Team Spirit Announced Collapse and Miposhka Would Take a Break After Winning The International Two Thousand and Twenty Six
Academy offlaner Bohdan Batyuk Batiuk replaces Collapse in the line-up, while former Spirit player IllidanSTR takes over as coach ahead of BLAST Slam VIII.
Team Spirit announced on 21 September 2026 that offlaner Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov and coach Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov will take a break from competition, weeks after the team won The International 2026 in Shanghai.
Bohdan "Batyuk" Batiuk has been promoted from the club's Yellow Submarine academy side to replace Collapse in the offlane. He had already stood in for Spirit twice during 2026. Ilya "IllidanSTR" Pevcaev, a former Spirit player who had been coaching Yellow Submarine, takes over as coach.
The break was attributed to personal reasons connected with fatigue following The International. Miposhka had previously stepped away in October 2025 before returning to the team as coach in June 2026.
The title in Shanghai was Spirit's third at The International, making them the first organisation to lift the Aegis of Champions three times.
The revised line-up is Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk, Denis "Larl" Sigitov, Batyuk, Alexey "not me" Kosmynin and Aleksandr "rue" Filin. Their first event together will be BLAST Slam VIII, which begins on 29 September with playoffs in Malta. Spirit will enter the tournament as reigning world champions, with Batyuk and IllidanSTR taking on their new roles for the first time since the announcement.