Cypher defeats Rapha to win Quake at DreamHack Winter: "I wanted to win, it didn't matter who I played"

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

23-year old Belarusian Alexey 'Cypher' Yanushevsky won the DreamHack Quake Live Championship over Shane 'Rapha' Hendrixson in a thrilling five-game final. After trading the first four maps back and forth, Yanushevsky sealed the championship with a 7-4 on Sinister and over $10,000 in prize money along with it. Yanushevsky told onGamers after the finals how much he really wanted to win this tournament.

"I was aiming for it, since September I was playing really hard", he said. "I wanted to win, it didn't matter who I played in the finals. Rapha was the one who deserved to be in the final, but I came out on top. It feels great."

Although there aren't nearly as many Quake tournaments as in days past, Yanushevsky believes that makes the ones that are still left even more important.

"It's sad that there aren't many tournaments nowadays in Quake Live", he said. "Back in the days there were many tournaments and it was interesting, but we kind of got tired of it. Nowadays there's no tournaments at all, one or two tournaments during the year, and everyone is hyped for it every time.

I honestly think Quake needs the same thing as CS:GO, Dota 2 does. Increasing graphics and such so people can choose how the LG looks like and such. As for Quake Live, sometimes no one is following it, and others some day it's crazy popularity, it's hard to say."

Image Credit: Frederike Schmitt - DreamHack Flickr