[Editor's note: Have you heard yet? Friday Night Fights is evolving. We're going to have some new tournaments kicking off soon and the first game is going to be Quake Live (which is free to play!). dyslixec, in his infinite wisdom, has given us a guide that should really help you out! Follow "DtoidNiero" on Twitter to find out more about the new FNF. --CTZ]

In order to prepare all of you for your sacrifice and slaughter, I will link you to some very basic guides and give you some simple advice. Quake is not a world of sprinting, pulling up your iron sights, throwing frag grenades, getting strange perks that allow hand grenades to fall out of your ass when you die, or giving you the ability to call in a f*cking helicopter.

No. Quake is Death Match (DM) in its purest form. This is a game of speed, reaction, coordination and strategy. There are some very basic rules to follow with this game.

The Ultimate Quake Live Guide and Config Commands for Quake Live (I will explain this stuff in a second blog later)
 
Rule #1: Don't. Stand. Still

If you know whats good for you, you will understand that this is a game of speed and gaining the upper hand. Camping, sitting in a corner, or walking throughout most of your game time will result in you having so many rockets and lithium slugs (rail gun rounds) shoved up your ass that you will be butt hurt and probably rage quit due to your lack of understanding.

Rule #2: MOVE YOUR ASS AND GET THAT POWER UP!

Like Rule #1 stated, don't stand still, in fact you should be constantly moving about the map, every so often taking a few seconds to move silently so you can hear if your opponent is approaching. Outside of that small stealth moment you should be constantly moving, collecting the power ups, for the love of God you have no idea how important these things are. These will determine your success within a round, and there generally are key ones you want to keep control of in order to control the map, such as the mega health and large armor power ups. These give you a considerable boost to your armor and health. While they count down from 200, they will most definitely give you an advantage of staying alive longer. And if you play your cards right and keep moving through the map, learning the best ways to get to these points and learning how to keep control of these areas will ultimately lead to a better experience for you.

Rule #3 Know how to aim

You have no idea how important this is in Quake when you have weapons like the Rocket Launcher, Lightning Gun, Rail Gun, Plasma Gun and Grenade Launcher. Learning how to master each one of these weapons is key. For instance, knowing how long it takes to switch between each weapon and knowing which ones to use depending on the situation you're in is crucial to your survival. Knowing how well the grenade launcher arcs its grenades, and practicing banking those grenades off of entrances and walls will also give you the upper hand in a situation. Oh and remember one thing, you CAN get hurt by your own weapons, i.e. shooting the plasma gun at the wall while you are up against it will give you damage, same with rockets and their splash damage. There is a benefit to these splash damage effects with these two weapons though. There's rocket jumping of course, but to a player with skill you can climb the walls with the plasma gun or get around certain obstacle's by rocket jump off of walls, etc. But be careful, remember you are trying to survive, so try not to over do the rocket jumping and wall climbing.

Ultimately, it all depends on how good you are with your mouse and keyboard, or whichever device you use to aim. Use a sensitivity that is right for you, I have my mouse sensitivity at 2.5, slow and tight yes, but it allows me to hold more accurate shots with the lightning gun and rail gun. Finding what works for you can take months, so really whatever you feel comfortable with at the time is what you should go with.

Rule #4 Know when and how to jump

Quake is a world of strafe jumping yes, but we are not always jumping. Knowing when to use your jump and strafe jump is also a very important thing to understand in this game. For instance, if you are moving into an area with tight corners and short distanced hallways, you might not want to try and keep a constant strafe jump movement. Otherwise you can send yourself into the wall and delay your movement by several seconds, which those several seconds can determine whether or not you got to that power up, or prevented someone from getting that power up.

Jumping in general isn't used that often, many core players get around with the strafe jump and have thrown the normal jump out all together. However you will still come across some players, including yourself who will do the stupid. For instance, when you are in close quarters battle with another player, and hes got his rocket launcher out against you DO NOT JUMP. You become a much easier target jumping around a room when someones shooting rockets at you, your air control is very limited with a normal jump so it becomes VERY easy to know where you are going to land, thus, by the time you do land back on the ground (which only takes a second to complete a jump) you will have a nice rocket waiting for you to sit on.
If you don't understand what strafe jumping is, refer to here.