Today we are announcing the sad departure of one of our long time players and recent champion of the ESWC Masters, the Belarussian star Alexey "cypher" Yushanevsky. Alas this news comes as a shock to most people howver Alex and Fnatic are parting ways very much as friends, but due to the language barier and Alex’s desire to play with his long time friend and also quake prodigy Av3k, Alex will join the rising team Serious Gaming.

Alex and Fnatic have had a long a healthy relationship, we picked him up after his great 2nd place finish at ESWC 2006 at Paris Bercy, so in a way it is fitting that after two years he parts us as champion of ESWC 2008 at Paris Bercy. Over the years he has competed in many events for us including WSVG tournaments in 2007, iSeries quake tournaments and finally more local tournaments with ASUS in Russia.

Sam "zr0" Mathews managing director of fnatic:

Of course Fnatic and I are upset to be losing such a talented and skilful player, as well as a member of our tight team, however it is important to always play for fun, and the ability to go and play alongside his long time friend and travel with him was an opportunity that Cypher wanted to take. We part on good terms and I expect serious gaming to take very good care of him! However with the rise of Quake Live as a possible future esports game, we will look to take on a new quake player in the very near future!

Alex for his part had this to say about his decision:

I was really glad and proud that I was with fnatic. This team has given me a a lot and I will never forget it. They were the first who found me and gave me my motivation to continue playing quake and I have learnt a lot in these 2 years and I am very happy that fnatic was near me this all time. But I left for few reasons, the main one being to be able to practise with av3k from Serious-gaming, and I really hope that my decision is the right one I want to give a big thank you to the entire fnatic team who take care of me and were good friends with me!

We would like to thank him for his time in fnatic and all the loving memories we have of him together with us. We would also like to wish him the best of luck in the ESWC Grand Finals, and Gamegune.