Sagacité (gamer)
 Sagacité during the 2021 Avatar World Championship | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Cyriac Adeodat Asotriani |
| National team |  Tengaria |
| Born | January 1, 1994 Vesti, Tengaria |
| Education | University of Lenovo |
| Years active | 2014-present |
| Spouse(s) | Andreea (Blaga) Asotriani (m. 2017) |
| Other interests | Philosophy |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Avatar |
| Position | Mid-laner |
| Team | U.L. Philosophers (2011-2014) Nebe (2014-2016) S5 Gaming (2016-) |
| Achievements and titles | |
| World finals | 2022 |
| Regional finals | 2023, 2022, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2013 |
Cyriac Asotriani (born January 1, 1994), better known as Sagacité, is a Tengarian professional Avatar player for S5 Gaming. He is best known for his role as an original member and now team leader of successful S5 gaming, a team with consistent success at the global level for Avatar. He is considered one of the premier Avatar players in the world and he is notable for holding the record of World Championship appearances, currently at his 9th appearance, as well as the record number of WEAL Championships, at 6. He also was the team leader for S5's victory at the 2022 Avatar World Championship.
One of the first players in Western Euclea to get into Avatar, he first began to enter the competitive scene when he studied at the University of Lenovo, and was one of the original key players in the growing West Euclea market. There the University team became the first representatives of the West Euclea region at the very first Avatar World Championship in 2013. Do to his talent, he began playing professionally following his degree, becoming a member of the Tengarian team Nebe for the 2015 season. In 2016, he was signed by the new S5 Gaming, which took best talent from across the entirety of the Samorspi. Although talented, he did not play a leadership role on the team until the 2021 season, but consistently performed strongly, helping the team to reach second place in 2018. In 2022, he participated in the 2022 Summer Invictus Games playing for Tengaria, while also leading S5 to its first ever World Championship in the same year.
Due to the longevity of his career, he earned several milestones, being the first player to play 100 Avatar World Championship matches in 2020, and the first player to win 50 matches in the same year. He currently holds the record for most matches played at the World Championships, with a record 141, as well as the highest total number of kills. In the WEAL, he became the first person to surpass 300 matches, as well as the first person to win over 200 matches.
Outside of the sport, he has a notable interest in the discussion and study of philosophy, as well as for his engagement with fans as well as the sport as a whole.
Early Life
Cyriac was born in the town of Vesti, Tengaria, on January 1st, 1994. His father, Vasile, was a lawyer, while his mother Zora stayed in the house. Cyriac was a well-performing student, who enjoyed to read. Philosophy became his favourite area of study, although he enjoyed the majority of his subjects. Cyriac described himself as an "avid reader" who enjoyed reading a wide variety of books both in and out of school, and continued to study even outside of the classroom. His success in his studies earned him a place at the University of Lenovo, considered the top school in the country, where he planned to study and become a philsopher. He began attending college in 2011, with the intention of pursuing an eventual doctorate in philosophy.
In addition to books and studying, Cyriac also enjoyed playing video games, almost entirely on a computer, as he has said that he never owned a console. He was one of the first who began playing Avatar outside of Dezevau in the middle two-thousands when he was in his early teens. He found he had a knack for the game, and continued playing as it soon began to explode in popularity. He initially went under the username "Șienta", which he would use until 2013. He participated and won at several localised events in Tengaria, but believed that he could not make a career out of it at the time, continuing to pursue it more as a hobby.
Collegiate Career
While at the University, he found other players who played Avatar, and having a common passion with them, decided to form a team. Although not an official school organisation, it was able to flourish in the widely unchartered Western Euclean gaming scene as an amateur team. Nicknamed the "Philosophers", what began as a group to have fun soon turned into a well-knit and competitive team. Cyriac was considered the best player on the team in terms of mechanics and skills, but was happy to allow his friend Daniel Arece (known as Prave) to take the leadership position. After they started earning money from tournament prizes and other events, Cyriac began to consider esporting as a possible career.
In 2013, Glace unveiled that they would be starting a World Championship. Because the events would be in Gaullican, he changed his profile name to Sagacité, a name he has kept to this present day. He and the team trained to have a shot at playing on the world stage. Using the prize money that had recieved from other tournaments, they managed to win the Samistopol Expo tournament and thus won a spot at the inaguaral AWC tournament, when Sagacité was only 17 years old. It was a much more modest affair than later tournaments, but it marked the first time that Cyriac had gotten to meet with the wider Avatar community, as well as giving him a taste of the competitive scene. Although the Philsophers did not win the tournament, but managed to clinch a very respectable third place.
Despite successes in 2014, the team failed to win the Samistopol Expo in the finals, and thus could not come back to repeat their chance at a new victory at the World level. In addition, at the end of the year, the group was disbanded as the members of the team acquired their degrees and went on to pursue other fields of study. Sagacité, along with Prave, had decided to make Avatar their career after University and become professional esporting athletes.
Professional Career
Nebe (2014-2016)
Sagacité and Prave decided to collaborate with other Tengarian Avatar players to form a new professional team to be a contender in the Avatar scene, and called it "Nebe", a word which means "of the sky". Because Sagacité and Prave had some recognition due to their appearance in the World Championship, they were able to get the team sponsored by Gorduxu, an small outdoors company. Although formed in 2014, the team would only have a shot to get the AWC for the Season of 2015. However, that year saw some major restructuring by Glace, the qualification was not provided by Samistopol Expo, but instead required teams to join the newly structured West Euclean Avatar League (WEAL). Nebe joined the newly formed WEAL, now with an established season, at the end of which only one team would advance on to worlds. After a close season, Nebe lost its chance to progress to the Soravian team "Strikers", led by Cheslav Ungern (known by Underd0g). Despite the disappointment, Nebe had performed well in the WEAL season, and Glace announced that in the next season there would be two slots open to the WEAL.
S5 Gaming (2016-present)
In 2016, under the suggestion of Underd0g, Samorspi chose to launch a unique program- have a jointly sponsored and funded set of teams that took the best talent from all the Samorspi countries to form strong teams. This would give West Euclea a chance to peform very highly at the international level consistently, as well as to balance out the wealthy East Euclean poaching the talent with money. Sagacité, being the other major West Euclean player at the time was also approached. He supported such an idea in theory, but wondered what would happen to Nebe should he leave it, as he had become the team's backbone and primary player. He decided to try out and take his chance alongside Prave, before making a final decision. Sagacité passed the tryout with the highest score, which allowed for Samorspi to offer him a spot on the team Underd0g would be the leader of, the team that would become known as S5 Gaming. Prave was offered a position on the other team was known as Team Ace, and both accepted their offers, leaving team Nebe to be bereft of its two primary players.
Although was now no longer on the same team as Prave, he grew acclimated to a new life in Soravia where the team was based. He found that he enjoyed the security and rigour the Samorspi program had, and became very attached to life with S5 Gaming. The team began to work well together, and managed to easily secure the WEAL regional title after a very successful season. This brought Sagacité back to the World Championship, and it was already a much larger and grander affair. S5 Gaming managed to take 5th place in the tournament in its first appearance. Although not the face of the team, Sagacité very quietly would make a name for himself in the next few years, avoiding the limelight but consistently putting up high-quality performances, if not as spectacular or flashy as other players. Although they lost the WEAL title in 2017, S5 still made it to the AWC.
In 2018, when the World Championship was hosted in Lenovo, Sagacité's recognition increased as one of the hometown players, alongside his old friend Prave, playing his last season for Team Ace. He contributed to S5's eventual taking of second place during the World Championship that year, losing at a chance at their first world title to Red Rockers from the Brown Sea region. It was the best performance of a West Euclean team since 2013's third place finish. By this point, his longevity and his consistency marked him as one of the premier players in the game. The team would place 4th in the 2019 AWC, having also successfully taken the WEAL title two years in a row, marking the fifth time he had reach the World level.
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S5 Gaming would face issues with Underd0g's retirement and replacement as team leader by the Soravian rising star volo_city. The 2020 season was beset with difficulties and struggles between teammates over volo_city's leadership, which Sagacité tried to ameliorate. Although there was public controversy on the leadership of the team, with many fans demanding that Sagacité take over as team leader, Sagacité tried his hardest to avoid the drama and get the team back on track peacefully. Despite an abundance of talent, the team's cohesion was extremely low for the 2020 season. As such, the team had their worst overall performance in team history, but still managed to place in the World Championships, a fact that some commentators attributed to Sagacité's skill. At the end of the season, volo_city was let go, and Sagacité was assigned to take over as team leader.
In 2021, S5 bounced back to have a successful season, although they ended up losing to Team Ace in the West Euclea championship. Sagacité and S5 managed to get the third highest placement in the Round Robin, but ended up placing 4th in the overall rankings after losing in a close set of matches with Team Ace. Still, it was a respectable placement, and showed the team's rebound after the results of the disasterous 2020 season. In 2022, S5 finally reclaimed the Western Euclea title after two years of losing to Team Ace, before the team swept the 2022 World Championship. During this championship, Sagacité cemented his reputation in the Avatar world, and it marked the first time in 8 appearances when his team had successful taken the title of World Champions.
After the triumphant 2022 season, some fans and commentators speculated that Sagacité would retire from Avatar while still riding off of his success. However, he announced his intention to stay and keep playing the game "as long as he can be productive to the team".
Personal Life
Cyriac married to his wife Andreea (née Blaga) in an Episemialist marriage service in May of 2017. Andreea, originally from Amathia, was a player for the now defunct Avatar team Grand Citadel, who went by the gamer tag IroNLight. Cryiac first met Andreea during the 2016 Avatar World Championship, in which Grand Citadel placed fourth, while S5 placed in fifth. After retiring from gaming, Andreea became the chief e-sports correspondent and reporter for the Solarni Novini, and also does work for Avatar as a commentator. The couple has four children: Florina (2018), Adeodat (2019), Corneli (2021), and Maria (2023). Although the family's main residence is in Tengaria, for much of the year the family lives in Samistopol or follows where the team is playing.
Cyriac is fluent in five languages- Tengarian, Solarian, Soravian, Amathian, and Gaullican. He learned Tengarian and Solarian through schooling, Soravian and Gaullican through his career, and learned Amathian through his wife. In an interview, Cyriac claimed that he and his wife speak to their children in their respective mother toungues to encourage multilingualism.
In addition to his Avatar career, Sagacité engages in public outreach and philanthropy, especially in his native country of Tengaria, and is especially known for his donations to schools and relief services sponsored by the Episemialist Church, of which he is a member. He also promotes Avatar leagues and clubs in Tengaria and across Samorspi.
According to Sagacité, his hobbies include reading books and discussing philosophy, something he does outside of his gaming career. He participates in internet discussions with content creators, although he does not tend to debate as much as promote a friendly discussion. Sagacité has his own iPlay channel (of the same name) where he posts occasional content discussing more of his passion projects or his thoughts on philosophical topics.
Public Image and Controversy
As one of the most prominent players in the sport of Avatar, Sagacité has caught the attention of many fans, detractors, and commentators. The general public perception of Sagacité is a positive image, with many commentators praising his very calm and extremely diligent gameplay, as well as his off-the-court humility, generosity, and kindness towards his opponents and teammates. Sagacité tends to avoid drama, or to try and fix it, without taking a side, as was evidenced by his efforts to allow volo_city back after her reintroduction for the 2022 season. Many Avatar opponents have noted that he goes out of his way to never criticise unproductively, and to thank them any time he plays a match. In addition, his philosophy content is family-friendly, and largely centres around friendly discussions than debates. Generally, these traits make for a strong positive public image; however, detractors claim that his behaviour are for the sake of promoting the image rather than being genuine.
In addition to maintaining a positive image and reputation of one of the world's greatest Avatar players, Sagacité's career has been largely without any controversies. However, in 2019, Sagacité filmed an iPlay video alongside a prominent leftist iPlayer in order to discuss the merits of the philosophy of Yuri Nemtsov. Although the conversation was civil, his disagreement with Nemstov's philosophical principles led to a wave of public criticism by certain left-wing political users on Chirpr and other social media accounts, who claimed that Sagacité was a "reactionary" and "functionalist". Sagacité has denied that he is a functionalist, and now generally refrains from discussing political philosophies because of the controversy.
Results and Records
Official tournaments and leagues
| Year | Team | Samistopol Expo (2013-2014) West Euclea Avatar League (2015-) |
Avatar World Championship | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | W | L | K | D | A | KDA | OBJ | Title | P | W | L | K | D | A | KDA | OBJ | Title | ||
| 2013 | U.L. Philosophers | 8 | 6 | 2 | 21 | 16 | 47 | 4.25 | Champion | 7 | 4 | 3 | Third | ||||||
| 2014 | U.L. Philosophers | 8 | 5 | 3 | 19 | 19 | 48 | 3.52 | Runner-up | Did not qualify | |||||||||
| Expo Totals | 16 | 11 | 5 | 40 | 35 | 95 | 3.86 | ||||||||||||
| 2015 | Gorduxu Nebe | 18 | 10 | 8 | Runner-up | Did not qualify | |||||||||||||
| 2016 | S5 Gaming | 26 | 21 | 5 | Champion | 13 | 8 | 6 | Fifth | ||||||||||
| 2017 | S5 Gaming | 28 | 20 | 8 | Runner-up | 21 | 4 | 6 | Seventh | ||||||||||
| 2018 | S5 Gaming | 26 | 23 | 3 | Champion | 29 | 18 | 11 | Runner-up | ||||||||||
| 2019 | S5 Gaming | 27 | 21 | 6 | Champion | 24 | 13 | 11 | Fourth | ||||||||||
| 2020 | S5 Gaming | 25 | 15 | 10 | Runner-up | 11 | 4 | 7 | Tenth | ||||||||||
| 2021 | S5 Gaming | 26 | 18 | 8 | Runner-up | 25 | 13 | 12 | Fourth | ||||||||||
| 2022 | S5 Gaming | 26 | 24 | 2 | Champion | 19 | 15 | 4 | Champion | ||||||||||
| 2023 | S5 Gaming | 27 | 22 | 5 | Champion | 19 | 10 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Totals | WEAL | 211 | 164 | 47 | AWC | 168 | 89 | 69 | |||||||||||