Part 3: DSL, Camping and Cheating

It didn't take long for me to develop a seriously nasty reputation as a camper after getting a good internet connection. IF I had a nice camping spot, I had no fear of anyone. Not Dartanion, not Grimm, not Postal, not Orion. None of them were scary after we were on equal footing. Still though, I wanted to win. If anyone called me out for a one on one, Eric would play as Spiderman. Why? He was better at Quake than I was. Then it happened. I found a cheat. It was like radar and put a red dot on the screen on a grid that would let me know a player's relative position to me. That made it a little easier. The anti bot measures that TheKind installed couldn't detect this and I used it for a little while until it too was detectable. After that Eric modified a nosepack to include a dorsal fin like hump in the middle at the point where splash damage from a rocket would affect the target. This made me a much much more effective camper.

By now I was leading TOA on the stats board in Efficiency and Skill. I didn't get killed very often. I could alter the way people played the game. I wasn't a map-runner at all. I was a camper through and through.

The game was fun. I loved it. We even had a tournament. It fell apart after only three rounds. I won the most rounds so I declared myself the winner. Obviously the tournament was never completed, so I never did win it. I mean, I couldn't have anyway. There was no way I could have beaten Dar, Grimm, Orion or Postal. Those guys were the best on the server and I would have had to have a perfect game to beat one of them. Frag them once then run and hide! :-) Postal was in the THK clan, Trigger Happy Killers. He was one of the only guys that could give Dartanion a run for his money.

There was a monthly ranking system for the millions of people who played Quake 2. CLQ, the Champions League for Quake. TOA was always ranked #2 or #1 of all Lithium Servers. Dartanion was one of the top ten players in the world. We had a bunch in the top 100. My all time best ranking was number 54 in the world.

Yeah, the game was fun, but the message board was just as entertaining. I have no idea how many times TheKind banned me from the message board only to reinstate me after cooling off. Eric and I caused so much chaos on that board that they had to make changes. On one occasion, Dartanion couldn't get Eric out of a camping spot. He fragged Dar 6 or 7 times in a row. It was great! He had the red rune and was wailing on him. He was hitting the chatbinds.

"I am pitching a tent on your remains"

"I am naked"

So funny to see Dar losing!

Apparently Dar had admin rights and used them to boot him from the server. I was pissed. This guy goes around winning CONSTANTLY almost. He usually gets the frag limit every game he plays. Suddenly he's losing for a couple of minutes and can't take it? I was pissed. So what did I do to retaliate? I posted as Dartanion on the message board later that night. Talking of life being bitter. My wife leaving me and taking the kids. I just don't want to live anymore. The people who knew him started posting messages that he had lots to live for. They emailed him begging him to reconsider his plans for suicide. "Don't do it man, don't kill yourself". The next morning when he checked his email, I'm sure he knew it was me who pranked him. He had to assure everybody that he was happy and didn't want to die. It was priceless. Eric and I did this sort of thing several times. Posting as others to stir the pot. One time I posted as Grimm pledging eternal love for Orion. Man, I remember when Orion got banned for posting modified Matallica lyrics to King Nothing dedicated to Dartanion with a photoshopped picture of Dartanion giving a man oral sex. I had nothing to do with that one. They went through several message boards till the got one that made this sort of thing difficult.

Ever wondered who "Grammatical Corrections" was? That was Eric.