Are your parents still telling you that games are a waste of time? Show 'em this pic of Wombat, the CPL tourney winner, with a big honkin' check for $10 grand. Ten thousand bucks for owning up at Quake 3! How often can games pay your way through college?

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September 12, 1999 Ground Zero Wraps It Up - 11:05 - by HellChick After days of playing until their eyes were nearly bleeding and living solely off the Bawls(tm) ultra-caffienated soda that was being handed out to everyone at the CPL, it's official: Wombat from clan stx takes home the booty! Not only did he receive some phat prizes, but he gets a gigantic $10,000 check from Babbage's and Software, etc. (and the boy's only 15). Bane-1134 came in second against Wombat in a 24 to -1 match. Sujoy took third place, with Sploidicus and DieharD taking up the fourth and fifth places. Besides the glitz and the glamour, all five guys are taking home a lot of great stuff, including the Mario Andretti racing wheel and a Panther XL. Congrats to all of them -- and they provided some pretty great entertainment on the big screens during those harrowing moments. In other news, the FFF is still getting some attention as newspapers in Israel and Australia do stories on us. Will the madness never end?! Let's hope not; this is pretty fun -- I was even asked for my autograph (at first, I thought the guy thought I was Lilith, but then happily found out that he wanted the autographs of all of us "cool chick gamers who were in the FFF"). And to follow on that thread of chick gamers, Stevie "Killcreek" Case was kind enough to sit down for a few minutes with me for an interview focusing on girl gamers, her upcoming shoot for Playboy, and her career plans for the future. Keep an eye out for that! CPL's Ground Zero is now officially over. Your humble narrator is set to fly back to the lonely plains of Wyoming in just a few hours, where she will enjoy the mountains of swag she received in New York City. Happy trails from da Big Apple! › top September 11, 1999 Q3:A Brackets Narrow Down - 17:49 - by HellChick The tension in the tourney room is mounting as the mighty fall: DieharD was surprisingly knocked out of the winner's bracket by Wombat with a huge margin. Sujoy, on the other hand, stands firm. Rix was knocked into the lower bracket by Bane-1134 very tense and close match watched by nearly everyone on the large screens in the main room. More matches are planned for this evening, with the final showdown planned for tomorrow afternoon. The tension builds! Article Posted: Women, Quake II, and the media - 16:07 - by Fargo Ground Zero has no net access, so Hellchick's latest article came to us via email from a local Manhattan Cybercafe. Check out The Female Element: Women, Quake II, and the Media, which looks at the fascination the press has with women gamers and what it was like to play a tourney match with a camera jammed in your face. Good readin'! Ground Zero: Day 3 - 12:25 - by HellChick Ground Zero kicks into its third day today with the Q3:A tournament going on as I type. The brackets are narrowing down, and everyone is placing their bets as to who will take home the $10,000 check from Babbage's (if you ask me, my money's on DieharD). 1 vs. 1 matches will continue until 11 p.m. tonight, and the final showdown will happen tomorrow. Don't forget to check out the stats on Netgames throughout the day to keep tabs on your favorite players. The ladies of the FFF will be taken out to see The Fantastiks today, a Broadway show that's said to be pretty funny. It's also rumored there will be a 2 a.m. falafel run tonight. Tomorrow the fun ends and we return to our drab lives (just kidding). Ground Zero's last day is tomorrow -- keep it here to learn who wins the Big Tamale! › top September 10, 1999 Ground Zero, Day Two -- Q3:A, baby! - 15:04 - by HellChick After a hard day of railing your opponents into unidentifiable chunks of stew meat, there's nothing like a day at the Elizabeth Arden spa on 5th Avenue to work out those tense muscles -- and that's exactly what we lucky ladies got today. I tell you, ol' Lizzy Arden has raised decadence to an art form. But I digress. Ground Zero shifts into day two today with the CPL's Q3:A Free For All qualifiers. Ten servers with about ten people on each were used to eliminate all but those who were going on to the 1-vs-1 portion of the tournament, beginning as I type this out. As soon as it's available, we'll have a list of those who made it to the second round and who looks promising; for now, you can of course check out Netgames' real-time stats of the event. There were development folks showing off their wares today; among those pimping their products were Gateway, providers of the tourney computers, Heat.net, the folks who provided the venue for the FFF tourney this summer, and Razer Boom Slang, purveyors of a new mouse that claims to be the next generation in mice for games like Quake. Look for more information about these and other products being shown off later this weekend -- it's time for me to head off to the Lilith & Eve show, where it's rumored sCary and DieharD will be making appearances. › top September 9, 1999 Female Frag Fest Finals Results - 20:17 - by HellChick The FFF finals have now finished and there is a now-famous winner: Lilith of clan RASC! She defeated her opponent, Shakes, with a 10 to 3 victory in a very harrowing and exciting game (even the CBS news crew stuck around to watch). Following Shakes' second place win was Lucidity in third, followed by Foo and MsDead. Notice who's name has not been mentioned? If you have any respect for basic human dignity, you won't ask how your humble author did in the tourney. Needless to say, the games were fun and exciting to watch, as evidenced by the enormous amount of cameras (I think there were more cameras than participants). Lilith now has her work cut out for her as she is dragged hither and yon for interview after interview. Netgames has tallied up the stats and there are some fun results: most frags and most kills went to Shakes, highest FPH went to Lilith, and aside from the dubious honor of having the most 1-vs-1 losses, yours truly had the most career kills with the grenade launcher. The CPL Quake 3:Arena tourney begins tomorrow with eight FFA qualifiers. Lilith automatically receives a seat in the tourney as a result of her first place win, and the rest of us lucky gals will see if we can score a seat once the list of participants is refined. What's in store tomorrow? A look at the developers who are showing off to the crowds and what they have in store for us. Ground Zero Begins - 10:29 - by HellChick Today's the day -- Ground Zero is shaping up as Gateway sets up and the developers start showing off the goods. The Female Frag Fest finals begin at 6 p.m. ET this evening and are expected to end around 10 p.m., with stat updates reported by NetGames. Tomorrow will be dominated by the CPL's Quake 3:Arena tournament, with the first place winner of the FFF taking a seat to win the grand prize -- but not until we've been spoiled by the good people of Elizabeth Arden. In the meantime, here's the schedule of events for the weekend: Thursday, Sept. 9 3:00 pm -- Register for Ground Zero 4:00 pm -- Pre-finals dinner (sponsored by Anna Kang, who couldn't make it due to sickness) 6:00 pm -- FFF LAN Tourney starts 10:00 pm -- FFF LAN Tourney over, awards presentation Friday, Sept. 10 8:00 am -- Breakfast 9:30 am -- Elizabeth Arden spa treatment 2:30 pm -- Lunch on Anna Kang 3:30 pm -- Return to Ground Zero 6:00 pm -- Finalists head to Psuedo for 2 hour Lilith & Eve show 7:30 pm -- mini-LAN and pizza party at AGN Saturday, Sept. 11 10:00 am -- Breakfast 11:00 am -- Head to Ground Zero 2:00 pm -- Lunch with Stevie "Killcreek" Case 8:00 pm -- The Fantastiks at the Sullivan St. Playhouse Sunday, Sept. 12 10:00 am -- Brekafast 1:00 pm -- Lunch Evening -- Flights out for finalists And to follow up Fargo's assertion that he intends to enter a tournament next time as a girl, I have just this to say: it's good ta be the chick. Keep it here, same Quake time, same Quake channel. Article Posted: Female Frag Fest Preview... - 1:06 - by Fargo The coverage kicks off with our first article, "Four Nights, Six Women, One Big Apple", talking about what to expect from the final rounds of the Female Frag Fest that'll take place at Ground Zero. Ever see an all-female tournament? They're funny things. "You'll see one female player showing another 20 minutes before their match how to own an area in deathmatch," explains Aurora, one of the tourney founders. And then there's the day at the spa or the night on Broadway. Geez. Next time I enter a tourney, it'll be as a girl. (Go read the article now.) › top September 8, 1999 PlanetQuake Ground Zero Coverage Begins - 9:55 - by Fargo Tommorow the big apple is gonna be hit by the big Quake. "Ground Zero" is starting, a weekend of carnage sponsored by the Cyberathletic Professional League (CPL). The CPL has held firm to the belief that only LAN tournaments -- with equal ping for everyone and no net problems -- are the only way to really determine a gaming champion. The drawback is, of course, that everyone has to make it to the event. After holding several tournaments in Dallas, they're taking the show on the road and giving New England a chance to participate in the carnage. The stakes are high; the first place winner in the main 150-player tournament will walk home with a $10,000 grand prize courtesy of Babbages/Software Etc. Not bad for four days of intense Quake 3 action! Running alongside the main CPL event are the finals of the "Female Frag Fest," an Internet female-only Quake II tournament that's attracted a good deal of media attention. Sponsored by the AllGames network, the six female femme fatale finalists (sorry) have all been flown to New York to meet face to face. The winner gets a Dreamcast and more, but all the six finalists get free tickets to a Broadway show, a trip to the spa, manicures, and generally a red-carpet treatment. PlanetQuake has the inside track, so to speak -- our very own HellChick is not only one of the Female Frag Fest finalists, she's also covering the event on behalf of the Planet! That way, even if she doesn't do enough damage with her railgun, she'll finish people off with her digital camera. Stay tuned for her diary of the event, news from the scene, coverage of the tournament, and an inside look at some games in development to be displayed at the event. PlanetQuake takes on the East coast -- if you can't be there, be here! › top