The Russians from Spirit are off to a fantastic start at ESL Pro League Season 17 after they dismantled Astralis 2-0 in yesterday’s opening round of Group D. Something Spirit’s two young riflers Boris “magixx” Vorobiev and Robert “Patsi” Isyanov discussed on the couch alongside the ESL analysts.

- We expected to win against Astralis because we know their playstyle pretty well. In the past we have been learning a lot and it’s not really because they have changed a lot through the years, magixx said.

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When asked about Spirit’s further progression in the group, patsi touches on some previous clutching problems within the team.

- I think it’s all in our minds. We can make upsets and give a good fight. At IEM Katowice and CCT Central Europe Malta Finals, we were losing a lot of clutches that we should have won but now we are taking it and it’s much better.

- Basically, we can make upsets or we can shit our pants, magixx added with a smile.

You can watch the entire interview with magixx and Patsi down below. 

[youtube:xzJ2o0VF3aE?feature=share&t=12072]

Today's matches in Malta will kick off at 12:30 (CET) with Spirit taking on their fellow CIS friends from forZe. 

ESL Pro League schedule | Thursday 16th March

magixx

Patsi

Astralis

Spirit

We go through the year map by map to find the most versatile player of 2022.

Who has stood out in 2022 as the best individual player? Follow Pley.gg in the coming days, where we go in-depth with all the maps and celebrate the most versatile player of the year.

In this list, you will find the best 10 players of Ancient. A spot as number 1 gives you 10 points for the overall ranking, where we combine the seven most-played maps of the year to find the most versatile player. Here we celebrate the ability to perform well on different maps.

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We have used the following metrics in our ranking:

HLTV rating vs top 30 teams in all matches in 2022 with a minimum of 10 maps played.

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Most versatile player of the year: (Inferno, Overpass, Ancient)

sh1ro

Ax1Le

SHiPZ

frozen

Cloud9

In June this year, OG announced the departure of their star AWPer Abdul “degster” Gasanov due to “personal reasons”. Following the exit, degster has commented on the reasons why on several occasions, pointing towards a [link:{"url":"https://escorenews.com/en/csgo/article/35480-i-was-told-that-spirit-will-fit-my-ideas-but-later-they-declined-degster-on-why-he-left-matchfixing-in-cs-go-and-his-upbringing","isNewTab":true,"text":"different view of how to play the game"}].

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Now the other side of the story has decided to spill the beans with Spirit’s Robert "Patsi" Isyanov accusing degster of lying and being a tough individual to work with, in an [link:{"url":"https://escorenews.com/en/csgo/article/40291-degster-said-we-didn-t-give-him-freedom-but-you-watch-the-games-and-see-that-he-does-the-same-things-patsi-about-rio-major-degster-s-leave-and-his-public-claims","isNewTab":true,"text":"interview "}]with escorenews.com.

- Abdul wanted to fulfil his "I want." There were problems with it all the time. Like, we play the game and ask him to do something the team needed, and we lose. The next day there is a team talk: "Guys, let's play for me, we won't win like that." It was very strange. It certainly did not help our work and did not speed up the process of team development.

- I wouldn't say anything about him if he had not started saying untrue things in interviews. If you read them, then there were always very strange statements about us, like: “The old team did not give me the freedom that I want. And in the new team, I do everything I can.” But you watch the games and see that he does the same things, Patsi has stated to escorenews.com.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Patsi_Adela-Sznajder__dcod9v","originalWidth":5472,"originalHeight":3078,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Adela Sznajder, ESL","alt":"Patsi"}]

According to Patsi, degster didn’t say goodbye to the team and “just left the chat and that's it.”

- He said that the team didn't work as hard as he did, but he was the first to leave the practice during the Major. It was another very strange moment. We would have kept this between ourselves if it weren't for so many interviews from him. There were at least five of them where he told a lie, an outright lie.

- Maybe it's wrong to do that in public, but I can't leave it like that. Everyone will think that he is very cool, and we are the bad guys, Patsi has stated to escorenews.com.

degster

Team Spirit was the big surprise at the PGL Major in Antwerp in the spring, and now the CIS roster could do it again in Rio. 

With a 2-1 victory against Cloud9, Team Spirit is already locked in for the Legends Stage at the upcoming Rio Major in November. Cloud9 and Spirit started the match by winning each other's map pick in comfortable style, but on the decider map of Ancient, Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov stepped up and made sure, that Team Spirit would clinch the important Legend spot.

Cloud9 is also qualified but will have to go all the way through the Challenger Stage.

Team Spirit - Cloud9 2-1 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group A)

The future of competitive Counter-Strike is looking bright – very bright. The increased focus and huge investment in talent and academy teams throughout the entire CS:GO circuit in recent times has made it much easier to not only discover the new up-and-coming players, but it has also made it much easier to climb the ranks as a youngster.  

In this article, we’ve taken a look at the best performing teenagers in top-tier CS:GO by listing the 10 highest-rated under-20 players in 2022 so far. And it comes with little surprise that NAVI's Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy is to be found at the very top, with the promising Ukrainian having made a lightning entry onto the scene after his debut last year. His former NAVI Junior teammate Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov is doing his best to catch up with him as the AWPer is placed right behind him.

1. {cflag:RU} m0nesy (G2) | 1.12 rating / 70.8 ADR / 1.10 Impact rating

2. {cflag:UA} b1t (NAVI) | 1.11 rating / 75.4 ADR / 1.11 Impact rating

3. {cflag:IL} flameZ (OG) | 1.11 rating / 77.5 ADR / 1.17 Impact rating

4. {cflag:RU} Patsi (Spirit) | 1.09 rating / 82.2 / 1.25 Impact rating

5. {cflag:RO} lauNX (Sprout) | 1.09 rating / 79.2 ADR / 1.17 Impact rating

6. {cflag:BR} dumau (00Nation) | 1.09 rating / 78.4 ADR / 1.09 ADR

7. {cflag:RU} fame (Outsiders) | 1.07 rating 73.5 ADR / 1.05 Impact rating

8. {cflag:DK} jabbi (Heroic) | 1.06 rating / 75.7 ADR / 1.08 Impact rating

9. {cflag:LT} bymas (MOUZ) | 1.04 rating / 71.9 ADR / 0.92 Impact rating

10. {cflag:DK} Zyphon (Sprout) | 1.03 rating / 72.5 ADR | 0.97 Impact rating

(Stats are from Top 30 matches - Minimum 30 maps played)

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B1tGOD

Jabbi

fame

m0NESY

Bymas

Zyphon

lauNX

dumau

flameZ

The big hope of UK Counter-Strike, Endpoint got close to delivering a big upset win at ESL Pro League Group A, but failed to close down the match in the end.

Endpoint decided that the match was set to commence on Overpass after picking the map in the veto. Something, the Brits may look back at with a bit of regret taking the result in mind. Because with 12 rounds into the first map, the score was 11-1 in the favor of Spirit.

The Russians from Spirit closed down the map through a perfect T half, where they gave up no rounds at.

The second map was much more competitive and closer as Endpoint stepped up massively showing great character following the butchery on Overpass. Things came to fruition for Endpoint after securing overtime, where they used the momentum to secure an impressive 19-17 win.

Vertigo was the last setting of the match, and here it was Endpoint in control, while Sprit was on their heels all the time, which forced them to make some questionable plays along the way. 

The CIS team did manage to force the match to overtime, and despite again needing a comeback to stay alive, it was Robert "Patsi" Isyanov who made it possible for Spirit to finally rise above Endpoint and secure the victory, which was their first in Group A.

Spirit – Endpoint 2-1 | ESL Pro League Season 16 (Group A)

16-3 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} s1ren – 1.92 Rating / 24-9 K-D / 129.1 ADR

17-19 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} magixx – 1.36 Rating / 31-21 K-D / 94.4 ADR

19-19 (Vertigo) | {cflag:RU} Patsi - 1.49 Rating / 35-28 K-D / 112.1 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Robert "Patsi" Isyanov - 1.36 Rating / 81-65 K-D / 98.3 ADR

Endpoint

With the group stage of IEM Cologne done and dusted, we have taken a look at some of the most interesting stats. In the current CT meta, where only three teams managed to win 50% or more T rounds (MOUZ, Astralis, and NAVI), the entry-killers of CS:GO are definitely worth monitoring.

Among the best in the group stage was the cornerstone of Movistar Riders, Alejandro Fernández-Quejo “mopoz” Cano. The longest-standing member of the Spanish Organization made 0.21 opening kills in each round with an impressive 60.3% success in opening duels. The Spaniard made a total of 41 opening kills during the eight maps, that he played. And while the sample size may be small, it is worth noticing, that the three opponents, that mopoz went up against were G2, Team Vitality, and NAVI. Not bad at all! You can see an interview that we made with the 25-year-old player in the video below after Movistar Riders had qualified for the main event at IEM Cologne.

You can see the list of the best opening killers below from the group stage of IEM Cologne:

1. {cflag:RU} Patsi - 46 (47.9% success in opening kills)

2. {cflag:BR} arT - 43 (50% success in opening kills)

3. {cflag:FR} ZywOo - 42 (68.9% success in opening kills)

4. {cflag:ES} mopoz - 41 (60.3% success in opening kills)

5. {cflag:LV} YEKINDAR - 40 (42.6 success in opening kills)

Movistar Riders will play Team Liquid in the quarter-final at the event on Friday.

mopoz

ZywOo

Movistar Riders

It started so well but ended with a brutal crash. The honeymoon for YEKINDAR and Team Liquid ended after only one map at IEM Cologne versus Team Spirit.

On Dust2 everything seemed right for the NA team, where the duo of nitr0 and YEKINDAR completely annihilated the defense of Spirit, who had to surrender their own map pick after an 11-4 lead to the NA team.

The stand-in, Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis, ended the map with a +14 K-D score, while Captain America himself, Nick 'nitr0' Cannella stole the show with an ADR of 110.5!

On Overpass it was a completely different story. At least for YEKINDAR. The Latvian star had a nightmare first half, where he did not manage to find a kill before the last round of the half! For Team Liquid the half ended with a nice recovery at 6-9 after being 2-8 down. Six T-side rounds on Overpass gave promises for a good second half, but Spirit and Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov wanted it different. A superb second half from the CIS roster pushed the match to a third map decider on Ancient.

Here Spirit won the knife round and kickstarted the map with a 10-5 lead on their CT side. A lead that was quickly equalized by the North Americans who found some of the pace and firepower back again as they had successfully utilized on Dust2. Combined with multiple opening kills going in the way of Liquid the map began to tip in favor of the NA team. But Team Spirit lingered on and kept themselves in the battle. And in double overtime, they managed to finally beat Team Liquid, who saw both the best and worst from their stand-in player today.

Spirit will play the winner of Faze vs 00Nation in the next round of IEM Cologne, while Team Liquid will face the loser.

Team Spirit - Team Liquid 2-1 | IEM Cologne

8-16 (Dust2) | {cflag:US} nitr0 - 1.72 Rating / 23-14 K-D / 110.5 ADR

16-9 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} Patsi - 1.51 Rating / 27-17 K-D / 105.9 ADR

22-20 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} Patsi - 1.20 Rating / 36-36 K-D / 91.8 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov - 1.22 Rating / 80-74 K-D / 96.6 ADR

YEKINDAR

nitr0

Team Liquid

Team Spirit is ready for the group stage at IEM Cologne after a 2-1 win against 00Nation. A tough match for the Spirit roster, who had to dig deep to win the match. 

After the three-map-thriller, we spoke with Robert "Patsi" Isyanov about the match and how Igor "w0nderful" Zhdanov has taken over the role as a sniper on the team after the departure of Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov.

- On the last map of Ancient he was smashing them all. For a guy that is only 17 years old, playing his first LAN, and has not played an official game for three months, I don't know what to say. He is really good!

w0nderfu1

In this video, Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen is taking a closer look at how Team Spirit managed to upset a lot of teams at the PGL Major in Antwerp. Here we get a glimpse of some of the excellent teamwork, that the Russian team provided at the event, where new stars as Robert "Patsi" Isyanov took the world of Counter-Strike by storm with some impressive performances.

You can see other videos in our series "Deepdive feat. NaToSaphiX" in the links below.

* This video was made before the news about the departure of Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov.

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NaToSaphiX

Top 5 Leaderboards | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage + Playoffs

A quarter-finals spot was on the line when the Russians of Spirt took on the Danes of Copenhagen Flames. Both teams somewhat surprisingly went 2-0 on Day 1 and now had a chance to lock up a quarter-finals spot.

The Bo3 kicked off on Vertigo, a map that has almost become synonymous with the Copenhagen Flames, and it was of course their map pick. After taking a commanding early lead, the Danes suddenly loosened their grip on the match and let the CIS squad come back into it, and it was all tied up at halftime with an 8-7 lead for the Flames.

As we came into the rifles rounds in the second half it quickly became clear that the Flames would win the map. After losing the two initial rounds the Danes went on an 8-1 run with none of the rounds being won by defusing. 

The brawl continued on Sprit's pick of Mirage, and it was the Russians on the T side who got off to the best start as they led by three rounds at halftime after what had been an extremely close half with multiple ties and lead changes.

A solid defensive effort from Spirit and yet another great performance from "Patsi" meant that the Flames were only able to take two round wins in the second half and the match was pushed to a decider.

Ancient was the third and final map and on the T side, the Copenhagen Flames crucially managed to take the pistol round. This was where the fun began for Spirit who immediately returned the favor by going on a ginormous ten-round streak. Fortunately, the Flames took three of the last four rounds and the round deficit was now manageable.

The Danes took the second half pistol round and the conversion but did not find more, as the Russians of Spirit were simply playing a better game today.

Spirit surprise everyone as the first team through to the playoffs, while the Flames will have another chance to do the same tomorrow.

Spirit - Copenhagen Flames 2-1 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

10-16 (Vertigo) | {cflag:DK} jabbi - 1.43 Rating / 25-16 K-D / 93.2 ADR

16-8 (Mirage) | {cflag:RU} Patsi - 1.51 Rating / 23-12 K-D / 105.7 ADR

16-6 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} magixx - 1.95 Rating / 25-8 K-D / 116.8 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Abdul "degster" Gasanov - 1.35 Rating / 65-37 K-D / 82.8 ADR

Copenhagen Flames

The second round of Day 1 action from Antwerp started with Heroic taking on Team Spirit. Both teams had started the day with a victory and could take a huge step towards the Champions Stage with a win.

Heroic started on the CT side and took full advantage of it in the beginning. An early 8-1 lead was converted to a 10-5 lead. Spirit picked up the pace in the second half after switching sides. Momentum was now on their side, which the scoreboard reflected with Spirit taking the lead. Once again it was the 18-year-old Robert "Patsi" Isyanov, who was taking charge of the young CIS team, who constantly denied Heroic any space or opportunities on their T side. 

A much-deserved victory for Team Spirit now gives them three chances to qualify for the Champions Stage, while Heroic falls down to the 1-1 bracket of teams. 

Heroic – Spirit 0-1 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

12-16 (Nuke) | {cflag:RU} Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov - 1.41 Rating / 25-17 K-D / 95.4 ADR

Heroic

The first match of the second round saw 1-0 teams G2 and Spirit go to battle. Both the Russian squad and the International roster dominatingly won their first matchup 16-6, and now had to duel for the chance to start the Major 2-0.

The teams traveled to the battlegrounds of Dust2 and were trading rounds back and forth in the early stages of the game. G2 then finally found their footing, and the Bosnian duo of "NiKo" and "huNter-" made life very hard for the Spirit squad, which resulted in an 11-4 half.

G2 quickly established themselves after the break but were suddenly met with heavy resistance from the Russians as both "magixx", and "Patsi" stepped up. After being down 14-4, Team Spirit went on an enormous 11-1 streak to push the game into overtime.

G2 managed to take a round on their T-side in OT, and swept their CT-side, meaning that the comeback dreams of Team Spirit were crushed and G2 go 2-0 in the opening round.

G2 - Team Spirit 1-0 | PGL Major Antwerp Challengers Stage

19-17 (Dust2) | flag Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač - 1.22 Rating / 30-22 K-D / 85.2 ADR

NiKo

huNter

G2 Esports

It was the old guard against the young guns at PGL Antwerp Major. Imperial with multiple Major winners on the roster had their work cut out against Spirit, who arrived in Antwerp with five straight victories in the bag.

The CIS roster came out strong and took a 10-5 lead to the break. It was especially youngster Robert "Patsi" Isyanov who created problems for the experienced Brazilians. The 18-year-old rifler was relentless throughout the map, while AWP’er Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov provided all the necessary opening kills to give his team the upper hand time and time again.

In the end, it became a bit ugly for Imperial, who crashed down hard during the second half, where the Brazilians only won one round.

The game became another reminder of the total European dominance 

Spirit – Imperial 1-0 | PGL Major Antwerp Challengers Stage

16-6 (Dust2) | {cflag:RU} Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov  – 1.83 Rating / 24-15 K-D / 116.6 ADR

Imperial

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} Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov

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

chopper

s1ren

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-

Entropiq is big favorites in today’s game against Young Ninjas, although Patsi is playing instead of Forester, who has been in great form for Entropiq.

The stand-in Patsi has also been in great form, and he has a rating of 1.21 in the last three months when he has had the opportunity to play.

Watch if Young Ninjas can create an upset against Entropiq here:

Forester

Entropiq

Young Ninjas

With today's results, we see Spirit and FunPlus Phoenix reaching the Grand Finals of Dreamhack Open January. Both teams have made roster-changes during the break and have debuted with their new lineups at the event. 

Spirit managed to best BIG 2-1 in an incredibly close BO3-series. The organization had signed two former Espada members in AWP'er Abdul "degster" Gasanov and sixth roster-member Robert "Patsi" Isyanov. Both seemed more than comfortable in their new setting and helped Spirit best the German giants of BIG. 

The other finalist was decided in the BO3-series between FunPlus Phoenix and Gambit. The newly shaped FunPlus Phoenix roster, that have recently signed former Mousesports player Chris "ChrisJ" de Jong, came out on top as they bested the Gambit side in a 2-1 victory. 

Spirit and FunPlus Phoenix will face off against each other at the Grand Final in a BO5-series tomorrow at 16:00 (CET). 

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/live-spirit-funplus-phoenix-grand-final/","text":"Read more"}]

chrisJ

Farlig

FunPlus Phoenix

Gambit Esports

mousesports

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)

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	6	14
Maps count	13	31

Patsi

Player stats

Articles mentioning Patsi

magixx after crushing Astralis: We expected to beat them

2022 review: Cloud9 domination on Ancient!

Patsi hits out at degster after problems in Spirit: He didn’t even say goodbye to us

Team Spirit books legend spot

Here are the best teenagers in top-tier CS:GO right now

Spirit needed double overtime on Vertigo to take home first win at ESL Pro League

Movistar Riders' mopoz leads the way in opening kills

Liquid lose in YEKINDAR debut

Patsi: w0nderful is really good!

Why was Team Spirit so good at the Major?

Top 5 Leaderboards at PGL Major Antwerp

Spirit secure quarter-finals spot at the Major

High-flying Spirit takes down Heroic in upset win!

G2 go 2-0 After Nailbiter Vs. Team Spirit

Young Guns from Spirit claim first victory at PGL Antwerp

Spirit announce new roster for 2022 season

mir and chopper benched and transferlisted

LIVE: Entropiq – Young Ninjas

Spirit and FunPlus Phoenix reach Grand Finals

Team Spirit acquire powerful Russian duo

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