CA= Bad for Duel. FFA= Good for Duel!

I know that ever since Quake Live went open beta, i've been a fierce advocate of Clan Arena. I think its the perfect gametype for new players and I still believe that. But now i'm going to tell you about the ugly truth of playing too much of the gametype.

At the birth of multiplayer PC FPS games, we saw one gametype that EVERYONE played - Free For All. Everyone was new to multiplayer FPS and the goal is simple - kill as many people as possible. But FFA was developing skills that all good duellers must have. These skills can not be learned from Clan Arena.

Clan Arena also creates some bad habits in game. I find that I forget to actually go and pick up weapons because I assume that I have it already. I rocket jump when I have 30hp. Timing items goes completely out the window. I get lazy and allow shots to hit me because I start with so much health. I assume that everyone has a lot of health and I do silly things like try and rail them when they would already be dead with just a few machine gun bullets.

While CA is a lot of fun to practice the weapons, learn the map layouts and practice the movement there are vital skills that are needed to be worked on to ready any new player for some intense 1 vs 1 action. I would recommend new players to FPS (especially Quake) to first learn the weapons, maps and movement with Clan Arena, then hone your skills in Deathmatch. The reason for this is because even if I played a lot of Unreal Tournament duels, I find that I am still miles away from the veteran Quake duellers.

So I thought to myself, "I don't remember being this freakin n00b when I tried duelling in Unreal for the first time, why do I suck so badly now?". Then it dawned on me. I have never played FFA in Quake... ever!

FFA is great to learn the weapon placements, maplock and the timing of armors. As silly as it sounds, if you put a lot of thinking into FFA matches and don't just spam machine gun at people you can really learn map control faster than just playing better opponents in 1v1.

The main reason it takes so long for me to learn maps when playing better opponents is that when they have maplock, I have a tough time trying to regain control, especially if I don't know the item placements. A lot of time is wasted searching for powerups and weapons. FFA lets me practice everything while learning exactly where everything is and how much time I need to get from A to B (minus all the people that try and kill me on the way).

Another thing being good at FFA teaches you is dodging. In Clan Arena, you spawn with so much health its fine to take a rail or two and you can still be in good health to take down guys. After 2 rails in FFA fresh off the spawn, you're dead! If you want to win a FFA map, you should try to time at least time ONE item and don't waste any time dying otherwise your spammy opponents will catch up to you.



Then when you've mastered maplock on FFA, when it comes to duels it should be a little easier on you as there are a lot less opponents to focus on. Then you can take some time and think about all the items you need to time, as well as the condition and position of your opponent.

Looking back at the positive things i've written about FFA, 6 months ago I couldn't say I would have even thought this way. I was a player who hated the spam and newbie luck of FFA but I think now it's come to the point where I have to say "I need FFA to improve".... and maybe the tactic will work for new players who want to be good at duels too! Good luck everybody!