by Team Spirit’s Danil “donk” Kryshkovets and Boris “magixx” Vorobiev are set to miss the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024 due to visa issues, as confirmed by the organization through their social media accounts.
— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) January 18, 2024
This setback has prompted Spirit to make changes, with coach Sergey “hally” Shavaev and Team Spirit Academy player Oleg “baz” Kulynych stepping in as replacements for the Counter-Strike tournament in Copenhagen from January 22–28.
The announcement was made via Team Spirit’s official Telegram channel, expressing regret that the promising rookies, especially donk, won’t be able to attend their first top-tier LAN event with the newly-formed lineup that recently acquired Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov.
With the duo’s absence, fans will have to wait until the IEM Katowice Play-In stage starts on January 31 to witness the official LAN debut of the revamped Team Spirit roster.
The timing of the visa issues is particularly unfortunate, coming just before the PGL Copenhagen Major qualifier is set to begin on February 14 in Bucharest.
Despite the setback, the team is gearing up for their first official match in the European RMR closed qualifiers, where they’ll face KOI.
This will serve as a crucial test for the new line-up, which has been generating significant hype since the acquisition of sh1ro last month from Cloud9, replacing Artem “ArtFr0st” Kharitonov.
Donk’s absence, in particular, is a significant loss for Team Spirit.
The 16-year-old player made a remarkable impact after being promoted from the organization’s academy in July 2023, showcasing impressive performances with a 1.35 rating and 1.51 impact rating during the latter half of the year.
He proved doubters wrong by excelling on LAN, contributing to Spirit’s victories in events like PARI Dunav Party and BetBoom Dacha, where they defeated formidable teams like FURIA, MIBR, and Virtus.pro to clinch the title.
As Team Spirit faces this unexpected hurdle, fans are left eagerly anticipating their performance in IEM Katowice and hoping for a swift resolution to the visa issues that have disrupted their plans for BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024.
