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This is an ETQW Guide for players looking to progress

past the ordinary “public level” in the game. I am
aware of the ETQW 4 Newbies Guide which helps
beginners to understand the game to get a good
knowledge of how to play at a public level but
unfortunately this guide is rather out-dated, and it
doesn‟t cover some of the finer aspects of the game.
This guide is for public players looking to progress to
competition level.

Since there seem to be new cups/comps being revealed

and very few players playing competitively I would
hope public players would learn something from this
guide to improve their gameplay and become more
confident to join ETQW Pro Pub Games and to make
the cups more competitive and fun for everyone.

So if you already play ETQW pro pub quite regularly

you will probably already know most of these tactics
and tricks, however you may pick up some useful ideas
and resources to improve your knowledge of the game.
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Where to download the latest version of ETQW Pro Mod:

http://myhannes.info/wiki/index.php/Promod_latest_official_release
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Now of course the more money you invest into your

system/hardware the easier you are making it for
yourself to improve at the game. Smooth gameplay
and precise aim give you a huge advantage over an
opponent who does not have this equipment to use. So
to be the very best at the game it is vital to have a
good setup.

Mouse / Keyboard / Mouse Pad / Headset

These four peripherals make a massive difference to

your gameplay; you can achieve faster tracking, more
comfortable gameplay, multiple binds, and faster
movement (through anti-ghosting keys – multiple
keystrokes). A good Headset is in my opinion generally
the most important; a good set of headphones (with a
mic) raises your awareness dramatically of where other
people are and what they are doing while
communicating with teammates.

When buying stick to well-known brands such as Razer,

Logitech, Microsoft, Ace and Roccat as these companies
invest a lot of money to produce high quality gaming
peripherals. They don‟t need to be very expensive, just
stick to a budget, do some research and search for the
design and tech specs that suit your taste in your price
range.
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Okay so let‟s start with your config, in competition you

want the smoothest game possible with the least
amount of lag/fps freezes; to ensure you don‟t crash at
the vital winning moment in the game and to give you
an advantage over your opponent in 1v1 fights.

So after making an Autoexec text file in a program

such as Notepad and saving it in C:\Users\Your
Name\Documents\id Software\Enemy Territory -
QUAKE Wars\sdnet\account name\etqwpro (or base) it
is time to start adding to this file.

I am not going to explain every single cvar as it is very

time consuming plus many other sites/guides have
covered this probably in more depth than my own
knowledge.

You can either follow the ETQW4Newbies Guide for

Basic FPS Boosts

http://etqw.geezergaming.com/newbies/tweaking.php

There is a tweak guide‟s site which is very useful for

many games not just ETQW which help with Engine
tweaks:

http://www.tweakguides.com/ETQW_1.html

Or you can use the ETQW Tweaker Utility for some

slightly more advanced settings to tweak and it is
simple to follow:

http://sites.google.com/site/cleandesperado/
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You can also use other pre-made autoexecs from old

ETQW pro players as the majority of the commands are
common in all pro players‟ configs. However you will
need to tweak a couple of settings to suit your comp
setup and personal preferences such as Sensitivity,
resolution, aspect ratio, monitor refresh rate etc.

Useful links to finding pro players ETQW Autoexecs:

http://team.mamut.si/modules/download/datoteka/relo
ad.cfg.txt

http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/showthread.ph
p?t=21714

http://www.planetquakewars.net/Guides/Config_Guide
?locale=en_US

http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=news – I used to search

old pro players profile pages where they often posted
their configs, many have now been removed but you
can try visiting clan websites to see if configs and tips
are being posted there.

Net Settings

Now after following those graphical tweaks for FPS

boosts you need to sort out your net settings. This can
reduce lag and increase hit detection.

There are only a couple of commands that you need to

alter to your personal preference. If you alter too many
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settings you can get in a mess and cause more damage

than good. Everyone‟s net settings are different so you
need to find the right values to get the best hit
detection with your ping.

Net_clientprediction – Default “20” From my personal

experience, default value is only useful when on
servers with a ping above 100. But with normal ping
(less than 90) the lower the value the better the hit
detection. I find setting this value to 0 gives me the
best hit detection. I know of many top players who get
very good hit detection at values between 1-10, so I
advise testing values between 0 and 20 for the best hit
detection. Minus values from my experience make
myself more unhittable but my hit-detection suffers.

You can use the Net_clientLagOMeter "1" command to

draw a graph of your client lag. This is my comparison
of different values:

(1 to 20) (0) (-20)

Now although with values (1 to 20) I get a smooth

green line, I found by setting it to 0 I had the best hit-
detection and yet I didn‟t experience visual lag that
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affected my game play. So try it out yourself to get the

best hit-detection through trial and error on public
servers.

Net_clientmaxprediction – default “1000” This has a

very similar name to the cvar above, however it does
not seem to affect hit-detection in my opinion at all. I
prefer to leave this setting to default, however there
are rumours that certain players who are known as the
“Unhit players” amongst the community tweak this
setting to odd values to increase their lag when running
away to cover with a toggle bind. When I attempted
tweaking this setting it caused dramatic freezes every
couple of seconds so I reset to default for the best
performance. But this does not mean you should leave
it at default, mess around with it and see if it yields
good results or not, you will soon be able to tell the
difference. Not everyone‟s net connection settings are
the same so you need to find the right setting to suit
yourself.

Net_clientMaxRate "16000" – default; Maximum rate

requested by client from server in bytes/sec. Now this
is where my “techno” knowledge lets me down. From
my experience I have no idea how this affects the
game, I have it set to “25000” in Vanilla, but in Pro
mod I have it at “16000” so I barely notice it, but again
you need to experiment with these commands and see
if it makes a difference to your game. I am just
providing the commands; you need to make your own
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judgement on what are the best values for you.

Net_predictionerrordecay “1” default – Enable/Disable

prediction error decay. I have this set to default but
alter it and experiment to see what is best for you.

Now those are the main net settings you should try
tweaking however you can do more research into other
settings. I would advise saving a working autoexec
before tweaking these settings or just set them back to
default if you get into such a big mess during testing.

Note: Some settings will be restricted by the server or

have a set limit so you may have to revert back to
default anyway.

Crosshair – Choosing a crosshair. Now again this is

based on how well you perform when trying different
crosshairs out. I like to have the smallest dot, and the
50% transparent grenade timer. I get rid of all the
other lines etc around that area so I can see and focus
on what I am shooting. But it is up to you; use the
sliders in game to find
the right percentages of
colour.

Choosing a colour that

stands out is also vital,
so you can always see
where you are aiming
against any objects. I would recommend red, yellow,
light blue, green or pink colours.
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Organising your autoexec for easy readability and

tweaking. This does take a little bit of your time
making your command lines easy to read and tweak
but it is a good habit to get into when writing configs in
any game.

Here is my promod autoexec that I use now when

playing in cups etc.

http://www.upload.ee/files/816182/Autoexec.cfg.html

I have spent over a year tweaking my autoexec taking

little bits from different Pro player‟s autoexecs which
have been posted over the net such as Reloads, Bjorn
& rglaf (Former Pro players from Dignitas and 4Kings)
but I don‟t advise completely copying all settings and
presuming they will be fine as these players have a
completely different hardware set-up to you.

The more you tweak your autoexec the more you learn
about each command which is a useful technique to
have when playing in any game. I advise trying to
create your own autoexec before comparing to other
players as you can use and learn from your own
knowledge first.
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It may be fun messing around with odd binds that say

“Hi!” every time you join a server by pressing Mouse3
for example but they do not help your game play at all
while taking up a valuable button to bind.

Movement:

The default binds are WASD, C to crouch, SPACE BAR

to jump and SHIFT to sprint. These are perfectly fine to
use, you can alter them if you really want to but from
my experience they are very nicely placed. Some
people prefer EDSF as they gain an extra key, I know
Bjorn uses RDFG so it is up to you entirely however
with an English Layout keyboard I get given an extra
key next to shift anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout

Now for some vital binds you need to have:

Respawn - Bind “x” “kill” replace x with your key, I

personally prefer \ key as it is next to shift and I can
get to it with ease, but it‟s your own choice. This is a
very important bind as some spawn times can be up to
30seconds. So it is better to respawn on the spawn
timer at 0 rather than carry on and die at 30 seconds.
Also during competition, you will want to time your
team pushes when going for the objective, so a full
team respawn brings everyone back to the same point
at the same time for a well-timed tactical push.
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Wrong times to respawn are during a 1v1 fire fight and

the spawn timer is nowhere near 0. This is very lame
and if you do respawn in the fight you are denying the
opportunity to get revived by a teammate and
potentially just giving your opponent a free spawn host
and more hp than if you fought him.

Stroy down - Replace x with your key…

bind "x" "_stroyDown" "" "aggressor"

Now this is a strogg only effect so it is better to add the

classes you want this to apply to so it leaves a key free
when on the GDF side. So to alter this copy and paste
to your bindings file but change the aggressor line for
the other strogg classes. Stroy down is a very vital bind
when playing strogg. It converts your ammo into
health. This is very useful when running away to cover
from opponents, when planting/disarming objectives
and for generally healing yourself quicker using less
stroyent cells.

I like to have this bound to Mouse Wheel up, so when I

am running away for example I can focus on scrolling
up which will give me health, so I am more likely to
survive. Very often I see aggressors running around
with full ammo and 10hp; this is when you need to use
stroy down so you can get above 50hp with still enough
ammo to kill someone and finish an objective.
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Class/Spawn Scripts

This is where you have a set of keys that are bound to

certain classes for quick and easy class selection
without going into the limbo menu every time. This is
particularly useful when you kill a soldier who has just
planted but there are no constructors nearby. With a
spawn script you can make a spawn host out of the
soldier, quickly change to Constructor, respawn and
disarm the objective in a matter of seconds, saving
other teammates who may be defending a spawn, to
retreat to disarm.

This is my spawn script but there are many floating

around the net that you could copy and paste.
bind "KP_END" "clientTeam Strogg; ClientClass Aggressor 2; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Agressor with
Hyperblaster'" "" "default"

bind "KP_DOWNARROW" "clientTeam Strogg; ClientClass Technician 0; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Technician

with Lacerator'" "" "default"

bind "KP_PGDN" "clientTeam Strogg; ClientClass Constructor 0; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Constructor with
Lacerator'" "" "default"

bind "KP_LEFTARROW" "clientTeam Strogg; ClientClass Oppressor 0; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Oppressor with
Lacerator'" "" "default"

bind "KP_5" "clientTeam Strogg; ClientClass Infiltrator 0; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Infiltrator with Accurized
Lacerator'" "" "default"

bind "KP_RIGHTARROW" "clientTeam Strogg; ClientClass Infiltrator 1; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Infiltrator

with Railgun'" "" "default"

bind "KP_HOME" "clientTeam GDF; ClientClass Soldier 2; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Soldier with GPMG'" ""
"default"

bind "KP_UPARROW" "clientTeam GDF; ClientClass Medic 0; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Medic with Assualt
Rifle'" "" "default"

bind "KP_PGUP" "clientTeam GDF; ClientClass Engineer 0; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Engineer with Assualt
Rifle'" "" "default"

bind "KP_NUMLOCK" "clientTeam GDF; ClientClass FieldOps 0; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Field Ops with
Assualt Rifle'" "" "default"
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bind "KP_STAR" "clientTeam GDF; ClientClass CovertOps 0; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Covert with Scoped
Assualt Rifle'" "" "default"

bind "KP_MINUS" "clientTeam GDF; ClientClass CovertOps 1; addchatline '^7>^d>^7> Covert with Sniper
Rifle'" "" "default"

Just replace the “KP_” values to whatever keys are comfortable for you to remember.
There are less complicated ones that work just in pro mod, but mine also works in public
so I don‟t get confused with different binds. My class script also tells me what class and
weapon I am spawning with. Change the numbers to alter the colour code of the text.

Weapon Switching – You will often notice the small

selection menu on the right hand side of the screen
which tells you which weapon to select:

By having reliable binds to each of these items you can

disable this menu to reduce clutter/distractions and
decrease the time it takes to switch to the right
weapon.

g_weaponswitchtimeout “1.5” default – set to 0 to

disable.

Weapon slots I think are necessary to bind:

Pistol/blaster – Bind “Mouse3” “_Weapon1”

Main weapon – Bind “Mouse4” “_Weapon2”

Tools (e.g. Defibs) – Bind “Mouse5” “_weapon4”

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Knife – Bind “1” “_weapon0”

Grenades – Bind “4”_weapon3”

These are my personal binds to where I think they

should be bound, but change it to fit whatever is
comfortable and easy to remember for yourself.

I also like to use the scroll wheel to select items. For

stroyent cells/med packs I can switch to defibs then
scroll up for example. I hate to say it but “The
possibilities are endless” with bindings.

Additional useful toggles & binds

Sensitivity – If you prefer to have a lower sensitivity

when sniping and then higher for normal weapons you
can create an easy toggle to alternate between the
two: Bind “x” “toggle sensitivity 1.5 3” change the x for
the key and the values to your own sensitivity.

Brightness – Maps such as Salvage need very low

levels of brightness while normal maps are better with
a slightly higher brightness. Create a toggle or
separate binds to get the right brightness for each
map. It is vital that you can see your opponent first, so
higher levels of brightness are recommended.
bind "F8" "set r_gamma 1.0 ; set r_brightness 1.0; addchatline '^1Low ^7Brightness'" "" "default"

bind "F9" "set r_gamma 1.6 ; set r_brightness 1.1; addchatline '^1Medium ^7Brightness'" "" "default"

bind "F10" "set r_gamma 1.7 ; set r_brightness 1.6; addchatline '^1High ^7Brightness'" "" "default"
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Spawn selection – Choosing the right base to spawn at.

It is good to always alternate the different pathways
you choose to take to get to the objective; as it will
spread out the opponent‟s players and you will not be
predictable. Also choosing the right spawn is an
important choice for example on salvage last objective.
You want to defend the spawn points, so you want to
spawn to the closest base to where you want to get to.
bind "x" "clientDefaultSpawn ; addChatLine '^?S^9pawning ^?F^9rontline'" "" "default"

bind "x" "setspawnpoint base ; addChatLine '^?S^9pawning ^?B^9ase'" "" "default"

Crosshair Toggles – Different crosshairs are better

for different weapons, personally I keep my crosshair
the same with every weapon but you can toggle your
crosshair depending on what weapon you are using if it
makes a difference to your aim. Just change x and the
pin_ value to get the crosshair you want:
bind "x" "toggle gui_crosshairkey pin_01 pin_02 pin_03" "" "default"

Show Gun Toggles – Toggle whether or not you want

the weapon model to be shown. I have played with it
on and off and it‟s all a matter of personal preference, I
would advise trying both and then making a decision
but I cannot say 1 is better than the other.
bind "x" "toggle ui_showgun" "" "default"

Note: in pro mod use “toggle ec_showeaponmodel” as showgun does not work.

Vehicle Camera – When driving vehicles I would

strongly advise disabling cockpits & having a bind to
switch to 3rd person view, that way you can be aware
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of your surroundings and see people that are coming

towards you from behind. However when switching to a
minigun for example you can stay in 3rd person but for
more precise aiming go back to 1st person and
alternate.
bind "x" "_vehicleCamera" "" "default"

Lastly this is an ETQW Pro mod bind only where you

can show your current in game stats; it appears
directly at the top of your screen in the middle.

Bind “x” “_stats” – change x to any key you prefer

Generally there are hundreds of toggles/binds you can

create. Just make up your own to suit your specific
needs. But make sure they are easy to remember and
easy to access, because too many binds make you stop
and think about which key you need to press which is
not the purpose of a bind to slow you down.
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The most important rule about Movement is: NEVER

stand still. Even if you think you are in cover and no-
one can see you, you never know what crazy angle
some sniper has that can hit the very top of your head,
so never stand still. Even when reviving / planting /
hacking move side to side to put players off combined
with stroy up and you will be surprised how long you
can last.

Movement in a 1v1 fight – At long range with AR/Lac

you have a couple of choices:

1. Hold crouch down and slightly move left and

right which focus‟s fully on your aim but does
leave you vulnerable to headshots.
2. Combine crouching + left/right strafing for
slightly less accuracy but better dodging.
3. Circle strafing which is where you use the WASD
+ sprint keys in an order to describe the motion
of a circle while shooting.

I would not advise jumping at long distances unless

you have very low sensitivity and can hold your
crosshair on them all the time and you are in pro mod
with very little spread. Jumping in Public increases the
weapon spread, giving you bad accuracy over distance.
Use whatever comes naturally and is effective for you,
because at the end of the day it comes down to how
quickly you can kill your enemy.
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Movements at close range – There are many

different scenarios so it is impossible to list every
movement every time for each situation, but here are a
few:

1. You can do circle strafing, where you move

clockwise/anti-clockwise while shooting
incorporating the odd crouch every now and
then.

2. Circle strafing with a charge. You start with a

circle strafe and then mid-way through the fight
you sprint towards/around the player catching
them by surprise. I would advise using a higher
sensitivity for this tactic so you can keep your
crosshair on them. It is very effective against
low sensitivity players who cannot turn quickly
enough but you suffer at long distances
controlling a higher sensitivity.

3. Crouching/jumping – this is where you

incorporate jumping and landing into a crouch
position or jumping and crouching in mid-air,
which makes it difficult for enemies to hit your
head as you are constantly at different levels.
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There are no specific movements that are better than

others; it‟s all about using your environment around
you for cover/movement ideas. So if you have stairs
next to you, use them. It‟s very hard to track players
moving in a diagonal direction. Good movement is vital
to taking down players and surviving. Generally
speaking if you have the high ground you have a much
bigger advantage shooting down on your opponent, so
make sure you fight in places where you know the
advantages and make the most out of your
surroundings.

These hills on salvage when defending the mining laser

can be very effective as they provide cover and height
advantages giving you easier kills over your opponent.

Leaning – In ETQW pro mod leaning is disabled.

However in normal public leaning is a very valid tactic
which you can use when shooting from doorways to
reveal the smallest part of your head to your opponent.

Everyone has off days with their aim and more often
than not it is due to poor movement. When you are
shooting well you develop a fast motion / rhythm to
your movement that you repeat in fire fights.
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Sensitivity – Finding the right sensitivity takes time and

a lot of tweaking. To this day I am still tweaking my
sensitivity, I have tried very low, medium and high
sensitivity but to be honest it is all a matter of personal
preference and how much you like to move your
wrist/arm. Depending on your style of movement you
should pick a sensitivity that suites it.

High Sensitivity – Gives you an advantage at close

range, using small twitching movements but be careful
not to “overaim”. Works well with the “Circle & Charge”
strafe. Disadvantages are over long range distances,
holding your crosshair constantly over the enemy is
difficult as it keeps twitching with every tiny
movement. You usually get lower accuracy with high
sensitivity until you have mastered controlling it.

Medium Sensitivity – This is in-between high and low

sensitivity, I would advise beginning with this
sensitivity as you can get a feel for the game much
easier. Then once you have found your strafe style you
can alter your sensitivity to benefit it even more for
higher accuracy.

Low Sensitivity – Very effective at all distances, usually

gaining high overall accuracy. Med/High sense players
are more likely to survive from ambushes and reacting
quicker to players behind you though. You need a large
mouse mat + using your arm to turn around. Usually
chosen by snipers so they can get a precise shot off,
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however it can be hard to do close range sniping with

low sensitivity as you often need small reflex twitches.

Generally you should find a sensitivity that you perform

well with and stick to it. I often change my sensitivity if
I‟m playing bad which is a bad habit and I should really
just take a break or re-think about my movement.

Also choosing a gaming mouse affects your sensitivity,

as new technology is being released in mice every
month. With your mouse you want the highest Polling
rate for the fastest response time and to disable Mouse
Acceleration also it is advised to go for high DPI for
more precision with tracking however tweak about with
your driver settings to find the right settings for you.

An example of my Razer Deathadder driver settings:

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Yaw/Pitch – These two cvars change the horizontal

and vertical sensitivity. I would advise having these set
to default and just learning to aim by changing
sensitivity. However many players do like to change
their pitch setting so they are less likely to move off
the head level in 1v1 fights. However as I like to play
sniper I found it frustrating moving vertically while
trying to snipe players in an Icarus, so I like it at
default:

m_pitch “0.022” Default value

m_yaw “0.022” Default value

General Aim – Now I don‟t think I need to say “aim for

the head” as it is pretty clear that you want to get 4
headshots in a fight to do the most damage.

Joining the right servers – If you want to improve your

aim and overall ability you need to be playing against
the best players in the game. This is why you would
choose to play on ETQW Pro Pub or on servers where
there are a lot of experienced players. It is more of a
challenge getting most kills on a server full of
experienced players than owning some low skilled
beginner players. You may become more confident
beating lower skilled players but you will never
progress to be the best if you don‟t compete against
the best.
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Confidence – Believe it or not, it does make a huge

difference if you have the confidence within yourself to
beat other players. This is something I realised recently
playing with a friend of mine. If you are full of
confidence you can begin to attempt near impossible
situations and still come out the other side alive.

But with the right rhythm of movement, a consistent

aim and confidence about your ability you should be
looking to get accuracy at the end of the game above
40% with the AR/Lac and 70% with the snipers. I don‟t
mean just shoot a deployable for high accuracy; I
mean trying to get most kills with scores above 50 on a
server should be your main priority in your mind. The
more people you kill, the fewer opponents there will be
attacking/defending which make it easier for the rest of
your team to win. You also get top of the score board
while dominating the other team without realising:
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Now there are so many key positions for each map that
I can‟t cover every single one but I will try to cover a
couple of main positions and tactics that help

Corridors – these are large death traps for anyone who

walks along one. When crossing narrow corridors you
need to make sure you will not get ambushed while
part way along it. These corridors restrict your
movement to an almost stationary target making it
very easy to pick off targets. Also if you have
teammates that are behind you in the corridor it ends
up with them shooting you in the back and then dyeing
after they have team killed you as they cannot shoot
past you or move.
Narrow Corridors restrict
Movement from side to side.

Retreating around corners – Corners are very useful

when you are in trouble. If you are being chased and
you are trying to retreat, you can either drop a timed
grenade that will explode by the time they reach it, or
they will see it and back off giving you time to heal up.

My favourite is crouching around a corner that you

know an enemy is coming around. You can hold your
crosshair at head level and surprise/ambush them with
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4 headshots as you know the path they are about to

take. You almost predict where they will move.

Avoiding Mines – When you see a mine your first

reaction should be “is there a way I can set this mine
off without using any nades or taking any damage?”

9 times out of 10 the answer is yes.

Here is a video I made especially to explain how to

avoid mines as it is much easier to watch and replicate
rather than reading written instructions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpOq9OEEM5c

Controlling choke points on each map – In every map

there are always main choke points where the majority
of 1 team passes through to get somewhere. So if you
can control that point it makes it very difficult for the
opposition to proceed. For example in the map volcano,
a very common path for people to go down is through
the Forward Bunker Entrance:

From GDF‟s Viewpoint From Strogg‟s Viewpoint

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This entrance acts like a funnel where a large amount

of players congregate down a narrow area offering a lot
of crossfire for easy kills for the GDF.

Taking alternate routes – Lets carry on with the

example above from a strogg perspective. Your enemy
predicts every spawn wave that your team is going to
pass through that same point every time. They can
predict it and counter you every time. Whereas if you
take the seawall or east route you can flank them and
come from behind with the element of surprise as you
already know where they are going to be positioned
and assassinate them. Or you can be stealthy and
capture spawn points if un-noticed then go for the kills.

Data Disc Transmitting – The last objective on the map

island. Some common tactics are simply running up the
left hand side onto the hill and slowly eliminating
enemies until it is clear. You could take a Trojan up to
the transmission room, clear the area out and block the
doorway while transmitting. Now these are 2 very
common tactics so you will want to mix it up every now
and then. Why not take the boat way, however do not
get into the boat; just carry on running… this is an
effective way to flanking your opponent, however just
avoid running into the strogg spawn waves…
 27

Capturing Spawn Points – If an enemy has a spawn

point you should try your best as a team to hold them
off for as long as possible. For example in sewer after
the first objective is complete the GDF need to capture
their spawn. If you set up a high defence you can make
it very difficult and time consuming for the enemy to
capture it. Some key positions to defending that spawn
are:

Why these four positions are very effective:

1. They all have objects which you can use as

cover to heal up when low on hp.
2. The top places give you a height advantage and
reveal a small amount of your body to the
enemy.
 28

3. The bottom places offer great crossfire and also

can cover any sneaky ninja‟s trying to get to the
spawn/objective
4. You hold and cover a straight line across the
map not allowing anyone to flank and attack
from behind.

However you need to be aware of snipers up in the hills

which are used as a common counter to players
guarding this spawn:

Capturing Spawn Points while attacking – When

capturing spawn points you want to make sure your
team can hold them straight away after you have
captured them. The easiest way is to time when you
are capturing, with the respawn timer so they both
 29

match up at 0. This way your team can do a full

respawn and defend the point straight away.

Time taken to capture the spawn point from 0 to 100%

takes approx. 5 seconds on your own. So bare this in
mind when capturing, to make sure the enemy does
not have enough time to recapture while you are
waiting to spawn.

Key Positioning - After playing a couple of rounds of

ETQW Pro pub you will realise and learn the most
effective positions used at the moment, as they will
most often than not repeatedly kill you. What you
should do is learn as much as you can about what your
enemy is doing and replicate it when you swap teams,
also take alternate routes, flank them and expose a
weakness in their position which will make them find a
new position that isn‟t as effective.
 30

Cooking Grenades – Grenades are an easy way to rack

up a lot of kills without needing to be better than the
other player. You just need the right timing and to be
able to measure the distance of your throw with the
timer.
This is the timer that makes a full circle in a clockwise direction. The grenade explodes
when the circle is complete.

An example of successful nade timings and kills can be

seen at points in my frag vid here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSPfkjwdkQ

See times at: 0.06, 0.54, 1.24, 1.46 & 2.11

Although you cannot see the nade timer due to my

movie config, you can understand the impact nades
have on stopping team pushes and making nice kill
streaks.

Strafe Jumping – When running anywhere you should

always be sprinting and strafe jumping to get to places
in the quickest time possible. To strafe jump you
should be sprinting forward and jumping in a repetitive
rhythm. Here is a fantastic vid made for
ETQW4Newbies Guide that you should watch for the
basic strafe jumping technique:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK08oP111Ak
 31

Gibbing key enemies – “Gibbing” is the term you give

to when you kill your opponent and then make sure
he/she cannot be revived.

This is a key tactic especially during a 4v4 game but

just as important in 5v5 and 6v6. You should always
gib your opponents in these sized games otherwise
they will quickly be revived by their teammates making
your kill on them almost irrelevant.

However times when you should go for the gib over

trying to kill more is when you have taken down an
Engineer for example on a construct objective. If the
enemies come rushing in after you kill the objective
man then make sure you gib him before you attempt to
attack any of them. As 90% of the time they will have
the rest of their team as medic ready to revive as soon
as they can. Without their objective man they cannot
progress.

Then a key tactic is to ignore the objective and try to

kill the objective man as he spawns while his team
defends the objective for him. This will stop them
progressing and will cause the other team to retreat
back to the spawn to protect their objective man.

Sniping Tips – I would advise using medium/low

sensitivity for long range sniping as it is much easier to
hold your crosshair over them for a quick headshot.
 32

The main tip I can give you is and

never stay in the same place after killing an enemy
sniper unless he has no idea where you were.

When I say don‟t stand still, I don‟t mean you should

jump and crouch like crazy, I just mean you should
move left and right and vary your strafe pattern so any
snipers trying to kill you will not have an easy job. Also
it is fine to hold crouch down to steady your aim for a
couple of seconds however you should not be in scope
all of the time. It should take about a second for you to
find your target, track him and get a shot off.

As a sniper your job is to take out the enemy sniper,

take out any players in awkward positions such as a
technician on the roof of a building & to stop the
enemies reviving/making spawn hosts. (Also put down
a radar in public)

Positioning yourself as a sniper – The best places are

often mid-range, so I strongly advise not finding the
biggest hill and proning on it, as you are too far away
to kill with 1 headshot + prone makes it easy for other
snipers to get a headshot on you as you are not
moving and they can see your head clearly. As a sniper
you should be using your environment to give you
cover from the enemy, bushes and trees are great
examples of useful cover.
 33

Close Combat Sniping – This is where you bring the

sniper rifle/railgun into close ranges for a quick
body/headshot and then finish off with the
blaster/pistol for a very quick kill. This is the most
difficult way to snipe however once you learn the
technique it becomes a rhythm to you, where every
shot hits.

No scoping – this is when you shoot with the

railgun/sniper rifle when you are not scoped in. I don‟t
use this very often, however some players when in
knifing range from their opponent use it as it will not
miss from a very close distance.

Quick Scoping – This is the technique you use when

playing as a close combat sniper. There are 2
techniques you can use, the first 1 applies to both
however it is more effective with the railgun. Whereas
the 2nd technique is only useful with the sniper rifle, as
you cannot change to pistol after being in scope the
same way as you can with the railgun.

Here is a tutorial I have made demonstrating the

technique behind close combat sniping… demonstrated
by Apoc edited by me :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgqWSO-vAK0

Here is a video I made showing the use of the Sniper

Rifle/Railgun at all ranges in vanilla and pro mod:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKZJW5C5rDE
 34

Obliterator/Rocket Launcher Role – in 6v6 clan wars it

is vital to have 1 player as the RL/Obliterator on
outdoor objectives where vehicles and turrets play a
big part in tactics such as Sewer first phase attacking
and defending. In public many people get called
“noobs” for using the RL/Oblit as they think it requires
no skill. 9 times out of 10 the player is a beginner not
using the class‟s full potential on public.

Primary Targets – As a rocket soldier your job is to

damage any vehicles such as the: Icarus, Tank,
Cyclops, Desecrator, Hogs, Trojans etc. Mainly you
should be pressuring the Cyclops/Tank as these are the
main threats to your team. Also your job is to disable
deployables so the rest of your team can progress such
as the AIT so your team can use plasma mortars for
easy kills. By “disable” I do not mean destroy the turret
as this takes up useful ammo and wastes time, you
just need to make sure it is disabled. These are your
main priorities when defending; you can also go for
infantry kills if you have destroyed/disabled the main
priorities above.

However when attacking; your priorities are slightly

different to begin with. You should generally stick with
your tanker (the guy who plays the heavy vehicles
role). Just stay within a reasonable distance to him and
your main job is to protect the tanker from shielded
hogs and flying icarus‟s that are coming to disable the
tank. If your tanker is with the Cyclops then your job is
not so hard, you should just pressure the Trojan and
enemy tank & go for any aggressor objectives.
 35

Taking down disabler‟s – Generally the opponent will

only be an infiltrator in an Icarus flying over to disable
your team‟s tank. So you should use the “lock on”
feature for Icarus unless it is close to you in which you
can fire at the ground without lock on and the splash
damage will destroy it.

Taking down Shielded Hogs – Shielded hogs require 2

shots, 1 to hit the shields, and 1 to hit the hog. So this
is why you should stick to the tanker as he will likely
get 1 shot off which will remove the shields however
the hog will still be able to destroy his tank unless you
get the 2nd hit. Shielded hogs will usually have the
shields placed like this:

As you can see head-on the hog has very strong

protection, and the shields also stop you from “locking
on” however the sides/back end of the hog is very
vulnerable which is where you should be aiming to kill
the hog in 1 shot. If you can stop the hog from
reaching your tanker then you know you are doing a
very good job! However the skill behind the RL/Oblit is
having the right positioning and being able to hit the
moving hog without locking-on and killing it in 1 shot.
However you want to at least remove the shields from
the hog so the tanker has a clear shot at destroying it
as a minimum.
 36

Learning to Fire without locking on – By not locking-on

with your weapon it makes it very difficult for the
enemy to know where you are and when you are going
to hit him. Also it means they have no chance of using
decoys to avoid it.

However the Rocket Launcher and Obliterator do not

fire in straight lines over all distances. They have an
arc to them. If you want to be the most effective RL
there is then you need to learn this arc.

The obliterator has a bigger arc over distance which

means when aiming you need to aim quite a bit above
your target so the by the time it reaches them it will
have dropped down to hit them. The Rocket Launcher
also has an arc but it is slightly straighter. You will
need to test these arc‟s out for yourself so you know
how high you need to aim above your target depending
on the distance and weapon you are using.

Effective Positions – This is up to you to find out as it

depends on where your opponents are to where you
should stand, but the best places are on rooftops which
provide cover and you can see far distances as well as
just moving around on the ground searching for each
target.

Here is a short 2 minute video I made demonstrating

10 quick tips you should know, that I have tried to
explain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q16hq2-
11L4
 37

Knowing your enemies Spawn Times – This is

something I learnt very recently that can be very
useful. This only applies to ETQW Pro mod however.

When attacking or defending you should be calling out

when the enemy spawns and it is usually a good idea
to try and spawn camp them with a well-timed grenade
however you need to know when they spawn and
without radar it can be very difficult. You can try to
listen out for footsteps etc. This is what I used to do for
a long time until I discovered this command:

ec_drawtime “1”

This draws an extra box between the timer and the

objective status bar:

Ec_drawtime “1” ec_drawtime “0”

However so far this just draws your current time in

your location which is useful if you are late for work but
doesn‟t tell you the enemy spawn times in game.

Now you need to add some binds for certain times:

 38

bind "x" "timerset 25" "" "default"

bind "x" "timerset 20" "" "default"

bind "x" "timerset 15" "" "default"

bind "x" "timerset 30" "" "default"

Replace the “x” to whatever key you would like and

also you can replace the digit after the „timerset‟ to the
spawn time shown that you need. Now when pressing
one of the binds above it will display a separate timer:

If you synchronize the time you set with

the enemy spawns it is easy to prepare
for them as you know when they are
coming. However as spawn times vary
with each objective you will need to go
through each map and record the exact
spawn times for each objective and
record it somewhere that is easy to
find/read when in game.

When you complete an objective you will need to

change the timer to the next objectives time when the
enemy next spawns otherwise it will display pointless
info.

This timer is very useful as you know if your opponent

now has a 30sec or 1 sec wait; it is also useful for
capturing spawns; so once you capture it they don‟t all
spawn on top of you!

However not all servers allow this so don‟t rely on it.

 39

This topic is more to do with competition rather than

public play.

As a team you should all have a working microphone

with the right volume/settings to hear everyone clearly.
Last thing you need is bad sound quality giving you the
wrong directions to where your opponent is.

Commonly used voip programmes used by teams are

Ventrilo, Teamspeak and Mumble, just Google them to
find a download link.

You should have it set to “Push to Talk” so players can

hear only what you choose to say, but also so you
don‟t have background noises being transmitted all the
time. Bind this push to talk in the programme to an
easy to access key as you should be speaking with your
teammates as often as you can.

Things you should be telling your teammates:

When the opponent spawns

How many players spawned?

Which direction are they running towards?

If they have a sniper or a player in an awkward place

If they have someone going towards an objective

Generally anyone you see you should be telling your

teammates and creating an audio radar for them as
 40

radars are disabled in ETQW pro mod. A good habit to

get into is ticking players off a list, so if someone calls
out for someone on the left side and you take him out.
Tell your teammates he‟s down. Then they won‟t have
to check for themselves.

When talking be as precise as you can to players

locations, what class they are, how much hp they have
and what they are doing.

When we had Pokemans from 4kings mercing for my

team I learnt so much from just listening to his
descriptions of players locations etc. You knew exactly
if someone was heading your way and it gives you a
massive advantage in fire fights if you are already
prepared and aware of them.

Again I merc‟d for a team called r3volta and before the

match they were telling me the names of all the
buildings that they use so we all understood each other
such as “Garage” or “1st floor of the Office” etc. Create
whatever names you wish so long as your entire team
knows what you mean and they make sense.

Even when you are dead you can still be useful to your
team by describing players only you can see.

A huge part of success for teams is down to precise,

fast communication amongst players so they can react
to any situations thrown at them and it takes time to
learn this skill so it becomes pure instinct, you
shouldn‟t have to think about what you are saying.
 41

ETQW Pro pub servers are shown when changing the

server filter settings:

It is often hard to find these servers active in the

mornings (depends on your time zone – I am from the
UK) but mid-afternoon/evenings you can usually get at
least a 4v4 going. After playing a couple of times on a
server it is usually helpful to add friendly players and
get to know them, you can then see how many people
are online and begin to start a server up.

You should already know the differences between

ETQW Pro Mod and Normal Public but in case you don‟t
check hannes site (the creator of ETQW Pro):
http://myhannes.info/wiki/index.php/About

Now the format is Stopwatch in pro pub, which means

you play a map twice, once as strogg and once as GDF.
Whatever time the first attacking team sets, the other
team has to beat it to win. However players prefer
 42

to hold off on the last objective and go for kills rather

than the objective so they can play for the full 20
minutes. So bare in mind if you first join a server and
you decide to go for all the objectives, if people are
shouting “noob” etc while you are doing the final
objective I would advise you stop and have fun
fragging, otherwise it is likely they will start a kick vote
on you. This does not make you popular in the future.

Also player‟s vote for which map they want to play,

there is no set campaign or map rotation, you just play
whatever the majority of people vote for.

The right time to join – If there is already a 4v4 going

on, on the server then you should wait until another
player leaves or joins the server to make sure there
are always even teams. As an extra player in promod
makes a big difference to the balance compared to
public with low team numbers however if teams are
above 6 players then it is usually fine to jump in.
Easiest thing to do is just ask if you can join.

Key console commands you should know:

Typing “Unlock” lets other players join your team.

Typing “Lock” stops other players joining your team.

Typing “Readyteam” ready‟s the rest of your team to

start the map.

Typing “Speclock” stops spectators from watching you

 43

Typing “Specunlock” lets spectators spec you.

Typing “SpecInvite” lets players you choose be able to

watch your team play.

Typing “Specuninvite” stops these chosen players from

being able to watch your team.

Classes you should play – When defending the most

common team build is everyone going medic, with 1
sniper to take out their sniper if they have 1. If an
enemy plants on an objective usually 1 medic makes
the effort to change to engineer and disarm or they
ignore the objective and carry on defending the next
objective. I wouldn‟t advise playing Soldier/Engi/Field
Ops as 95% of the time there are 4v4 rules which
restrict heavy weapons, mines, deployables and
airstrikes which make these classes pretty useless.
However if 6v6 rules are enabled these classes become
more valid to play.

When attacking you have a full team of medics, except

for one person goes objective class and sometimes if
you have an experienced sniper they start off as
sniper. There is no need to go objective class if you
already have one person playing it. The main way to
secure objectives is to have the medics clear out the
entire area, remove spawn hosts then stop the enemy
approaching while the objective man/girl proceeds. On
the odd occasion you can have more than 1 player
objective class if you are going to lemming it towards
 44

an objective that is 99% finished just to get the final

touch such as hack and construct objectives.

Playing as a Medic – Your job as a medic is to capture

spawn points, setup supply crates in useful positions
which does not mean right outside your spawn unless
you are about to go indoors. You also should remove
spawn hosts / create spawn hosts, and of course revive
your teammates. The main focus though is killing the
opposing team. In ETQW Pro Pub you get a lot of
“Rambo” style players who will more often than not go
for the kill than revive instead of the other way round.
It does not matter too much in public however during a
competitive match it is vital to revive teammates with
the defibs before going for the kill. However if using the
stroyent tool you should make sure it is safe before
proceeding to revive your teammate. If you know a
sniper is covering the dead body then leave it as he will
very likely just add your body to his collection.

Finding a team – the more you play ETQW Pro pub the
more likely you are to finding a competitive clan, as
they can play against you to see your skill level. Also
you standout on a pro pub whereas in Public you are
looked at as another average player that might have
just got lucky.

MIRC – this is a live chat programme where pro players

could congregate and communicate/setup matches and
organise gather games. However since the competitive
 45

community size has declined there are next to no

gathers anymore which is a great shame, as you could
learn a lot from playing in fun 4v4‟s.

The popular channels used to be:

#etqw.gather

#splashdamage

Now I would advise using MIRC if you wanted to

contact for example the BiAtch clan to organise a fun
war: #biatch.etqw @quakenet

Or if you entered a cup and you would like to contact

the admin, it is easy by joining the cups channel e.g.

#thelastresort – (for Seanza‟s 5v5 Cup)

Here is a link to Seanza‟s perfect guide to setting up

MIRC.

There are mostly fun wars now that go on, which don‟t
mean anything so you shouldn‟t take it very seriously if
you win or lose. However the harder you try the more
fun it becomes for everyone.

Game Formats – There is only one type of game played

competitively which is Stopwatch Mode. This is where
one team attacks and the other defends. The time limit
is 20 minutes for the 1st attacking team once the
attacking team has set a time you swap sides and the
other now attacking team has to beat the opposing
 46

teams time in order to win the map. You play 2 maps

where you choose one map and your opposition

chooses one map. If it goes down to a tie breaker you

play a 3rd map that you can both agree on.

Team Size – In Europe you used to have 4v4 leagues

and 6v6 leagues. I‟m not entirely sure but I think in
North America they played 5v5 as well.

In 4v4 matches a lot of things are disabled such as

vehicles, heavy weapons, deployables, mines,
airstrikes, artillery which reduces the spam, and
completely focuses on tactics and fragging ability.

In 6v6 matches you are allowed 1 heavy vehicle (tank),

1 medium size vehicle (Trojan), 1 type of each
deployable, mines, airstrikes, 2 players with heavy

weapons and probably a lot more that aren‟t so obvious

that come to mind.

But basically 6v6 is more like normal public except

there is less random spam, no flying vehicles and more
concentrated tactics. A team can rely more on vehicles,
mines and heavy weapons for kills rather than AR/Lac
skills.

When playing in a competitive match you should sort

out tactics so everyone knows what class they should
be and what they are trying to achieve as that class. It
may be infiltrator and you are taking an Icarus to
disable the tank. Or Engineer to setup a deployable and
 47

mines to keep enemies out of a certain area. But just

focus on your own job and make sure you don‟t do

something that your class is not meant to as enemies

will take advantage of you being out of position.

As a team you should pick a “home” map where you

are confident, have strong tactics and one you usually
win on.

Pre-match Nerves – some people especially when new

to playing competition get anxious and they make
common mistakes from not thinking properly. I have
never really experienced this but all I can advise is that
over time the more experience you gain the less
nervous you will become. Also have a drink of water as
it is good to be well hydrated for improved
concentration levels leading to a better performance.

Join Custom Map Servers – This is a very good way to

progress from public into pro mod and then into
competition. There is only one active server which is
the Custom Map NIRVANA Server:
http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/showthread.ph
p?t=20209

Here you can find many players that usually play on

public so you should not find yourself too far out of
your own depth skill wise. It‟s exactly the same laid
back style as public, nothing serious, just 100% fun,
while at the same time you get to play new maps and
learn to play with pro mod.
 48

Frag Movies – They may seem like a way for good

players to show off but they are also a very good way
to learn new places, tactics and shooting styles at the
same time. Take 4kings frag movie as an example,
there are many places there such as the tank on the
hill in ark, that were not used at all until players
watched this movie. Now it has become compulsory to
use the tank on that hill. Same with deployable/mine
spots as well.

Steep gradient of the hill makes it

near impossible for hogs to reach
and hit you with speed. And you
have the height advantage.

Artillery Interceptor Turret behind

the house for protection for the
tank while it is unseen to the
enemy.
 49

Watch closely the type of movement they are making,

and how they are using their environment. If you
watch a movie over and over again it doesn‟t make you
a fan boy it just means you want to learn from them.

Useful videos I think you should learn from:

http://www.own3d.tv/video/10425/Mamut.si_-
_Extinction - Good mix of top quality fragging + some
useful vehicle tactics. (Shields on hogs)

http://www.own3d.tv/video/11155/4Kings_-
_7_of_a_Kind_by_rglaf - again top quality frags with
very useful vehicle/deployable ideas.

http://www.own3d.tv/video/10416/Nkm_Railbitch - If
you want to become a good sniper, you should take
ideas on positioning/technique etc. As there aren‟t
many better than this guy.

http://www.own3d.tv/video/15099/Out_of_control -
this is a more recent vid (in the last year or so) and
you can get an idea of the kind of strafing these
players use.

There are many more top quality vids on own3d.tv site

as well as searching YouTube.
 50

Trick jumping – There are a couple of trickjumps you

should always be able to pull off when playing in ETQW
and here is a fantastic vid from Murka with some key
trick jumps all players should know and use to flank
your enemies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rODuOM3AMQ

However the point of trick jumps are to be quick &

unnoticeable to your enemy; so there is no point trying
a particular jump if it is taking you more than 2
attempts at it. They will have discovered you by then.
So practice offline and then integrate them into your
game play against others.

This is also a great map for practicing trick jumps:

http://www.mediafire.com/?co38r16g0nces04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r9-
7pNi0W8&feature=search

Demo‟s – there used to be a strong competitive

community where in leagues/cups players had to
publish their demos. You could watch and learn from
them. However since the promod updates and a decline
in the community; it is hard to find useful demo‟s but
you can go over your own and learn from your
mistakes.
 51

Any constructive feedback is welcome 

Contact me at: Silent_Samurai@hotmail.co.uk

IGN: Samurai. (with the dot)

Splash Damage Forums: r3fleX

OCB/sGs site: sGs.Samurai

http://www.sgs-gaming.com/

Distribution: Feel free to post this on your clans

websites as I would like it to be read by as many
players as possible, however please do not attempt to
claim this work as your own is all I ask.

Special Thanks to:

Lemmiwinks for encouraging me to create this guide &

adding additional tips / comments and proof reading.

ZernoK & Aijp for additional ideas.

Murka & Kriterium & DarkAngel for saving me time by

making great ETQW tutorials.

Apoc (my brother) for introducing/teaching me ETQW.

My clans a.Toon/sGs for my promod experience.

Seanza for organising fantastic cups and for the very

detailed MIRC Guide!

I hope you have learnt something, see you in Pro Pub!