Written by Stephen White, with small contributions from myself.
With the European community curious to find out who the first African team at a European Call of Duty 4 LAN event really are, we bring you a background story on the team, followed by an interview with the team in Antwerp later this week.Hailing all the way from the Southern tip of Africa, Qoob Gaming is a relatively new team, who, despite their short time playing together, find themselves among the most recognized names in South Africa, known for their impressive teamwork and cohesion.
QOOB GAMING
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 Trevor "qu1k_sh0t" Henry
Greg "Rora" Van Der Spuy
Andrew "xiR" Harper
Wesley "W1ckeD" Hatfield
Alan "K1ddo" Hatfield |
Earlier this year, Qoob (a local company) decided to send the brothers Wesley and Alan Hatfield overseas to play at an international CoD4 event. Since they did not have a team at the time, this meant they would have to recruit three players. They decided on Trevor "qu1k_sh0t" Henry to captain the team who went on to recruit Greg "Rora" Van Der Spuy and Andrew "xiR" Harper. Qoob Gaming had officially been formed, with promises to the community that they would strive to do their best at the upcoming Antwerp Esports Festival.
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Qoob's qu1k_sh0t is ready for RAGE Gaming.
Picture courtesy of gaming.do.co.za |
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qu1k_sh0t, who lived in Northern Ireland for several months last year, is certainly no stranger to the South African CoD4 community, having captained his side, BFB Lard, to a respectable second place at rAge 2009 - rAge being by far the biggest competitive LAN of the year in South Africa. xiR has played with qu1k_sh0t for over a year as the resident sniper at BFB, while Rora also hails from one of South Africa's top teams, Pantheon. Before and after rAge 2009, qu1k_sh0t, Rora, xiR and W1ckeD have notched up several top placings at local monthly LAN's and other online tournaments.
Since there are relatively few LAN's in South Africa, Qoob only have online results. Qoob Gaming most recently managed to take a 3rd/4th place in the Bravado One Night Cup (online), where they narrowly lost out to the eventual winners, Bravado. They have also performed strongly in unofficial matches against the top local teams and could probably be considered as a "top 5 team", although they don't really have any major achievements due to the short time they have been together. Speaking from my own experience, they have improved in leaps and bounds over the past two months and I rate them very highly. So while one couldn't say that "South Africa is sending over their number one team", Qoob Gaming is one of the country's most highly rated teams.
Critically, this will be the first international CoD4 tournament/LAN of any kind that a team made up of South African players has competed in, which makes it a very exciting time for the local community. Lots of our local players follow the European scene, watch what little European demos there are fanatically and we even have more than a few Stevy fanboys. Generally speaking, expectations seem to be high within the community, with most of us hoping that Qoob will do us proud by at least making it through to the playoff stages. However well we think Qoob will do is obviously calculated guesswork though, as we have no way of knowing how the style of South Africa CoD4 will compare to that of Europe.
Locally there are many different opinions on how good the European scene is compared to ours and how well Qoob will fare. While history will tell us that South African teams/players have normally been knocked out before the playoffs in most international eSports tournaments, CoD4 is probably one of the games where an upset is possible (compared to Counterstrike 1.6 and Quake Live), even if it's not likely.
Having played with and against all of the players in the Qoob team over the past two years, I know that if they can get momentum they can be very dangerous. But after all it is LAN and nearly anything can happen - they could just have a good or a bad day. If one thing is for sure, it's that South African CoD4 players will be hoping that they do the latter and make it through to the playoffs and beyond.
gl to them @ AEF and cya there.
edited 2010-07-27 16:33:21
edited 2010-07-27 16:31:51
edited 2010-07-27 16:35:53
they look like just a bunch of 'uk ppl' :D
edited 2010-07-27 16:43:12
not being racist :D
edited 2010-07-27 19:37:08
toxjee, anything else you would have liked to see included?
So basically i want to know more about the SA scene in general, by getting some big things here on tek-9 if possible. for instance i havent actually seen any Video on Demand from a SA top game on LAN or any demo's, altough this could be me being lazy and not searching enough for it.
This is nothing about your article as its a good article introducing Qoob gaming to us Europeans, but i'd like to see an article involving the whole SA scene maybe after AEF :)
edited 2010-07-27 16:59:31
My honest opinion is that Qoob stand a fairly good chance and I think they will make it through the groups. Watching demos from both countries there really doesn't seem to be many differences. Some differences I have seen are that EU players generally have super geek nades, some more unconventional positioning and brilliant team work. SA players - I think we are generally more disciplined/controlled compared to what I would call the relatively super aggressive style of most EU teams.
The obvious problem is that the performance at one LAN from one top SA team (that's only been together for 2 months) is certainly not going to be indicative of the entire South African CoD4 scene. Realistically speaking against a team like yourselves or fnatic who have had a strong core lineup for a while now I wouldn't think they'd stand much of a chance unless they have a really good game.
Unfortunately 99% of teams cannot afford the costly trip to Europe and there is little interest from corporate sponsors in terms of competitive gaming in SA - ESPECIALLY in terms of sponsors funding teams trips/accomodation - it just doesn't happen.
I would have liked to make a more specific prediction but tbh I had a sneaking feeling that I would be proven horribly wrong so I'll keep my mouth shut until I see how they perform. Fingers are crossed for Qoob though ! :D can't tell you how long we have been waiting to test an SA team against EU opposition.
There are tons of demos available if you're interested. Our lines are far too crappy to support VOD's, so none of those.
I'd be more than happy to write more about the South African CoD4 scene if tek-9 will allow me :)
I'd love to read more by you here on tek9 and hope to play you on a LAN sometime soon( if that ever will be possible :( )
edit- do you speak "Afrikaans" ? :D
edited 2010-07-27 18:24:37
would give my left nut to come to play in EU with my team but unfortunately not very likely :P
obviously for any sponsor cost <-> exposure and it's retardedly expensive just for tickets, minimum R120K for 5 okes in an off-season, which is ~12K Euro. Add on to that the fact that gaming is still quite small in SA and all the other costs and ye :(
edited 2010-07-27 22:50:15
While the community is relatively small, there is an abundance of talent not to mention the fact that they are THE tech explorers / opinion leaders to a wide segment of the market.
We can trasnform SA Gaming ... it is do-able!
ok silverfox
I was right :)
As dweez said, they're hardly going to be grinding away on their gaming PC's in poverty ridden villages without electricity are they?
Really cool bunch of guys <3
Good luck
League - dogamingleague.co.za/
awesome
I will scream back, ask h2k oof.
good luck qoob, feel free to use some shoe polish to make these guys happy :P
www.pantheongaming.co.za/?q=node/210
Here are a few demos , but not really from this team. I honestly dont know where else to find SA demos :D
Am I the only one feeling like that?
the opponents seemed like headless chickens running a circle
edited 2010-07-28 11:02:41
we r coming after few years =D