I found something better than watching Missy destroy people in Quake 4: watching Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel do it. The rules are a little different: Fatal1ty was there to just destroy people as fast as he can. First one to ten frags wins – Missy’s exhibition had prizes involved for the person that scored the most frags against her.

I don’t have anything to back this up, but at times I felt like Missy was toying with her prey. When it was six to negative three, with thirty seconds left, for all intents and purposes the match was over. It wasn’t exactly a pressure situation, and I’m sure on the second day of domination, the plot was starting to get a little old.Fatal1ty, on the other hand, took no prisoners. His goal was pure humiliation, in a fun, no hard feelings way. When people would fly over the edge, Missy would let them fall peacefully into nothingness. Fatal1ty hunted them down with a railgun and blew them to pieces.

I think each match took about thirty seconds, and each played about the same way: “Player” would die from about thirty machine-gun bullets, then Wendel would secure the +100 health, a rocket launcher, and the railgun. And that was the ballgame.

Of course, some people lasted long enough for quad damage to appear. That was great. It’s hard to move around when all the spawns are in open areas, and the guy you’re playing against is one of the best Q4 players in the world and he has a quad-rail. I’d say it was like shooting fish in a barrel, but that’s an insult to how easily he dispatched his opponents.

The last awesome thing about watching him was he clearly had a jonesing for the gauntlet. For anybody not familiar with the gauntlet, it’s akin to the knife in CS, or the impact hammer in Unreal Tournament. It’s the humiliation weapon. It’s a little saw that’s a one-shot kill with quad, providing you can get right next to the person to use it. That's usually difficult when your opponent is armed with lightning guns and rocket launchers.

Wendel pulled it out every once in a while when he was close enough to dodge and then (theoretically) close the gap and hack a guy to a pulp. It didn’t work most of the time. The players would get too intimidated, and they’d end up running when they realized he could just dodge all their shots. And if I’ve ever seen somebody reluctantly rail their opponent in the back, I saw it then. Even the normally bright slug from the gun seemed a little depressed. It was obvious he wanted that gauntlet, and the rail just wasn’t good enough.

Then, in one glorious moment, the two players collided. Literally. They used the forward boosts from opposite platforms. “Player” came from the left. Fatal1ty from the right, with quad damage. His gauntlet was out; his health and armor full. Destiny was fulfilled.

And it was a gory, satisfying destiny.