Quake Tutorial – Part 2 – Positioning & Control

This is my second major tutorial and the one that seems to be the one that most people I’ve spoken to are the most interested in so hopefully I’ll do my best in being able to break down into words and explain about the positioning and control of each duel map that is used in the Pro Scene. This is also just my opinion and my version of positioning and control and not saying my way is the best way or so on, but after 10+ years within the game and after being in countless professional tournaments, I can confidently say that I do have experience within Quake and hopefully my knowledge can transcend into text for those of you who are interested in reading this tutorial, thanks.

Okay so to kick things off I’m going to give you a brief summary of what this tutorial is going to be about, obviously it’s positioning and control but, of what in better detail is to come from reading this tutorial, so what I’m going to try and do is break down each map which are the following: ZtnTourney1, QzDM6, QzTourney7, QzTourney9 and QzDM13, and in each of these maps I’ll go into better detail on what is the best way to start the duel depending from what spawn you’re fortunate or unfortunate to start with. Also then mention how to potentially control the map, lock down certain areas, what areas would be best to lock down and concentrate on, how to set traps, how to item control and how to be aware of where or what your enemy may do next in the heat of the moment and much more. But firstly I’ll only do one map and see how it goes and see if people find it useful, if they enjoy what they read for ZtnTourney1 then I’ll proceed to do the rest of the maps in the same fashion, if it’s not met with great enthusiasm then I’ll move onto something a bit more interesting perhaps if you’re bored of reading so much.

So to kick off this tutorial I’m going to start with my personal favourite map, ZtnTourney1 and perhaps the easiest one for me to break down and to put across to people reading.

ZTNTOURNEY1:

First thing first; spawns, there’s a mixture of spawn points you can potentially start at, the worst being at grenade laucher, even though your options aren’t limited but in retrospect they really are, due to where your opponent spawns, which more than likely will be at lightning gun spawn, yellow armour spawn in the rocket launcher room, or above you at the shotgun spawn (this potentially being the worst for you if you spawn at grenade launcher.), also but it’s the least common spawn in most circumstances unless you’re me is to spawn at yellow armour in the plasma gun room.

If this scenario presents itself the best thing to do is to avoid being killed by the shotgun and to go straight to rocket launcher and drop down for the yellow armour, by this time your opponent would’ve taken red armour and be on his way down with the shotgun to get the mega health.

Or you can either take grenade launcher, spam a few shots up to prevent his jump to red armour for a few seconds so it gives you time to drop down and steal the mega health and to take yellow armour this scenario works as well if your opponent is rushing from plasma gun room to leap across for the red armour, don’t hang around too long and proceed to the mega health; then from this i’d go through teleporter, take my second yellow armour, plasma gun and then move to shotgun and drop down for rail, then back through teleporter to get the high ground and to set up with rail for the next spawning red armour or a potential shot at your enemy going for the rocket launcher.

So that’s the unfortunate spawn of the grenade launcher covered, so if you’re more fortunate and spawn at shotgun for example, then the main thing is to get the shotgun obviously and potentially kill your opponent at grenade launcher with some well placed buckshot whilst leaping across to get the red armour, from here i’d drop down to get the handy railgun and proceed towards the mega health (be wary though, your enemy may spawn at lightning gun and try cutting you off on your speedy charge towards the mega health.)

If you spawn at lightning gun firstly, or even the yellow armour at rocket launcher room then clearly the best thing to do is to take either the lightning gun or the yellow armour and go for the mega health, but be wary again as most opponents who spawn at grenade launcher will drop down for the railgun and line up a shot at the mega health if they see you’ve not spawned at shotgun, they’ll know you’ll be making a move onto that mega health and be waiting with the railgun in hand to land a shot and then to go through the teleporter to get the red armour and you won’t be able to stop this move with no long range weapons in your arsenal.

So that covers the potential starting spawns, or the most important ones that can determine how the 10 minute duel will go. So from this you know the most important items to control and time are the following, red armour and mega health, they’re clearly the most important on this map and you’ll see many battles over these items throughout the duel. Yellow armours are helpful also for stacking up, but are mainly used when you’re on the defensive and are playing that ‘+back’ style, and trying your hardest to get some sort of stack to build up on to then launch an assault on a mega item like the red armour or the mega health. If you’re in control and you got the red armour and mega health closely timed, then you really don’t need to chase your opponent so much until you get a frag and go on a spawn hunt, but until then wait for your opponent to make the mistakes, as he’s the one that has to get items and attempt to attack you, especially if he’s losing the current game, pointless trying to gain more frags and potentially get knocked off your timings or even worse walk into a lot of spam and die in a position you shouldn’t have been in and give up control.

Whilst in control your opponent will be either be sitting at the plasma room trying to time the yellow armours or going back and forth between this yellow armour and the other in the rocket launcher room and sitting at the teleporter in the attempt to avoid getting into a fight as he knows he is under stacked to put up a challenge, especially if your accuracies are remotely similar.

So knowing this comes the setting of traps, you know yourself if you’ve played defensively the routes you’ll most likely take to avoid meeting your opponent and to take the yellow armours in an attempt to launch an attack at the next mega health for example, from this you can set a trap, I try multiple moves such as firing grenades down the stairs leading to the rocket launcher room and then dropping down from grenade launcher to mega health and firing a rail at the teleporter if he’s standing there waiting to go through and then going past lightning gun and up jump pad towards the plasma room to cut him off coming from the teleporter in an attempt to get his yellow armour, that’s one. The second would be to creep around shotgun and walk either into the plasma room guns blazing, or to sneak around shotgun again but attacking from high down onto teleporter, any slight noise you make that makes your opponent think you’re coming, he’ll be gone. You can also pretend to go down the stairs at rocket launcher and then run back to cut him off coming through the teleporter for example.

Also they’ll sometimes try passing mid, ‘mid’ is where the grenade launcher and railgun is, and they’ll come mostly from plasma gun room and down the stairs towards grenade launcher in an attempt to get the shards at the stairs and lead into the rocket launcher room, and setting a trap here is useful, and by doing so all you have to do is to remain quiet and stay behind the pillar.

By doing this move you can control the red armour and stop a potential leap to the red armour by cutting them off with a rail or a locked on lightning gun attack, or just catching your opponent totally off guard strafing as fast as possible into mid whilst you’re waiting for him behind the pillar, but these are just a few examples of setting traps on ZtnTourney1, the others would require instinctiveness throughout the game, as each duel can potentially be different.

For timing items I’ve never been one for doing so, I’ve always played instinctively and what’s known as ‘feel’ timing, I also play on routes and my positioning, so I know If i’ve just taken the red armour for example and then moved around the map for a bit, perhaps got into a fight and taken a yellow armour I then roughly know and estimate that within the next 5 or so seconds the red armour should be spawning so I’ll make my way back there to retake the item. Presuming everyone who reads this should know by now that all armours spawn at 25 seconds and the mega health especially on ZtnTourney1 spawns every 35 seconds, unless it’s QzTourney4 which is every 2 minutes. But if you have problems with calculating on the fly like I do then it’s best to take items on precise numbers, for example like 1:00 or 1:05 which are easier to add up or down, a more round number is easier to calculate on the fly, you can also get all the armours synchronised on ZtnTourney1 but this takes a bit more time and practice.

Right now I’ve typed so much, or perhaps rambled so much that I’m not even aware that any of this will make sense, but I’ll publsh it anyway and I’ll read through it after a break and see if there’s anything important I’ve missed and add to this tutorial as I go along. If you require videos demonstrating what I’ve tried explaining in this tutorial to help with the process of understanding it better than please leave feedback requesting this and i’ll go ahead and do so. But enjoy the long read and hopefully it’ll be useful to if not all of you, some of you that attempt to read it.