A day after Spirit let him go, the captain who won the Shanghai Major has confirmed he will not play again.
Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov has retired as a professional player. The 29-year-old confirmed the decision to HLTV on Saturday evening, one day after Team Spirit parted ways with him and more than ten years after his career began.
In his statement, chopper thanked the two organisations he spent most of his career with, Vega Squadron and Spirit, and singled out Spirit as the place where he grew up as a player:
In Team Spirit, I established myself as a player, evolved professionally and improved my media skills. Besides, here I achieved the major milestones of my career.
He also thanked Nikolay “Certus”, who gave him the IGL role, and coach Sergey “hally”, with whom he “learned to win”. He signed off to the fans with a hint at what he does now: “Thank you for being there for us, and see you on the streams!”
No way back as a player
The statement settles a question that had hung over chopper since Spirit benched him on 18 December 2025. He has streamed and worked as a community caster since then, and in October he wrote on Telegram that he was finished, Hawk Live reported:
I won’t be playing anymore. In the future, I’ll consider coaching, but as a player, I’m done. I’m completely burned out from my pro career.
Saturday’s statement makes it official. It says nothing about coaching, so that door is still the only one he has left ajar.
The captain behind donk
chopper came through the Russian scene and joined Vega Squadron in November 2016. Vega reached four Majors with him, from PGL Major Kraków 2017 to IEM Katowice 2019, and won China Top 2017.
Spirit signed him in March 2019, and he became the team’s in-game leader. Apart from three months on the bench between November 2021 and February 2022, he kept the role until December 2025. His first Major playoff run came at PGL Major Antwerp 2022, where Spirit lost to FaZe in the semi-finals.
The real turn came in July 2023, when Spirit promoted donk from the academy. With sh1ro, zont1x and magixx around them, chopper built a system that gave the teenager as much room as possible, and the trophies followed.
Spirit’s biggest wins under his calling:
- IEM Katowice 2024
- BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
- BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024
- Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024
- BLAST Bounty Spring 2025
- PGL Astana 2025
- IEM Cologne 2025
- BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
The Major was the peak. On 15 December 2024 Spirit beat FaZe 2-1 in the Shanghai final, three years after chopper had promised on X that he would not give up before he had won one.
He played his last Major with Spirit at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, where they lost to Team Vitality in the semi-finals. Five days later he was on the bench, and magixx took over the calling.
Spirit head to the PGL Major Singapore with magixx calling, while chopper has no team left to return to.
