Team Spirit introduced Academy lineup

Russian multi-gaming organization Team Spirit has announced the signing of an Academy CS:GO lineup. This roster consists of five youngsters from CIS aged between 15 and 19, one of whom is Robert "Patsi" Isyanov, who was recently signed by the Dragons alongside with degster. Sergey "hally" Shavaev, who previously was the coach of Espada, was invited as the head coach of the freshly-formed squad.

It is still unknown when the Team Spirit Academy lineup will make its debut. It should be noted that the represented players have already played together an official match in the European ESEA Spring Cash Cup 1, where they have defeated GROND, Zorka, Marlian and HONORIS, but lost to SKADE in the semifinals stage.

Team Spirit Academy:

  •  Robert "Patsi" Isyanov
  •  Miroslav "zont1x" Plahotya
  •  Alexey "znx" Zlatkovsky
  •  Kirill "T4RG3T" Kovalev
  •  Pavel "s1ren" Ogloblin
  •  Semion "God6y" Chayka
  •  Sergey "hally" Shavaev (coach)
  •  Alexey "OverDrive" Biryukov (scout)

New Team Spirit Academy coach Hally on the creation of the roster, the roles between players and team goals:


- Congratulations on your appointment and welcome to Team Spirit! What are your expectations for the Team Spirit Academy project? What will be your goals?


- Thank you, I am glad to become a part of Team Spirit! It is an interesting task to share my experience from Espada and earlier with our young players. I want to make them better and I want to get better myself. The main objective is to bring each player to the highest possible level.


- Apart from Patsi, there are no famous nicknames in the line-up. Tell us more about each of the guys.


- The team consists of young and very promising guys who were scouted by my friend OverDrive. All players have very good mechanics, the hunger to play at the top level and, most importantly, everyone is a quick learner. As far as the roles go, znx is a sniper, zontix is an anchor and the rest have mixed roles.


- You are a former 1.6 pro. How does it influence your coaching style? What brand of Counter Strike will Team Spirit Academy play?


- Despite the fact that CS:GO is a game with a lot of possibilities and variability, the basis and logic of the game is similar to how it was 10 years ago. Therefore, it was pretty easy to adapt to CS:GO, bar few peculiarities. As for the style of play, we will use the strengths of the players, while maintaining a clear structure and discipline.


- For Patsi, the role of the in-game-leader is new, and you don't often see a 17-year-old put in the captain role. How is he doing? What was he already good at, and what does he need to improve on?


- There are not enough good captains in the CIS right now, and if Robert works like he does now, many top teams will be after him in a year or two. He is not only good as a captain who can call well, he is also really good individually. At any moment, he can turn the round - and the game, on its head.


- What goals have you set for yourself within the team?


- The main goal is to create a team that will be competitive at the top 50 HLTV level and more; we also want a few of our players to become tier 1 in the future.