The annual DICE Summit is an opportunity for game makers of all stripes to come together to share ideas, talk about new technologies, take part in roundtable discussions—and, for 16 famous developers including Feargus Urquhart, Jeff Kaplan, Randy Pitchford, and Tim Willits, to blow each other to pieces in a one-on-one, winner-take-all Quakeworld tournament.
The single-elimination FaceIt Quake Tournament at DICE will begin with the following matchups:
- Sean Dunn (Sparkypants) vs. Shekhar Dhupelia (Wargaming)
- Feargus Urquhart (Obsidian Entertainment) vs. Patrick Hudson (Robot Entertainment)
- Randy Pitchford (Gearbox Software) vs. Leo Olebe (Facebook)
- Ted Price (Insomniac Games) vs. David Wood (Bandai Namco)
- Min Kim (Bonfire Studios) vs. Sheloman Byrd (Tencent)
- Kate Edwards (IGDA) vs. Tim Willits (id Software)
- Niccolo Maisto (FaceIt) vs. Matt Firor (ZeniMax Online)
- Jeffrey Kaplan (Blizzard) vs. Steve Ellmore (Disbelief)
It's hard not to see Willits as a sentimental favorite, although I don't imagine he's had much to do with Quake (actually, according to ShackNews, the somewhat newer Quakeworld) in recent years. Kaplan is one of the top guys on the biggest competitive shooter currently on the market, which may serve him well. Obsidian is probably my favorite studio in the mix, but I have a feeling Feargus is going to be one-and-done pretty quick. (I'll be happy to be wrong, though.)
The action is set to begin at 10:50 am PT on February 22 and continue through to February 23, with semi-finals, and then the grand final, set to begin at 3:15 pm PT. Bracket and results are available at dice.faceit.com, and you'll be able to watch the action live on the FaceIt Twitch channel.
