The Counter-Strike esports organization announced roster changes right after the Budapest Major. Spirit fans are pretty happy — with the return of two Major winners and a big role shift.
Two players to leave CS2 Team Spirit are Ivan "zweih" Gogin and Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov. Reasons for this are pretty different, as it was explained in an extended message from the coach. Still, the basics are the same, and they are Spirit's inconsistent results in the second half of 2025.
The roster change is still not too drastic for the fans, as it's a return of familiar and beloved faces to the active lineup.
- Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia is back to his previous in-game role. Reportedly, he recovered from psychological issues.
- Boris "magixx" Vorobyev has become an in-game leader for Team Spirit.
A short presence of zweh
Spirit added zweh to the roster at the beginning of July 2025. He came from a much smaller CS2 team Nemiga Gaming and replaced magixx.
With zweh, Team Spirit won two big CS2 tournaments in the first half of August:
- BLAST Bounty Fall 2025.
According to the official statement from Sergey "hally" Shavayev, Spirit's coach, zweh is "a very talented player and a great teammate", but "he still needs to mature and become more complete to compete at the elite level."
"If only it was possible to field more than five players, we’d be happy to keep working with him. However, it is pretty obvious that zweih naturally gravitates towards slightly different roles, not the ones we need of him at the moment.”
Benching chopper again
We saw a similar situation earlier: Team Spirit benched chopper in November 2021 but then brought him back in February 2022. This time, the recovery may not happen.
This player joined Spirit in March 2019. As an in-game leader (IGL), chopper won the CS2 Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 with the team.
The coach's message regarding chopper became pretty personal.
“Throughout all these years you have become my closest teammate. Our tandem has brought me so many emotions and I’m truly grateful to you for the wonderful time we spent on the team.”
Back to active CS2 esports: zont1x and magixx return to Spirit
In general, Spirit's fans have taken this roster change with healthy optimism — a lot because two former players make it back to activate competition.
From the Academy roster to the main team, zont1x has been part of Spirit since 2021. Reportedly, he requested to be benched for personal reasons. That happened in September 2025, right after Spirit couldn't qualify for the main event at BLAST Open Fall 2025. Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich from HEROIC replaced zont1x back then.
For magixx, this return to Spirit is a big deal, as the player has become an IGL. He's been in the team since 2019, and many fans consider this step a well-deserved promotion.
Spirit, the team of donk
Team Spirit won the Perfect World Shanghai Major in 2024 and a few big tournaments in the first half of 2025. The results decreased substantially in the season ahead of the Budapest Major 2025. Spirit still finished that huge CS2 esports tournament in the top 4, but it seems like this is not enough for such an organization.
The main criticism towards Spirit during this year was about the intention to build the entire team around one star player, Danil "donk" Kryshkovets. In big events, success for Spirit came from the exceptional performance of donk, but the failures were often connected to him, too — as the teammates just couldn't take the same level of initiative.
The current changes do not look like a big shift in this direction, as it's not a new roster. After this year, tN1R was added, and chopper is out. Beyond this and personal adjustments, it's pretty much the same Team Spirit. However, you should consider the possibility of the refreshed energy in the roster as an important factor before making decisions about Spirit matches on esports betting sites.
The first chance for this refreshed roster to prove themselves is BLAST Bounty Winter 2026, from Jan. 22 to Jan. 25. It's the first event of the esports season 2026 in Counter-Strike 2.
