<img src="/images/wcg2006/wcg_esr_q4_preview4B_winz.png">

Q4 GGL World Rank : 4
Q4 Prize Money : $14,863

Results

2006 Intel Summer : 25th-32nd
2006 ESWC : 1st
2006 Covlan : 2nd
2006 ESWC France : 1st
2006 Transatlantic Showdown : 4th

Is there a man who is more inconsistent in Quake 4? Maybe, but Winz certainly put his claim in for that title with his diverse results at Intel Summer and ESWC.

Everyone wanted to know how a player can win one of the most prestigious tournaments on the planet (ESWC) and then fail to break into the top 24 a week or so later at Intel Summer. He gave a number of reasons of course and losing luggage and having a hard time sleeping is never easy, but it seems, almost like Socrates, that Michael needs things to be right, before he can win. Perhaps it is no coincidence that he plays best on home soil, with both his wins coming via the ESWC tournament structure and both in France, but if he is to be considered a truly world class player, he knows he has to make it big on the international tournaments.

Many saw his config used at ESWC and pointed to this as his failure at other tournaments which restrict the use of configs and instead use only the menu’s within Q4max and whilst this may have a little truth attached to it, it is not the only reason he dominated ESWC and then fell so heavily on his sword at Intel Summer. It is down to mentality and the ability to adapt to issues that arise with attending major tournaments outside your home nation in part.

Of his other tournaments in 2006, 4th out of 4 players at TAS showed us little and another config tournament, Covlan, he played superbly until the final, losing 4 straight maps to Fooki. His online record is good, with 2nd places in both the Paycheckarena cup (again behind Fooki) and EuroCup XII (behind Cooller).

The fact is, he is being caught by the new breed of players and if he is not careful, his top 10 position in the world will come under serious threat in the next few months. He can be great, but he needs to show it more often and especially away from France.

Still, he is one of a very few select players to have won a Major Quake 4 title and you don’t win ESWC two years in a row in different games without being very, very good.

Does all of this warrant a place at WCG, only you can decide.