Big names fall hard in Europe’s Quake Champions regional

Some of the biggest names in Quake’s history will find themselves on the outside looking in at QuakeCon, after a European regional tournament filled with tough brackets and upsets.

Given the long list of great players involved in the competition, there was no doubt that some fan favorites would come up short. Most surprisingly, Sweden’s Johan “Toxjq” Quick’s storied career in Quake and two QuakeCon duel titles weren’t enough to carry him through the last stage of qualifiers leading to this year’s QuakeCon.

Toxjq faced a tough draw early on when he was matched with Russian player Nikolay “agent” Mayorov in the tournament’s second round. Taking a loss there wasn’t the end for Toxjq, but when matched with Hungarian player Adrian “NOFEAR” Birgany, Toxjq simply wasn’t up to the level of his young challenger.

Toxqj wasn’t alone in facing tough draws and falling flat. Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager was made to play Anton “Cooller” Singov in an elimination match after the pair had fallen to Marcel “k1llsen” Paul and Maciej “Av3k” Krzykowski, respectively. The pair of legends pushed one another to the brink in a back and forth series before Cooller emerged victorious.

Alessandro “stermy” Avallone and Sergey “evil” Orekhov were also among the players who failed to qualify. It’s a particularly disappointing result for evil, whose quest for his third consecutive QuakeCon final was derailed in dramatic fashion as he failed to win a single match at the regional.

For all of the great players who did not qualify, many top names did make it through and will soon make their way to Dallas. Cooller, k1llsen and Av3k will be joined by Kevin “strenx” Baeza, Pelle “fazz” Soderman, and four-time duel champion Alexey “Cypher” Yanushevsky.

If it’s any consolation, Vo0, Toxjq, and stermy will still be attending to compete in the Sacrifice tournament. Developer id has worked to draw attention to the teamplay game mode, specifically emphasizing its place in the growing esports space.

Most of the attention remained on the duel tournament, but with some of the game’s biggest names now forced to compete solely in Sacrifice, it’s possible some more reluctant fans may give the mode a shot when the Quake World Championship gets underway on August 24.