French Frag Factory

Il y a quelques mois, à l’issue de la 28° saison de BarryJolt Q3CTF, [SARL]Bigfoot annonçait la fin d’une ère. Et quelle ère! Plus de 17 années consécutives de compétition Quake3 durant lesquelles, lui, l’homme, ze man, ze head admin, a organisé, planifié et compte-rendusé plusieurs centaines de milliers de matchs voyant s’affronter plusieurs milliards de gamers.

Un tel dévouement à la communauté valait bien son hommage. En exclu mondiale, l’interview de Bigfoot aka Biff aka Biffy aka Biffeh aka Biffeheheheehe

The Biffeheheh intarvioo by Ozheheheh

A bit of looking in the mirror

When did it all start between you and league adminz0rages?
Some point towards the end of 1997 / start of 1998. It’s hard to recall now but I started off helping to admin in the Modem Clan Wars league for QuakeWorld, which I eventually ended up running, before linking up properly with BarrysWorld during 1998/1999 thanks to involvement with other leagues and the BarrysWorld dial-up that provided fantastic low pings like 120.

At most, how many leagues and players have you been leading at once?
When BarrysWorld’s leagues were at their peak towards the end of the year 2000 I probably ran myself about 5 or 6 leagues, with a total playerbase in the thousands. Those were competitions I directly handled, over time that number became less but this allowed me to focus more on the quality of the coverage for the leagues or to specialise in one-off tournaments. Of course at all times I was directly responsible for many more competitions, some of which carried significant prize funds.

Now it’s behind, what are your best moments from all this BW/Jolt era?
The best thing has been working will all the great volunteers who dedicated their time to the leagues and knowing we gave people a great place to play their games. Some other highlights include the European Championships in 2000, the leagues being as popular as they were at their peak on BarrysWorld and latterly GAME, the PC Zone and other tournaments I did with Jolt. The chance to be involved with the WorldCyberGames one year, which included going to Singapore to represent the UK as the national team leader, was an experience of highs and lows but mostly highs :)

Do you have one great souvenir in particular from a game you did admin?
If by souvenir you mean memory, I think the most bittersweet memory was probably the final of the Quake 3 Euro Champs which happened in London. The day the competition ended was a great feeling with a surprise victory for Russia (I think, many years ago now :)) but on returning to my hotel room I found out one of my grandparents, who lived less than 10 miles from where I was supervising the tournament, had passed away.

Did you ever thought about quitting before, and if so, why? What did keep you going?
I only felt like quitting when things were going wrong with work for reasons other than the competitions themselves. I kept going because of the efforts of the volunteers and the knowledge that we were doing a great job.

What’s next now?

What is your future made of, exactly? (all French Frag Factory readers agree to sign a non disclosure agreement if the answer contains specific facts about commercial deals, salary negotiation or anything that has to be kept secret for now)
I left Jolt to take a new job working in a different country, still in the gaming industry but a very different environment and for a much larger company. It was time for a change at though Jolt itself had been bought and the future looked promising there I felt it was the right time to take a new opportunity. This was about 2.5 months ago and things have gone well since, I’m settled in a new country, working at my new job, experiencing new things.

What game will you be playing in the future?
I have tried QuakeLive, it seemed fun even on a laptop, but for now the games that I currently play are the ones I enjoy and all of them are games you can play for a long, long time without getting bored. I may look out for new titles around Christmas but over the last few years I’ve not really bought that many new titles as my free time has been limited.

What are your thoughts on the evolution of the Quake series, past, now, QL and future?
QuakeLive I hope is a real success for the Quake series to continue but I fear for the PC’s future in some respects. I wonder indeed if WoW wasn’t around what would be the draw to the PC. It is specialist, and in some cases phenomenally popular, games like WoW, Football Manager etc that seem to keep the format going. FPS games these days appear to be more and more niche, piracy remains a big problem and the consoles have moved into the FPS market far more than was the case back when Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament launched. The sheer variety of titles plays a part in this and has diluted the quality somewhat. You only have to look to the troubled e-Sports scene to realise that the interest levels in PC FPS gaming aren’t really there as they perhaps used to be as many competitions are forced into selecting games with minute playerbases to get funding from sponsors. I experienced this myself with the WorldCyberGames when the number of players seriously contending certain games in the UK was in the dozens.

You and the Scene Quake Francaise

First of all, and most uber important: la moule ?
La Moule indeed. And the Fromage.

How would you qualify your relationship with French clans, in general?
I always had sympathy for French players as the internet connections to the UK, or indeed other European nations, were never the best, especially as French internet itself was developing at the start of this century. Their enthusiasm for the game was clear though, they had a lot of passion, and a willingness to help out with the leagues also. I always thought France was one of the most talented Quake 3 nations and over later years they proved that to be the case as their internet connections reached a level of parity with the rest of the continent.

Will you remember some French clans and players particularly? (feel free to either praise or trash some;)
Well of course SARL are the most famous French clan ever. AAA were probably the most talented. But there are many others who were big parts of the scene, at all levels. Too many to mention.

From your long experience with us, summarize the typical French player:
Passionate, lucky and normally played the game with a bit of gallic flair.

kthxbye cya m8

Thanks for everything during those precious and fun years, Biff. Hope you’ll enjoy whatever comes next my friend!

Moi, je l’aime ce Biff.