A 16-year-old Pole, Maciej Krzyowski, is the toast of the gaming world after beating his Russian rival in the Quake 4 match at the Electronic Sports World Cup 2007. About 750 gamers from all over the world have spent four days battling it out in France.
Quake 4 is what is called a shooter game – you have to kill your opponent as many times as possible. The legendary Russian gamer Anton Singov known as Cooller has lost this time. But he is still the only double-champion of the Quake game in the world. “It is really great to meet him in the great final and to beat him, so I'm really happy,” said Maciej Krzyowski, Polish gamer. Cooller is 20 years old, and he has been playing video games professionally for years, but he says he won't play them forever.“It is like a hobby. I'm not going to play games forever,” confessed Anton Singov, Russian gamer. Gaming may just be a hobby, but so far for Cooller it has been a lucrative one – earning him thousands of dollars in prize money, and adoring fans. “As a professional player you can join many championships worldwide. And many of them, as you have said, have got good money prizes. So any experience can earn money, even gaming experience,” confirmed Larisa Nuretdinova, a gaming analyst at Nival Interactive.