With his performance at DreamHack where he finished second, SK Gaming's Karl 'fooKi' Johansson made a successful comeback to Quake 3. DreamHack was fooKi's major test before the ESWC Masters. The Swedish player was absent from competitive gaming for well over a year and qualified for the ESWC Grand Final in San Jose at DH.

He performed very well, beating everyone without dropping a map, except for his opponent in the final, Magnus 'fox' Olsson. Check out the demo pack right here.

Did you expect to qualify for the ESWC Grand Final?
I didn't put much thought into it. I was going to see how well I could perform vs the top Swedes and to get some LAN practice. After my first games I was even surprised that I managed to get out of the group stage.

How do you rate your own performance at the event?
I would say that I played very inconsistently and disappointed myself in a lot of games, i.e. giving up too early when I got a bad start. I think the setup and everyone's desire to qualify worked well to my advantage which made me win some games I probably wouldn't have won usually.

You gave fox a relatively hard time - does this mean that he's not ready to take on the world's best or the contrary, you two are world class players already?
I was a bit surprised at most of the top players' performances. I don't know if it was the computers but there were a ton of flaws in everyone's game. I honestly doubt that the quality of those games will be enough to beat the best. The only player who impressed me was Cyrus 'proZaC' Malekani, who, as far as I know, barely plays and yet almost beat Sebastian 'Spart1e' Siira and Andreas 'ArrW' Ihrfors. He is obviously more talented than us other participants put together, and still he chooses to focus on more important things. It's hard not to respect that. Also as you may have noticed, looking at the results, both fox and I gave up or played badly when we got a bad start. We both were unmotivated and were weak mentally. I don't look back at those games with a happy feeling.

So what do you expect the Swedes to achieve at the Masters in Paris?
I expect us Swedes to bite the sour apple, learn to deal with the fact that Quake 3 hasn't aged beautifully and help each other get better. For some sad reason, the top Swedish players do not like playing each other. Most fakenick and won't play other Swedes at the top. I'm not sure why this is, but it is pretty fascinating. Most likely, what got them to the top, namely the hatred for losing is what is holding them back. Personally I do not mind losing. I lose over 60% of my games online. I laugh every day at the how differently my training partners react when they win or lose. Of course it is painful to lose every game for 2 hours but that's what it takes

You beat the new school players in Sweden 2-0, 2-0. Does this mean that we shouldn't expect new schoolers to do great things in Paris?
I honestly don't know who qualifies as oldschool/newschool, and it is so hard to predict how people will play "when it counts." That, plus the fact that many many players beat me daily, makes it so hard to say anything. The computers at DreamHack had a crappy French version of Vista with lots of issues and a TFT monitor. I've been told that the computers at ESWC Masters will have win XP and CRT, so the games will most likely be of higher quality and the participants will feel more like home. I'd say disregard DH results in any predictions.

Has Quake 3 changed since you last played it competitively?
Absolutely! Like I said earlier, it hasn't aged particularly well and I'm not enjoying myself when I play (most of the time). The lightning gun is just ridiculous now and it just ruins the game completely in my eyes. It is really a shame that it had to turn out like this. Quite frankly, I'm looking forward to when ESWC is over so I can have fun in other multiplayer games.

That being said, I'm going to train as hard as I can to be able to compete. Strangely, I don't get too unmotivated by the fact that I dislike the game. I also want to point out another thing. An id Software employee called SyncError asked for a game in Quake Live and I told him I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than play an even worse version of an old boring and crappy game. This was very ill-mannered and unnecessary, and I do apologize. The fact of the matter is that since Quake Live won't have the same polished netcode as in Q3 CPMA, it might actually be a more suitable and fun game to play.

How have you spent your time between Q4 and Q3?
I made the best decision I've done in years and started picking up the pieces of the my poor excuse for an education. I have another year of mid school before I can study at a university. I'm doing pretty well considering things and can't wait to get a proper education. During this time I have probably averaged one Q4/Q3 game per 5 months and it has been great.

Would you see yourself playing something like QuakeLive or another 1on1 professionally or is this time over for you?
I would probably consider it after getting a proper education. Pro-gaming is a pipe dream, and the Quake scene is very far away from anything like that. I really doubt that Quake will ever become big. It just isn't dumbed down enough for mainstream, which to me is a good thing. I read a trip report from someone who went to a competition and spectated Quake. He wrote that he stood there for a few minutes, spectating Quake 4 before going elsewhere. It was just too fast and hard to keep up with what was going on. When there are other alternatives, Quake will have a tough time to compete for the spotlight.

Why do you still play Q3?
ESWC announced the Masters event in Paris. I thought the tourney structure (map rules) seemed like a fun idea and felt like participating since I had been studying hard and have time off to at least train a month before the tourney. I thought it would be a fun challenge to see how well I'd do vs the top. While I don't have the same love for Quake 3 (or gaming in general) as I used to, it is not always a torture to play Q3 and train hard. I actually told my girlfriend: "I need to do something productive today, so I'm gonna play Quake for a few hours."

Another thing that makes me keep playing is how different my mindset is now compared to what it used to be. While I don't want to play poorly, winning isn't the most important thing in the world. I know I'll have a fun trip regardless of how I perform. I think this gave me an edge at dreamhack and will work to my advantage in the masters tourney as well.