Stat Check: How zweih's firepower can transform Spirit

Replacing magixx's intangibles is a mighty task, but Spirit have taken the plunge on a player their academy once rejected.

We should have known this was coming. Ever since Ivan "⁠zweih⁠" Gogin was announced as Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets's bold prediction for 2025, his road to Spirit was put on rails.

Yet zweih has had to work for this opportunity. When Spirit Academy offered to sign him, it was only as a sixth player. Instead of signing that deal, a 16-year-old zweih backed himself enough to message Nemiga's Anton "⁠boX⁠" Burko to enquire about replacing Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev.

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zweih: "I saw FL4MUS leaving Nemiga and went, 'whatever, I will message boX'"

That led to him joining the team and winning his first tournament (RES Regional S5 Europe) and his first LAN (RES Regional Champions 2024).

Failure at the Shanghai RMR could have knocked his confidence, but six months later, zweih turned up in Austin and humbled 3DMAX (1.58 rating), HEROIC (1.41 rating), and M80 (1.45 rating) in an underdog run to Stage 3.

But now that the step up to tier one has arrived, the pressure is truly on zweih for the first time in his career. Replacing Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev is about more than just frags. There will be a pressure on his decision-making and communication that was not there in Nemiga.

zweih has already had a taste of some harsh feedback courtesy of donk on magixx's stream, and Aliaksandr "⁠1eeR⁠" Nahorny also commented on zweih's quiet nature.

"He is silent, he thinks about his game," 1eeR told HLTV in Austin. "We have a good structure, you have to understand that. He can kill because we have good structure."

That calmness, and focus on his crosshair, however, can also be a strength. zweih is a steely character, calm and rarely unnerved. "zweih's motivating me sometimes a little bit with his calmness," Beksultan "⁠khaN⁠" Ospan said at the Major. "He's a really calm guy, I really like it. He's not screaming and everything but he's steady, calm, just playing his game."

And we should not get carried away with intangibles just yet. It is worth reminding you that zweih is a statistical demon. He's in the top 11% of all riflers in round swing, kills, damage and the top 20% for openers despite starting on the extremities. zweih is a fragger in a way magixx could not be anymore.

Even before that Major, zweih had earned a step up. In 2025 so far, he has a 1.12 rating as an anchor-lurker, with 1.01 kills per round win and +1.18% round swing. He had become Nemiga's clear best player, a regular donk PUG partner — they have 62 matches together this year —, and all before his 18th birthday.

Spirit will not need zweih to turn into a yapper overnight. "The best zweih is anchor and lurk," he told us, and he will continue as a wing player on both sides without needing to call rounds around himself too much.

There are a few kinks to iron out regarding which of he and Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia swaps positions on Ancient, Dust2, and Mirage, but nothing should be a huge issue. Anchoring is anchoring, after all.

zweih and zont1x have some overlap on T side as well, but nothing major. Both players can suit the opposite lurk spots that they have right now.

Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov, Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov, and donk can continue to operate together in the map control pack (and rotation CT roles) as the loudest voices on the team.

Instead, the challenge for one of zweih or zont1x will be adapting to the role (rather than the position) of magixx.

magixx was a true support player of old. He anchored on CT, and was the bomb-site entry on T (with donk ready to trade.)

This is a very different role and team structure to how Nemiga play with a fairly supportive pack of 1eeR and Maksim "⁠riskyb0b⁠" Churikov and star aggressive lurkers like zweih and previously FL4MUS.

Only 21.3% of zweih's T-side deaths were traded in 2025, compared to 27.3% for magixx. There will be less room for solo plays than zweih is used to unless Spirit change their structure in a big way.

There is also the economic reality of how much Spirit (rightly) divert resources to donk. zweih used an AK-47 for 44% of rounds in his last 100 matches compared to 35% for the average rifler, 30% for magixx, and a whopping 60% for donk.

magixx was the designated sub-machine gunner and pistolero in gun rounds for Spirit: 11% MP9, 7% Galil, 6% Tec-9, and 4% Five-SeveN. If it is zont1x taking up magixx's 'bitch' role zweih might be okay, but he will still have to get used to weaker machinery than he is used to.

But for all the praise teammates heap on magixx, it was time to move on. We intuitively like to praise low-fragging players who contribute to team success, but the brutal truth is that Spirit's only top-tier trophy in the last 12 months came via a magixx anomaly when he fragged superbly in the Shanghai Major's playoffs.

Outside of that, Spirit have looked far too reliant on donk for both performance and aggression. Intangibles mean little against the might of Vitality or when donk drops anything less than a 1.30 rating.

A move for zweih may come with some challenges in terms of resources, but it is also an opportune moment to turn Spirit into a more dynamic, multi-faceted team. It does not have to be the donk show every single time if you have zweih adding an extra 10 damage per round compared to magixx.

donk's dominance means any team would be guilty of relying on him, but Vitality have proven that you need more than a superstar to build an era.

zweih is no Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, but he can add a new dimension. He is dominant in gun rounds, 91.1 ADR in his last 100 matches, and will leave Spirit with far more firepower in situations where donk has failed in an attempt for an opening pick.

Albeit against far weaker opposition, zweih comes out on top of every single anchor lurker we checked on EDGE in gun rounds with a massive 91.1 ADR. Even if we drop that by 10-15 ADR to account for opposition, he's more of a Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy or ropz in output than a zont1x or magixx.

When you sum all of this together, it is clear why zweih was such an attractive signing for Spirit. He can play most of magixx's positions, but in a far more dynamic fashion.

In the face of Vitality and Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin's Falcons, zweih is a chance for Spirit to add firepower without ripping the blueprint up completely.

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Stat Check: Falcons triple up on Openers for another gambit at Vitality's crown

It is a great shame kyousuke opted to move to Falcons rather than change his roles for Spirit, but that is the situation Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev and company are in. With Falcons' cash in hand, Spirit's management have access to an ocean of Russian-speaking talent who would love to play alongside donk and they must make the most of it.

The likes of Andrey "⁠tN1R⁠" Tatarinovich, or even reported target Nikita "⁠HeavyGod⁠" Martynenko, could replace zont1x down the line to make Spirit an even more fragging-focused force, should the team want to go down this route.

But acquiring "full monster" zweih is already a good start down that road. CS2's game design, Falcons' wealth fund, and Vitality's dominance have already made this a firepower era, and Spirit are just arriving to the party.

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