Team Spirit sign tN1R after zont1x benched for personal reasons

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 08/09/2025

Team Spirit have announced a big change to their Counter-Strike 2 roster ahead of ESL Pro League 22.

Andrey ‘tN1R’ Tatarinovich has officially joined from HEROIC to replace Myroslav ‘zont1x’ Plakhotia.

The Belarusian established himself as a star on HEROIC, averaging a 1.19 rating on LAN across 74 maps.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian rifler zont1x has been moved to the bench due to his own personal request.

In an official statement released by Team Spirit, zont1x apparently asked to be benched a long time ago:

“Several months ago, Miroslav informed the Team Spirit management that he needed some time off in order to solve certain personal issues.

“It took us a while to provide him with such an opportunity, avoiding negative consequences for the roster’s stability at the same time. We undoubtedly respect Miroslav’s choice.”

The statement also thanked zont1x for his time on the team, saying:

“Throughout all these years, zont1x has made a tremendous contribution to the development of our roster both inside the game and beyond.

“Miroslav’s composure, humanity and stable performances made him a vital part of the Team Spirit family.”

The statement also claims zont1x’s return is “highly anticipated” despite Team Spirit just securing the signing of tN1R.

zont1x was originally promoted to Team Spirit’s CS2 line-up from their academy alongside Artem ‘ArtFr0st⁠’ Kharitonov and Danil ‘donk⁠’ Kryshkovets.

In his rookie year, he won numerous events, including IEM Katowice, BLAST Spring Final, and the Perfect World Shanghai Major.

This year, Team Spirit won IEM Cologne and BLAST Bounty Fall but have struggled since.

It was HEROIC and tN1R who eliminated Team Spirit from the Round of 16 of the Esports World Cup.

Team Spirit also failed to qualify for the last major after being eliminated by eventual BLAST London winners G2 Esports.

Counter-Strike 2 ESL Pro League Season 22 preview

The busy CS2 esports event schedule continues as ESL Pro League Season 22 kicks off with Stage 1 on September 27th.

The event will feature a $400k (£295k) prize pool as 16 teams compete to qualify to Stage 2.

BLAST London champions G2 will compete in Stage 1, as will HEROIC who are still looking for a t1NR replacement.

Meanwhile, t1NR and Team Spirit have already been invited to Stage 2, but until they play with their new signing, CS betting sites won’t have them as tournament favourites.

G2, BLAST finalists Team Vitality, and EWC champions The MongolZ will likely be tipped to win the tournament over Team Spirit.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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