Russian

05th August 1986

Mousesports

The Mousesports mainstay has been around at the top of the Quake scene longer than most of you have been gaming and his transition into Quake Live has gone rather smooth as well. Anton "Cooller" Singov is a public favourite and will always draw a crowd with his Renglish turn-of-phrases and his contemplated style of play has seen him play a pivotal role in many a classic games throughout Quake's history.

The man from Moscow is the only one out of the DreamHack Winter 2010 favourite list to yet cash in on his Quake Live skills, not having won any event in the two years we have seen QuakeCons, DreamHacks and ESL events. He has come very close on a couple of occasions, such as his second place in last year's Intel Extreme Masters Season 4 World Championship. His play tends to be a bit inconsistent, even though he never falls outside of the TOP5 at events, sometimes taking unnecessary risks on which he gambles the entire map or match and they have cost him some matches in the past.

More recently, his form has been looking sharper, balancing his thought-out style with excellent dodging to push him past Shane "rapha" Hendrixson or Maciej "Avekkk" Krzykowski. His best performance of the Summer was undoubtedly his QuakeCon 2010 Lower Bracket run, after having been put down relatively early on by Fnatic's Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira. He took out four of the world's best players in a row, giving up only two maps across those four matches. He had now earned himself a spot in the Grand Final against Alexei "Cypher" Yanushevsky.

What a thriller that turned out to be. The match started on Lost World and the Russian Royalty completely outplayed the Belorusian and locked the map down, not giving him the time to take a breath in between kills. Both Quake Live super stars then took turns trading maps and it all came down to Eastern-Europe's home map, Blood Run. The match was exciting, yet offered few kills and had a nail-biting finish with Cypher hitting all he needed to hit to evade overtime and crown himself, once more, the winner of QuakeCon.

Every event the Russian attends and fails to win, makes him a little bit more determined to do better next time. After a two month break, following such an intensive Summer, he has been seen playing more and more in the weekly ZOTAC Duel Cups and with just one week to go before the start of both DreamHack Winter events, he is residing in Cologne, Germany to practise along rapha to get used to the LAN feeling of things. His performance still needs some twitching and tweaking, though, and these last few days will be very crucial. His rivalry with Lithuanian Marius "GUard" Ivanauskas will have left him wanting more and doing better, as he urgently needs to find a way to combat the over-aggressive style, if he wants to take home a gold medal in either competitions.

Important to note will be his reaction to a possibly disappointing result in the MSI BEAT IT Finals, as he has been struggling in the past to bounce back quickly. The removal of Vertical Vengeance and Dismemberment should play in his favour, though. He has been better on the more slower-paced maps, excluding Aerowalk, on which he simply has so much play experience to keep up with the best on it, and the map pool balance seems to have been swung to the more slower and strategized maps.

Especially his Kaspersky DreamHack group will be a tough nut to crack, featuring probably the second strongest medium seed out of the pool as well as the toughest low seed out of the pool in Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager and GUard respectively. Alessandro "Stermy" Avallone is no slouch either. The Russian has been quoted once, saying "only in first match, u can win" and history shows us he is right. His first match on Friday will be against his least preferred opponent and he will need to pull out all stops, should he wish to advance into the play-offs with an ease of mind.

Ranking:

MSI BEAT IT: TOP3
Kaspersky DreamHack Winter 2010: TOP2

American

16th March 1989

SK-Gaming

The American All-star has had an amazing 2009 year and learning Quake under the watchful eyes of the original Quake star, John "ZeRo4" Hill, has taught him everything he needed to do to not only play Quake at the highest level, but adopt the correct mindset to win events and separate yourself from the masses. It all started for him when he managed to win the Quake 3 ESWC Masters of Athens event unexpectedly and he basically never stopped winning since. He won six consecutive world-event titles and only had to be satisfied with 2nd place at the Intel Extreme Masters Season 4 American Championship against Tim "DaHang" Fogarty.

There is one golden rule concerning champions and winning streaks: they will end. The question usually focuses on the when and not how or if. Oddly enough, the home-grown QuakeCon 2010 would be the setting and place for Shane "rapha" Hendrixson's reign to end. Prior to the event, he had said he did not feel as comfortable as usual and would experience a hard event, but the way and spot he crashed out was far outside anyone's expectations. Throughout the event he was looking shaky and the gruesome schedule (as he was also playing for a CTF team there and everyone constantly had to switch between CTF and Duel) played a toll on his nerves and his usually so calm self.

The first European player he faced would immediately be the end of him, Alessandro "Stermy" Avallone was likewise having probably the Quake Live event of his life and a weak rapha could do nothing to take him out. Thinking a good night's rest would do him well, he retreated to his hotel room, however, he met another player in shape and would see his exit out of the tournament complete. It was probably the first and perhaps last time that Anton "Cooller" Singov would beat his American foe and friend so easily and needing only two maps. It was now written in stone, the American was no longer the undisputed champion and, just like the rest of them, would need to fight his way up the hill again.

He would only have one week to regain composure and analyze what exactly went wrong for him. The arduous commute between Dallas and Cologne, Germany aside, he was eager to reinvent himself and do well at the first Quake Live event of the Intel Extreme Masters Season 5. His real first threat came in the form of an unleashed Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira who immediately came up two to nought and a miracle was needed for this man of faith to crawl back into this match. Lost World was the game breaker. Usually a preferred map of the Swede, now it turned out to be a complete white-wash in favour of the SK-Gaming prodigy and he broke his opponent completely, securing the next two maps comfortably, he had surpassed his dreadful QuakeCon 2010 finish already.

The intensity of the following match between himself and his standard European training partner, Cooller was not reflected by the seemingly quick and ice-cold 3 to nothing win, as all maps could have gone either way, any other day. The Grand Final against Marcel "k1llsen" Paul nearly made everyone dust QuakeCon 2010 off as a slight bump on the road, but the German Panzerfaust used his overwhelming aim to spot and pinpoint the gaping holes in rapha's defence and would quickly exploit them to win his first major tournament and leave the American wondering what he should work on first.

His DreamHack Group gives him the perfect opportunity to restate his national dominance, as the straight-up match against DaHang would practically assure him a spot in the Playoffs. The Austrian alternative, Richard "noctis" Gansterer has been playing a lot as of late and his move towards Reason-Gaming will surely have boosted his motivation going into his first LAN and if Shane is not careful, he might get his hands burnt and as the Playoff match-up will be against the Group D players, he will need to acquire that coveted first place finish to get an advantage, however slim, over his next opponent.

Ranking:

MSI BEAT IT: TOP2
Kaspersky DreamHack Winter 2010: TOP3