HEROIC star Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich will be leaving the roster, with speculation suggesting he will join Team Spirit.
The Swedish-based organization announced that the Belarusian star has been sold and will be leaving the team following the upcoming Esports World Cup event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. HEROIC also recently revealed that gr1ks would move to the bench.
TN1R in action at ESL Pro League S21 Image Credit: ESL
Although his destination isn’t yet confirmed, HLTV reports suggest that he will join Team Spirit.
zont1x: Going Up to the Spirit in the Sky
If rumours are to be believed, it seems that he will be replacing Myrsolav “zont1x” Plakhotia.
zont1x is a long-standing member of the Spirit organisation, having joined the Academy team in March 2021 before being promoted to the main team in July 2023.
During his time with Spirit, zont1x has won the three biggest tournaments in Counter-Strike at IEM Katowice 2024, the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, and, most recently IEM Cologne 2025. He is also considered one of the most proficient anchors in the game.
Despite that recent success, it is understandable why Spirit might be looking to move on from the Ukrainian.
Often criticised for inconsistency, Spirit have been looking to upgrade their firepower recently, replacing Boris “magixx” Vorobiev with Ivan “zweih” Gogin.
To be fair, it’s hard to look good next to Danil “donk” Kryshkovets and Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov.
Whilst zont1x has been instrumental to Spirit’s success since becoming a tier one presence, the roster’s sporadic bursts of form have been the primary factor holding Spirit back as Vitality became dominant in 2025.
zont1x competing at BLAST Open Spring Image Credit: BLAST
An Expensive Gamble for a Roster with Vast Success
The move for tN1R is far from guaranteed to succeed.
Whilst playing on a team that has massively exceeded expectations this year, tN1R has been one of the most impressive players in the world. However, he doesn’t quite replace zont1x as a like-for-like within Spirit’s system.
A star rotator player as opposed to an anchor, it’s likely that he or another player in Spirit’s potential new team will have to make sacrifices in their individual game for the team to work.
Given that we’ve already seen tN1R’s individual level take a hit as a result of trying to accommodate Linus “nilo” Bergman on HEROIC, it might be that a similar situation arises on Spirit.
However, with zweih and presumably Leonid “chopper” Vishnaykov more than capable of stepping into anchor roles, the space for t1NR to shine may already exist. Additionally, zweih already more-than-adequately occupies magixx’s former aggressive roles on the T side.
You’d certainly hope that was the case anyway. The reported price tag of $1.5 million makes this no small purchase, and it could prove to be an expensive gamble should it go pear-shaped.
In other Counter-Strike transfer rumours, FaZe and Liquid could soon close a potentially eye-watering swap deal that will see both EliGE and Twistzz return to their former homes.