Cypher

Alexey Yanushevsky (Алексе́й Анато́льевич Януше́вский) (born May 17, 1990), who also goes by the pseudonym "Cypher", resides in Minsk, and is a Belarusian professional player of the first person shooter series Quake. He has been actively competing in international Quake competitions since February 24, 2006. Cypher was most notably the first one to win the QuakeCon 1v1 tournament four times (in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014). He has been a champion of many other tournaments, including Electronic Sports World Cup, Intel Extreme Masters, Dreamhack and Asus Cups.

Career Originally a Quake III Arena player, Yanushevsky gained prominence with successes in Eastern European competitions in Quake IV shortly after the game's release. At the age of 16 he successfully qualified for the Electronic Sports World Cup in his native Belarus and defeated twofold world champion Russian Anton "Cooller" Singov in Moscow competitions. He subsequently entered the Electronic Sports World Cup and was considered a dark horse contestant at the world championship, Yanushevsky eventually reached the finals of the event, where he was defeated, taking second place at the event at an age at which he was too young to enter Cyberathlete Professional League or World Series of Video Games competitions.

Afterwards, Cypher was signed to professional video gaming team Fnatic. He made top five finishes at QuakeCon as well as the World Cyber Games. The following year he was one of the more successful players in international competition, taking 2nd and 3rd at two World Series of Video Games stops.

After the World Series of Video Games disbanded mid-season, Yanushevsky started focusing primarily on Quake III again, which eventually culminated in victory at the Electronic Sports World Cup Masters in July, 2008. He was then signed to the team Serious Gaming. On August 3, 2008, Yanushevsky won the Quake Live 1v1 Championship at QuakeCon 2008 his second major title. On August 27 he won the Electronic Sports World Cup 2008.

Cypher left Serious Gaming in December 2012. During this time he tried out the game Shootmania in Team Millenium, placing 3rd at the Cyberathlete Summit in Paris.

In December 2013, Cypher beat Shane "Rapha" Hendrixson to win DreamHack Winter 2013.

In July 2014 Cypher won his fourth QuakeCon, QuakeCon 2014, without losing a single map in the play-offs stage.

During 2015, Cypher tried out Counter Strike: Global Offensive and achieved a good level, but as he was looking for a team, Overwatch came out in beta and he decided to play that instead. During 2016 he played Overwatch and also achieved a good level (his team ANOX was top 6 in Europe during the ESL Overwatch Atlantic Showdown, and top 16 in the world during the Overwatch Open), but again he had to switch games as he was starting to find his form, this time because of the announcement of Quake Champions, due to come out in 2017.

Notable achievements

2017

2015 6th – QuakeCon 2015 (Quake Live) – Dallas, Texas

2014

2013

2012

2011

9th – QuakeCon 2011 (Quake Live – Duel) – Dallas, Texas

7th – Intel Extreme Masters World Championship Finals (Quake Live) – Hanover, Germany 4th – Intel Extreme Masters European Championship Finals (Quake Live) – Kyiv, Ukraine

2010

5th – Electronic Sports World Cup 2010 (Quake Live) – Paris, France

4th – Intel Extreme Masters World Championship Finals (Quake Live) – Hannover, Germany

2009

5th – Dreamhack Winter 2009 (Quake Live) – Jonkoping, Sweden

2008

4th – Electronic Sports World Cup Masters (Quake III) – Athens, Greece

4th – ASUS Spring (Quake III) – Moscow, Russia

2007

4th – ASUS Autumn 2on2 (Quake III') – Moscow, Russia

5th – ASUS Spring (Quake III) – Moscow, Russia 5th – World Series of Video Games (Quake IV) – Toronto, Ontario, Canada

5th – i30 Quake 4 tournament (Quake IV) – Newbury, United Kingdom

2006 4th – World Cyber Games All-stars 2on2 (Quake IV) – Monza, Italy 7th – World Cyber Games All-stars 1on1 (Quake IV) – Monza, Italy

15px – KODE5 Russia (Quake IV) – Moscow, Russia 5th – QuakeCon 2006 1on1 (Quake IV) – Dallas, Texas'''

5th – ASUS Winter (Quake IV) – Moscow, Russia

Online

Awards

2010 – (Tek-9) Quake Live Player of the Year