Spirit has unveiled the signing of Belarusian star Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich on September 8. The former HEROIC player will replace Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia, effective immediately, and make his debut at ESL Pro League Season 22 later this month.
Zont1x played an integral part in Spirit’s rise to fame in the past two years. Since the organization promoted him from the academy setup in July 2023, he has helped them to win numerous trophies, most notably IEM Katowice and the Perfect World Shanghai Major in 2024, and IEM Cologne this year. They have been, undoubtedly, one of the best CS2 teams in the world since 2024.
However, nothing is too perfect to the point that it can’t get better. TN1R has had an amazing tier-one debut in 2025 under HEROIC, and is arguably one of the most capable riflers within the CIS region.
Also, ironically, tN1R helped HEROIC to knock Spirit out of the coveted Esports World Cup 2025 tournament last month. The Belarusian dropped 50 frags in the series, just one less than Spirit’s superstar Danil “donk” Kryshkovets.
TN1r has done well in tier-one so far and earned himself a spot in Spirit. Credit: Helena Kristiansson | © ESL
TN1R will inherit nearly all of zont1x’s roles, barring some minor adjustments. The main difference between him and zont1x is that tN1R has put up considerably more numbers throughout the year during his stint with HEROIC.
He’s a very solid lurker, so this can benefit Spirit in late-round situations, especially those in which donk has already died. By getting tN1R, Spirit now have three strong fraggers in him, donk, and Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov. This is more in line with other CS powerhouses like Vitality and Falcons — though the Saudi-backed team still have to bear fruit.
We gathered all of the important stats from both zont1x and tN1R this year:
| zont1x | tN1R |
|---|---|
| 1.08 rating | 1.19 rating |
| 73.8 ADR | 82.8 ADR |
| 1.07 K/D ratio | 1.18 K/D ratio |
| 0.64 Kills per Round | 0.77 Kills per Round |
| 15.3% Multi-Kill | 18.9% Multi-Kill |
Besides being a better fragger, tN1R can also chime in with mid-round calls like zont1x did. At the end of his stint with HEROIC, tN1R was contributing a lot, as he was put in map control roles across the maps.
Spirit will have enough time to properly onboard tn1R into the team and get plenty of reps ahead of the StarLadder Budapest Major at the end of the year.
Their next tournament is ESL Pro League Season 22, which kicks off on September 27. They’ll presumably do a bootcamp to get that extra practice with tN1R ahead of the event in Sweden.
Feature image credit: © Spirit
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