Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza said that it's impossible for him to beat Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky. So confidence couldn't have been all that high heading into the IEM European Final third place playoff game with the QuakeCon champ.

But despite such claims, Strenx was the more efficient player in the series, coming up big with impressive aim and item control to defeat Cypher 3-1.

Things didn't exactly start off well for Strenx, though. On the opening map Aerowalk, Cypher stormed ahead to a 6-0 lead before any kind of rebuttal, and in the majority of cases it wouldn't have meant much.

But Strenx was clawing the game back frag by frag, displaying amazing prowess with the railgun which opened up several opportunities to get back in the match. Couple this with precise item control and despite Cypher's best efforts, including hitting three rails in a row, Strenx was simply one step ahead after being six steps behind and managed to win the map 9-6.

Cypher came out much stronger on Vertical Vengeance, finally unveiling the devastating rockets that he's so renowned for. However, Strenx quickly countered that with a continuation of his rail accuracy from Aerowalk, and the game quickly hit a dead end with neither player being able to out-do the other.



The battle of the brains went the way of Cypher, particularly at one fight for mega, where the Belarusian massively outsmarted Strenx to not only get the extra health but also secure a frag in the process.

Cypher pulled away after that and tied up the series 1-1.

Furious Heights was a completely different encounter and saw the defensive sides of the players. Cypher again opened an early lead, only for Strenx to come back and tie it up, and this time it was the turn of Strenx to play the smart guy as once he obtained the lead, he kept it.

At 5-4 with 10 seconds left, Cypher thought he had a chance to tie it up, but Strenx spawned on the complete opposite side of the map, erasing all hopes for Cypher.

Now in a must-win situation, Cypher faced a difficult challenge on Dismemberment. He had to beat Strenx, who beat Cooller on this map, but Cooller beat Cypher in the group stages on it.

Once again though Cypher opened up an early lead, only for him to throw it away thanks to lacklustre item and weapon control. Strenx maintained his composure throughout, rarely making mistakes, and continually put Cypher in dangerously uncomfortable positions.

Despite this dominance, Cypher started to fight his way back into the game, and closed the frag deficit to just one with 30 seconds left. Strenx played the defensive game but Cypher emerged out of nowhere with five seconds left and looked certain to be getting that frag and leveling up the score.

But his over-aggressive push went against him as he hit the jump pad, flinging him into the air and costing him invaluable seconds, which allowed Strenx to barely get away with the map, and series, win.