WW TEAM vs. Krytiepacani — who’s better?

WW Team is now without deko and ct0m, and both players have already competed alongside chopper and Perfecto. The first matches provided an opportunity to compare the rosters: the media-backed project has been on a losing streak, while the new lineup had a mixed debut.

In July, WW Team won the WINLINE MPKBK CIS LAN Season 6, defeating Virtus.pro 3-2 in the final. On the decisive Anubis map, Denis “deko” Zhukov racked up 31 kills over 20 rounds. Now the sniper plays under the tag krytiepacani alongside Artem “ct0m” Maksimov. Their former team began playing without them on September 21, and the new roster has already completed its first LAN tournament.

Starting September 21, WW Team played with Gleb “tried” Kholmogorov and Boris “Ryujin” Kim. They joined Ivan “StRoGo” Shurpatov, Timur “m3wsu” Korenev, and Vladimir “kelieN” Boldyrev. This five-man lineup played all five online series through September 26. Before the LAN event, Ermek “enzero” Kartanbaev replaced tried: only one player changed, while the other four continued to play together.

At the Exort Fiesta Series 2, WW Team defeated Phantom Academy 2–0 and Vexar 2–1. In the first match, tried posted a rating of 3.0 with a 1.65 MMR, while m3wsu recorded a 1.50 MMR. In the second match, Ryujin stood out with 26 kills and seven deaths, earning a rating of 2.84 on the decisive Mirage map. Different players secured the team’s first victories, and the team finished in 3rd–4th place in the tournament. But in the semifinals against Illyrians, their 13–11 win on Ancient wasn’t enough: the decisive Dust2 match ended with a score of 3–13.

At CCT 2026 Europe Series 9, history repeated itself: WW Team lost to Leo 1–2. After a defeat on their home map, Dust2, they managed to win the opponent’s Cache 13–11, but the decisive Ancient map went to their opponent—10–13. This was followed by a 0:2 loss to Color at the NODWIN Clutch Series 12. On Mirage, the team led 8–4 after the first half, but couldn’t hold on to the lead and lost 14–16 in overtime. These three losses came during the previous lineup featuring tried.

The online stretch ended with two wins, three losses, and a map record of 6–7. The map selection was particularly telling: in the first two series, WW Team won their picks; in the next three, they lost them. Dust2 was played in all five matches, but after two wins, it led to three consecutive losses. The roster was still able to take opponents’ maps and force matches to a third map, but their own map picks stopped giving them an advantage. The slump began before enzero joined the team, so it cannot be attributed solely to the latest substitution.

Enzero had already played in 1xBet FRAG Season 18. The opening Dust2 match against ARCRED ended with a score of 6–13, even though Ryujin recorded 20 kills and posted a rating of 1.62. The next match against DNK was closer: they won Anubis 13–10, lost Ancient 6–13, and suffered a defeat on the decisive Dust2 11–13. They failed to advance from the group stage, and their winless streak grew to five matches.

Ryujin proved to be the most impressive addition: across four maps, he recorded 70 kills, 61 deaths, and a 0.82 kill-to-death ratio. He was the only one in the starting five to finish the tournament with a positive kill-to-death ratio. kelieN helped against DNK, posting a rating of 1.19, while enzero climbed to 1.06 after a weak opening match. But even these performances weren’t enough for a win: one good map or a strong individual performance isn’t enough just yet.

StRoGo finished the LAN with 46 kills and 66 deaths, posting ratings of 0.66 and 0.83. One substitution has not yet changed the overall result. Since September 21, WW Team has recorded two wins and five losses, with a map record of 7–10. Of these seven matches, five were played online with tried, and two were played at the LAN event with enzero. Tashkent added two losses to a losing streak that had already begun, rather than starting a new one.

krytiepacani assembled a more experienced lineup: Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov, Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutsky, and Alexander “TRAVIS” Timkiv joined deko and ct0m. Their debut took place at WINLINE MPKBK CIS LAN Season 8 in St. Petersburg. Based on the names alone, one might have expected this lineup to contend for the top spots, but their very first match showed that familiar nicknames alone do not guarantee good teamwork. They had to make up for their losing start by fighting their way through the lower bracket of the group stage.

Their match against Omega began with a 2:13 score on their home map, Nuke, and even a 9:3 lead on Inferno wasn’t enough to secure a win. On the second map, the team won only one round and lost 10:13, finishing the series without winning a single map. deko remained the only player with a rating above 1.00—1.07. The other four players scored between 0.56 and 0.76, so the loss cannot be attributed to any single player’s performance.

However, they went on to win two matches in a row. DARKWALL lost 5–13 on Ancient and 1–13 on Dust2, after which a rematch against Omega took place. This time, both results went in favor of the new lineup: 13–11 on Dust2 and 13–10 on Inferno. The latter victory is particularly telling for evaluating their debut: the roster overcame an opponent they’d lost to earlier in the day and advanced to the playoffs.

Perfecto stood out the most in both victories: a rating of 1.91 against DARKWALL and 1.4 in the decisive group match. deko also played strongly, and ct0m finished both series with a rating above 1.2. Meanwhile, after a strong match against DARKWALL, TRAVIS posted a 0.75 rating against Omega, even though the team won. Even their successful series showed a noticeable disparity in the players’ individual stats.

The quarterfinal against UPGRADE saw a return to their early struggles: they lost their home map, Dust2, with a score of 5–13. They managed to put up a fight on Ancient, but lost that map as well—11–13. ct0m had the best rating on the team at 1.03, while deko’s was 0.88 and Perfecto’s was 0.69. The result was a 5th–8th place finish, with two wins in four series and a 4–4 map record.

For a debut, this is an acceptable result: the team bounced back from a crushing defeat and advanced from the group stage, but failed to win a single map in either the first match or the quarterfinals. Their failures on their own strong maps were particularly noticeable: Nuke and Dust2 yielded a combined total of just seven rounds between them. Based on the results of a single LAN event, it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact cause, but their map selection and preparation deserve attention.

Based on initial results, krytiepacani holds the advantage: they’ve advanced to the playoffs, and three players have a positive kill-death ratio for the tournament. WW Team started with two online wins but then lost five matches in a row. At the same time, deko’s new roster has not yet gone through a comparable online run. The conclusion that they had a better start does not predict the outcome of a head-to-head match: the opponents are different, and the sample size is still small.

The top scorer on both teams stands out significantly. Ryujin accounted for nearly a quarter of all WW Team kills in Tashkent, while deko’s share in St. Petersburg was about 26%. The difference is that in the sniper’s new lineup, Perfecto and ct0m had successful runs. Zhukov himself finished the LAN with 136 kills and 107 deaths, but his stats also dipped in the quarterfinals. To make a deep run, they’ll need consistent support from the rest of the team.

ct0m’s departure cannot be assessed in the same way as deko’s loss: in WW, he played positions where it’s harder to rack up a lot of kills. It’s impossible to determine from a single table how well these areas are now covered and how responsibilities are distributed. But his debut has already shown that Maximov himself is capable of contributing alongside other strong players. He finished the tournament with a +7 differential and was the highest-ranked player in the quarterfinal they lost, so it would be unfair to cast him in the role of a low-profile sniper support.

WW Team needs to restore the reliability of its own picks and achieve a more consistent contribution from its players. Five online series have shown that winning without deko is possible, but the success of the early matches hasn’t been sustained. The only substitution made since then hasn’t helped either. The new lineup, led by deko, needs to narrow the gap between winning streaks and slumps, especially on their home maps. Their start looks promising, but both teams still need to follow up their individual strong matches with consistent results.