Spirit Academy has been one of the most hyped academy teams in CS:GO recently after some excellent results. Three of the players have now officially been promoted to the main squad, where they will be under the guidance of the more experienced players Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov and Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev.

Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, Artem "⁠ArtFr0st⁠" Kharitonov, and Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia will be the new faces on the main roster with Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets standing out as one of the most exciting young prospects in CS:GO. At the age of just 16, the young Russian has already put up some very impressive stats rating 1.22 in the last three months.

The three players replace Robert "Patsi" Isyanov (Team Liquid), Pavel 's1ren' Ogloblin (transferlisted), and Igor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov (transferlisted).

{cflag:RU} Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov

{cflag:RU} Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets

{cflag:RU} Artem "⁠ArtFr0st⁠" Kharitonov

{cflag:UA} Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia

chopper

magixx

donk

Artfr0st

zont1x

Spirit

Ninjas in Pyjamas is ready for the quarter-finals after they took down MIBR in a 16-13 victory on Nuke. NIP with k0nfig as a stand-in played a poor CT side but with great calls from Aleksib, the mixed European team managed to secure themselves their first victory at IEM Katowice 2023 on the T side. 

Ninjas in Pyjamas will face Spirit, who took down Grayhound in a convincing victory. The quarter-final between NIP and Spirit will take place today at 16:00 (CET).

MIBR will take on Grayhound in the lowe-bracket on Thursday at 19:30 (CET) for another chance at advancing in the tournament. 

 Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin – 1.59 Rating | 29-20 K/D | 105.4 ADR | 75.9% KAST

 Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov – 1.74 Rating | 21-8 K/D | 97.2 ADR | 95.5% KAST

Brollan

Ninjas in Pyjamas

MIBR

Grayhound

The Russians from Spirit have done it again.

For the second time in a row, the CIS squad has managed to qualify for the playoff stage and go Top 8 at a Major championship proving a lot of people and their Pick’ems wrong.  

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We spoke with Spirit’s captain and IGL Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov following their impressive victory against Liquid yesterday. In the interview, we asked him about what gave Spirit the edge in taking down the powerful North Americans.

You can watch the entire interview with chopper down below. 

In their next matchup at IEM Rio Major, chopper and Spirit are set to go up against Heroic in the quarterfinals. The series against the Danes will be played on Friday at 18:00 (CET) inside the huge Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. The entire playoff schedule can be found down below.

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Team Liquid

A place in the Grand Final was at the line when FaZe and Spirit stepped onto the stage in Antwerp. FaZe were the favorites, but Spirit pushed them the whole way.

To kick off the action, the teams headed to FaZe's pick of Mirage. Spirit came into the match as the highest-rated CT team in the tournament but had enormous problems shutting down the FaZe offense. Especially hard was it to put a stop to "rain" who bulldozed his way through everything in the first 15 rounds which gave FaZe a five-round lead.

The second half was way closer than what we saw in the first. "chopper" called a great T side, and with the help of some big individual plays from his squad they clawed their way back into the game. FaZe was a tad too sharp though and took the victory at 16-13.

The action continued on Dust2 where it was once again FaZe that started in control, but this time on the CT side. "rain" was still hot after a fantastic Mirage performance and was causing problems for the Spirit offense. The Russians did pick up some impressive rounds in the middle of the half and were only behind by three rounds at halftime.

"chopper" who was surprisingly Spirit's best performer on Mirage, was also a key player here on Dust2. From the front, he led his team not only back in the game, but in the lead. The Russians found match point at 15-13 but unfortunately could not close it out, and FaZe took it to OT.

The map needed three overtimes as Spirit failed to convert on three more map points throughout the first two. And that would be their undoing as FaZe took advantage once they reached map point for the first time, and the map came to a close at 25-23, and FaZe are headed to the Grand Final

[twitchClip:leetesport/clip/ClumsyPuzzledEggnogBrokeBack-IUs__rfgYfqhxk_K]

FaZe - Spirit 2-0 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

16-13 (Mirage) | {cflag:NO} rain - 1.55 Rating / 29-20 K-D / 104.7 ADR

25-23 (Dust2) | {cflag:RU} chopper - 1.26 Rating / 37-33 K-D / 96.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:NO} Håvard "rain" Nygaard - 1.33 Rating / 65-53 K-D / 94.7 ADR

rain

FaZe

There are eight spots left for the Antwerp Major next month. All of them are on the line in the European RMR Group B.

Here we give you a run-through of the teams, that we have placed in different brackets; Favorites, Contenders, and Outsiders. This article will feature our picks for the Outsider's category.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"teams/Spirit/spirit_sknaew","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: StarLadder Igor Bezborodov"}]

If this was one or two years ago, then we would have had Spirit among the contenders or even the favourites in a group like this. However, the Russian side is nowhere near their peak level from previous years as we have seen them drop down the rankings and not qualifying for the top-tier tournaments.

This RMR tournament will work as the first big test of their new roster after bringing in the youngsters Patsi and s1ren. The big question mark will undoubtedly be their amount of firepower, or more the lack of it.

Player to watch: {cflag:RU} Abdul “degster” Gasanov was once of CS:GO’s most promising talents - But alongside Spirit, the AWPer has dropped off quite significantly. It will be interesting to see whether degster can return to his former top-level and help Spirit snatch a Major ticket.

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is another exciting team to follow in this PGL Major Antwerp qualifier. Going into this year, the Czechs lost their talisman in the former mousesports profile Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný. A roster move, which looks like to have bruised the team a bit so far, with SINNERS not having been able to stabilize themselves as a solid top 30 team.

With that being said, SINNERS can still do a lot of damage in a group like this. Especially looking at their promising trio in NEOFRAG, forsyy, and SHOCK.

Player to watch: {cflag:CZ} Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar seems like the man who’s taken over as the star player after oskar’s exit. And it’s with good reason, with the 20-year-old rifler averaging a solid 1.16 Rating over the last 12 months.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/slaxz_sprout_gyday7","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":1080,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: ESL"}]

The Germans from Sprout are a bit tough to figure out. Sometimes we see them in Top 20 and participating in big tournaments week after week – but on the other hand, we also see them change rosters and show lacklustre results in tier-3/4 events. And in most recent times, it has been more of the latter.

It didn’t strengthen Sprout’s chances of qualifying for the Major, when it came out that they will have to play with their head coach, BERRY, as a stand-in due to Staehr being sick. But if they find their groove and raalz finds a great set-up, they might be able to qualify.

Players to watch: {cflag:DE} Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich (in the picture above) has been Sprout’s best-performing player in 2022 and his level will surely be a decisive factor for the Germans' success at the event.

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Lastly we have the underdogs. Here we have a quartet of teams that will have to bring their absolute A-game and all their lucky charms if they wish to book a spot at the $1 Million Major championship next month.

The first round of Group B will start Thursday.

Endpoint

Sangal

Sprout

SinnerS

Anonymo

After three months without a full roster, Team Spirit returns to CS:GO with a new lineup led by Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov as the captain and in-game leader. The Russians have decided to round off the roster by promoting the 19-year-old Pavel "⁠s1ren⁠" Ogloblin from Spirit Academy.

Nikita Chukalin, CEO Team Spirit has stated the following concerning today’s news:

- We feel like the players needed this break to reset and re-energize towards this season. Young rookies, a new head coach, and a heightened competitive hunger should all help our CS:GO roster reach new heights. Sometimes you have to take two steps back, to move forward. I hope this is our case. We definitely do not expect instant victories in all competitions, but we look forward to systematic progress from tournament to tournament, Chukalin stated.

{cflag:RU} Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev (coach)

s1ren

degster

Patsi

Following the crazy transfer-news regarding Astralis and their new-look lineup, having been just made official is new roster changes within the Spirit organization. Announced on their Twitter page the Russian duo of Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov and Nikolay "mir" Bityukov has been moved to the bench of the organization and has been placed on the transfer-market for new teams to make an offer. 

The roster change will be of immediate effect, meaning that both "chopper" and "mir" will not be participating at DreamHack Open November alongside their, now former, teammates. In place of the two experienced players will instead be the young IGL in Robert "Patsi" Isyanov from Spirit's academy team and the 17-year-old rifler Aleksandr "KaiR0N-" Anashkin. 

The organization released the following statement in their official announcement on Twitter: 

The Spirit roster, going into DreamHack Open November, looks as follows: 

KaiR0N-

The third legend spot from the Challenger stage belongs to Virtus.pro. The CIS roster won their third match in the opening stage of the Major to qualify for the next stage with a narrow 2-1 against Team Spirit.

The action started on Inferno with a close first half, but from there on everything fell apart for Team Spirit. It started with a stupid mistake by Victor “sdy” Orudzhev who accidentally stabbed his own in-game leader  Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov in the back, leaving his teammate with little health in the pistol round in the second half. Virtus.pro won the pistol round and the next seven rounds to win the map.

[twitchVideo:pgl/clip/CarelessIncredulousJuiceTwitchRaid-ceUyYSTJMhiDyeiE]

Team Spirit had chosen Ancient as map number two. But quickly they had to realize, that Virtus.pro came well prepared. Nothing seemed to work for Team Spirit, who could see Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev go 12-0 in K-D before finally winning a round at 0-7 down. 

Spirit was trailing for the rest of the first half trying to catch up. On their CT-side the Russian roster managed to make the game much more even, and through some very solid defensive plays, they destroyed Virtus.pro. Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev went 20-5 in the second half alone!

Overpass was set as the decider. Here the two teams started by trading rounds until the halftime break. In the second half, it became evident, that it was Spirit, who had found themselves a momentum. In-game Dzhami 'Jame' Ali had a rough time on the map, where he was outgunned by Abdul 'degster' Gasanov, who finally after two slow maps had started to heat up. Despite multiple rounds of opening kills going in favor of Virtus.pro, they could not convert them to round wins and went behind 14-8. Two-round wins separated Team Spirit from a ticket to the Legends stage, but then they froze. Virtus.pro managed to tie the game up at 15-15 and forced the match to overtime. 

Here Virtus.pro was finally able to get the better of Spirit, who seemed to have lost their momentum again. VP won the match 19-15 and is through to the Legend stage at PGL Stockholm. Team Spirit will have to win tomorrow against another 2-2 team to make it to the next stage.

Team Spirit - Virtus.pro 1-2 | PGL Stockholm Major Challengers Stage

7-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:LV} YEKINDAR – 1.36 Rating / 19-13 K-D / 86.1 ADR

16-12 (Ancient) | {cflag:UA} sdy – 1.36 Rating / 21-14 K-D / 92.1 ADR

15-19 (Overpass) | {cflag:KZ} buster – 1.40 Rating / 31-20 K-D / 99.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:KZ} Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev – 1.31 Rating / 69-50 K-D / 88.0 ADR

qikert

somedieyoung

Virtus.pro

Three Ukrainian in the top three of best-rated players at the event so far, a perfect performance, especially by SENSEi who has played maybe the best event of his career.

Watch some highlights from SENSEi´s career here:

If you think of a Ukrainian superstar, it will forever be the man, the myth s1mple and of course, he is to be seen at the top of the ratings, only defeated by SENSEi.

Gambit has been outrageously good this year, but it seems like the gear has dropped a little in the last weeks, maybe the team needs a little break after all these tournaments.

But Gambit is playing against Nemiga, and possibly the stat sheet will be updated after this match.

SENSEi

s1mple

Gambit Esports

The Bulgarians from Fiend came very close to making the first upset at DreamHack Masters Spring. After having won Mirage, the two former Windigo players Kamen 'bubble' Kostadinov and Viktor 'v1c7oR' Dyankov had every chance to eliminate Team Spirit on Overpass with their younger teammates on Fiend. At 15-13, they had the chance after having planted the bomb but lost the 3vs4 situation. In overtime, they could see an ignited Abdul 'degster' Gasanov settle the score and force the match to be decided on Nuke.

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Here it felt like, that Fiend had the lost momentum, that had carried them into almost winning the match. On the scoreboard, it translated into a 12-3 lead at the break for Spirit, where mir, magixx, and chopper all were making life tough for the Bulgarians.

Spirit made the last push on their CT-side to win the match and advance in the lower brackets, while Fiend is out after a very fine performance.

Team Spirit - Fiend 2-1 | DreamHack Masters Spring 2021

9-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:BG} bubble – 2.01 Rating / 119.4 ADR / 31-10 K/D

19-17 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} degster – 1.50 Rating / 92.6 ADR / 38-23 K/D

16-6 (Nuke) | {cflag:RU} chopper – 1.68 Rating / 94.7 ADR / 20-11 K/D

MVP: {cflag:BG} Kamen 'bubble' Kostadinov - 1.20 Rating / 70-50 K-D / 81.3 ADR

bubble

v1c7oR

Fiend

On Friday, Spirit managed to come out on top after an exciting battle in the quarter-final at BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, which saw the Russian-Ukrainian side take down Dignitas 2-1 to book a spot in the semi-finals.

[slugRMA:spirit-eliminate-dignitas-progress-semi-finals]

Spirit’s Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov has found his way to our Pley of the Day, even though he slipped at the very end in his crazy clutch attempt. So unlucky…

Today’s first matchup from BLAST Premier Spring Showdown featured two strong in-form teams in Spirit against Extra Salt. Two teams that both are coming into the match with great records, and both have presented stellar levels so far in 2021.

However today on the server, the difference between the Russian dragons and the North Americans were enormous. It was quickly displayed that Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov and his troops were quite the superior factor, as Spirit took home the first map on Train with a comfortable 16-10 win.

On Dust2 Spirit’s Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev presented two outstanding pistol rounds where the Ukrainian showboated his insane aim by tapping numerous Extra Salt heads. The strong performance by sdy and chopper on their own map pick, led the strong CIS team to a much-needed win, while Extra Salt suffer an early exit from the event.

Spirit – Extra Salt (2-0) | BLAST Premier Spring Showdown

16-10 (Train) | degster – 1.70 Rating / 28-13 K-D / 93.6 ADR

16-8 (Dust 2) | chopper – 1.62 Rating / 22-17 K-D / 80.4 ADR

Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov – 1.52 Rating / 42-28 K-D / 89.1 ADR

[twitchClip:BadDistinctSwallowTBTacoRight-PewqcoupgvPcMbti]

Extra Salt

Pistol rounds have always been a major part of Counter-Strike, even more previously than now. Due to a change in the Counter-Strike economy back in 2019, it is less detrimental to the game now than in the earlier stages. However, a pistol round win is always favorable and can grant you up to two additional "easier" rounds. But which team has had the most success with its pistol rounds in 2021? The answer is Team Spirit.

With a win% of 61.1%, there should be no doubt that these CIS players are dangerous with their secondary gun. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for Team Spirit's great success so far in 2021. Whether or not they can keep posting these impressive numbers throughout 2021 remains to be unknown, but one thing is for sure - you can never count Team Spirit out of a pistol round. 

You can look forward to seeing more of Team Spirit against other top-tier teams when BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021 starts tomorrow (13/4). Team Spirit is set to face Extra Salt in their first Bo3-series of the event on Wednesday at 12:30 (CET). 

The roster of Team Spirit looks as follows: 

Ninjas in Pyjamas, Spirit, and Gambit all made it through Day 1 at IEM Katowice Play-in and qualified for the main event. The three teams had good help from excellent performances from some of their key players.

Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov tops the ratings after three solid maps for Spirit sporting a 1.45 rating. His 1.82 in K/D ratio is also the absolute best of all on Day1.

[twitchVideo:esl_csgob/clip/TastyInterestingRadishKappaRoss-pTVumwhf-e6xWrQl]

Both Hobbit and Plopski are rated at 1.44 after the first day. 

[twitchVideo:esl_csgob/clip/OptimisticTriumphantPotHeyGuys-k5FLNBHX6BMXJMjt]

Hobbit

Plopski

mantuu

For the second time this year, Berlin International Gaming (BIG) has lost a match to Spirit. The Russian underdog once again bested BIG in the upper bracket quarter-final at the IEM Katowice Play-in. The victory secures Spirit a spot at the main tournament at IEM Katowice.

The advantage for Spirit was established on a good T-side on Overpass. With an 11-4 lead they did not let go and took home the map. Leonid '

' Vishnyakov was instrumental for the Russians with a solid performance.

BIG picked Mirage as the second map of the match. Once again "chopper" and Spirit started phenomenally and cruised home a 10-5 lead at halftime. In the second half, BIG was close to making a comeback but was denied after some intense rounds in the end. 

While Spirit is ready for the main tournament at IEM Katowice, BIG will have to win an elimination match tomorrow against the winner of fnatic and MIBR to qualify.

MVP: chopper - 1.46 rating / 53-29 K-D / 94 ADR

[twitchVideo:esl_csgob/clip/OutstandingTenaciousElephantOptimizePrime-7WvPCEwDwkCMcxYl]

The Russian organization of Spirit had their breakout year in 2020, peaking at an official ranking of 13th. in the world. Towards the end, however, the team had slumped in their performance and experienced difficulty with keeping their heads above water. In an interview with HLTV.org, Head Coach of 4 years, Nikolay "Certus" Poluyanov explained that it was difficult to keep performing near the end of 2020: 

"We grew more and more fatigued towards the end of the year, there was no longer any strength to analyze our defeats, draw conclusions, fix mistakes, and conduct all the necessary work in practice."

The Spirit organization made a change in the roster in January 2021, bringing in a new AWP'er in Abdul "degster" Gasanov. This meant, to many people's surprise, the removal of the team's former AWP'er Artem "iDISBALANCE" Egorov, despite him averaging a rating of 1.12 in 2020. Certus explains, however, that the new signing of "degster" was due to changes in their approach to the game, and not due to "iDISBALANCE": 

"We decided to remove iDISBALANCE because we wanted to change our game, and to do that we needed a more aggressive sniper." He further states "However, I’d like to state that Artem is an incredible player and teammate, and his lack of consistency was due to the tasks we assigned to him in the game."

Coming from a first-place finish at the DreamHack Open January event, the future seems as bright as ever for the Spirit roster. When asked about Spirit's future and their goals in-game leader Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov answered: 

"Our team has the highest goals, we aim to break into the top 10 and stay there, to participate in every tier-one tournament while we gradually improve our team play and become a more stable team internationally."

You can read the full interview with Spirit right here: 

[link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/31196/spirit-coach-certus-degster-is-a-great-asset-but-he-can-play-much-better-than-hes-playing-now-we-will-work-on-that"}]

iDISBALANCE

As 2020 comes to an end, we take a look at the teams, that reached top 20 on HLTV's ranking.

Team Spirit is one of the few top teams, that has not had roster changes in 2020. The core of the team was gathered in late September 2019 and has since then climbed the rankings from almost being out of the top 50 in the world to continue being in the Top 20 since April 2020.

At ESL Pro League Season 12 Team Spirit made it out of the group stages to the surprise of many. They managed to secure wins against NiP, FaZe, mousesports, and Team Vitality.

In the playoffs, the Russians were handed a defeat to BIG and the later winners from Astralis, who eliminated them in the lower bracket.

The massive downfall in the DreamHack Open Final against Gambit. The Russians had taken the first map, but only managed to win 15 rounds in the next three maps in the BO5 Grand Final. 

The team is qualified for the IEM Katowice Play-in, which will be the first major goal for the roster. 16 teams will play for 8 tickets to the main event. The Russian side will have to find the same quality, as they found in mid-2020.

20: Godsent [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-godsent/"}]

Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has proven time and time again that he’s one of the best players in the world. His mechanical skills and his excellent game sense makes him capable to win every single round in every single situation. 

The Natus Vincere star showcased these skills in this FPL match against pros as NiP’s youngster Plopski, chopper from Spirit, and the one-tap legend ScreaM.

[twitchVideo:s1mple/clip/RepleteEnthusiasticMageCeilingCat]

The series began on North’s map pick Overpass, and the Danes started out red hot. North managed to win 11 rounds in a row on a fantastic T-side, resulting in an impressive 11-4 score at halftime. But the Danes couldn’t bring the same level into the second half and Spirit dismantled the Danish side beating them 12-1. Even a heroic aizy, producing a 31-22 k/d and a 1.50 rating couldn’t avoid the comeback from Spirit and save North from the 16-12 defeat.

A clearly frustrated MSL went to Twitter saying “Never been more tilted about a CT side in my life”

The second map on Dust2 was almost a direct replication of the first map. North produced yet again a stellar first half resulting in a 9-6 advantage going into the second half. But once again, with way too many mistakes and individual errors, North only managed to win four rounds in the second half as T’s, which meant that Spirit could take the confident 2-0 victory.  

Once again a very frustrated IGL from North who acknowledged the great number of mistakes from his side.

Spirit looked on the contrary very sharp and was efficient in punishing the mistake from North. Their captain and IGL Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov lead the way with a strong performance. They also showed great character by being able to come back from tough situations two maps in a row.

Spirit advance to the upper final where they will meet the winner of the K23 – Sprout matchup. North on the other hand is being sent down in to the dangerous lower bracket.

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

chopper

Player stats

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Spirit announce new roster for 2022 season

mir and chopper benched and transferlisted

Virtus.pro through to Legends stage after three map thriller

Ukrainian domination at EPIC League CIS 2021

Spirit stays alive after Bulgarian scare

Pley of the Day: chopper chokes in crazy clutch attempt

Strong Russians batter Extra Salt at BLAST Showdown

Team Spirit - Pistol round gods

Plopski, chopper, and Hobbit tops ranking at IEM Katowice

Spirit upsets BIG and qualifies for IEM Katowice

Certus: "We needed a more agressive AWP'er"

Spotlight on the Top 20: Spirit

“That’s how we play guys” - s1mple makes incredible 1v5 ace

The Russian dragons takes down harmless Danes

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