degster, Patsi join Spirit on loan

The Russian team have secured one of the most exciting young talents in the region.

Spirit have announced that they have signed Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov and Robert "⁠Patsi⁠" Isyanov on month-long loan deals from Espada. The AWPer will fill the spot that belonged to Artem "⁠iDISBALANCE⁠" Egorov, who has been made available for transfer, while the 17-year-old rifler will assume a sixth-player role in the squad.

The Russian pair were the stars of the Espada team that became a regular presence in the top 30 in the world rankings in the final quarter of 2020. They were the only two players that Espada decided to retain after disbanding the team earlier in the month, with Dmitry "⁠S0tF1k⁠" Forostyanko, Dmitriy "⁠Dima⁠" Bandurka and Vladislav "⁠FinigaN⁠" Usov having been released from their contracts.

degster is widely regarded as one of the most promising talents in Europe and was featured in our 'One for the future' series in December. The 19-year-old AWPer, who helped Sprout to win ESL Meisterschaft Autumn on Sunday after putting up a series-high 1.34 rating in the final against BIG, recently said that he felt ready for a bigger challenge in his career.

These are the first roster changes that Spirit have made since October 2019, when Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov and Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev were signed. The organisation hopes that degster's addition will allow the team to scale greater heights in 2021 after they plateaued in the world rankings in the final months of 2020.

"I am grateful to Artem for the two years that he spent in Team Spirit," Nikita Chukalin, CEO of the Russian organisation, said in a statement. "Together, we were able to build a stable team that performed well not only at the local level, but also internationally.

"However, we have big goals to accomplish, and to do that we need to become stronger. We will play our next tournaments with degster and I hope that he will be able to prove himself in our team. He is one of the most talented young players in the CIS and we appreciate the opportunity to work with him. If we succeed, Abdul will sign a contract with Team Spirit for the next few years.

"In addition, to further bolster the team, we felt we also needed tactical changes. The introduction of a sixth player is a logical step forward. For several months we have been looking for a suitable young talent to add, and Robert is literally the best option we could count on. So far, he is only on a test period, but we wish him good luck and hope that our cooperation will become very fruitful."

degster will make his first appearance for Spirit in a week's time, in DreamHack Open January, scheduled for January 27-31. He is also expected to feature for the team in the IEM Katowice Play-In Stage, which will be held on February 16-17.

With these changes, Spirit now have:

Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov
Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov
Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev
Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev
Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov
Robert "⁠Patsi⁠" Isyanov

Nikolay "⁠Certus⁠" Poluyanov (coach)

Artem "⁠iDISBALANCE⁠" Egorov (transfer list)