"In 2006, aged only 16, Belarus Alexey "Cypher" Yanushevsky was signed by Fnatic. By that point, he was already one of the strongest Quake players out there — both the third and fourth instalment. Cypher continued to make a living playing quake until 2014. According to him, it was only in 2011, when the first International was announced, that Quake’s lagging behind other esports disciplines began to be felt.



Cypher spent the last year and a half playing Overwatch, but switched to Quake Champions when its beta was announced — and went on to win its very first online tournament. CyberSport.ru talked to Yanushevsky about his career in Overwatch, the Quake Champions meta, and the esports prospects of this new game."

Preview:

Is it fair to say Quake Champions has become too much of an arcade game?

Belarus Cypher: It became simpler by an order of magnitude. This is a game in which you can’t heal yourself back to full, the way you could in previous Quake instalments; you can’t stack up and just circle the map killing everyone. That’s why the game used to be one-sided; there would be the one guy who was killing everyone and having fun.

Here, it’s built a bit differently. You’ve got abilities you can use in a mass fight, and besides, a hero has a health cap that can’t be exceeded. No matter how many megahealths and armors you pick up, if you get hit from a railgun, the second hit will kill you, unless you’re some super-fat tank. And if you are a super-fat tank, you’re very easy to hit.

They’ve balanced the game with newcomers in mind. In Quake III, you respawn with a machine gun, 125 HP, and zero armor, and until you pick up a good gun and a more or less decent armor suit, you won’t be fragging anyone. Here, you can take down someone who’s full-HP with just that machine gun. You can’t be chased around spawn points. The abilities, the invisibility, the orbs, the teleports, it’s all about doing everything to prevent top-tier players from owning noobs, to stop noobs having 0/45 runs.

Full interview in Cybersport.ru

Links: Cybersport .ru, tweet @cyber_ru, tweet @cypherrrino