Spirit bench zweih and Chopper, reinstate zont1x and magixx

Team Spirit are the first of the top-ranked teams to make major changes following StarLadder Budapest. Spirit has benched long-time IGL Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov and relative newcomer Ivan "⁠zweih⁠" Gogin, and have brought Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev and Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia back into the starting lineup.

After his time on the bench, magixx is taking over the IGL duties. Head coach Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev said in a statement he's confident he will "master a new role." He'll fill some big shoes left behind by chopper, who captained the team to many trophies, including the Perfect World Shanghai Major in 2024.

Coach hally also said that the decision to replace 18-year-old zweih, just months after acquiring him from Nemiga, proved to be a difficult one:

"We truly consider him a very talented player and a great teammate. 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. Besides, he still needs to mature and become a more complete player to compete at the elite level."

Regarding zont1x, the 20-year-old Ukrainian player is "fully refreshed" and ready to return to his role as an anchor, which he excelled in during his rookie year in 2024.

The newly re-tooled Spirit roster will debut at BLAST Bounty Season 1. Here's the official current Spirit roster:

• Danil "donk" Kryshkovets

• Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov

• Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich

• Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev

• Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia

• Sergey "hally" Shavayev (Coach)

• Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov (Inactive)

• Ivan "⁠zweih⁠" Gogin (Inactive)