Team Spirit, it seems, decided to take things seriously and made a sweeping announcement immediately after the StarLadder Budapest Major. An analysis of the 2025 season’s results led the “dragons” bosses to a harsh conclusion: a complete reboot awaits the Counter-Strike 2 roster. And here’s the most interesting part: veteran Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov and newcomer Ivan “zweih” Gogin were simply kicked out of the main roster, with the decision taking effect immediately.
Admittedly, Miroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia’s return to the active roster seems logical. Frankly, the guy took a break to sort out some personal issues and simply take a breather, but now he’s back in action and ready to take his usual positions. But the real shocker, by the way, is something else: Boris “magixx” Vorobyov has now officially been appointed the new captain (IGL). This is ironic, considering he was kicked from the main roster at the beginning of the year, and now the organization has expressed its full confidence in him. Preparations for the 2026 season, it seems, are about to begin.
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Team Spirit’s 2025 Season Results and Win Analysis
The past year was, to put it mildly, mixed for Spirit, although it was actually quite successful. At the StarLadder Major in Budapest, the team did falter in the semifinals, losing 0-2. The end result was a 3rd-4th place finish and a check for $80,000 (around £63,000), which seems pretty good, but their ambitions were higher.
Looking at the beginning and middle of the season, everything was strong. First-place finishes at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2025 and PGL Astana 2025 speak for themselves – they’re at the top level. Plus, they won BLAST Bounty titles in both the spring and fall splits. In short, they know how to win.
However, frankly, the guys’ consistency has been lacking. The team repeatedly dropped to mid-table finishes at S-tier events. Esports World Cup 2025, ESL Pro League seasons 21 and 22, IEM Chengdu – Spirit were eliminated early in all of them. The final quarter of the year was a complete disaster. It seems it was this ups and downs that forced management to take extreme measures. In 2026, they’re banking on magixx’s leadership and zont1x’s firepower – we’ll see if that brings the desired calm.
Reasons for the failure of the zweih and sh1ro duo in the CS2 roster
Many believed that Ivan “zweih” Gogin would be the missing piece in the rifler lane, but the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 demonstrated that the duo with Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov isn’t working. Role conflicts and frankly weak numbers in Budapest exposed holes that the newcomer was never able to fill. Let’s try to figure out what really happened.
Role conflicts and synergy issues in the roster
Zweih moved to Spirit from Nemiga as an aggressive marksman, but next to a “vacuum cleaner” like sh1ro, he simply had no room to maneuver. Dmitry dominates the AWP positions and needs teammates who can work for him: controlling the map and supporting in eco-games. Zweih, by all appearances, was accustomed to playing as the “first number” and jumping into trades. In battles against Vitality and Falcons, this incompatibility backfired—Ivan’s K/D on Dust2 dropped below 0.8. The team simply didn’t know how to build picks for two stars at once.
For example, on Mirage, zweih often soloed and wasted nades instead of saving angles for sh1ro. The result was disappointing round losses at 12-13. Analysts, by the way, didn’t mince words. Mauisnake even called the transfer a complete failure, noting that zweih simply doubled for chopper, rather than supporting the sniper.
Analysis of Player Stats at the Budapest Major
At the Budapest Major, zweih had the worst performance of his life: 62.4 ADR and 68% KAST. Even magixx, when he was banked, looked more promising. The semifinal against Vitality on Dust2 was downright painful: 0.72 K/D and a ton of positional mistakes, while sh1ro soloed to 1.45.
| Map | zweih K/D | sh1ro K/D | Team Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dust2 | 0.72 | 1.45 | 0:13 (first half) — offstage |
| Mirage | 0.81 | 1.32 | 12:16 — offstage |
| Overall | 0.77 | 1.38 | 0:2 vs Vitality — tribune |
Comparison with his times at Nemiga is simply depressing – there, the guy held 1.15 ADR on the same maps. Apparently, the overall fatigue of the roster and a lack of experience in tier-1 micro-moments contributed to this.
Prospects for zweih and possible transfers to other clubs
Relegating him to the bench along with chopper is a clear sign that the concept has failed. But the guy is only 22, and he has an excellent background at Nemiga. He has every chance of making it onto tier-2 teams like PARIVISION, who are always looking for daring riflers. His average stats outside of Spirit (1.10+ HLTV) still look attractive to the market.
To truly return to the elite, Ivan needs to improve his utility and stop playing “solo”—watching ZywOo’s demos of AWP support certainly wouldn’t hurt. If Spirit doesn’t take off with their new roster, zweih could very well end up on teams like Falcons or OG, where there’s less competition for space. There, his style could shine again.
