Spirit Academy and KaiR0N- Part Ways

Aleksandr “KaiR0N-” Anashkin has decided against re-signing with Team Spirit, the youngster announced on Tuesday, February 15. The news follows KaiR0N-‘s strong performances at the WePlay Academy League, where he helped his side finish top four.

KaiR0N- is an 18-year-old Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who made his professional debut in September 2020. At the time, he joined Wolsung before jumping around several stacks, including ex-Ethereal, CrowCrow, and zxc.

In the earlier days of his CS:GO esports career, KaiR0N- has not achieved much and has attended only minor tournaments, including ESEA events and a couple of other C-Tier tournaments. However, things started looking up for the youngster in 2021.

In December 2020, he placed second at Dell Gaming League Season 1 and collected another silver medal from Hellcase New Year Tournament in January 2021. For the next few months, success was hard to come by for the young CS:GO pro, but he found some traction midway through the year.

In June 2021, KaiR0N- finished second at A1 Adria League Season 7 and won his first official tournament a month later, when he led zxc to the top of Prime League Summer 2021: Russia.

In August, KaiR0N- served as a stand-in for Budapest Five and helped the team win V4 Future Sports Festival – Budapest 2021: Hungarian Qualifier, before ending the year with three podium finishes. Most notably, he placed second at ESEA Cash Cup: Europe – Autumn 2021 #2 and Kayzr League Fall 2021 and won Dell Gaming Academy Season 2.

Thanks to his success in the latter half of 2021, KaiR0N- got picked up by Team Spirit Academy, which he was a part of since December. Although he has not won a single tournament with the Russian squad, KaiR0N- has recently led Spirit to a top-four finish at the WePlay Academy League.

KaiR0N- has already achieved plenty of success in the earlier months of his professional career. But he truly came into his own since joining Team Spirit.

Admittedly, his stint with Team Spirit Academy was rather short-lived, but he has proven that he is a potential future star.

KaiR0N- joined Spirit Academy in December as an uncontracted stand-in and has helped the team through two tournaments. He made his debut for the Russian CS:GO team in January at the ESEA Cash Cup: Europe – Winter 2021 #3.

Even though Spirit Academy did not go all the way at the event, they left a mark. KaiR0N- and co. won against rksoilders and digital Mind but crashed out in the third round against HellRaisers with 10-16.

His solid performance at ESEA Cash Cup earned KaiR0N- an extension to his stay at Spirit, with who he attended WePlay Academy League Season 3. Spirit Academy finished second in their group at the tournament and fought their way through the Play-In stage.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t make it much further and crashed out in the first round of the playoff with defeats against BIG Academy and Astralis Talent.

Nevertheless, KaiR0N- ended the tournament as one of the top performers. He averaged a 1.22 HLTV rating across 15 maps and finished the tournament as the fourth-highest rated player.

It’s unclear what KaiR0N-‘s plans for the future are, but in his announcement, he has unveiled that he is open to joining a new team. In the same statement, KaiR0N revealed that he decided to leave Spirit for personal reasons, without specifying why he decided to cut ties with the organization.

Currently, the 18-year-old CS:GO esports pro is a free agent, but considering the talent and potential he has showcased over the last year, it’s unlikely that he will remain teamless for long.