All Female Quake Tourney Opinion

All Female Tournament
07/28/1997




Indulge me for a moment if you will to talk about the All Female Quake Tournament. As many people who play the game know, a number of females can achieve a certain level of notoriety. We've all heard of the exploits of KillCreek and her ruthless manbeatings of John Romero. Quite a few people have heard Disruptor from Clan RevCo1 talk about the skill of Clan CrackWhore.

But how telling are these battles as a measure of skill? We can safely assume that John Romero is at the very least an above average player. Certainly you can't be part of the organization that created Quake and not know something about playing. I have personally watched John Romero take on Reptile at E3. And although the score was reasonably close on DM4 as the demo2 shows, it also shows Reptile frequently neglecting the yellow and red armor as well as taking some ridiculous risks and generally demonstrating poor tactics. Certainly not applying the skills that got him to E3. Erno Rubik created the Cube. Minh Thai was officially the fastest (25 seconds or less for an unprepared cube!). As for Clan RevCo, despite being high profile from the earliest days of Quake, I don't remember them ever being a force of nature like Impulse 9 or Ruthless Bastards. Indeed, they acknowledge that they have been rather low key lately.

So what is the point of all this? Mostly it's about getting a completely unbiased perspective on the whole skill issue as it stands today. Female Quakers are receiving attention for defeating some above average players and clans, but how would a KillCreek fair against a Hijinks or a Kiljoy? Would the CrackWhores do so well against the Legends or Impulse 9? Very doubtful. But as the pool of female players increases (and hopefully they will increase), we can hope to see female equivalents of Threshes and Reptiles filling out the ranks.

I don't see the exploits of the opposite gender as being unwarranted attention. If anything, the bits of attained fame can be considered small steps toward that ultimate milestone of complete equality. And once that happens, maybe people won't make such a big deal out of the whole gender issue. I'm waiting for that day. But until that day comes, I tip my hat in salute to all the women for giving it their best shot. Besides, there are a number of women who are waiting and willing to Bobbitize me if I thought any different.

Despite the lack of female players to make up a strong pool of contenders in tournaments in general, there are still a number which not only carry a reputation, but also have a track record as proof. So, in order, starting with the Number One draft choice, I present Time Traveler's picks for the All Female Quake Tournament.

Kornelia from Clan 44423311:
By far she is my favorite pick for this tournament. Kornelia has a proven record of success unequalled by any other known female player. She won Ten's tournament at CGDC a few months back. In the Mplayer Red Annihilation tournament, she made it to the "final 128," basically meaning that she got into the second round of her bracket. Very impressive considering the sheer number of players. In the recent QuakeCon 97, Kornelia came out in 8th place behind the likes of Club of Clan Postal and Rix of Clan Impulse 9.
I also had an occasion to run into her before. I don't remember exactly how long ago it was, but I jumped into a server being dominated by someone named Kornelia. I didn't know who he was, but Kornelia made it clear who was in charge of that particular map by jumping over my head and plastering a rocket between my eyes. Aye, a tough one, this Kornelia.


Pookie from Clan Legends:
Pookie hasn't exactly made a lot of appearances in competitive Quake. And although she may have been part of the ClanRing Big 8 League roster for her Clan, due to the "anonymous" use of names she could not be identified among the existing screenshots. Of course what she is most known for is her appearance in the Red Annihilation Final 16. There was a bit of controversy surrounding her ability to frag3. Bottom line: You can't hang around a bunch of Legends without picking up some of their habits, good and bad.
My then-fragging-partner Snow White(a guy) once ran into her in the early stages of Red Annihilation. Although he did kill her several Times, she did seem competent in her ability. We shall see how she does as the tourney unfolds.


KillCreek from Clan RevCo:
Manbeatings. John Romero. 'Nuff said.

Other picks:
Call me biased, but many of the following are almost purely based on the reputation of the clans they are in. After all, strong clans accept members based on their abilities instead of their gender, right?

Goddess from Clan Postal:
If memory serves me right, she's been around since the beginning, first in Unholy Alliance and then Dark Requiem. She also seems to have affiliations with RevCo. Now she's in Postal and a healthy history of Clan activity to back her up.

Mystique from Clan Evil Geniuses:
Member of a well known Canadian based clan, I know very little about her other than the prefix affixed to her name.

Anna from Clan PMS:
An all-female squad of killers. Certainly they've picked up a few bad(good[bad{good}]) habits from each other. If you force me to choose one... I think I'd have to go with Anna.

So there you have it. A fine collection of Deadly Dolls, Beastly Babes, Murderous Maidens, Ghoulish Gals, or whatever. All ready to rape, steal, and murder with the best of them.


1. The clan's full name cannot be shown here, because unlike some other things which have appeared on this web site, there is no way to mistake the name for anything else. Then again, I suppose they could also, by definition, be called Clan Disgusting Roosters....

2. The demo is from E3, shortly after Thresh defeated Entropy for the car. The demo was launched late and we see Romero killing Reptile for the first Time. I also participated in the Red Annihilation tournament, but never quite made it to the finals. I got as far as making it to the third round (out of 4 total) in my bracket and came up 4 frags short to advancing to the Day 6 finals.

3. Despite her lackluster performance during the first phase of the Final 16, her worst performance of 34 to -3 still wasn't the record. Try an abyssmal 39 to -43(Entropy was the chief surgeon in his frag clinic, Ultra Pimp was the patient. The score was actually 35 to -6 with 5 minutes left to go before things got "silly."`). And let's just suppose that Pookie didn't play and Thresh played for her to get her into the Final 16(i.e. "Wanna take a vacation?"). She got hammered by Gollum9, sure, but at least she came out with two frags, even if one of them was a telefrag and two were lost through suicide.





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