On Thursday, Nemiga Gaming announced that Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov joins their CS:GO roster after an agreement between them and K23 to exchange snipers was reached. This means that Artyom “iDISBALANCE” Egorov leaves the organization to join forces with Rassim “Jyo” Valijev and Konstantin “Raijin” Trubarov at K23.

Nemiga Gaming have been making some roster changes lately and still have two open spots on the team left to fill after the switch of AWPers. The organization thanked their now former AWPer on Twitter for his time under their banner.

xsepower

iDISBALANCE

Nemiga Gaming

iDISBALANCE made a great advert for himself as he delivered a fantastic map on Vertigo against the Giants from Gambit.

The Twenty-four-year-old delivered a fantastic result on Vertigo where he got a rating of 1.30 after the match, but he was unstoppable in the second half, where he at the point of this play at 11-11 had 22 kills and only died 11 times.

After this moment things got heated as Gambit turned an extra gear on to win the map on overtime, in what almost became a sensation after Nemiga´s shock win on Inferno on the first map.

Watch the fantastic play by iDISBALANCE here:

Gambit Esports

Team Spirit have sent their transfer-listed player Artem "⁠iDISBALANCE⁠" Egorov to Nemiga, the Russian organization confirms on Twitter this Friday. The 24-year old AWPer will take over from Anton “speed4k” Titov, who’s getting replaced with this transfer move.

iDISBALANCE is no stranger to the Nemiga roster, as the Russian international last month featured five times for the Belarusian side as a stand-in at Snow Sweet Snow 2.  A tournament where he showed strong levels and averaged a great 1.13 Rating.

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/profiled-awper-will-stand-in-nemiga/","text":"Read more: iDISBALANCE will stand-in for Nemiga"}]

speed4k

Spirit

Artem "iDISBALANCE" Egorov will play as a stand-in for the Belarusian-side at the upcoming Snow Sweet Snow 2 alongside following tournaments as well. The 24-year old AWPer is on contract with Spirit, however, he is at the moment situated on the bench owing to the signing of Abdul “degster” Gasanov. 

It has been confirmed which player iDISBALANCE will replace on the Nemiga roster, but if it’s the AWP role which he’s  intended to maintain, it’s probably Anton “speed4k” Titov’s spot.

The former Syman Gaming player’s days at Spirit is most likely numbered, as the Russian team has strived after degster’s arrival, with the official statement regarding his benching also hinting towards a permanent departure.

-"I am grateful to Artem for the 2 years that he spent in Team Spirit. Together we were able to build a stable team that performed well not only at the local level, but also internationally. However, we have big goals to accomplish, and to do that we need to become stronger. We will play our next tournaments with degster and I hope that he will be able to prove himself in our team.” – Spirit CEO.

Nemiga and iDISBALANCE will play their first match at Snow Sweet Snow 2 at 09:00 (CET) this Monday.

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"}]

degster

chopper

The Russian top team has announced the signing of the promising duo of Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov and Robert "Patsi" Isyanov. The two players join on a monthly loan from Espada, where they both was placed on the transfer list.

Patsi and degster were two of the cornerstones in Espada’s rise last year, to become a Top 30 team with especially the latter showing huge potential by averaging an astonishing 1.25 rating throughout the year. The lethal AWPer will replace Artem "iDISBALANCE" Egorov who has been listed on transfer, following the announcement of the new duo. Patsi will work as a 6th man on the already promising Spirit roster.

CEO at Spirit, Nikita Chukalin has given a statement regarding the transfers, saying that the loan deals can turn into permanent contracts, if they succeed at their loan spell.

"However, we have big goals to accomplish and to do that we need to become stronger. We will play our next tournaments with degster and I hope that he will be able to prove himself in our team. He is one of the most talented young players in the CIS and we appreciate the opportunity to work with him. If we succeed, Abdul will sign a contract with Team Spirit for the next few years.“

Chukalin continues by explaining the instruction of a new 6-man roster, and how it was a “logical step forward.

"In addition, to further bolster the team, we felt we also needed tactical changes. The introduction of a sixth player is a logical step forward. For several months we have been looking for a suitable young talent to add, and Robert is literally the best option we could count on. So far, he is only on a test period, but we wish him good luck and hope that our cooperation will become very fruitful."

Artem "⁠iDISBALANCE⁠" Egorov (transfer list)

Patsi

Espada

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/"}]

magixx

somedieyoung

The official HLTV rankings show very little difference in the two teams' current level. With Virtus.Pro sitting at 15th. place and Team Spirit with a ranking of 16th. in the world, a close and dramatic match was certainly on the cards. 

It was Team Spirit to start the strongest. With "iDISBALANCE" wielding the AWP and outperforming the entire server, Team Spirit managed to steal away their competitors' map pick on mirage. They take map one and move on to Train with a map victory of 16-9.

The second map was set to take place on Train. Despite being Team Spirit's choice of map, Virtus.Pro seemed eager to fight and clawed themselves back into the series with a map victory of 16-10 on Train. This time it was Virtus.Pro's AWP'er "Jame" to set his mark on the game and was, with a map rating of 1.52, one the reasons that Virtus.Pro bested their opponents and forced a third and final map. 

The final map was Inferno, and despite being common-ground for the two fighting rosters, it was clear that one of the two teams seemed more eager than the other. Virtus.Pro won the pistol-round and proceeded to further expand their lead. They saw themselves leading 8-0 before being answered back by Team Spirit. Whilst Team Spirit managed to somewhat get back into the game it was seemingly too late. Virtus.Pro won Inferno 16-8 and thereby secured themselves their first series win of Blast Premier Fall Showdown 2020. 

Jame

Virtus.pro

On the first day of Blast Premier Fall 2020 Showdown, we see Team Spirit facing off against Virtus.Pro. A match-up that promises a close and intense battle. Team Spirit is currently placed 16th. in the HLTV official world rankings, whereas Virtus.Pro is ranked at 15th. 

The first map of the series is Virtus.Pro's map pick and is to take place on Mirage, a map where AWP'ers historically have seemed to thrive. Especially one of the teams AWP'ers seemed more up to the task than the other. Team Spirit's Artem "iDISBALANCE" Egorov was on fire, and with an ADR of 106, he helped carry his team to a 16-9 victory on map one. 

The Russian AWP'er, however, is more than capable of wielding other weapons than the pricy AWP. The lesser, but more affordable "Scout" can be just as deadly in the right hands. 

Entry-frags and opening kills is one of the most important but also toughest aspects in the game of Counter-Strike. Check out who has been the best and most successful entry-fragger in IEM Beijing.

 (success opening duels – total opening kills)

Pley.gg offers a wide-ranged catalogue over central and important CS:GO stats, where you can see the best all-time performers but also the ones who have been the best within the last 30 days. Check it out yourself right here.

allu

mantuu

device

s1mple

valde

stavn

syrsoN

k0nfig

OG is done and dusted in IEM Beijing-Haidian. In the elimination match against OG, the Russians won their map-pick on Overpass with 16-13.

While the first map was an even contest, the Russian-side steamrolled OG on Inferno. At halftime, it was 13-2 to Spirit! iDISBALANCE was sniping like a god on the CT-side going 18-6 in K/D and mounting incredible 133 in ADR.

Spirit finished the match winning 16-11 after a late comeback by OG inspired by an ace performed by ISSAA.

Spirit is ready to a matchup against NAVI in the lower bracket semifinals of IEM Beijing-Haidian in an exciting CIS-rendezvous. The two teams will face each other tomorrow at 15.00 (CEST)

"This is a B-site hold, it is one of the surest things in the entire game of Counter-Strike" the commentator preaches before it all goes terribly wrong for North at today's qualifier for IEM Beijing.

[twitchVideo:esl_csgob/clip/AuspiciousFaintTireDerp]

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iDISBALANCE

Player stats

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Belarusian team sign profiled AWPer from Team Spirit

Profiled AWPer will stand-in for Nemiga

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

Team Spirit acquire powerful Russian duo

Spotlight on the Top 20: Spirit

Virtus.Pro defeats Team Spirit 2-1

iDISBALANCE leads Team Spirit to a victory on Mirage

Who has been the best entry-fragger at IEM Beijing?

Spirit eliminates OG in surprising victory

Video: North fumbles B-site hold on Dust2

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