Liquid rapha wins $150,000 Quake World Championship – Final placements
ESL[jwplayer Dx2HDtD8]Team Liquid’s Shane ‘rapha’ Hendrixson once again proved he’s one of, if not the greatest Quake players of all time after claiming his sixth QuakeCon Championship, and the 2019/2020 Pro League MVP award.
Rapha entered his first Quake tournament all the way back in 2002, finishing 65-128th at that year’s QuakeCon tournament, and since 2008 has been a feature at the top of the Quake scene, and been remarkably dominant in Quake Live with 21 first-place finishes since the game’s release in 2017.
After coming through a year filled with personal tragedy after the passing of his fiancé in June, rapha dominated his opposition to take home the 2020 World Championship, and unsurprisingly found himself named as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
After receiving a bye in the first round of the North American portion of the bracket, rapha swept past Australian ZenAku and American dooi without dropping a single game, and then quickly took down Estonian player cnz with a comfortable 3-0 win in the semi-finals.
VengeurR proved to be the only player who could take a game away from the 31-year-old, but couldn’t stop the Team Liquid star from putting on another Quake clinic, before moving into the grand-finals to win four unanswered games against Adrián ‘RAISY’ Birgány to seal his place at the top of Quake esports once again.
An emotional rapha spoke to Marcus ‘DjWheat’ Graham at the conclusion of his victory, admitting that his win was “bittersweet,” but wanted to thank Bethesda for giving him the opportunity to play “the best FPS game ever,” and for giving him the chance to compete, and succeed, at the game’s highest level.
Despite his tragic loss in June, rapha showed no signs of considering retirement, thanking the Quake community, his family, and friends for all the support he has received over the past few months, and stated his intention to keep doing what he’s doing, and hopes to keep the success rolling, summing up his plan for the future with the phrase: “All gas, no brake.”
While Bethesda didn’t reveal how the $150,000 prize pool would be split among the competitors, you can expect that rapha will be taking home a healthy chunk of the cash, alongside the title of being the world’s greatest Quake player once again. You can view the tournament’s final placements below.
2020 Quake World Championship Final Placements
Place | Player |
1st | rapha |
2nd | RAISY |
3rd | vengeurR |
4th | DaHanG |
5-6th | cha1n, cnz |
7-8th | nosfa, Cooller |
9-12th | dooi, psygib, k1llsen, BaSe |
13-16th | Effortless, dramiS, toxjq, Av3k |
17-20th | maxter, ZenAku, cYpheR, Spart1e |
21-24th | sib, GNiK, st0n3, GaRpY |