With all the rumors and hearsay out there, here are the two main storylines that are already set in stone for the 2026 season.
100Thieves’ new gargantuan project: +rain +gla1ve
100Thieves announced their return to CS last month alongside a betting sponsor, Roobet.
Since then it has been big names and big names only. They got storied North American in-game captain, Sean ‘seangares’ Gares and Graham ‘messioso’ Pitt to manage their new division.
That wasn’t even the half of it, as they secured Havard ‘rain’ Nygaard, Major winner and MVP to captain their squad. If that wasn’t enough, they got Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander, the most decorated leader in CS:GO history, to be the coach of the team.
Despite all of the big names, these moves have been the target of criticism by some experts, particularly about the fact that both rain and gla1ve will be taking on new roles in this roster.
Being called “100uncs” by some, there are worries that this team is too old to make it to the top-flight of CS competition.
However, Richard Lewis recently defended the signings on The Four Horsemen podcast on Last Free Nation, saying that the experienced pieces will be a good training ground for young talent.
Team Spirit’s Major debacle leads to drastic changes : -chopper -zweih, +magixx +zont1x
Despite both being benched in 2025, Boris ‘magixx’ Vorobiev and Myroslav ‘zont1x’ Plakhotia are already back on the main roster. This follows a Major crash-out with Spirit’s superstar visibly shaken and their coach furious.
After giving up a 12-6 lead against Team Vitality, their rival in 2025, their young prodigy Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets threw a visible tantrum during the Major semi-final. That led to a critical team-wide lecture by coach Sergey ‘hally’ Savaev, pointing out strategic errors in that map, available to watch via Team Spirit’s vlog.
Despite being on the team for nearly 7 years, Leonid ‘chopper’ Vishnyakov was removed from the team after that Major performance, where he won a crucial 1v3 but was at the bottom of the scoreboard. Unclear whether it was due to his ability to lead the team or find kills on the server, he was the captain for Team Spirit’s biggest wins in their history in CS.
Perhaps even more shocking is the removal of Ivan ‘zweih’ Gogin, who was just signed from Nemiga in July 2025. zweih’s performance was questionable at best during his time, but his tenure has only lasted the better part of 5 months.
