rapha is world #1 at IEM finals

Shane "rapha" Hendrixson broke European hearts at the IEM World Championship in Germany today as he powered past Anton "Cooller" Singov to claim the title of QuakeLive's undisputed number one. The American was made to work hard for his first place after going up against Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski and Alexey "Cypher" Yanushevsky in previous rounds and nobody will begrudge him the $10,000 first prize and all the plaudits to go with it.

Fans will look back on a final that could have gone so differently, however, with Hendrixson narrowly winning both his opening maps by just a single frag. His mousesports opponent fought back in an overtime thriller on DM13 but was eventually undone in a nail-biting decider on DM6. Singov can look back on his best performance of the season as well as a $4,000 prize cheque but the Russian will have to feel he's missed an opportunity that may not be had again.

Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski meanwhile claimed third place versus Serious-Gaming teammate Alexey "Cypher" Yanushevsky but both will feel they had more to offer at this tournament. The latter looked as helpless as ever versus "rapha" in the semis while Krzykowski was second best for once versus "Cooller" as he was dumped out at the same stage. The pair don't look like disappearing anytime soon though and Quake fans can expect to see a lot more of them and the other IEM finalists as 2010 progresses.

Intel Extreme Masters Season IV Final Standings

Shane "rapha" Hendrixson ($10,000)
Anton "Cooller" Singov ($4,000)
Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski ($1,600)
4th Alexey "Cypher" Yanushevsky ($800)
5th/6th Magnus "fox" Olsson ($600)
5th/6th Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty ($600)
7th/8th Alessandro "stermy" Avallone ($400)
7th/8th Kevin "strenx" Baeza ($400)
9th/10th Zhibo "Jibo" Fan
9th/10th Thomas "griffin" Wall
11th/12th Chance "Chance" Lacina
11th/12th Brian "dkt" Flander

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