Team Liquid's rapha and DaHanG on Quake Champions Going Free to Play and its Evolution

It’s not everyday that you can sit down with some of the top players from a game and get their thoughts on how the game is progressing, but in between the matches at QuakeCon 2018, we caught up with rapha and DaHanG from Team Liquid to chat about how they got into the game, and their thoughts on its growth since release.

What brought you to Quake Champions over other games such as Overwatch or Counter-Strike?

DaHanG: I’d say, in Quake you can definitely show off your individual skill even in a team format, much more so than you can in other games. Not just isolating, like, Overwatch, but that’s what makes Quake special, it’s on your shoulders pretty much 90% of the time whatever happens in the game, you could have done something better if you failed that situation. It is on you to outplay your opponent and I think that’s what’s kept me coming back time and time again, and why I love competing in Quake.

rapha: I agree, I would actually say that something a lot of outsiders don’t realize too is that with Quake, at least for veteran Quake players, you don’t need to put in as much time. It sounds counterintuitive, but you might need to put in 6 – 8 hours a day in certain games just to make sure you’re up to par with the current level, but with Quake, I’ve compared it to riding a bike, you can get away with only playing 2 – 4 hours a day and still be on top of your game, potentially even the best in the world. So that was attractive to me as someone who was still working a normal job as well, so making the transition back to Quake has that positive aspect as well.

How do you feel about the evolution of Quake Champions, and is there anything you want to see in the future?

DaHanG: My main issue with Quake Champions when it first came out was just performance, it was tough to get the smoothest gameplay and internet play, I’m talking like early beta. But, they’ve made a lot of improvements and I’m happy with that, it’s much smoother and feels much cleaner when you’re playing it. There’re better framerates, the netcode feels better, very happy about that direction. I also really like the way the champions have been balanced. In the past there were some champions that were just way more overpowered than others, whereas today I would say there are champions that are only slightly more overpowered than others, so I think it’s in a much better place. Of course, I’m just really waiting for capture the flag.

rapha: Yeah, I’d just like to see them continue to improve the performance so that people aren’t put off by having to upgrade too much, especially since they’re going with a free-to-play model. Then, just the continued support for the competitive scene, hopefully drawing in more players. I would personally like to see the prize pool trickle down more, here at QuakeCon I think it’s like the top 16, which is great, I think it should be the top 8 to top 16 for all events, even the smaller tournaments and cups, so it helps to motivate the up and comers and gives them a gauge and goals they can go by so they can continue to improve and stay motivated. If prize pools are top 3 only, it can be very disheartening for some people, because they know that if you really want to win that, how much time you’re going to have to fully invest to get to that level and to even have a shot at winning. The teams of us at the top, nobodies a joke, we’re all going to bring our A-game, so I hope that they would do a good job and cater to that to bring growth to the scene.

Do you feel that free-to-play is the best decision to grow the casual and competitive scene?

DaHanG: I just like that there’s no barrier for entry then, if you just want to try the game out without spending any money, you get your free champions, you’re still trying the game, you’re playing for free. They’ve created a system where if you grind the time out, you can earn them with your in-game time, your in-game favor. You can purchase champions that you want to play, and eventually if you’re like “You know what, I really like these other champions that I’ve seen”, then you can buy them. It’s the same system that League of Legends used, just on a lesser scale because there’s not 100+ champions in the game, I think it’s great. And if you want it all outright you just pay for the game, there’s no problem, that’s what I did. Even if I wasn’t playing competitively I probably would have bought the game just so I can play who I want when I want. I think that’s just the way games are going these days. Being able to play for free but having the option to purchase all the content, I think that’s the way to go.

You mentioned that you’re looking forward to seeing a capture the flag mode in the game, other games like Call of Duty or Overwatch do have different game modes even in their competitive scene. Do you feel that Quake Champions needs something like that at the competitive level, where they cycle through rather than just Duel and TDM?

DaHanG: Because the game is Champions, I think they need to at least cater to the team aspect of that, that actually makes for the most interesting gameplay, and historically Capture the Flag has a pretty special place in the history of Quake. I’m open to all kinds of new team modes, but I just think ultimately for the success of the game, they’re going to need to have something that’s a little more team based, tactical beyond straight Team Death Match. So, I’m just waiting to see what that may be, and overall the direction the game needs to go in.

rapha: I agree, and what’s great about CTF is it’s easy to spectate, you’re watching one team try to capture the flag of the other team and whoever has the most captures wins. It’s pretty simple to understand.

DaHanG: I would just say that that’s kind of one of the issues, that Quake is a fast-paced game and you want your viewers to understand what’s going on. Capture the Flag is a very simple concept. When too many things are going on on the screen, it can be confusing to players.

rapha: It’s simple, but CTF also brings out the most in Quake. Obviously in any FPS you’re going to shoot, but Quake’s movement is unique, especially in Quake Champions. in previous Quake’s you only had one movement type, but in this one you have multiple champions that have multiple types and styles of movement which you can bring to the game. And I agree with what Tim says, the champions really come out and shine in team play, and CTF will definitely be that way.

With the Meta of the game, does it feel like there’s a level of stability going into the game between patches, for both TDM and Duel?

DaHanG: As of recently, it’s been stabilizing over the last few months, but if you keep rewinding the clock you realize it’s actually changed a lot, the further back you go. Specifically, some of the champions, Anarchy, Doomslayer, Nyx, and Slash, were heavily used in the Summer of 2017. Now, we’re seeing like 6 or 7 other champions that are heavily used that are not those. What I would say about the Meta changing is, in the past, those four that I named specifically, were really overpowered. Now the 6 or 7 that are in the Meta today are only slightly overpowered, so overall, I’d say the game has gotten a lot more balanced in that respect.

For more action from QuakeCon 2018, check out our interview with Xron and GaRpY, as they talk about how they got into the competitive scene and what they would like to see in the future.

(Header image via IGN)