’t be afraid of them. Be happy these guys exist, otherwise Quake would be boring.

Aiming

There are tips and tricks how to improve your aiming, I will explain them extensively in my complete guide. But for now just consider the following ones:

• In general:
  If you jump around the map, always shoot towards items, because with prediction shots chances are high that you will hit your opponent when he's about to pick up some of them. Try it!

• Rocket launcher:
  Spam as much as you can. Not brainless, but with some calculus. Always cover the entrances which directly lead to you. If you’re not in a close combat, you better avoid shooting your rockets directly on your opponent, it's probably better to fire rockets in front of your opponent’s feet in order to make use of the splash damage and hope that he catapults into the air where he'll end up being an easy target for you.

• Plasma gun (LINK GUN)
  In my opinion the plasma gun is heavily underrated. This gun fires really fast and can become a destructive weapon in a close combat position. However; it’s rather hard to make efficient use of it for a newcomer, therefore I strongly recommend practicing this gun in clan arena mode.

• Grenade launcher (BIO RIFLE)
  This is probably the only weapon which was designed to spam and cover entrances. In order to make the best use of the grenade launcher it’s essential to have a certain map-knowledge. For now, watch old Quake 3 or Quake Live demos, several pros apply diverse techniques which are really helpful. More in my map guides.

• Lightning gun (LINK GUN SECONDARY)
  The lightning gun is still a powerful weapon, but in order to hit top accuracies, you need to master the weapon. Here’s a trick which will push your accuracy: stop aiming with your mouse and only use your strafe (right and left) buttons! You read right, if you aim too much with your mouse you risk that you hit less due to the beam-delay which is known as truelightning. In order to avoid this delay, you should keep your mouse still and only use the strafe buttons. Sometimes it’s necessary to change your position, in this case you should only use your mouse to adjust to the new situation
  
  For example: go on a server, fire your lightning gun and move your mouse, you’ll notice that your beam will delay. Afterwards, fire another beam and only move with your strafe buttons, you’ll see that your delay will disappear. This way you exactly hit where your crosshair is pointing at.

• Rail gun (SNIPE)
  Probably still the most powerful hitscan weapon in Quake. In order to master this weapon it’s necessary to have a complete knowledge of the map in my opinion. Only then you can perform 100% hits where aiming-skills are almost not required anymore.
  In combat fights however, your skill with the rail gun only increases when you practice. In my opinion the best practice possibilities are clan arena and instagib. Hint: try to use the zoom function; it’s especially helpful for beginners.

• Machine gun (ENFORCERS)
  Another underrated weapon, but if you watch pros you’ll see that they frequently use this gun, because it also belongs to the instant hitscan weapons. It is probably the only weapon which can pressure your enemy (providing that you have the aiming skill) on maps such as t4, while you lack control of the map. Sometimes this weapon is also used to finish your opponent. As soon as you hear your enemy’s ‘screaming’, use a machine gun. After some hits he should die. Practice the machine gun in clan arena or ctf mode. If you hit decent accuracies, you might turn matches upside down.
• Shot gun (FLAK CANNON)
  The shot gun enjoys a comeback since Quake Live. This gun has been tuned in a nicely and powerful fashion. On top of that it’s possible to kill an opponent with only one well placed shot when he has 100 healths left. In other words, if you are in a close combat, try to fool around with your shot gun, you’ll see how easy it can be to regain control in a duel.

Movement

Your movement is another very important factor which determines on one hand, how fast you can move from A to B and on the other hand, how easy it is to get you fragged within a combat situation. In terms of moving through a map it’s best to study demos from pros, or join servers and watch some games of better players. You’ll notice key routes are repeated over and over again. Write them down and practice them, once you have understand how to move in a quickly fashion through the map, you’ll be able to better estimate how long it takes you to get from one item to another, and you’ll know whether it’s logically feasible to cut off the way of your opponent during a re-spawn situation.
Another important consideration is the movement during the combat situation. A lot of new players think that hitting the right and left strafe button in an interchangeable fashion will make them harder to target. This is wrong in most of the cases, because your opponent will expect exactly this process. I’d advise to change the movement in almost every combat; as a result, your opponent will have immense problems to adjust to your style. Although it may be hard to apply a different movement style in the first place, always keep in mind to change your movement. For example, move 2 secs to the left,1 sec to the right, and vice versa. Sometime you feel automatically how to move in specific situations. It’s actually really a matter of practice and analyzing your demos.

In rail gun combats it is discussable whether it is effective to jump or not. As far as I’m concerned, when the rail gun of your opponent is reloading, you should definitely not jump, because in the moment you are in the air, the enemy’s rail gun will be ready to fire and it’ll hit you for sure. Therefore, if you are one of the jumping dudes, try to time this habit simultaneously when your opponent will fire another slug on you. You might think this is difficult, but it really isn’t, most of the players become hectic in these situations and believe, if they fire as quick as possible, their chances are high to get the frag. So, when you hear (yes, you can often hear it, but if not, count 1 sec or something) his rail gun is reloaded, jump in the next moment and your enemy will fail to hit you.

Map-knowledge

Before you start dueling, really make sure that you know each corner and place on the map. Otherwise it will be tough for you to get into the game. If you don’t understand the characteristics of the map, you won’t be able to time, move through the map in the fastest way and it’ll be difficult for you to read your opponent. Of course it takes time until you finally get accustomed to a new map, but it is more efficient to spend some time alone on the map and learn where items are located, or how to move on it, rather than wasting time in duels where chances are high to get raped without seeing any key-item at all. I will introduce you Campgrounds Redux and Vertical Vengence in depth in another guide.

Psychology

After you have understood the above mentioned factors, then it’s time for you to think about what your enemy is thinking and how he’s behaving during a duel. This is important in order to adapt to new situations and conditions which regularly change on a higher level. Cooller was probably the best player ever who accurately read his opponents and played with their emotions. For example, Cooller was one of the first duelists on high level who constantly kept spamming a blue colored chat-bind smiley. Players such as ZeRo4, Fatal1ty and other pro-players barely made use of chat-binds at all before Cooler’s era. Obviously there shouldn’t be a problem associated with these chat-binds; however, Cooler kept spamming them especially during situations where he could survive intense fights and ended up luckily with some health. These situations especially hurt you when your opponent plays so well, that he prevents any of your comeback attempts. Given that you have learned to be patient and you acquired the knowledge that sometimes one sole mistake of your opponent might be the only key to return into a match, some situations still can get ****ed up and when a player abuses such situations for his own favor, a game can become totally messed up right away.
Some might think that Cooller resembled a disrespectful player, but others have the opinion that his way of performing a duel was simply legendary and smart. I mean consider your opponent or even yourself. You face an equally or even better skilled player. You are able to deliver a very strong performance, but it’s still hard to gain control and suddenly there is finally a chance to do it, but you are overshadowed with bad luck. Long story short, you die, but your opponent survives. Obviously you need to stay calm, otherwise you risk losing your track, but in the next moment a stupid smile appears on your screen and you think for one moment: ‘what a bastard’. Moments like these are the way how players such as Cooller take advantage of you if you let them. Interestingly, after several match-ups between CZM and Cooller, CZM also put a chat-bind into his config which was simply ‘nice one’. You might think that his bind served for situations when his opponents hit CZM in a nicely fashion, right? Sometimes this was even the case, but most often he spammed his bind after he himself was able to perform unbelievable moves or frags. After such situations casual player would initially think: this must be a cheat, or pure luck, or they just type [ENTER]; ^; /q; Tab; [ENTER]. This combo is one of the many rage quits you see on public servers. It is often hard to control emotions, for some it works out when they simply let them out (i.e. yelling), but in most cases it doesn’t. In my opinion it’s fundamental to control yourself, otherwise traps like chat-binds will get you. Another example, SteLam, another former pro-player didn’t show any emotions at all, no matter how ridiculously he got fragged, there wasn’t any jerk at all.

Always try to think what you would do when you were your opponent. If you succeed to read your opponent to some extent, you can do frags more frequently and much easier. Of course, reading an opponent is difficult, it is even more difficult, when your opponent tries to read you as well, such games are also referred to mind games, and most often become very intense. Never move brainless through the map, never perform an action without meaning behind. You’ll notice bad moves when they fail, therefore really analyze your demos if you want to improve your performance. It really takes time, but it’s probably the most efficient way to become better in a quick way.

Final Notes

I can assure you that you’ll see a lot of different players out there, I recently met the following ones: the first two rage quit after 1 and 2 minutes, the third one started insulting me that I’m a cs-player with +back, the fourth one agreed with the third one who was spectator at this time, and the fifth one was sure it was pure luck. Nevertheless, I won all matches and enjoyed them. As long as you enjoy the game and you succeed there is absolutely no reason to change your style.

Take into account that:

• Respawn-fragging is an essential element of the game, it’s annoying to get respawn-fragged, but it’s even more fun to respawn-frag the opponent ;-)

• There are offensive, defensive and passive players, try to adjust to each play-style, just because one opponent is uncomfortable to play, it does not automatically mean that it’s a lost cause

• After you lost the map control, try to stack up, don’t risk too much, stay calm, focus, even if it takes several minutes, your patience will make you succeed in the long-run

• Enjoy the game, if you become frustrated, have a break – it doesn’t make sense to play Quake full of anger, it makes everything worse. Play hard, analyze your demos, search for better opponents, watch demos of better players

It may sound stupid but in order to become better it really takes time, patience and practice. If you’re willing to jump these hurdles you’ll dive into the world of Quake and refuse to leave it forever. Give it a shot.