For those out there that didn't notice it yet, there is a nice article about the Silver Cup playoffs over at qwdrama.

Perhaps someone out there feels like writing predictions or the other tiers? Let us know.
2 comments.

The brackets for the playoffs are up. You have until 23:59 on Sunday, 20th of April to play your games and not a second later. Don't wait until Saturday to schedule your games and don't all try and schedule your game for Sunday. We cannot afford and will not tolerate any delays.

As usual, the playoffs usually raise quite some attention, so make sure you announce your games! Add them to the qwdrama schedule, ask to get them on Goldrush, message an NQR admin, and send .qw message. We want to have as much time as possible to organise coverage.
We will also update the little section below this news post as soon as you know let us know about your schedule! And by the way: Anyone who is willing write a predictions column (Like the ones provided by pleuraXeraphim or kryddturken) for any of the tiers is welcome to do so. Just drop us a line!

Enjoy the playoffs, everyone.
//NQR staff

Gold Cup

the Viper Squad 2-0 Dies Ater
KOFF 2-0 Clan MalFunction
Suddendeath 2-1 Slackers
Fragomatic 0-2 Star Alliance

Silver Cup

Sega Gubbar 2-0 Hippushnik
Oblivion 2-1 Mean Machine
Clan Metally Troopers 0-2 Bear Beer Balalaika
Chosen 2-0 Fraggers United

Bronze Cup

Smack that Ass 2-0 Bloodpunch
Quakeklan 2-0 Fallen Angels
Naim 2-0 Allans Vittnen
Nafianna 2-0 (W.O.) Magnum44

Rookies

Quakeklan.b 2-0 (W.O.) Coitus
Storviks Hjältar 0-2 Comfortably Numb

Nafianna.b and Lizards directly advanced to Semi Finals. They will face the winners of the above two matches.

18 comments.

Taking the feedback we received from several clans into account, we have decided to go with the traditional NQR "catchup week". That means you have 1 more week to play your games, until sunday 23:59 CET. During this week however, it is essential that clans claiming WO over anyone notify us about their troubles concerning their unplayed games. So if you want to get WO against another clan, we need to know by sunday 23:59 CET LATEST. Playoff schedule will be up on Monday, April 14th.

As usual, it would be nice if you could notify us about your scheduled games. Add them to the qwdrama schedule, get them on goldrush, and let us organise cams!
And let's hope we will still see the game of games this week: Fragomatic vs The Viper Squad!

P.S.: For those that still didn't get it: The last news post was just an april fools day prank. Playoffs will be played in the traditional manner, with one exception however: We have decided to have a losers final. That means the two losing semi-finalists will battle each other in order to determine who is 3rd and who is 4th.

PLAY YOUR REMAINING GAMES!

Feedback is welcome. Any interview requests?

//NQR staff
11 comments.

Over the last days we have been thoroughly discussing the playoffs and came to the conclusion that after a decade of "always the same", QuakeWorld could do with something new.
With regard to how playoffs went in the last 2-3 years it seems almost essential to revolutionise the tournament systems if we want to keep this game alive.

Thus, the playoff system will work as follows:
4on4on4on4 on Death32c:
Group 1: Teams placed #1, #4, #6, and #8
4on4on4on4 on Death32c:
Group 2: Teams placed #2, #3, #5, and #7

dmm1, 40 minutes, powerups ON, discharge ON, jawnmode OFF, airstep OFF, fallbunny ON

The top 2 teams (best team from group 1 & best team from group 2) will then face each other on Death32c under the above rules for the Grand Final. This is something some people might find disappointing, but we feel it could really take game-play to a new level.

The game will be held on a Sunday evening (to be announced) at ~21:00 CET. Since Sunday seems okay for pretty much everyone, it should not be a problem for clans to get 4 players together. Also, clans may replace players during the game. A player from a team can drop at any given time and be replaced by another player from the same team - the frags will not be lost.

We know this might upset some people, but keep in mind that it's only a computer game please. More about this will be announced during the next few days, so stay tuned.

//NQR staff
26 comments.

Right, so we’re 6 weeks into the season and got 2 weeks left before the playoffs kick off. Let’s take a look at some numbers:

Games played in Gold Cup: 31 (68% completed)
Games played in Silver Cup: 28 (42% completed)
Games played in Bronze Cup: 27 (35% completed)
Games played in Rookie tier 14 (31% completed)
Maps played per game: 2,29
Total games played: 100 (43% completed)

When asking people who the favourites were to win the Gold Cup trophy in NQR Season 11, most people didn't hesitate very long before naming "the Viper Squad". With all the hype about this clan, as well as the recommendations from both our last interviews, it was time to ask Milton for an interview. To see what Milton had to say about all this and much more, as well as to enlighten us about the fairly recent demise of Satanic Slaughter Clan, click here.

Feedback is greatly appreciated, but keep in mind that comments have been disabled for the interview section. Any feedback should thus be left below this news post.

//NQR staff
5 comments.

We have now embedded the fabulous KT Log Parser into NQR. Thanks to JohnNy_cz for supplying us with this script.

It works with both fuhQuake as well as ezQuake as well as all current server mods. All you have to do is set the following:

match_auto_logconsole 2

The log created can then be uploaded along with the screenshot the next time you report a game; the required additional field has been added to the form. It's optional of course, but it DOES look pretty sweet. Check these games for example:
http://nqr.nu/nqr11/battle/274
http://nqr.nu/nqr11/battle/409
http://nqr.nu/nqr11/battle/241
http://nqr.nu/nqr11/battle/232

In case you forgot to enable logging, that's no problem either. You can easily create the log from the demo by just setting:

playdemo my4on4match.mvd; log mylog; demo_jump 30:00; log stop

If you supply us with the logs, we can also add these for games that have already been played, not just the ones that are still to be reported in the future.

KT Log Parser

*edit*
If the above doesn't work for you when trying to create a log from a demo, the following should do the trick:
- demo_setspeed 1
--> open demo via demo browser
- log desired-name-of-log
- demo_setspeed 999999
--> See the demo play in superspeed (takes about a minute)
- log stop

And we're still hoping you could send us some logs of games that have been player. The more the merrier.

//NQR staff
12 comments.

Yesterday not only saw the birth of a brand new version of KTX, but also of QuakeWorld client ezQuake 1.9 Beta 1. While we more than strongly suggest that you read the changelog, download this client, test it, file bug reports, and give the ezQuake crew some feedback, we do NOT allow you to use the new version of ezQuake in NQR yet.
If ezQuake happens to be your preferred QuakeWorld client of choice, we strongly suggest that you test it as extensively as you can as it is one of the components that paves the road QuakeWorld drives on. However, NQR11 should not be used as a testing ground for new clients and fresh beta versions.
People often seem under the impression that they are not allowed to use older clients due to them being outdated, but that using newer versions is no problem. This is not the case, so please wait with using ezQuake 1.9 in NQR11 until we make further announcements and update the rules.

The currently only allowed ezQuake version is 1.8.3, in other words: The rules stay the same at the moment.

//NQR staff
4 comments.

Just minutes ago a new version of KTX was released.

While the new version can obviously not totally guarantee the prevention of ghosting, it does introduce a very interesting feature: Being able to play without spectators on the server. To read more about this and to find out how it works, please head over to the original news post at QuakeWorld.nu. How to handle this feature in official games as well has how and when to apply it will need to be discussed among the admins, followed by updating the rules, so stay stuned!

After receiving several insults as well as being subject to false information and lies, going public with our decision about 3b as well as letting you guys be your own judge and access the demo - something we thought people would appreciate - it retrospectively seemed like a better idea to decide about 3b's fate in secret, not bothering with an exhausting discussion, not being insulted and avoiding drama. However, with the new version of KTX released as a consequence of our actions, things are looking shiny again.

Nevertheless, the last days have also shown that a lot of people do not feel obliged to read and adhere to the rules. While it's the admins that do the penalising, it is the players and clans that should be performing the f_* checks and reporting suspicious/false behaviour to us, as well as to report voice communication. We cannot spectate every game and check who uses mm3 before every game, who comes to and leaves the server, who uses what client, and so on. The clans and players need to be reponsible about this and report to us. If that's being done, we will review the case and take measures if necessary. If players are too lazy to check on their opponents, there is, quite frankly, not much we can do.

//NQR staff
9 comments.

Two days ago a game played between "Bear Beer Balalaika" and "Bad Boys" led to some raised eyebrows among spectators and admins. After some discussions and talks with members of the clans involved, we've come to a conclusion about how to deal with what happened.

Firstly, Bad Boys had a player on all 3 maps called "Record". That player is signed up to the roster, so that didn't directly cause any problems. However, the player known as "Record" actually messaged the admins during the game to notify the admins that it wasn't actually him playing, but someone faking under his name. Bad Boys had already made two in-season additions, so they decided to let the new player play with the nick of one of the already signed up players. Obviously, this is not something we can tolerate.
We as admins are hoping for an active season, so if clans suffer from inactivity due to not being able to add any more members, I'm sure a solution can be found. Trying to go around us by violating the rules however, is not an option.

Bear Beer Balalaika on the other hand possibly only violated the rules very minorly, but possibly also did something ban-worthy. For the obvious reason of so called "ghosting", clans that play with voice communication are, as stated in the rules, supposed to notify the admins so these can impose restrictions on spectators. Bottom line: Clans using voice communication should NOT have spectators on the server while they are playing. Although QuakeWorld seems to benefit from a mature scene, and although we believe that the vast majority of players aren't even interested in cheating, we simply cannot take the risk. Bear Beer Balalaika not only used voice communication without notifying us about it, they also had a player spectating the game while they were playing. On top of that, and this is where it possibly gets ugly, the spectator in question showed a very weird behaviour of who he was tracking. Luckily the spectator in question was connected to the server via Qizmo and since all spectator slots were taken, someone observed the spectator and actually made a demo of who was being tracked as soon as he got suspicious. The recorded demo can be downloaded here.
Aside from the fact that accusing a clan of ghosting is a very harsh accusation, we are also aware that this demo is no proof. However, it doesn't make the clan look good. Bear Beer Balalaika continue to plead their innocence, but admit that we as admins are in a difficult position here. Furthermore, they have said that they will accept any sort of punishment and understand that there will have to be restrictions in the future.

As for the consequences: Although we are not in posession of undeniable proof, we have decided to "void" the game between Bear Beer Balalaika and Bad Boys. This means that the game has practically been canceled, without a chance of replay. Bottom line: neither of the clans will get any points from the played game. On top of that, both clans have had 3 points deducted. If Bear Beer Balalaika are really innocent, then we can do nothing but apologise for this. If not, this is hopefully a strong enough warning to not try it again.

Aside from the above mentioned case, this might also be a good opportunity to start discussing about possible solutions for future games. How could the issue be controlled or the risk minimised? Have you made any experiences, perhaps in other games? Feedback is more than welcome, as usual.

//NQR staff
67 comments.