Vo0 is making his comeback to professional esports after being inactive for two and a half years. The Dutch player won almost $250,000 in prize money in 2005 playing PainKiller and was the most dominant player of his era. Now Vo0 is back in competitive FPS gaming after qualifying to the Quake 3 Electronic Sports World Cup Grand Final in San Jose. The ESWC Masters on July 5-6 will be the first step on the road towards the peak of the season.

It's been... how many years since you showed your face at a professional competition? What have you been doing in the meantime?

I've had more than 2,5 years break from professional FPS tournaments. My last before the ESWC qualifier was the CPL World Tour Final in New York City on November 20-22, 2005. Game-wise I've been playing several games. Some World of Warcraft, I've played a month of Warsow, Played some UT3 when it came out. I have played some CPM, some QW, some of everything I guess.

Otherwise I've made the move to Amsterdam where I'm trying to start a good [university] course but I'm not really getting my grip as I can't find the course that really suits me. I'm going to have to try this year again, though.

Perhaps you're just not cut out for a "normal life"?

That is something that I'm still trying to find out.

Why are you back in pro gaming?

Honestly, I've missed it all so much. I had the best time of my life playing in those tournaments in 2005. It was so much fun being at these events with all these people who became close friends during the tour. I love competing and I really enjoy challenges that take the most out of me.

I see this as a new challenge. I hadn't competed in so long. Some time during May this year I thought why not give Q3 another chance, and I started playing it in the CPMA/vQ3 mode, and I kinda enjoyed it. I signed up for the Dutch ESWC qualifier and things just went on from there.

Speaking of the qualifier, you got into the ESWC Grand Final through the back door, so to speak, which enraged forever. What is your side of the story? [Vo0’s berth to the finals was awarded to him after the qualifier took place.]

I came to the qualifier without many expectations. I played my games and suddenly I was in the final. After a tense game I lost it. I was so close to being qualified but I just didn't make it. I asked one of the organisers if they could talk to ESWC and maybe grant Holland an extra spot, knowing that Germany did the same. ESWC.NL said they could see what they could do, and a few days later I got Forever enraging is just another top of the icecake. He would have maybe had a point, but it's just dumb posting that stuff without even showing up.

How are you finding Quake 3 and your own shape in it?

I started playing VQ3 on May 6. I tried to play atleast a few games each day but I had a hard time keeping up to my low practice schedule as a near-heat wave just struck my country. I hardly played and around May 20 I started playing more seriously. A hardware failure ended my streak of serious practice and I had to lay low for another three to four days. Then the last week I played some more and thought I was in a decent shape for the qualifier.

I think I did great, actually, for the amount of time I have put into the game. I think with a lot more time invested into this game type I can become a whole lot better, even thought the gameplay is against most that I stand for. I much more prefer fast and agressive games like CPM/PK, where speed and movement are more of an element than raw aim.

I quite enjoy Quake 3, though. The engine is just so good and everything feels very smooth. I never liked OSP for some reason, I switched to CPMA and it's game type a few weeks after I started playing OSP, only to never return. I still very much prefer CPM over VQ3, any day.

Are there any skills learned specifically in other games that give you an edge in Q3?

Not really. I have a very broad variety of game play skills but not many of them really do apply in VQ3. Bunnyhopping, over-agressive rocketjumping, trickjumping, none of them really apply in a game of VQ3. The skills you need for CPM/PK are just so different. People say I should be good in VQ3 because I played CPM, but it's not even comparable. It's the same engine, yes, but it's just so different. Try comparing tennis to badminton. Or table tennis. Same principle (engine) but yet so different.

Does the fact that Q3 is hardly your first choice game suggest that you're here for the enjoyment of eliminating players rather than the enjoyment of playing the game?

I love to prove people wrong. I think I can be a great competitor in Q3 if I put my mind into it. I need a whole lot of playing hours for it, yes, but that is just because I have to catch up to other players. I will be going up against people who were playing professional Q3 tournaments in 2001, and for me that is very exciting. I feel like an underdog, and it feels cool.

Furthermore, I love competition. Q4 wasn't my first game choice either but I never played any tournament in that game. That was merely because I just had a crazy tour finished and I wanted to take a break and realized that Q4 wasn't really my cup of tea. When I think back of that choice now, it might have been a wrong one. Q4 was very different from PK and I had to start all over. My pride got in the way. Being a natural talent in one game that didn't automatically transfer to the next kinda hurt it. I felt like I was never going to be as good as the top players. Which was a dumb, though, as I beat [Magnus] “fox” Olsson and [Michael] “winz” [Bignet] in Eurocup matches, but I still wasn't happy enough about the overall performances. That combined with the fact that I didn't really enjoy the game made me quit the game entirely.

All in all , it's mostly the competition that has lead me to start Q3 again.

How good can you become in this game? Vo0-in-PainKiller good?

I will try. The time is limited, though. I have too much catching up to do. CPM/PK are where my true skills come out. Games like Q3/Q4 are just holding me back. I do think I will be a serious contender in this game. Maybe not at the ESWC Masters, but at the ESWC Grand Finals, when I've had a lot more practice, I think I will do very well.

Who are you looking out for at the Masters? Who do you “fear”?

I don't fear anyone. I am thrilled to play any of them as I respect all the competitors for their Quake skills. I would love to play against [Paul] “czm” [Nelson], [John] “ZeRo4” [Hill] or [Anton] “Cooller” Singov, though. No fear, but excitement.

Are you going to get excited wearing Fnatic's colours?

I am currently not sponsored by Fnatic, and haven't been since the end of the World Tour in 2005, except for one tournament in China for World of Warcraft. I am looking for a sponsor that can support me this summer to the several tournament that I am planning to attend (ESWC Masters, Gamegune, QuakeCon, ESWC Grand Finals).

Why not Fnatic? I think you deserve to be supported for Q3 for what you have done for this team.

Me and Fnatic have not come to an agreement that satisfies my needs. I am looking at all my options right now.

Such a statement could scare away potential teams. Are your needs too big?

Not at all. Up to now we just have not come to an agreement that is good for the both of us. Fnatic doesn't seem to be able to offer me what I am looking for. I hope other organisations/sponsors are interested in me and contact me if so.

Is pro gaming a pipe dream?

No. I'm proof that it isn't. I probably was lucky though, but I can name many players that disagree with that statement. It is however a hard task for anyone that is just starting to play video games. I am not really into the other game scenes, I have no clue how many other tournaments there are in other games. But even in Quake 3 it can be beneficial to play. What definitely helps is to have a great sponsor supporting your career.

I don't know why people would call this a pipe dream if there are many players who have made this their primary source of income for several years. It's not a profession that gets you super rich (in most cases ), but it definitely can be a profession for a decent living.

Speaking of super rich, has the CPL paid out every cent of their prize money?

This isn't really anyone's business but my own. I'm neither confirming nor denying CPL paying every cent.

Do you believe in World of Warcraft professional gaming? ESL caused a huge uproar after it replaced WC3 in the Extreme Masters.

I have played in one WoW tournament, the first one ever to be precise. I personally think WoW is very hard to follow, even for someone who has played it for quite some hours. The matches are a lot made out of luck (the so called RNG, random number generator), and class setups. Skill and tactics are of course a major part of a team's success as well. I just disapprove of the RNG completely. A lot of times after I just finished an Arena match I just stared to the screen and my mind just went into silence for 5 seconds before coming to a conclusion..........bullshit. Fears, silences that resist, stuns that miss/resist, finishing moves that get dodges, all based on a percentage chance that the game decides for you. It just takes a whole lot of enjoyment out of the game for me.

In general, though, WoW is so very popular that I do see a bright future for the game. It is a very enjoyable game, and the competition at the top of the ladders is quite tough. I would much rather see deathmatch games with 10 million players, though.

Deathmatch fell on its knees after the PainKiller season. Some say that it was before. How can it get back up again?

It was before unfortunately. I have played deathmatch in it's prime when I played Quake 2 at the age of 14 or 15. I quit for nearly two years, though, so I don't know how Quake 3 in it's prime was, I can only imagine it was more than great. I think deathmatch has been declining since 2002, which is a shame, because it is such a great game type. It is the true test of someone's ability to master many elements of a computer game. Move around in a 3D environment, memorize completely different levels, fight skills, weapon choices, improve and develop tactics, read your opponent, I just can't stop naming the things that make deathmatch so great.

I think why StarCraft and WC3 are still popular is because of the battle.net system. The concept behind it is just ingenious. I have said this for about four years, when I found out about the battle.net system. Deathmatch needs it. Desperately. The reason why deathmatch is declining is that it's way too hard to get in to. Whenever a new player joins a server (if he's able to, downloading maps and patches generally scares people away), he will get beaten so badly that he's just not interested. He feels the skill gap is too great and start looking for a game that is easier to step into.

Quake Live, I hope it will be a huge success. How cool is it to be a beginner and get matched up against beginners every time. To see your name on the ladder and as you play more and get better, your rank will rise on that ladder and you reach closer and closer to the top every day. It's just great. Even for people who just want to play once in a while. They get matched up against people who aren't as good and they will just have a good time.

Now you can say that ladders have been there forever. That's true, Clanbase/ESL have had ladders for god knows how long. But people are lazy. Browse through a website to schedule a game, a server and all that comes along with it, is just a bit too much work. How easy is it to just let the game do everything for you, and instantly update the ladders after you've finished matches.

As I said, I really hope id Software does everything right this time and makes battle.net look like it's child's play.

What feelings do you have when you look back at your PainKiller career?

I had a fantastic PK career. The best out of everyone. The most tournament wins (9 out of 14), the best results, the most prize money earned, it was really fucking fantastic . There is just one thing that still haunts me and will probably haunt me forever, and that is my 0-4 loss against [Johnathan] “Fatal1ty” [Wendel] in the finals. I had played such a great tournament up to then, but I completely choked and played such a horrible match that I still have some flashes of those matches in my head sometimes. I never watched the show/demos of the final, because it is such a sour spot. I was the best PK player but did not play my best match that day and it hurts.

But all in all, I have lived a great year and a half, meeting many people, going to so many countries, seeing different cultures, going on city tours, competing in tournaments, getting new friends. I enjoyed every single bit of it.

Do you think that you will ever live through something like that again?

No, I don't. But hoping is never wrong. I didn't think I would ever play in a professional tournament five years ago. Things can change all of a sudden...