zweih: “When I joined Team Spirit, I was still an unformed player.”

This is my first time playing a tournament in a Russian-speaking country. And it’s such a cool feeling—when you go out in front of the crowd anywhere, they start… shouting your nickname, asking for autographs and photos—it’s awesome. ...> I’ve had a similar experience in China twice—once with Nemiga when I flew to China for the RMR, and with Team Spirit at IEM Chengdu 2025 and BLAST Rivals 2025 Season 2. There were always a million people standing outside the hotel, waiting for us. Even when I was playing for Nemiga, we arrived at our first official championship, and people were still standing outside the hotel shouting, “Nemiga’s here, go for it, Nemiga, that’s it.”

When we first flew to Malta, I had expectations. During those first two days we spent at the hotel without any matches, I had high hopes—I really, really hoped we’d beat Team Spirit in our first match, and it felt like the entire next phase of my... The next two months at PARIVISION. And after beating Team Spirit, I was already thinking we could easily win the tournament. I felt so confident that I was sure we could easily beat both FURIA and Team Falcons.

Everything is different everywhere; that’s understandable. But personally, I feel that when I joined Team Spirit, I was still an unformed player. And I joined four titans, so to speak, who had already won every world championship there except for Cologne, so to speak. And their goal—at least for Leni and Seryoga hally—was to teach me how to play on the Tier 1 scene and integrate me into their structure, yeah. And when I joined PARIVISION, there were Jame and dastan, who had already been integrating their players—BELCHONOKK, nota, and xiELO—for a year. And I just sort of latched onto them so seamlessly, and now the four of us are learning together.