Minsk and Moscow have sent a very strong trio of players to San Jose - the Belarussian player Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky, the Russian Anton 'Cooller' Singov and the China born Zhibo 'Fan Zhibo' Fan. Those three invited SK Gaming for an interview over to their hotel's swimming pool.

The interview is below:

On preparation
Cooller: I played something like three days after GameGune.

Cypher: I played for a week after QuakeCon.

RazerJ: We will start this evening [laughs].

On the ESWC 2008 winner
Cooller: It's going to be jibo.

Cypher: It's going to be Cooller.

RazerJ: It's going to be Cypher.

On how Quake 3 has changed
Cooller: No. Because any random player that has a good LG and rail can put up a very good fight. Player who has put enough time into it can actually be dangerous in a tournament in CPMA. There are players that are considered good out there whose level is still lower than the level of the old professional players. Before they started training hard everything has been discovered and all they need is play a lot, train and watch demos. That is how they got good.

When I started I came up with everything nothing was given to me. I had to come up with everything in my Quake 3 game. The game became similar to Quake 4. It became faster and it became a test of reaction time and speed rather than a strategic contest.

Cypher: Well, I own at it right now and that is what I like about it but in reality, if I were to choose CPMA and OSP, I would choose OSP because it is better. The most interesting matches that were played in Quake 3 were played with OSP.

RazerJ: I like it. It is more dynamic and the games are not like before. It got more of an arcade feel to it and there is more action. Earlier on it used to be more strategic. But LG is overpowered.

On old school being better than new school
Cooller: The old school is better for sure. If I sat down to play with the same kind of attitude as several years ago, then I would still play just as well as I used to and I would beat players as much as I used to. Someone like fooKi or any other old schoolers could also sit down and if he trains really seriously would also win today.

RazerJ: The new school play a more interesting style of play. The new school learned on the
old school players’ demos. Their aims are at an awesome level but they aren't showing anything new.

Cypher: Yes, the old schoolers are better. But they doing nothing that is innovative.

On only breaking out this year
Cypher: You can't really compare Quake 4 and Quake 3. Those are completely different games. In Quake 4 there were several opponents against whom I was simply unable to do anything due to their style of play but in Quake 3 there are no such people. Yes, I beat almost everyone. But I have never beaten av3k and I beat toxic at the time when Quake 4 was still similar to Quake 3 because it was the 1.2 version.

On the ESWC Groups
Cooller: I think that my group is absolutely normal. It will feel good to punish ZeRo4 again after five years.

Cypher: Everything is done the way I think it should be done. There is nothing to complain about.

RazerJ: They are a little bit better than the bracket at GameGune! [Looks at me for some reason.] The groups are ok. There are not that many strong players here. Group C? What, it's a normal group [smirk]. I think ZeRo4 will have problems.

On playing Quake 3 after so many years
Cooller: I did this for old times’ sake. Do I think about becoming the first player to win the ESWC three times? Yes, I do. I can do it.

RazerJ: I still play Quake 3 because I still enjoy the game. I still have a lot of fun competing at tournaments. I don’t really practice laboriously.

On the most difficult opponent in San Jose
Cooller: It will be the most difficult to beat av3k because he will not be there. [smirk]

Cypher: I do not think there is one person who will be difficult. To me they are all the same.

jibo: Noctis will be hard because his style of play doesn't suit mine.

On ESWC 2008 being the last major Q3 event in history
Cypher: It is very important, I think. There will not be another chance to show something in this game. I thought a lot about this but it did not really make me prepare as I should have to be really satisfied with myself.

RazerJ: No, not really because QuakeLive is coming. It is going to be the same thing so I do not really care about that. There’s going to be continuity.

Cooller: It is a fact that turns my life around upside down.

On the importance of esports
Cooller: Right now esports is not important to me. But until now it was very important. Competitive gaming is what made me who I am right now. After the World Series of Video Games in Toronto tournament I stopped playing completely.

Cypher: I don't really care about esports. All I care about is to play the game I like and make money doing that.

RazerJ: It was never important to me but it gave me a lot of opportunities to travel and have fun. And to make friends with people from around the world. This was the important thing for me.

On his favourite opponent
Cooller: I would name CZM and Toxic. It was because we competed against each other all the time and you couldn't win a game just like that. You constantly had to push yourself and be creative to win the next game against those players.

On never winning a major event
RazerJ: I have won tournaments but not a major one. It is because I do not have a serious attitude towards it. In order to win majors you need to have that attitude and train religiously and I only play for fun so I don't play more than is fun for me.