Team Spirit sign ex-Arcade

Arcade have had a strange few months concerning their Counter-Strike lineup, as the signing of the former Vega Squadron team in late 2015 gave way to a 3-4th place finish at the first CIS Minor and a 7-8th place exit at the second CIS Minor in 2016 (after losses to FLuffy Gangsters and Empire at the latter).

Recently the team were overhauled even further with the additions of Vadim "⁠DavCost⁠" Vasilyev and Anton "⁠tonyblack⁠" Kolesnikov and Arcade nearly managed to qualify for DreamHack ZOWIE Open Summer, only losing in the grand final of the first closed qualifier in a close three map series to Epsilon.

By the time the second DreamHack Open Summer closed qualifier rolled around, it became apparent that the players had parted ways with the Arcade organisation (though no official announcement was given) as they were playing under the old placeholder name of Phenomenon.

Speculations of a new organisation mounted and in the end it is Team Spirit, a newly founded Russian esports organisation who were previously involved in DOTA 2, who have announced the acquisition of the team.

Team coach Nikolay "⁠Certus⁠" Poluyanov had the following to say on joining Team Spirit:

"We are very pleased that we have partners such as Team Spirit now. The support of a large organization, which we have been looking for and have now finally found, will help us to focus on the work (getting better as a team) and not be distracted by little things. It will help us fully immerse ourselves in the training process and as quickly as possible prepare to achieve big goals. I hope that our cooperation wil be fruitful. We will do our best to please our fans."

Team Spirit's lineup is:

Vadim "⁠DavCost⁠" Vasilyev
Dmitriy "⁠Dimaoneshot⁠" Bandurka
Dmitry "⁠S0tF1k⁠" Forostyanko
Anton "⁠tonyblack⁠" Kolesnikov
Pavlo "⁠COLDYY1⁠" Veklenko

Nikolay "⁠Certus⁠" Poluyanov (coach) 

Hello, CS:GO! https://t.co/vy5IEqvUoX pic.twitter.com/lNo2FYQHxH

— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) June 9, 2016

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter