some of the american teams which will be primary contenders include 519 (socrates, zero4, czm, gator), cloud9 (viju, tim, cl0ck, yrim), and tempest. tempest features the champion flag def from last c9 last season, ffsmasher, and one of the best

players of the tournament last year, mickey, the one man team formerly in md.

teamlists taken straight from qcon site. since i don't know the american teams well enough, i won't comment. the european

clans look good but theres no real outstanding team there. i would rate aaa highest since they have thefou in attack. their

positive, aggressive tactics last year backfired, as more defensive play suits lan better and won out in the end. they will

know maps like q3wcp15 a bit better this time around, and will have more experience in 4v4 ctf. quakecon free for all champ

appleseed has been replaced on the flag spot by st_germain.

gzd also looks very strong.. i don't recall deus travelling last season (could be wrong there) so he would be a big boost to

their chances. i can't remember who did flag def for gzd last year either, but this time around its appleseed. i think they

look stronger than they did last time around, and will be title contenders.

its good to see that 32nd are travelling. they won that fear.uk warmup to quakecon but i wouldn't credit that at all seeing

how thefou was in their team, and that makes all the difference. forever and tdo are highly rated as flag carriers online,

but, like [gzd]derfel, it will be interesting to see how much that counts for on lan at a the cost of raw aim.

germany is far from the force it used to be in ctf. and the mtw players have not been outstanding in any recent competition

that i have followed. with the likes of mike in their squad though, you cannot write them off, just don't be expecting too

much.

the 1v1 tourney looks just as

good, with prizes, first place: $25,000, second place: $15,000, third place: $10,000. the maps this time around are

ztn3tourney1, pro-q3tourney4, hub3aeroq3, pro-q3dm6. its interesting to see that the aerowalk remake has been included again

after a successful showing at the eswc. this could establish it as a main duel map for q3's future. i had a run around it

and it looks like a good map, nice and fast and also has the advantage that most people have seen it before in qw or early

days of q3 in some form.

loads of top players at this 1v1 tourney... unfortunately, i've been told that the qlan champ (finished first ahead of

players like cooller, z4muz, and czm) and in form player at eswc, fooki, is not attending, although other swedes like fox,

z4muz, and toxic will hope to make up for it. most of the other big names from eswc are though, the americans, a chunk of

russians, including cooller, unkind, polosatiy (sp?), lexer (a few top players missing there but can't have them all). pity

the belarussians aren't going. theres also the french and uk ctfers, players like blokey and st_germain.

the people's favourite for the 1v1 this year is czm, always near the top of these competitions, but i can't remember him ever

winning, this could be his chance. the bookie's favourite would have to be cooller, the world's number 1. zero4, reigning

qcon champ, is always a main contender. lexer, winner of qcon 2002 iirc, is also making a return. the chinese russian, jibo,

will be attending.. for the first time that i can remember. a lot of people rate him highly so hes one to watch out for.