By MICHAEL FOREMAN
David Lisle became New Zealand's top-ranking Quake player when he won the final tournament at the Rebirth event held at the Aotea Centre in Auckland.
The Quake 3 tournament was the highlight of Rebirth last weekend, which with more than 800 participants (most of whom slept on the floor
beside their PCs) was the biggest competitive computer games event of its kind in New Zealand.
Mr Lisle, who by day is a part-time support person at Ihug and by night plays Quake under the alias of "Dab18," beat 48 other players to win approximately $3000 worth of computer equipment.
But Mr Lisle may not hang on to his title for long. He is due to play Neal Thompson ("Mirage"), widely regarded as the country's top player, and on his way back from Dallas after an unsuccessful attempt on the world Quake title and a $US40,000 ($78,400) first prize. After a promising start it is understood Mr Thompson had the misfortune to be matched against "Wombat" who is ranked as the US number 3 Quaker.
The rising popularity of computer games such as Quake, which can be played over the internet as well as at "Lans" (local area networks) such as Rebirth is beginning to attract increasing sponsorship - especially from the computer industry.
Mr Thompson's Dallas trip was financed by Ihug director Tim Wood. Rebirth organiser David Kemp said major event sponsors included Paradise.Net, Telecom, GT Interactive and Cisco.
