S0tF1k: "I believe mazay is the future of our academy, I will put him back in at the first opportunity"

S0tF1k gave HLTV plenty of insight into Spirit's academy program.

Spirit Academy saw their Majestic LanDaLan campaign end as swiftly as it began, exiting the tournament without registering a single map win in bouts with TPuDCATb TPu and Betera.

The team's coach, Dmitry "⁠S0tF1k⁠" Forostyanko, was quick to take the blame upon himself. "I think I've made a mistake with the preparation which is why we played so poorly. We made the focus on more actions but we had to go for more basic things, so we would have had better fundamentals."

Date	Matches
Majestic LanDaLan 3
25/09/2025	TPuDCATb TPu Finished 2:0 Spirit Academy	Match
26/09/2025	Spirit Academy Finished 0:2 Betera	Match

Considering Spirit Academy were playing this event with two new players, Kirill "⁠Kiryasoo⁠" Solovkov and Kirill "⁠kurosse⁠" Marunchenko, it is perhaps understandable that the team struggled. "They're strong individually, but they will need to gain experience," S0tF1k reflected when thinking on the two newcomers.

With his team's early exit behind him, S0tF1k sat down for a lengthy discussion with HLTV about Spirit's academy program, the potential of Volodymyr "⁠mazay⁠" Iorhachov , and the progression of academy graduates Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin and Alimzhan "⁠Alkaren⁠" Bitimbay.

Editor's note: This interview was conducted in Russian and translated by HLTV staff.

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Your team won the two previous two LanDaLans, this time you were eliminated first. How would you evaluate your performance here?

Our performance here is, let's say, not great. I think I've made a mistake with the preparation, which is why we played so poorly. We made the focus on more actions but we had to go for more basic things, so we would have had better fundamentals. By the end of the prep, I knew that it would be tough. Perhaps the LAN environment could have boosted us and we would have played well, but we lost confidence and fell apart big time.

Tell me about the two new players, Kiryasoo and kurosse.

Well, these guys are smart. They shoot well, they're strong individually, but they will need to gain experience. They have made it into a structure where my guys have been playing with me for a year and a half, and they understand much more.

It's always hard when you join a team where you don't have any team experience but you join the guys who have been top 30 and have won some LANs. It's hard for them, obviously, but I don't apply pressure on them, we try to develop them little by little. They have time, so I didn't put any goals for this LAN, like we gotta beat everyone. So we'll be working, simple as that.

Do you have the main five for Spirit Academy, or are you keeping things more fluid at the moment?

We do, yeah. A player makes it into the main team, so that means they have time to play, we help you grow. If you don't play well, we replace them — which I think is understandable, since it's always competitive as we have three academy teams. Like in football and basketball, we have players "on the bench" who wait for their chance to play if someone plays poorly on the main team. I think this is healthy competition that helps the players. So we have this main team, and then three younger teams — Black, White, Green, with the latter being the youngest.

Spirit Academy still has three players who have been on the roster with Alkaren and kyousuke. Why haven't they found new teams? Does it sadden you?

It doesn't sadden me. There was an interesting story that happened. When kyousuke left we picked up mazay, and things were going quite well with Alim [Alkaren]. There were offers for other guys, for Mokuj1n, for robo, for Alim, and everyone was turning them down because we were thinking that we were a good team and we would be playing well.

Alim then received offer that he couldn't turn down and the team started to fall apart. Then it appeared that mazay, with whom we have been practicing for a month, would have problems with his studies and would be unable to practice as much as we would need him to. So our roster ended up being completely rebuilt. If the guys had known that Alim would be leaving, they would have left as well. Maybe they will be receiving a bunch of offers now, but I'm not sure how it is gonna go, we'll see.

Can you elaborate on why you had to remove mazay from the roster?

We picked up mazay, who was the number one candidate to replace kyousuke, but his schedule of studies in Germany didn't work for us. When he went to school he learned about his schedule, and we decided that it would be better for us to wait half a year till our next changes. I really liked working with him, I believe he's the future of our academy and I will put him back in at the first opportunity.

What is your impression of him after a month of playing with him?

I believe he's very strong individually, he has a great firepower, blows the opponents out really well. He's young as well and it shows. He doesn't have experience of team play, so it was his first experience when he was playing with us. So yet again, he was coming into a team that has been playing together for a while and when he had no prior experience, so it's tough. It's not a very delicious mix coming out of it, let's put it like that. No matter who would be coming, it would have been tough. Yet I have faith in him. I will be returning him into the team when we get a spot, 100%.

Spirit recently extended the academy with multiple rosters: how is it going and what are your impressions?

When the guys are coming over to me, it's the players who are more prepared. The players that we have recently brought in have played only for a couple of months, so not for really long. I try to tell the guys about CS the way I see it, in terms of discipline, for them to know how act, and that's the kind of structure they brew in from the beginning, so they know where they will be getting in later. And the competition, I like that aspect.

I really liked the way the guys work. I really enjoy working with Flash_1, I believe he thinks similarly to me. When we talk and I ask about the guys and he tells me about the issues, he always says things that I think about. So we think alike in that sense, I'm fully confident in him.

I also like Green's coach hurtsxlrd. He's a young coach, 22 years old. For him it's also a new beginning, so maybe we will grow a new good coach, who knows. k4sl- also tries hard, I like how is it going over there. They have a slightly different structure, but yet again, it's all a test.

I can make some conclusions on players in advance. I see how they work, I listen to their TeamSpeak, their pracs, watch their officials, and I see how the guys develop, and so I have some feedback on a player from the beginning. Before I was taking a player without knowing anything about them, except that he hits hard on FACEIT, but now I know how he talks, how he solves his problems, how he grows, how he is in a team — there's a complex picture, so the selection ends up being better.

Do you see a player with a similarly explosive potential in the academy project to kyousuke and donk?

I won't name anyone to not upset anybody, but there are a couple of guys who can explode the scene, in my opinion. Yet again it all depends on them, how they will be working and growing, because Maxim and Danya were very strong mentally, they are guys who were extremely confident. I see that the guys know how to push the buttons, but in terms of the mental part, we'll need to see. Because they play at a low level, the mental aspect doesn't decide much. When you go higher, there's more pressure for results, the teammates are stronger, so you might feel a bit off. That's where it shows how ready a player is.

kyousuke has made his full-fledged tier-1 debut. What is your impression so far?

I do watch sometimes, I'm always interested to see how my guys play. I watch Alim as well. We exchange messages after games as well. We even watch demos — not their game specifically, but just overall. So I follow what's going on over there and I'm very much interested. He has really shown himself well. Alim had a bit of a mixed start, but I'm not sure what's up with the team, there might be troubles over there.

I like how Maxim [kyousuke] was given a lot of freedom, that he can show himself. There were concerns that he would be pushed into certain limits, but zonic did a good job in that sense. In an interview he said that the most important thing is for kyousuke to be comfortable, and it's great that they did it it this way. Maxim there indeed looks like Maxim who was playing under me.

Speaking of Alkaren, tell me more about his debut. Why do you think it turned out to be mixed?

I think it's because of a new coach, new AWPer, they had a bunch of changes with nilo coming in and so on. We have a bunch of changes as well, and I feel how hard it is to build up a game straight away when you have so many changes, especially at tier-one where there's such strong competition. The teams are more experienced over there, in terms of being together for longer. Then tn1R was also taken from them, then they got xfl0ud back who was previously removed.

I think there might be problems in terms of the atmosphere — this is just me guessing, I don't know how it is actually over there. I believe all of these changes won't help you build a proper game straight away when you have to build up the fundamentals from zero, so it's hard for them in some key moments.