Six months ago, Team Spirit looked unshakeable. Katowice, the Major, Cologne — a trio of titles that cemented the Russian squad as CS2’s new dynasty. But the loss to The MongolZ in Chengdu sparked the sharpest community debate yet: has chopper’s system broken down, and is zweih really the main culprit behind the slump?
From Major champions to searching for themselves
At IEM Chengdu 2025, Spirit looked disoriented. Their style — once a model of aggressive, structured CS — became muddled, tempo-driven, and dependent on individual frags from Donk and sh1ro. In the series against The MongolZ, the team lost basic positional control, and the spacing on maps looked “odd and disjointed,” as Mauisnake noted in the latest episode of Snake and Banter:
Their whole macro looked broken. If I had to boil it down to one player — it’s zweih. He got run over on every position. They read him so hard that The MongolZ started tossing HEs at stairs blindly, knowing he’d be there.
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Debate: who’s to blame — zweih or chopper?
Mauisnake’s thesis triggered a wave of comments and Twitter discussions. The analyst stressed that “fighting on the side of it being a chopper/hally problem is crazy,” reminding everyone that this duo led Spirit to three major trophies in a year.
Fighting on the side of it being a chopper/hally problem is crazy. They won Katowice, Cologne, and the Major. zweih won Cologne with only 4/13 maps above a 1.0 Rating (in a comfy backpack)
tN1R deserves more runway. zweih is not adjusting to a proven system
— Mauisnake (@Mauisnake) November 5, 2025
His opinion split the community in two:
- zweih is a downgrade
Fans and journalists like @nnikolaSCS and @SnafFPS believe the magixx → zweih swap broke the team’s balance.
They lost their X-factor. With DONK and sh1ro on board — they still fumble winning rounds, users wrote.
- chopper is the system’s limitation
Others are sure the IGL failed to adapt the lineup to new roles.
chopper has always had micro issues, critics emphasized, his style looks outdated without the ‘old spirits’ — magixx and zont1x.
One comment summed it up sarcastically:
Once they get zont1x back, everything will work again. For now, chopper is just buying time.
Snake and Banter: Mauisnake, Thorin, and Flashy on a system unraveling
In the Snake and Banter podcast, three analysts broke the situation down.
Mauisnake — “zweih isn’t just not fragging — he’s damping the team”
When zweih dies, he literally puts his head in his hands. Magixx and zont1x kept talking even after death — they stayed the team’s ‘eyes in the sky.’ zweih goes quiet. That’s dead air in comms.
Thorin — “chopper isn’t flawless, but he isn’t the reason”
Blaming an IGL who won three trophies is unreasonable. The problem is that zweih doesn’t compensate for losing Magixx. If you have Magixx and zont1x on the bench, it’s only logical after results like these to bring someone back.
He also blasted the “community panic” that “changes the scapegoat after every bottom frag”:
Last year everyone yelled to kick zont1x. Then magixx. Now chopper. Keep this up and you’ll have only Donk left.
Flashy (Liquid): “Spirit need time, not a breakup”
They won two tournaments after the changes. That already says something.
A single player change can wreck team dynamics for months. A smart team waits for the Major instead of panicking.”
Donk is no longer a god: the first dip in a year and a half
For the first time in a while, Thorin spoke about a “human drop-off for Donk”:
His T-side KD fell by 0.4. Spirit looked unbreakable only because Donk was playing at a divine level. Now that he’s merely ‘great,’ the team looks like an average one.
Mauisnake agreed:
It’s not a collapse, it’s normalization. But now we see — without a 1.4 Donk, they’re not top-1, they’re top-8.
Flashy added that Donk’s dip could stem from role instability:
Maybe he’s missing Magixx’s voice. A small role change can break the dynamic. That’s what we’re seeing now.
Symptoms of decline
Over the last three tournaments, Spirit have:
- won only 3 of 10 series versus top-10 teams;
- lost 12 of 14 pistol rounds;
- posted a 38% conversion after the first death (4v5) — one of the worst Tier-1 figures.
This isn’t just stat noise — it’s a diagnosis for a team that changed one ingredient and lost the recipe.
What’s next for Spirit
Analysts agree on one thing:
- The Budapest Major will be decisive.
- If Spirit stumble again, zweih or chopper are at risk of being replaced.
- With Magixx and zont1x still on the bench, they look like prime candidates to return.
Thorin, bluntly:
This transfer looked odd from the start. If everything stays the same after the Major, roll it back to the 2024 version.
Mauisnake added:
Spirit have two paths: either fail twice and start a rebuild, or prove the system still works. Right now — this isn’t a champion.
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From dynasty to crossroads
Not long ago, Spirit epitomized the new wave — a young team surpassing all the “old” champions. Now they’re a reminder of how quickly a system can lose its magic if you remove even one element. Their Budapest Major will be either the epilogue of the Donk era — or the beginning of its second act.
