In 2008 Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky was the man in CPMA Quake 3 and he dominated the scene winning three straight tournaments in the space of a couple of months. 2009 saw the young man from Belarus forced to take a step down and begin his fight back to the top with the emergance of rapha and the duel scene switching over to QuakeLive.

2010 began with a bang as Cypher won the stacked IEM IV European Finals. At the IEM IV World Championship he was forced to settle for 4th place, suffering a heart-breaking semi-final loss to rapha after being 2 maps up in their best-of-5 series. Most recently at DreamHack Cypher took 2nd place behind his team-mate and friend av3k. Now he heads into ESWC, an event at which he placed 2nd in 2006 and 1st in 2008, looking for a second Grand Finals title.

First impressions of your ESWC group? Do you have one of the harder groups?

My first impression was, that I'm a bit lucky, because I know how to play with every player who is in it. In general, I think I have the easiest group in the tournament, actually I always have it =)

What you know about each of the players in your group?

Garpy: I think he has a good base, but never wants to get something more in game, good aim and not very aggressive.

Linkin: TDM player, trying to play mostly with the railgun, can be very dangerous if he is catching his game.

Stermy: Stable player with stable aim, knows how to make good moves to items, also good in defensive and offensive styles equally.

At DreamHack how seriously/all out were you and av3k playing in the final? Is there any truth to the comment Cooller made in an interview that perhaps you'd decided to play it more for fun since it was you and av3k? Was it more comparable to the IEM EU finals where you were both going at 100% or the IEM IV WC 3rd place decider where winning less important?

I dont know what cooller said, but I can say for 100% that we played the best what we could show, maybe sometimes it was too agressive for both sides, but it was part of the game, av3k just played better that final.

When it's about winning a tournament and a match for 3rd-4th place it's different, we know each other really good in game and in life, so it's always hard to play for both of us, we don't think much about it really, only what we want is top 2 and when it's about top 1, we are trying our best.

It seems that you, av3k, Cooller and rapha are the elite group in QL at the moment and you all have different sets of skills and favourable matchups and non-favourable matchups amongst the four of you. Which of the others is Cypher most comfortable facing and what does he have to focus on to be able to beat each?

Most comfortable for me is cooller, I've played him many times, and I have something inside which gives me opportunity to read him really well. Also I've won several times against av3k, and I also don't feel really uncomfortable playing him. At the moment only rapha gives me a hard time, I don't know much reasons, but maybe one of the reasons is that I stop believing in myself when I'm playing him, it gives him much advantage.

av3k and Cooller are players who will attack you, trade kills back and forth and aggressively try to break control so do you think rapha's calculating style of play has been part of the problem for you in the past? When you've played him you've seemed to lack a little confidence at times which you show in other games or you make an uncharacteristic error. Is it something you've thought about much?

Yes I've thought about it much, but in general I don't know what to say, everytime when I've played him I wasn't on my top, because maybe he knows about me more than I do about myself, but after all I think I know what to do with it, and I will try to improve it.

From your results and some of the crazy matches you were able to play in CPMA Q3 it seemed like the defining qualities of that mod really worked to all of your strengths as a player. In QL you've been a great player too but have there been any things you can mention which you've had to change or tone down about your style to adapt to QL and be successful?

What I need is only to practise, and have a cold and calm head. Otherwise it's impossible to win for me, in CPMA Q3 times I was really confident because I practised much, and it always gave me a lot of confidence. Now I'm not so hungry for practicing, will try to fix it.

Are there any things you like about QuakeLive more than CPMA or OSP Q3?

I like that in QuakeLive it's not about one second fights, which it was in CPMA with the shaft. What I also like is the 80 percent damage of the rail, which doesn't give much advantage to players who only play at a distance. I think QuakeLive is a really good game, if id will change the spawn system to how it was in Quake 3, and also I would like to see new maps.

Which map would you replace from the current pool if there was a good new map available and why?

I would remove dm6, don't like this map because of the simpleness of it. I think it's really easy to hold control on this map, and it's really hard to play without it. The other maps are more balanced I think.

A lot of people, including other top players, have said that Cypher has the best rocket launcher in QuakeLive. Removing yourself from the equation who does you think has the best rocket launcher or uses it in a way you like to see the most?

I think rapha, av3k and also Cooller have really good aim with rockets. rapha uses it more effectively than the others I think. I can't say anything more about it. Everybody is really tough with this gun, from the people I named.

You know av3k and his playing style well, from official competition as well as practise, and you also know rapha's well thanks to your official matches against him. If we draw large conclusions about how the top 4 players matchup with one another one might say that right now things looks like this:

Cypher has the edge over Cooller, Cypher vs. av3k is neck-and-neck and rapha is beating Cypher but the last variation of av3k vs. rapha has only been seen once in QL and that was in the group stage of the IEM IV WC. How do you see av3k and rapha matching up? Who has advantages in which areas?

I see av3k can really make a hard time for rapha, his game style and his character can be stronger then rapha's, only what he needs to do is to concentrate and really wish for a win. rapha does not make mistakes at all in the game, but av3k can force him to do them.

Any final words?

I'd like to say thanks, for my manager who always supporting us in all ways. Also I would like to say thanks to razer for being such nice guys :) Also thanks to av3k with whom we are spending a good time, and thanks to all who are cheering for us!!

(Photographs copyright of Julia Christophers)