It's not official, of course, but this mashup of Quake Champions inside Doom is very wholesome. Unless you're a demon.

Two eras of competitive Quake clashed in Dallas over the weekend, as the first world championships were held for the early access Quake Champions, awarding $US1 million in prizes across the tournament.

Remember the Aussie who forced his way through an online Quake Champions qualifier on crappy ping? Well there was a second round of qualifiers for the Quake World Championships over the weekend, and despite having an atrocious ping yet again, that didn't stop Daniel "dandaking" De Sousa from carving some Americans up. Again.

The Australian scene has had a long - and successful - history with Quake despite our geographical isolation and size. And with the Quake Champions million dollar tournament next month, there was hope that Australians would be well represented.

But when the global event was announced, Australia was left out in the cold, forced to compete against Americans and Europeans on their servers. So instead of sitting back and fuming, a couple of Australian teams have decided to ship our biggest Quake stars over to the US instead.

Quake is a hard enough game as is, and that's with a good ping. Now imagine playing in an international qualifier for a $US1 million tournament on 200+ ping.

Ah, the sights and sounds. Rocket jumps and railguns, even that grimacing marine, bringing me right back to those good ol' days of Quake.

Good news Quake fans: Bethesda's putting $US1 million of prizes on the line! Bad news: you'll have to play on American or European servers if you want a chance at winning.

The first world championship for the upcoming Quake Champions will take place on August 26 in Dallas, Texas at the eponymous QuakeCon.

I'm not expecting to get a gargantuan amount of gaming in this weekend, but there is one game that I've been keeping my eye on for a little while.

Appealing to a new audience is a challenge that faces every developer. But when you have to draw new players into a crowd that has been playing the same game for over 15 years, the tightrope gets increasingly wobbly.

But how do you refresh an established formula without aggravating one of the most dedicated communities in all of gaming, a community that believes Quake is the undisputed best multiplayer game ever made?

Quake Champions is an upcoming free to play arena shooter that revives the beloved franchise. It is currently running a closed beta. It's bloody and fun in short bursts but it is also amazingly frustrating.

The good news: Quake Champions plays, sounds and looks like Quake. The bad news: it definitely needs a bit of work, and it's no closer to solving the problems that have plagued arena shooters, Quake included, for years.

There's nothing better than seeing Quake, played by a Quake champion.

Following (somewhat) in the footsteps of Quake Live before it, id announced at PAX East that Quake Champions will be a free-to-play game - with caveats.

Bethesda didn't put a specific date on when the closed beta would kick off, but you can sign up for the Quake Champions beta right now.

In the first gameplay trailer from Quakecon this week, id software finally showed off some gameplay segments of Quake Champions. And if you're concerned that Bethesda was giving Quake too much of a modern touch with all the talk about classes, don't worry: at least bunnyhopping is still there.