Pieter Bas Kwak
Encyclopedia
Pieter Bas Kwak also known under the pseudonym
Darth, was one of the first Dutch
professional cyberathletes. During his career he was the most internationally successful Dutch player of the team-based first person shooter game: Counter-Strike
. Worth mentioning is that Counter-Strike
is one of the most professionally played computer game in the world and his archievements are yet to put on a par by any other Dutch Counter-Strike gamer
.
January 2001 he was signed by the top electronic sports team of the United Kingdom
: Four Kings. This engagement allowed him to further develop his gaming skills to their full potential and pursue new goals, namely to participate in multiple professional gaming tournaments around the world and compete among the very best. This, in combination with the complete freedom afforded to him by living in the privacy and luxury of his own caravan in his parents' backyard quickly led to a steep increase in his ability as well as recognition from his peers, eventually amounting to participation in the most widely recognised professional tournaments, such as Cyberathlete Professional League
and the World Cyber Games
.
Even though his winnings are of no equivalence with respect to the enormous sums his fellow countrymen gamers - all solo players - Sander "Vo0
" Kaasjager (Painkiller
), Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen (Warcraft III) and Laurens "Lauke" Pluymaekers (Unreal Tournament
) earned with eSports, approximately a total worth of over €60.000 euros in cash and hardware prizes were won by the team during the four years of Pieter Bas' gaming-career.
With the WCG coming up Pieter Bas had to look for alternatives to participate due to the World Cyber Games originally being a nation based tournament. Together with Robert 'Aapje' van Bakel en Freek 'Oppressor' van Workum plus several other renowned Dutch players they managed to form a pair-of-five that eventually beat all the well-established teams at the Dutch World Cyber Games qualifier. However, they did not end up going to the finals in Korea due to miscommunication with the organizers which in the end resulted in a disqualification.
At the CPL World Championship Winter Event
December, 2001 the rules enforced players to use their surname
instead of their online handle
. From here onwards Pieter Bas always used his surname name Kwak as his nickname. In 2002 the Counter-Strike team left the Four Kings organization aiming at more profitable sponsorship deals. They started up their own clan
and Infinity-eSports was born.
During the very successful year 2002 Freek van Workum was replayed by Stuart 'lil' Harriman and Jonny Neffgen stepped down as a leader and was replaced by Greg 'DArtagnan' Edwards. Pieter Bas got to compete in both the CPL (United States
) and WCG (South Korea
) this year. At end of 2002 Infinity-eSports remerged with the Four Kings organization, and Greg Edwards was replaced by Harvey "xenon" Migotti of Schroet Kommando fame.
During 2003, reorganization within the team after a disappointing performance at the French
event Clikarena caused friction within the team which eventually led to Pieter Bas leaving the Four Kings team and restarting the Infinity-eSports team together with his old teammates Daniel Lucking and Greg Edwards. In the end this team was based around the players Pieter Bas Kwak, Greg Edwards, Daniel Lucking, Kalle 'Phyrre' Andersson and Andréas 'KixeR' Sjölander (who afterwards got contracted by team such as 4K, mTw and NoA). This team never really got their promised sponsorship deals which led to the inactivity of the whole team and the end of Pieter Bas' gaming-career in the spring of 2004.
SE, Stockholm - HLO Bootcamp (Four Kings)
FR, Toulouse - Clikarena (12th-16th Four Kings)
UK, Birmingham - Bootcamp (Four Kings)
UK, Northampton - UKTerrorist Lan Championship (1st Four Kings)
ROK, Daejeon - World Cyber Games (reGeneration)
NL, Veldhoven - WCG Netherlands Qualifier Finals (1st reGeneration)
NL, Rotterdam - TGS WCG Pre-Qualifier (1st reGeneration)
SP, Madrid - CPL Oslo Qualifier Madrid (2nd Hell Squad)
UK, London - Games Domain Championship (1st Infinity eSports)
US, Dallas - CPL Pentium 4 Summer Championship (6th Infinity eSports)
UK, Northampton - Gainward CPL Dallas Qualifier (1st Infinity eSports)
UK, Slough - Bootcamp (Infinity-eSports)
UK, Bicester - Roweb Combat250 (1st Infinity-eSports)
UK, Newbury - Multiplay i-10 (1st Infinity-eSports)
UK, Maidenhead - Primairy Strike (Infinity-eSports)
UK, London - AMD CPL Dallas Qualifier (1st Four-Kings)
UK, Newbury - Multiplay i-9 (1st Four-Kings)
NL, Almere - WCG Netherlands Qualifier Finals 2001 (1st reGeneration)
NL, Loosdrecht - Pentium 4 Processor CPL Holland 2001 (12th Four-Kings)
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Darth, was one of the first Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
professional cyberathletes. During his career he was the most internationally successful Dutch player of the team-based first person shooter game: Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe...
. Worth mentioning is that Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe...
is one of the most professionally played computer game in the world and his archievements are yet to put on a par by any other Dutch Counter-Strike gamer
Gamer
Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...
.
January 2001 he was signed by the top electronic sports team of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
: Four Kings. This engagement allowed him to further develop his gaming skills to their full potential and pursue new goals, namely to participate in multiple professional gaming tournaments around the world and compete among the very best. This, in combination with the complete freedom afforded to him by living in the privacy and luxury of his own caravan in his parents' backyard quickly led to a steep increase in his ability as well as recognition from his peers, eventually amounting to participation in the most widely recognised professional tournaments, such as Cyberathlete Professional League
Cyberathlete Professional League
The Cyberathlete Professional League , founded on June 27, 1997 by gaming entrepreneur Angel Munoz, is a professional sports tournament organization specializing in computer and console video game competitions....
and the World Cyber Games
World Cyber Games
The World Cyber Games is an international competitive video-gaming event operated by South Korean company World Cyber Games Inc., and sponsored by Samsung and Microsoft...
.
Even though his winnings are of no equivalence with respect to the enormous sums his fellow countrymen gamers - all solo players - Sander "Vo0
Sander Kaasjager
Sander Kaasjager, who also goes by the pseudonym Vo0, is a former Dutch professional player of the first person shooter game Painkiller, born in Naarden. He was formerly signed on to play for the electronic sports team Fnatic...
" Kaasjager (Painkiller
Painkiller (game)
PainKiller is a first-person shooter video game released on April 12, 2004. It was developed by Polish game studio People Can Fly and published by DreamCatcher Interactive . It attempts to replicate the "old-school FPS" gameplay of Doom and Quake...
), Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen (Warcraft III) and Laurens "Lauke" Pluymaekers (Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament is a futuristic first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels...
) earned with eSports, approximately a total worth of over €60.000 euros in cash and hardware prizes were won by the team during the four years of Pieter Bas' gaming-career.
Teams and tournaments
Before being scouted by the Four-Kings Counter-Strike team, Pieter Bas was an active player of the clan COTK, a top 10 team in the Netherlands. Early 2001 when he left COTK and took up a new challenge and the tag of 4K^Darth, the main team consisted of the players Jonny 'TheGenius' Neffgen, Marc 'Liquid' Mangiacapra, Doug 'Grim' Wright, Dan 'DaNfRaG' Lucking, Freek 'Oppressor' van Workum.With the WCG coming up Pieter Bas had to look for alternatives to participate due to the World Cyber Games originally being a nation based tournament. Together with Robert 'Aapje' van Bakel en Freek 'Oppressor' van Workum plus several other renowned Dutch players they managed to form a pair-of-five that eventually beat all the well-established teams at the Dutch World Cyber Games qualifier. However, they did not end up going to the finals in Korea due to miscommunication with the organizers which in the end resulted in a disqualification.
At the CPL World Championship Winter Event
Cyberathlete Professional League
The Cyberathlete Professional League , founded on June 27, 1997 by gaming entrepreneur Angel Munoz, is a professional sports tournament organization specializing in computer and console video game competitions....
December, 2001 the rules enforced players to use their surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
instead of their online handle
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
. From here onwards Pieter Bas always used his surname name Kwak as his nickname. In 2002 the Counter-Strike team left the Four Kings organization aiming at more profitable sponsorship deals. They started up their own clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
and Infinity-eSports was born.
During the very successful year 2002 Freek van Workum was replayed by Stuart 'lil' Harriman and Jonny Neffgen stepped down as a leader and was replaced by Greg 'DArtagnan' Edwards. Pieter Bas got to compete in both the CPL (United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) and WCG (South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
) this year. At end of 2002 Infinity-eSports remerged with the Four Kings organization, and Greg Edwards was replaced by Harvey "xenon" Migotti of Schroet Kommando fame.
During 2003, reorganization within the team after a disappointing performance at the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
event Clikarena caused friction within the team which eventually led to Pieter Bas leaving the Four Kings team and restarting the Infinity-eSports team together with his old teammates Daniel Lucking and Greg Edwards. In the end this team was based around the players Pieter Bas Kwak, Greg Edwards, Daniel Lucking, Kalle 'Phyrre' Andersson and Andréas 'KixeR' Sjölander (who afterwards got contracted by team such as 4K, mTw and NoA). This team never really got their promised sponsorship deals which led to the inactivity of the whole team and the end of Pieter Bas' gaming-career in the spring of 2004.
2003
SE, Stockholm - EuroCup VII Finals (2nd Four Kings)SE, Stockholm - HLO Bootcamp (Four Kings)
FR, Toulouse - Clikarena (12th-16th Four Kings)
UK, Birmingham - Bootcamp (Four Kings)
UK, Northampton - UKTerrorist Lan Championship (1st Four Kings)
2002
UK, London - Intel Masters, Science Museum (1st Four Kings)ROK, Daejeon - World Cyber Games (reGeneration)
NL, Veldhoven - WCG Netherlands Qualifier Finals (1st reGeneration)
NL, Rotterdam - TGS WCG Pre-Qualifier (1st reGeneration)
SP, Madrid - CPL Oslo Qualifier Madrid (2nd Hell Squad)
UK, London - Games Domain Championship (1st Infinity eSports)
US, Dallas - CPL Pentium 4 Summer Championship (6th Infinity eSports)
UK, Northampton - Gainward CPL Dallas Qualifier (1st Infinity eSports)
UK, Slough - Bootcamp (Infinity-eSports)
UK, Bicester - Roweb Combat250 (1st Infinity-eSports)
UK, Newbury - Multiplay i-10 (1st Infinity-eSports)
UK, Maidenhead - Primairy Strike (Infinity-eSports)
2001
US, Dallas - CPL World Championship Winter Event (9th Four-Kings)UK, London - AMD CPL Dallas Qualifier (1st Four-Kings)
UK, Newbury - Multiplay i-9 (1st Four-Kings)
NL, Almere - WCG Netherlands Qualifier Finals 2001 (1st reGeneration)
NL, Loosdrecht - Pentium 4 Processor CPL Holland 2001 (12th Four-Kings)
External links and sources
- Four Kings Intel
- Interview with I-eS|Kwak & I-eS|Akuji 2003-09-06
- UKTerrorist Interview: Too Easy For 4K^Darth 2003-02-06
- UKTerrorist Interview: 4Kings at the CPL WC (2001-12-11)
- Adrenaline Vault Interview: Four Kings (2001-12-04)