Jared "cha0ticz" Cugno, a player from D|S who is taking QuakeCon serious for 100 % and ofcourse he is going for the win, his 4 hour practice a day and experince what he have can give him good chance to do well. In this interview with him I talk about QuakeCon, his chances at QuakeCon, if he win the 20.000 dollar, what he is gonna do with it and many more.

Nick: cha0ticz
Name: Jared Cugno
Clan: Darkside
Sponsor(s): none
homepage: none
IRC Contact: #darkside on ETG
Q3 devices:
Mouse: Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB
Mousepad: Allsop
Keyboard: Logitech (not the split kind)
Headphone: Aiwa HP-X222
Biggest Successes:

• IGL Champion
• ECL 1v1 Champion
• 7th WCG US

sizah: Hi cha0ticz, can you please tell me who you are, your gaming history, what clan you play and age etc..
D|S-cha0ticz: Sure, I'm Jared Cugno and I play for Darkside. I played Quake 1 since the multiplayer test and then took a break from the Quake series once Quake 3 came out. I started playing Quake 3 about Feb-March of last year.

sizah: QuakeCon 2002 is this weekend, You are participating this event, how serious do you take it?
D|S-cha0ticz: I'm taking it quite serious. I think I have a good chance at doing decently so I've been practicing hard.

sizah: How much practice do you have a day ?
D|S-cha0ticz: On average I've been playing about 3-4 hours a day. Recently most of my time has been going to praciting with my RTCW team since I'll be playing in both tournaments at Quakecon.

sizah: Do you have a training mate for that ? or are you using fakenick on the net ?
D|S-cha0ticz: Usually I just join a server with an alias and play whoever is there. The alias is kind of pointless however seeing as I'm one of the only people that ping 10-15 to Boston and New York City and most people realize who I am right away.

sizah: For what spot are aiming at QuakeCon ? the nr1 ? or nr 2 ? or don't you think you will make it to the prizemoney ?
D|S-cha0ticz: I think it would be a waste of time to not aim for the number one spot. Thats what I've been practicing for and that's the spot I'm aiming for.

sizah: If you manage to win this tournament, what are you gonna do with the $ 20.000 ?
D|S-cha0ticz: I'm thinking of getting a big pool and filling it with one dollar bills and just swimming around in it for fun. My second plan is to put it to my HUGE college debt.

sizah: What do you expect of the Europeans ? Aim, LeXeR and belth ?
D|S-cha0ticz: I'm sure they're going to be huge contenders like always. Hopefully I won't have to face any of them in the single elimination round.

sizah: There are a lot of top players from the US going, ZeRo4, fatal1ty, socrates etc, when you face them are you nervous then, especially when itsabout money ? or is that not really a problem for you ?
D|S-cha0ticz: Last year I was a nervous wreck playing anybody that was decent. I've learned though that going into a game worrying about someone beating you is the completely wrong frame of mind needed to win. Now I try to ignore who I'm playing and just stick to the gameplan that I've set for the map.

sizah: Can you give me a top5 prediction ?
D|S-cha0ticz: ZeRo4, fatal1ty , socrates, lexer, and ME! =D

sizah: What do you think of the map list ? no q3tourney2 and a new map which is ospdm8.
D|S-cha0ticz: To be honest, I missed out on the start of Quake 3 and in turn, missed out on the practice that most of the big name players got on q3tourney2 so I'm a bit relieved it's not going to be used. Ospdm8 is a decent map to play, I think it would be great if the item placement was thought through a little more. Going from ra -> mega -> ya takes WAY to long.

sizah: can you give me your favorite top5 map list ?
D|S-cha0ticz: pro-q3dm6/ pro-q3tourney4/ztn3tourney1/ pro-q3tourney2/ and ospdm8

sizah: Do you follow the euro scene ? or don't you care much about that ?
D|S-cha0ticz: I try to watch demos of whoever I might be facing in an event. That also requires knowing who wins what tournaments even if I wasn't particpating in it. Knowing who plays good under pressure and who cracks can be a tremendous advantage.

sizah: What do you prefer: a QuakeCon with duel, with tdm, or maybe both...?
D|S-cha0ticz: For the big prize money I would much rather see duel tournaments. The sense of reward from someone winning ,000 is a lot more powerfull than 5 people splitting ,000. As a smaller side tourney I would love to see tdm as well though.

sizah: What are gonna do after this tournament? are gonna participate the World Cyber Games ? or maybe a whole diffrent game ?
D|S-cha0ticz: Right now the plan is keep my Q3 1v1 game sharp for WCG and then perhaps move on to UT2k3 once it comes out. Unless something major happens like the CPL announcing a Q3 1v1 tournament I don't see those plans changing.

sizah: what do you think about the future of gaming and the tournaments (the esports future)
D|S-cha0ticz: I think that as gamers we had a very strong start directly after Thresh winning his Ferrari. In the last year or two however I think that esports in general hit a plateau and hasn't improved nor declined in its growth. I'm hoping that within the next year we will begin to see a growth in the amount of people that game as well as an increase in prize money.

sizah: What mode do you like most, duel, tdm or cpma ?
D|S-cha0ticz: I love dueling. If you lose, its not becuase your teammate made a mistake, its your fault. Every frag comes down to how you and you alone play the game.

sizah: Ok thanks for you time, I wish you good luck at QuakeCon 2002
D|S-cha0ticz: Thanks a lot, hopefully I can turn some heads this year