Yesterday the ASUS Autumn 2008 edition started in Moscow (Russia), with our very own ESWC Champion Alexey 'Cypher' Yanushevsky participating in both the 1v1 and the 2v2 Quake 3 tournament. In the 2v2 Alexey is teaming up with his fellow countryman and friend eNeMy.

ASUS Autumn 2008 had a pretty strong list of competitors such as Russian star Anton 'Cooller' Singov and Fan 'RazerJ' Zhibo. The tournament has a random factor to it since it is played in a best of one format, only the Grand Final and Consolidation Final are played in a best of three format. Maps will be picked randomly which creates even more room for upsets.

In the first round Cypher faced Ars)K1ller at ztntourney and won with clear figures: 40-0. The second round pared Cypher with PEOPLE on T4: 26-12. From round 3 the opponents were getting better, and Question on a map like hub is no free win. With a convincing 53-25 victoty Cypher showed his form was slowly getting better.

Especially considering the opponent in round 4 was Quake legend Cooller on the map dm6. The last time both players met was at the ESWC Masters of Athens. In a do or die situation Cooller seemed to be on his way to win the first map of this match, only seeing his last hopes vanish by a telefrag. On this occasion Cooller was very close again, coming back in the last minute of the game, but his last run failed 1 frag. Cypher won the map and match with 14-13 and advanced into the Upper Bracket Final in which Chinese RazerJ was waiting.

In the UB Final RazerJ showed why he still amongst the best players out there. He beated Cypher 12-9 on dm6, knocking Cypher into the Lower Bracket where he again would meet Question. In a best of three match Cypher pulled off a 2-0 victory winning ztntourney 29-8 and hub 31-28.

In the Grand Final versus RazerJ it was Cypher's task to win two best off three series to be victorious, whereas RazerJ only needed 1 since he won the UB Final. The first map of the first bo3 series, ztntourney, was very close and mentally very important. Cypher managed to draw first blood by taking it 8-6. The second map, T4, was also a close game in which both players throughout the match managed to keep eachother on very low health and in which we saw a lot of momentum changes. Cypher again managed to get the upper hand and won 26-22, and thus the first bo3 series.

In the second bo3 series the starting map was hub. Cypher started with good spirit and transformed that into an easy win: 44-16. RazerJ, winner of the UB final, now found himself in the uncomfortable position of not being allowed to lose one other map. Dm9 was the map of choice and without being in any real danger throughout the match, Cypher won the last map and the first place of this ASUS Autumn 2008. The final score was 17-12. With this strong performance Cypher won 10.000 Roebels.

Grand Final 2nd Best of Three:

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	F
srs.razer.Cypher	44	17	-	-	-	2
RazerJ	16	12	-	-	-	0
Start time: November 16th, 12.00 CET
GTV: games1.olympus.ru:27960 Coverage:
Maps: hub, dm9

Grand Final 1st Best of Three:

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	F
srs.razer.Cypher	8	26	-	-	-	2
RazerJ	6	22	-	-	-	0
Start time: November 16th, 12.00 CET
GTV: games1.olympus.ru:27960 Coverage:
Maps: ztn, t4