Spirit entered 2025 as the world leaders and the team to beat in Counter-Strike, having just won the Shanghai Major.
But halfway through the year, the Russian squad has fallen out of the Top 3 and looked far from their previous dominant form, drawing criticism from Counter-Strike analyst Janko “YNk” Paunović.
In an episode of Talking Counter, the Serbian expert shared his thoughts on the team’s decision-making, claiming that Spirit “wasted” the entire first season and missed a crucial chance to promote rising star Maxim “kyousuke” Lukin.
– We foreshadowed this [in an episode in January]. What was going to happen is magixx would stay on the team because he had a great Major final, and then six after they would replace him, just wasting a season in doing so… They weren’t really a contender.
– What happened was that they didn’t just waste a season, they wasted a talent in kyousuke, who went to Falcons.
“It felt lazy”
While discussing Spirit and kyousuke joining Falcons this off-season, YNk makes an argument that the best decision was to bring him on the main team at the start of this year.
Then they wouldn’t have lost him to Falcons, he believes.
– It seems to me that if they were going to promote him in January, he would have played for Spirit.
– Because it’s not necessarily the roles overlapping with donk that were the deciding factor. It was that eventually there were NiKo and m0NESY on Falcons, and the allure of playing with them.
YNk elaborated:
– Surely, the best decision for him in January was to join Spirit, and it was absolutely the best decision for Spirit. Anyone who talks about roles and bull shit… you can make it work.
– It felt lazy. It’s the opposite of what Vitality does. They’re very proactive with their roster. If there’s an opportunity, they take it.
Spirit announced a roster change earlier this month, replacing Boris “magixx” Vorobiev with Ivan “zweih” Gogin from Nemiga.
You can watch the full episode of Talking Counter down below.
