Larl Assesses Team Spirit’s Newcomers and BLAST SLAM VIII Balance

Team Spirit midlaner Denis “Larl” Sigitov discussed the team’s preparation during his break, the adaptation of newcomers Bogdan “batyuk” Batyuk and Ilya “Illidan” Pivtsev, and the competitive balance at BLAST SLAM VIII. He said he followed tier-two and tier-three matches, while spending more time away from the game in everyday life.

Larl described batyuk as a source of fresh energy and a player with his own style. He sees the newcomer as a classic offlaner who enjoys farming and expects him to reveal more of his ability with time. Larl also noted batyuk’s playful personality, while stressing that the player is still settling into the lineup.

According to Larl, Illidan brings his own ideas and openly shares his opinions during discussions about heroes and drafts. Team Spirit currently have strong synergy and promising drafts, but the roster has worked together for only one month. He considers Spirit, PARIVISION and Aurora Gaming roughly equal, with Team Yandex possibly slightly stronger despite Spirit’s earlier win over them. After the first map, Spirit lead Aurora in the upper-bracket semifinal.

ColdMath take

Team Spirit’s current results come with a limited sample: the new roster has trained together for only a month. Its upper-bracket lead over Aurora gives the team an immediate chance to reach the grand final.

The next maps will show whether the promising synergy and draft work can hold against one of the tournament’s closely matched contenders.