Shazzik is the host of Beyond Strafe Jumping, a podcast on YouTube where he speaks to the top names in the Quake Champions Pro scene. He is a contributor to the Quake Champions subreddit, a talented video editor and most importantly, a deeply insightful guy with a unique perspective as a journalist and analyst of modern arena first person shooter games.
Shazzik and I got in touch on Twitter back in June because he commented on In The Keep. Obviously, this caught my attention… Why is the biggest name in AFPS interviews commenting on In The Keep? This was obviously a huge stepping stone for our blossoming community. We chatted briefly about some tips he had on YouTube. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Shazzik and I are birds of a feather.
He’s a young dude and as a result, he approaches Quake with a fresh set of eyes. Because he started playing Quake late in life and came from an open perspective, he is genuinely curious about the history of the game. It didn’t take him long to establish himself as a the single most important long-form analyst of the Quake Champions community and an ambassador to new and returning players.
Through his interviews, frag movies and general passion for the games he loves, Shazzik has truly established himself as a pillar of our community, but that’s not even the tip of the iceberg…
Beyond Strafe Jumping
Here I will site a few of my favorite interviews that Shazzik has done and why I find them interesting so that you will understand my enthusiasm.
Makaveli
Few have been more influential on Quake than The Mak. Makaveli was an innovator in the Quake 2 years, is a continual positive force in our community and has been invaluable as an analyst for Quake Champions.
FrothyOmen
Say what you want about Frothy. He taught an entire generation (including myself) how to strafe jump with his excellent and well thought out tutorials on YouTube because he is a saint.
DaHang
What do I need to tell you about DaHang? As an all-time great Quake player, member of Team Liquid and veteran of the sport, DaHang has a wealth of knowledge that every Quake player would die 10,000 deaths to possess.
More of my favorites are mentioned and you can hear them RIGHT HERE:
Timestamps:
03:16 Quake Champions Frag Movies
08:23 Tribes Ascend/Getting into Quake
14:14 Starting Beyond Strafe Jumping
24:28 Favorite Guests/Podcasting
39:10 Motivation/Serving the Community
44:16 Shazzik’s Background/Literature and Language
56:20 Preparing for an Interview/Zoot/Michael Markie
01:05:07 The QC Subreddit
01:23:47 The Future of QC and Arena FPS
01:38:50 Closing Thoughts
Links
Shazzik:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4p3uSM7sPALeUtZ8gekY6A
https://twitter.com/ShazzikQC
https://www.reddit.com/r/QuakeChampions/
The Keep:
http://inthekeep.com/
https://quakefans.net/in-the-keep-podcast/