EPTAs one of two players not from North America I partook in the Deathmatch '95 tournament. To get there, I had won one of eight regional tournaments in The United Kingdom, then the grand finals (held in London), where the eight regional winners met to duke it out. The main tournament organiser was undisputedly a top 3 player from the UK scene at the time, and was also allowed to enter into Deathmatch '95 as a player. On to the event itself:
There were about twenty (possibly a bracket-ideal 16, but I'm not sure on the exact figure) of us that were entered into the tourney. We had all been given bright white stylised jumpers that marked us out as contestants before meeting up in a large lounge for a briefing, early in the morning that day. To further describe the surroundings beyond the tall roof, tables of refreshments, hangers-on and organisers that milled about, the demographic was largely caucasian males in their late teens & early twenties, sat around in an open eccliptic circle of chairs with a semi-shambles of rows behind these for whoever decided to pull up a chair to engage in the conversations. One guy was representing Canada I believe, 3-4 were of Asian complexion and a single representative was African American - the tallest figure in the room. Other than myself (Sverre Kvernmo, aka Cranium at the time), I could only name Paradox (Tom Mustaine), Macca (David McCandless), Thresh, Doomdude and Merlock, after all these years. One of the topics of discussion in the player group was the fact that already legendary and supposed true #1 Noskill didn't enter into the (US-side DWANGO based) tournament, as well as the rumour that John Romero would after the final match rise out of a pillar in the scene floor to challenge the winner. He was a pretty mythical figure at this point in time, needless to say. Everyone kinda knew it was the start of something bigger, multiplayer wise. Everyone had brought their own mouse and mousemats for the event, some had a quarter in their pocket to wedge the keyboard's run-button to always be activated, freeing a finger.
I played my first match against Doomdude, one of the pronounced favorites from the US side, from what I was told by the parts of the player group I had interacted with up until that point. After each of us picking an individual map to play on (I think we both chose Doom II Map 01, at least I did) we at this stage played one (two?) matches of first to twenty frags, rather than the 10-minute limit mentioned by the article author. And yes, it was a single elimination tourney. From a player's perspective, the setup for the match was absolutely perfect. We were each sat alone in our own dimly top-lit, sound-proof room, facing each other seperated by a large glass window. My concentration was on top and I edged Doomdude out in a close, but not hairsbreadth match. Post-game, handshakes and style compliments were exchanged between the two of us, though Doomdude seemed quietly dissappointed to be eliminated so early.
After the first match the contestants were a lot more spread out over several rooms, and those still in it were confined from entering onto the main floor (where one might have experienced the haunted house built for the event & checked out the ongoing GWAR concert, etc). This to ensure we were on call when it was time to face off (remember – no one had cell phones). At this stage, the hours really started dragging on without much follow-up from the organisers on how the tourney was proceeding. I found out Macca got knocked out first round, though I’m today unsure of who he played. I believe Paradox also got knocked out early. It was eventually getting late in the day and it became apparent that the organisers were running low on time to have semi-finalists ready for the big stage and the climax of Judgement Day.
For my next match, we were ushered onto a section of the showroom floor surrounded by black draperies, where dozens if not hundreds of computers had been set up LAN-party style. Most of the people in the area weren't Deathmatch '95 contestants, rather Judgement Day guests checking out new games, etc. The conditions were the polar opposite of the initial match. Noise level was massive, headphones available rinkydink and people traffic close to the available machines, heavy. During some matches, crew members had to hold up large sheets of cardboard to avoid Deathmatch '95 contestants seated behind their adversary being able to peak over at their opponent's screen during the match. The DOS Doom that had brought the contestants this far was ditched in favor of Windows '95, for the remainder of the tournament, throwing out the level of configuration personal mice, mats & coins brought to the contemporary meta's competitive edge. Suddenly there was mouse acceleration to deal with, no true fullscreen and sluggish frames by comparison. It went from being a test of high level DOS Doom skill up to that point, over to who could best adapt to the new environment. Mutually agreeing on a map to play was also out the window, and OP might be right about there being a 10 minute limit per match imposed at this stage. I failed pretty hard at converting my fast «fencing» style over to brute «club bashing» anyway, and was quickly out of the tourney. The dissappointment was only topped by id Software’s Mike Wilson (for the occation in intelligence agent operative costume – complete with a shoulder holster sidearm, white T-shirt & streaked back hair) debunking the rumours of Romero’s eventual appearance.
Next up were the semi-finals, ramping up to conclude the entire Judgement Day event. Everyone were gathered in a massive dark hall with the two biggest projector screens I had seen in my life, kinda felt like being in a supersized cinema with two screens, though it may be more everyday fare these LED days – certainly it was less organised. The now huge spectator crowd was absoluetly bonkers over the matches, rooting cheering, ooh’ing and ahh’ing at every frag – even during the warm-ups when the two contestants were attempting to make 180 flips work reliantly in Win 95. The first semi was supposedly won by a player nicked Stoney, but the second was the defintive highlight of the event – all-round favorite Merlock vs the ultimately triumphant Thresh. Doom II Map 01 was again the setting. After Thresh taking an early sizeable lead, Merlock battled back to tie the score after a massive rocket launcher barrage. The momentum of his comeback was stopped in its tracks by an uncharacteristic own frag, succumbing to his own splash damage on a tight judgement call around one of the map corners (never would have happened in DOS Doom, in my opinion). He never recovered after that, and Thresh took back the incentive with a better armed marine than Merlock’s freshly spawned one, keeping the lead given by Merlock’s negative frag for the remainder of the match. Merlock’s post-game rage fit was indeed pretty epic, he shot out of his seat and drop kicked the aluminum frame chair some distance across the stage (though I’m not sure it quite left it) and I haven’t seen him since.
The Hexen finals was more of a Gimmick for the Windows 95 platform launch and Thresh never had any issues dealing with Stoney, so there wasn’t any true tension even within the reduced format. Hella cool event and a prequel to large scale competitive gaming for sure, but more standing on the shoulders of Microsfot’s Windows-as-a-gameplatform launch event Judgement Day, rather than a complete separate entity or fully worthy "Doom World Championship". A bit rough around the edges, but a day with moment I’ll never forget - even though many of the details around it are now becoming somewhat blurry. I came across this thread searching for TV footage from the event anyhow (there’s one YT clip available but it omits Deathmatch ‘95), and thought I’d add my 2 cents.
