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Q4 World Ranking : 12
Q4 Prize Money : $11,750

2006 Kode 5 Russia : 1st
2006 Quakecon : 5th
2006 ESWC : 2nd
2006 GigaGames : 1st
2006 ESWC Belarus : 1st

Five tournaments to his name in Quake 4, 16 years old and already considered one of the very best Quake 4 players on the planet. It’s a lot to take in for the young Belarussian, but he seems to take it all in his stride.

A win at the Belarus ESWC Qualifier was not that unexpected. Beating Cooller at GigaGames was a surprise, but not a shock, considering the Russian “quote machine” was in a poor run of form. Cooller actually made a mental note of the youngster after this tournament however, marking him as being special, despite his poor form, it was, he said, a very well deserved win for Cypher.

So to the summer and despite a few people being aware of this young gun’s potential, no one had him on the radar for a top 3 finish at ESWC grand finals in Paris. His 2nd place came on a day where he seemed to have just run out of steam, losing out to Winz in the grand final, just a day after knocking out Cooller and Toxic in consecutive rounds. It was however a massive achievement and a huge shock to the scene that this 16 year old wonder kid had blown away such established stars.

He was obviously hot property, not being officially attached to a major clan and it wasn’t long before RAW gaming announced his signature. A few days later however, he was a fnatic player, due to contracts not being signed with RAW or perhaps a whole number of other things that were flying around as rumour. Regardless, it can’t have helped him settle.

His capture by fnatic did give him the helping hand he needed to attend the bigger events and whilst his age and visa requirement would prevent him from attending Intel Summer, he was eligible for Quakecon. His performance was not as spectacular as ESWC, but never the less impressive. He finished 5th in a strong field and proved ESWC was no flash in the pan.

He then went on to win Kode 5 Russia, only to be stripped of his Grand Final place thanks to confusion over the age restrictions. Gaming tournaments really should sort this farcical issue out. If a kid can fly from Belarus to Dallas and compete for $30,000 at Quakecon, surely he can do the same from home to Germany for Kode 5? Madness.

Despite his age restrictions, he keeps smiling almost with an un-said satisfaction that he knows his time will come. Beating Cooller three times in three tournaments is certainly helping this along nicely.

He and av3k may well be the face of tomorrows World Champions, its just they decided they wanted to play today and thankfully, some tournaments have allowed them. It is a testimony to his play and results in so few tournaments this year that we are not only considering him to play as one of the eight to go to the World Cyber Games, but indeed he is a red hot favourite to attend.