During the Group D lower bracket semi-final, Spirit secured themselves their second win of the event after winning 2-0 against the North American roster. 

On Nuke, Spirit fans could sit back and watch their talented AWPer Igor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov play lights out as he singlehandedly took down Liquid with an outstanding performance. w0nderful on Nuke: 27-11 K-D / +16 +/- / 104.9 ADR / 1.74 Rating.

[twitchClip:BashfulFrailHareBudStar-xstzBN5RM2eqgSAI]

A clean 2-0 win for Spirit sends Team Liquid down to the Last Chance Stage. Read more about the game in the article below:

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w0nderfu1

Team Liquid

Spirit

The talent scene in professional Counter-Strike has never looked brighter than right now featuring a myriad of upcoming and youthful talents. Every month we are presented with new promising youngsters who have managed to climb through the ranks and 

Players like Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, and Helvijs “broky” Saukants are just a tiny fraction of talents who have made it to the very top of CS:GO.

We have asked the renowned CS:GO expert and caster Henry “HenryG” Greer to pick his three most exciting and upcoming talents in the game right now. And by the looks of the current CS:GO landscape it’s no surprise that all of them are from one specific region – the CIS.

1. Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov - 17 years old

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2. Danyyl "headtr1ck" Valitov - 18 years old

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3. Artem “ArtFr0st” Kharitonov - 21 years old

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headtr1ck

Artfr0st

A close match was expected between Team Spirit and Heroic in the third Quarter-Final of IEM Rio. But very quickly it became evident, that Heroic was on another level.

It started out on Vertigo, where the Danes quickly took control on their CT side winning 10 rounds in the first half. In the second half Casper 'cadiaN' Møller and his teammates had no issues finishing off the first map after some good calls. From the perspective of the Danes, it was the revival of Martin 'stavn' Lund, who was the highest-rated Heroic player on the map, that was the best sign for them for things to come. The talented Dane has been in shaky form in Rio, but against Spirit, he was back to his usual standards.

On their own map pick of Overpass, Heroic repeated their first half from Vertigo. A 10-5 lead saw them with a huge advantage going into the CT side on Overpass. But then Spirit won their fourth pistol round in a row, and this time they followed through by winning four rounds to almost equalize the score. At 13-13, they finally caught up on Heroic, but then the Danes again stepped up and broke Spirit down despite the big advantage for the CIS team in the economy game.

In the end, it was team captain Casper "cadiaN" Møller who drove his team to victory with some important calls and kills in the end. A great display from the Danish veteran, who is now ready for another Semi-Final at a Major.

Heroic - Team Spirit 2-0 | IEM Rio Major Champions Stage

16-8 (Vertigo) | {cflag:UA} w0nderful – 1.44 Rating / 24-14 K-D / 92.0 ADR

16-14 (Overpass) | {cflag:DK} cadiaN – 1.32 Rating / 24-16 K-D / 79.2 ADR

cadiaN

stavn

Heroic

Team Spirit and Team Liquid are currently playing each other in a do-or-die matchup at the IEM Rio Major, in which the winner of the match will advance to the Champions Stage, while the loser will be sent home packing.

Spirit’s 17-year-old Ukrainian wonder boy, Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov is turning the first map, Vertigo, into his own personal playground. In the last round of the first half, the 17-year-old delivered an impressive and ice cold 1v3 clutch to send his team into the T-side with a 10-5 advantage. He also went into the second half being on top of the scoreboard with 119.7 ADR, 17 frags, and 5 deaths. 

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!

Patsi

We teamed up with Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen, who has looked into a lot of demos to find the candidates for this list, where we have excluded all players, who are already playing on a Tier-1/2 team such as Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov to name the most obvious one.

You can see the video here, and down below you can see all the names of the players.

10: {cflag:DK} Frederik "Fessor" Sørensen

The 21-year-old rifler is currently playing on Astralis Talent, but has been roaming around the professional scene for the last couple of years without breaking through. Is the highest-rated player before the playoffs start at WePlay Academy League Season 4.

Is currently playing for MONAD eSport on a C-tier level. The Swedish AWP'er is only 17 years old and could have a long career ahead of him in professional CS.

The Polish AWP'er had some big shoes to fill after Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás was promoted to the first team at the start of the year. But with a 1.22 rating in the WePlay Academy League, it seems like mhL is exactly what MOUZ NEXT had hoped for. 

This list and video were created before the news of w0nderful's move to Team Spirit. But we understand why! The Ukrainian is only 17 years old and has little to no experience in Tier 1 CS:GO, but we cannot wait to see him in action at IEM Cologne.

The AWP'er of Fnatic Rising can play both passive and aggressive with his Sniper rifle, which in today's meta is a huge deal. And hey, it's cool to see a new country in CS:GO (an honorable mention also goes to fellow Romanian Laurentiu "lauNX" Tarlea from Sprout)

Ladies and Gentlemen; We have an in-game leader on the list! IGLs are notoriously underappreciated in CS, but we hope to have picked one of the most exciting prospects for the future in "siuhy", who has won three titles in the WePlay Academy team with MOUZ NXT! 

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4: {cflag:IL} Dorian “xertioN” Berman

He is only 17 years old, but has already made quite a name for himself. The MOUZ NXT rifler has also been part of the successful spell at the team winning three titles and being one of the most hyped young players on the scene. But he did not make it into our top three! 

Another one! MOUZ NXT is packed with talents, and this one is special. Jimpphat is only 15 years old but is already signed with the best academy team in the world, which speaks for itself. The young Finn is actually VAC-banned, but since the ban was issued in early 2018, he can already compete at a Major next year.

The Russian is one of the most exciting players for the future. He is right on the edge of being on this list, but he is still largely unknown in the wider CS community. He is playing on 1WIN, who mostly are grinding C-tier tournaments.

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Who is this guy? Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen was blown away watching demos of the 17-year-old Ukrainian AWP'er. He is currently playing for B8, but should have something much bigger in store for the future. Statswise he is currently rated 1.27 for his last three months, which is also very impressive. 

r1nkle

Deko

Jimpphat

xertionic

siuhy

regali

joelxd

Fessor

mouz NXT

Fnatic Rising

Astralis Talent

Let's just say it like it is. If you ever stumble across one of the players on this list, you might want to reconsider joining the match!

Top 10 active players on FACEIT right now: (active = played at least one match during the last month)

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1. {cflag:RU} Pyotr "fame" Bolyshev | 5972 ELO - 1.34 K/D - 62% win rate

The Virtus.pro player leads this list, but has actually lost his last two matches against a full Danish stack including device.

2. {cflag:PL} 1jcobbb | 5818 ELO - 1.51 K/D - 59% win rate

Not much is known about the Polish player, who is not a professional player nor has a public persona.

3. {cflag:PL} Paweł "dycha" Dycha | 5806 ELO - 1.52 K/D - 67% win rate

ENCE's rifler is also among the best in the world on FACEIT, where he plays loads of matches.

4. {cflag:NL} Shuaib "D0cC" Ahmad | 5660 ELO - 1.72 K/D - 66% win rate

D0cC has a few top-tier matches on his CV, but at BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, he actually played against Heroic for "POGGERZ". Despite losing the match, the Dutchman ended with a 1.27 rating!

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5. {cflag:RU} Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov | 5512 ELO - 1.44 K/D - 63% win rate

G2's sniper is still going strong on FACEIT, where he is playing regularly.

6. {cflag:BE} Milan "CrePoW" Libbrecht | 5371 ELO - 1.24 K/D - 66% win rate

The 20-year-old Belgian has been part of EC Brugge and Project Eversio, but is not an established CS:GO pro.

7. {cflag:UA} PsychoFine | 5349 ELO - 1.40 K/D - 73% win rate

Despite being from Ukraine, not much is known about this player. In 2015 he dropped 63 kills during 30 rounds at 1946 ELO!

8. {cflag:DK} Mikkel "n1xen" Borlund | 5321 ELO - 1.44 K/D - 55% win rate

The 18-year-old Dane he been on a trial at Astralis Talent last year, but not much has been heard from him on the professional scene since.

9. {cflag:UA} Igor "w0nderful" Zhdanov | 5305 ELO - 1.84 K/D - 69% win rate

Team Spirit's new AWP'er has a nasty high K/D rate! The 17-year-old Ukrainian will be tested on a Tier-1 level at IEM Cologne next month.

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10. {cflag:FR} Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut | 5304 ELO - 1.63 K/D - 70% win rate

The two-time number one player in the world is obviously also very good on FACEIT!

22. Aleksey "NickelBack" Trofimov (Entropiq)

28. Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen (benched on OG)

fame

dycha

D0cC

m0NESY

CrePoW

n1xen

ZywOo

Today is the last day for teams to lock in their roster before IEM Cologne. Team Spirit was one AWP'er down after benching Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov, but no more. 

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The team announced their new AWP'er today.

17-year-old Igor "w0nderful" Zhdanov will take over the "Big Green" for the CIS roster. The young Ukrainian is one of the most promising players on the scene but has not yet had experience with Tier-1 CS. Team Spirit will start their run at IEM Cologne at the Play-in.

Who will make their big breakthrough in 2022? Only time will tell, but we tried to find out, who the professional CS:GO players are keeping an eye on next year.

While Valerii "b1t" Vakhovskyi made his big entrance to the scene in 2021, it will be interesting to see, who will do it this year. Obviously, there is a lot of hype surrounding the new G2 player, Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, who is also mentioned multiple times in this video. The 16-year-old Russian has been on everyone's radar after his impressive performances in the WePlay Academy League. 

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	6	15
Maps count	13	32

w0nderfu1

Player stats

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Patsi: w0nderful is really good!

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Team Spirit announce new AWP'er

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