There are two kinds of finals - those with a story and those without. The Dreamhack Winter 2008 final for Quake 3 was of the latter kind.

Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski, last year's Newcomer of the Year in eSports, was the clear favourite. Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza is still a relative newcomer to the top duelers scene and he was not expected to be in the final. On his way to it, he beat Sebastian 'Spart1e1' Siira (second at ESWC Masters of Athens) and Magnus 'fox' Olsson (second at ESWC Masters of Paris). Av3k was already too much.

The first map, PRO-Q3DM6, started off quite evenly but as time passed av3k started to get in his groove and he was the one that set the pace of the game. He controlled the game precisely and hit better shaft percentages than he normally does. It ended 23-16 in the Pole's favour.

DM6 turned out to be the less one-sided map of the final. The second map was PRO-NODM9. The more experienced player was in the lead by almost 20 frags on his account about 8 minutes into the game on a map which is usually played slowly. The final score was 24-14.

Strenx joins the ranks of this year's "Wonder Silvers," underrated players that were not expected to do well but found themselves in the final of a tournament. The others are Marcel 'k1llsen' Paul (second at the ESWC Grand Final) and Sebastian 'Spart1e1' Siira (ESWC Athens). Time will tell if the Frenchman can keep performing well and avoid fading.

The third place goes to fox, who won himself a first place in the Challenge ProMode tournament as a "consolation prize."

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DreamHack Winter tournament overview