Thanks for taking the time to do this interview for us. For those who might not be familiar with the Quake scene, who are you and what is your history in eSports? 

Hey my name is Sabian Hayblum and I play under the alias "clampOK". I started competitive gaming when I was around 15 with Doom 3 where I quickly became a top American dueler, and I then transferred over my skills to Quake 4. In Quake 4 I had some good results as a dueler, including the top American placing at QuakeCon 2006 (7th i believe) as well as ESWC 2006. I also played Quake 4 TDM for Blackdragons with much success and am now playing CTF for Evil Geniuses 

Speaking of the new EG CTF team, can you give us a quick run down of each player on the team and their role? 

Sure. Well first off let me start of by saying how happy I am with my current roster as all the players on the team are highly talented and bring something special to the table. I'll start with DaHaNG as we both played Q4 TDM for Blackdragons and have known each other for quite some time.  

DaHaNG's role in EG is to be our team leader as well as one of our core offense players. He essentially acts as a buffer to help our flag runner (ID) get out of the enemy base by dealing massive damage onto our enemy's defense, as well as acting as a human meat shield when it is necessary. Out of the game, he helps to make sure that everyone's eye is on the prize and he is one of the few players who I personally feel 100% comfortable playing with. His aim, smarts, and disregard of any sort of pressure is what makes him such a great teammate and a player for any team to fear. 

Next up would be ID who I've actually played with since the start of Quake Live. We both began in a team called Monarchs and it was instantly clear to me that his movement and ability to capture the enemy's flag was something that I needed to surround myself with. Whether it's pulling a defender out of position, sneaking the flag out through a defensive crack, or rocket jumping like crazy, I feel confident that he will bring us back the enemy flag multiple times a game. I'd say of everyone on the roster he is the least LAN experienced, but his mental stability and general outlook on Quake is very good and should negate any nerves or pressures that many "non experienced" players tend to feel. 

Last but definitely not least would be Viju. I don't even know where to begin talking about this guy. His CTF experience is rather unbelievable as he seems to have won just about every major Quake 3 CTF tournament with Cloud9 and his smarts/awareness are simply unparalleled by anyone playing the game today. The guy knows what all 8 people are doing at any given time on any given map. For CTF, he acts as our high defensive player who helps me with my job as the primary flag defense, while also attacking and doing whatever he feels best for the situation. His top notch aim and creativity leaves me in awe often and I'd say that while everyone on our team has that special ability to make a huge play and possibly change the game, he's the one who can do it with his eyes closed. 

How did Fires of Judaism first come about? 

The team first formed after Monarchs broke up. The Monarch's roster consisted of ID, Icel0re, Knossos, Whaz, and myself. After the team disbanded, ID and Icel0re were set to stay together, and I decided to take some time off of Quake as I was busy with some other things in my life. Shortly after, Icel0re informed me that DaHaNG wanted to start playing Quake Live and possibly CTF so that changed things for me, for sure. I felt like me and DaHaNG were on a championship team in Quake 4 together and the opportunity to play with him again was something I couldn't pass up. DaHaNG, ID, Icel0re, and myself began playing together for FOJ until I had to leave again as my job was getting very busy and I was unable to spend any time playing. 

While I was gone, Perfuse and mik3d played for the team and when I returned from my hiatus, I had to again prove to everyone that I deserved a starting spot on the team. The fact that I'm talking to you right now obviously means that I did, and since then Icel0re was replaced for Perfuse, and then Perfuse was replaced by Viju. I'd have to say that replacing Perfuse at the time we did was not at all an easy decision as I consider him to be a great player who was very open minded to changing his play style for what we needed, and had it not been Viju, I don't think there was even a 1% chance that he would have been replaced. Nevertheless, that's the somewhat rocky road of how our roster got to where it is today. 

So what's the story behind you guys joining EG? 

Well as you know DaHaNG is our team leader and has been signed to EG for 1v1 for quite some time. The more we played together as Fires of Judaism, the more potential he saw in our team, and once QuakeCon announced a CTF tourney it became the next logical step. He approached the management and we came to an agreement. We are all very happy to represent their organization and will do our best to keep up the good name!  ;) 

How do you feel about joining EG? 

I'm glad to be joining EG as they are one of the most well known and reputable organizations in eSports. It will be an honor to represent them at this year's QuakeCon. 

Many consider you guys to be a top team in North American CTF, even going so far as to say you are guaranteed a top placing at this year's QuakeCon CTF tournament. Why do you think this is? 

So far we've participated in the first NGL CTF Season which we took first in, as well as some NGL TDM, Quake Night CTF/TDM, and OSE Leagues which are still going on right now.  

I'd say what sets us apart from other teams is not our aim. It's not our experience. It's not even our smarts. It's our ability to adapt on the fly to any situation that's thrown at us, our great communication, and possibly most importantly, all 4 of us having the innate ability to make a game changing play at any time. While I do think that we have some of the more talented dmers to play the game on our team, we edge teams out because of the endless possibilities of what we can do without having ever practiced it (because some situations simply cant be practiced).I also really missed playing on a team as my TDM days where cut short due to lots of 1v1 tournaments that I had to attend. Playing on a team with talented players alongside me is a truly a pleasure 

Speaking of your history as a death match player, you were more of a 1v1 / Team Death Match (TDM) player in the past. What made you become a CTF player in Quake Live? 

Well I'd say I chose to play QL CTF for a number of reasons. First of all, I had not played Quake 3 before and when QL had just arrived, it was predominantly 8 year old maps that were being played by everyone. Straight away I said to myself that there was no way that I just played catch-up in Quake 4 on everyone who dueled in Quake 3, but now I was going to go to the game that those guys originally played, and even try to beat them on maps that they've had years to perfect. I also feel that Q3/QL dueling is not as fun or interesting to me as it seems to favor the more patient +back player as opposed to Quake 4 where a nice crouch slide could tear that kind of playstyle into pieces. MOST importantly, I work as a real estate broker in New York City and the notion of dedicating myself to 1v1 intensely was just not possible. With me, I would not consider doing 1v1 or anything for that matter if I didn't feel like i could pour my heart and soul into it, and be the best. Dueling takes an insane amount of time, practice and knowledge that I simply am not willing to dedicate into quake right now as my life is much more broad and I no longer look at Quake as the end all be all for me. 

What do you think of the quake live ctf scene now? a lot of predominantly 1v1 players have begun making CTF teams to compete. Do you think this shows that the CTF scene is slowly becoming what 1v1 was for Quake these last few years? If not, what does this movement mean to you? 

Well I think that a lot of the 1v1 players are also beginning to play CTF for some of the same reasons that I stated above. There is also the important fact that at almost all major duel tournaments now, only the top 3 get paid. The level of skill needed to place top 3 at a major quake tournament is so high that someone who plays 20 hours a day but is not naturally talented or inclined to quake will still not be good enough for that kind of placement. It makes a lot of sense for 1v1 players to begin playing ctf as the prizes are distributed to more players, playing team games especially in quake has always been a blast, and there are a lot of competitions going on since QuakeCon announced ctf. 

I think that Quake Live CTF IS the best team mode available right now and I could see it going far if it is picked up for some more large tournaments (ESL, MLG, etc...) 

With the popularity of CTF on the rise, do you think that the CTF scene might give Quake enough of a push to get back into the limelight? 

This is a very complex question because in it lies what makes me most upset about the Quake scene. In terms of the limelight, yes CTF is a fast paced, action packed, and extremely intense game to play as well as watch. It is very interesting, strategic, and amazing showcases of frags as well as talent is always shown when top teams go head to head.  

However, Duel is truly the way to put Quake back in whatever limelight it once had. The problem with this, is that the potential in the duelers as marketing tools is completely wasted by people who seem to have never picked up a marketing book in their life. Quake should have and still should be structured around the top 8-10 players and their images. Granted, some of them are boring people and have nothing marketable about them; however it's the players themselves that would attract more people and sponsors to Quake Live. An example of this would be Cypher vs Zero4 at QuakeCon last year. 

For anyone in the community, they knew about how cypher used to lookup to z4 and watch his games from when he was just a child. That is what keeps the people in the community so involved with the matches and what's going on with the players. The way I see it is, the problem lies with taking the back story of these great players, and then educating the public/casual viewers on exactly why it is such a great match, and why these 2 players playing each other is such a rare treat. Instead, the players are paid to attend events and if lucky get paid a less then minimum wage salary. 

If the money that is supposedly behind these players were put into branding them and long term goals, we could see quake explode larger then any of our dreams. I highly doubt this will happen anytime soon. 

Now with the event coming up in a few days, what do you think of QuakeCon in general?.  

I <3 it. My entire passion for competitive gaming came from when I saw Fatal1ty win QuakeCon in Doom 3 in 04 I believe. I had no idea what eSports was and I sat there thinking "wow this guy just won 25 grand for winning a video game competition in a game that's been out for not even 2 weeks...SICK!" I managed to go in 05, 06, and 07 but missed last year so I'm really excited about it this time around. In terms of the event, the tournaments have always been awesome, BYOC is simply INSANE, staff is friendly, and parties...don't even get me started. Best of all it gives me the chance to see people that I haven't seen in a while. 

It's a good thing that QuakeCon has decided to support CTF for two years in a row. First of all, it's a great team game and is action packed for the spectators while still easy enough to follow. Just about all of us played some form of CTF in middle school and this is the same thing, except for rocket launchers and such. Second of all, by having the same game type for two years in a row, it helps to add stability as well as a following to the scene and everything around it. I personally enjoy TDM as well, but if in ID's infinite wisdom they want to hold CTF at every QuakeCon from now on, it will only strengthen player base and I'm just as happy. 

Thanks for the interview! Any last shout outs? 

I'd like to give a shout out to my parents and brother, <3. Also, a big shout out to my teammates, EG as well as all of their sponsors who have made our QuakeCon trip possible. I can't forget Dblock, the BEST Instagiber to ever live. Finally, big thanks to you Detonator for not only giving me great binds in Quake 4, but keeping it real all these years as well. Thanks for the interview and I'll see you at QuakeCon!