Team Spirit is a Russian esports organization based in Serbia. It was founded in December 2015 by Nikita Cheshir Chukalin after signing the CIS Rejects mix, which included Roman RAMZES666 Kushnarev, Bogdan Iceberg Vasilenko, Vasily AfterLife Shishkin, Andrey ALWAYSWANNAFLY Bondarenko, and Artur Goblak Kostenko. The team’s name was conceived and proposed by Evgeny Sh4dowehhh Alekseev.

2015–2020

The tag’s early years were marked by frequent roster changes and a lack of stability. The team finished only 13th–16th at The Shanghai Major 2016, which led to the removal of key players (RAMZES666 and AfterLife) and the subsequent disbandment. Attempts to build competitive rosters around Artem fng Barshak (2017–2018), as well as the signing of the Positive Guys mix (2019), failed to yield results at Majors and qualifiers for The International, leading to disbands time and time again.

After yet another failure in May 2020, the old approaches had completely run their course. Cheshir invited Dmitry Korb3n Belov to serve as sports director and Airat Silent Gaziev as coach. They completely overhauled the scouting process, adopting the long-list system from traditional soccer. After testing more than 25 young and little-known players, they assembled their future “golden” roster based on mathematical metrics and individual tests.

The new team members were Illya Yatoro Mulyarchuk, Alexander TORONTOTOKYO Khertek, Magomed Collapse Khalilov, and Vitaly so bad Oshmankevich, who was soon replaced by Miroslav Mira Kolpakov. The experienced Yaroslav Miposhka Naidenov became the captain, drafter, and fifth-position player on the roster.

2021

Throughout 2021, the roster performed well in Tier 2 and Tier 3 tournaments, regularly placing high. However, the team’s major breakthrough — not only for the organization but for the entire Eastern European region — came in October at The International 2021.

At TI10, Team Spirit arrived not even as a dark horse, but rather as underdogs. Four little-known players led by Miposhka barely advanced to the main tournament of the year, defeating Team Empire 3–2 in an extremely tough qualifier final.

In the group stage of The International, the team didn’t stand out either: they lost to the top favorites but defeated weaker teams, securing their spot in the upper bracket.

In their very first playoff match, Spirit suffered a defeat at the hands of Invictus Gaming and fell into the lower bracket, where they faced Fnatic. The “Dragons” had already defeated them in the group stage and did so again with ease.

In the next round, Team Spirit pulled off the first major upset. The underdogs knocked the reigning two-time The International champions — OG — out of the tournament. This was followed by a victory over Virtus.pro, cementing the team’s status as the strongest in the region. In the lower bracket semifinals, Spirit faced IG again and this time got their revenge, advancing to the final day of the competition.

Neither analysts nor fans believed Spirit could defeat Team Secret in the losers’ bracket final, let alone PSG.LGD (which hadn’t lost a single series leading up to the grand final). Nevertheless, Team Spirit caused an absolute sensation. First, the team defeated the extremely experienced Secret roster, and then went on to beat the strongest Chinese team, becoming the champions of the tournament with the largest prize pool in esports history for a single discipline.

The victory earned the club $18,208,300 and instantly propelled Team Spirit into the ranks of the world’s strongest teams. The system used by the organization — from data-driven scouting and roster building to the development of a professional training process — was subsequently adopted by other esports organizations.

2022

The year 2022 got off to a less spectacular start for Team Spirit. The team placed highly in DPC tournaments but was one of the first to be eliminated from the ESL One Stockholm Major 2022. However, in the summer, the team reached the finals of the Riyadh Masters 2022, where they lost to the same PSG.LGD, and later claimed victory at the PGL Arlington Major. But after their failure at The International 2022, TORONTOTOKYO left the team — poor performance at the year’s main tournament led to serious disagreements with Korb3n. Denis Larl Sigitov became Spirit’s new mid laner.

2023

In 2023, the “Dragons” once again got off to a rough start, for which the community actively blamed the newcomer. Nevertheless, the organization decided not to change the lineup and to give the roster time, a decision that paid off just a few months later.

Both of the season’s key tournaments — Riyadh Masters 2023 and The International 2023, as well as intermediate DreamLeague Season 21 — were added to Spirit’s trophy case without much difficulty, and the team became the second two-time TI champion in history.

2024

2024 turned out to be an extremely inconsistent year. Despite winning PGL Wallachia Season 1 and finishing as runner-up at Clavision: Snow Ruyi, the team placed in the middle of the pack or was eliminated early in other competitions.

Team Spirit also underperformed at TI and EWC: they finished only 7th–8th at Riyadh Masters 2024 and 9th–12th at The International 2024.

Their failure at the year’s flagship tournament led to drastic changes: Yatoro and Mira went inactive, while Collapse took a break. With the revamped roster featuring Alan Satanic Galyamov, Abdimalik Malik Saylau, and Alexander rue Filin, the team’s best result was a 3rd-place finish at DreamLeague Season 24.

2025

In early 2025, Yatoro and Collapse returned to the active roster. Meanwhile, Mira decided to continue his career with Aurora Gaming, so rue remained in the fourth position on Spirit. In March, the revamped roster won DreamLeague Season 25, and their biggest triumph of the summer was victory at the Esports World Cup 2025.

Following their success in Riyadh at The International 2025, Team Spirit was considered the top favorite, but in the end, the team failed to even reach the playoffs. This led to the departure of captain Miposhka, who was replaced by Nikita Panto Balaganin. Toward the end of the year, the revamped roster came within a hair’s breadth of winning titles twice, finishing in second place at PGL Wallachia Season 6 and DreamLeague Season 27.

2026

The start of 2026 brought another wave of changes: coach Silent went inactive, and Larl temporarily took a break. With Marat Mirele Gazetdinov stepping in as a replacement, the team became the runner-up at FISSURE Universe: Episode 8, but their results at major tournaments left much to be desired.

Soon, Milan MiLAN Kozomara became the new coach; after signing with a major organization, he made a name for himself by getting involved in a couple of altercations during matchmaking. In the first few months, he was unable to adequately compensate for the departures of Miposhka and Silent — Spirit’s results remained mediocre. The situation was exacerbated by yet another leave of absence: this time, Collapse. took a break.

Upon Khalilov’s return to the active roster, the club reshuffled its support positions: rue moved to the fifth position, replacing Panto, while Alexey not me Kosmyinin became the new “fourth”. The revamped roster made a successful debut at DreamLeague Season 29, finishing in the top 3.