Since most of the folks that signed up for Quake Live in the beginning were more seasoned FPS gamers, there was no way I was going to join up and get slaughtered every time I tried to play. Even though Quake Live is fitted with a matching system to help out the less apt players, we were not in full force in the beginning. It is not that we do not love playing these games, just some of us are not that great at them.

Fast forward two weeks after Quake Live became an open beta, I figured it was safe to hop in and get a little bit of fragging done. Being more of a console gamer, I still have a PS2 Quake III Arena around somewhere. It is just a shame that I lack skills no matter whether I play it or its free QLB counterpart. Thanks to the aforementioned skill matching system, this has not been an issue since I started playing.

After completing the standard fill out this form and confirmation number setup process, the user is invited to download a small bit of software and reload the browser (IE7,8 or Firefox 2,3 Windows XP or Vista only right now). Once this is done, the player can select an avatar from the list of familiar Quake characters and change some settings like the crosshair and railgun color schemes.

The aspect of setup which I find most appealing is your first match is with an AI dubbed Crash who is designed to assess your skill level in a match you play while the bulk of the game is downloaded. Crash appeared to have done a good job of finding my skill level since the couple of matches I have played have not been completely one-sided. When you login to QLB after that inital match, you have an option to practice or to just jump into matches currently happening. The matches are setup to load the ones best suited to you first, with green checkmarks notifying you that its right up your alley and arrows up or down

The one downside I have experienced playing the game was that there was occasional lag, but since I am using somewhat dated equipment it may be just me. It looked a bit better than the Q3A I played on my PS2 and there are lots of people waiting to play Team Deathmatch 24/7.

Here is a user made video of the training mode with Crash: