Team Spirit enter the IEM Cologne Major playoffs at 6-0 despite playing without head coach hally, who will continue helping remotely.
Team Spirit Will Continue IEM Cologne Major Without Coach hally
Team Spirit have confirmed that their Counter-Strike 2 head coach, Sergey “hally” Shavaev, will not be able to help the squad in person during their Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major 2026 campaign.
Team Spirit’s head coach has already missed the team’s IEM Cologne Major Stage 2 and Stage 3 matches, and will not return to stand behind the squad during their playoff campaign due to ongoing health issues.
As confirmed by Spirit, the 32-year-old will still help the squad remotely and work alongside assistant coach Dmitry “S0tF1k” Forostyanko. The latter was also unable to travel to Germany, though for visa reasons.
Despite the unfortunate situation, which has forced Team Spirit to compete at one of the biggest tournaments of the season without a coach standing behind them, the Russian squad have not shown any signs of struggle.
Heading into the knockout stage, Team Spirit remain undefeated, having cruised through Stage 2 with wins against BetBoom Team, MIBR, and 9z Team.
They did not slow down in Stage 3, where Spirit defeated Natus Vincere, Aurora Gaming, and 9z Team for the second time.
Despite not being listed as the main tournament favourites before the event, Team Spirit have quickly become a team to watch, securing an early invite to the playoffs with an average team rating of 1.17.
Most of their success so far has come through superstar player Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, who is the highest-rated player of the tournament with a 1.53 rating.
He sits ahead of teammate Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov, who ranks third at 1.34, giving Spirit one of the strongest one-two punches left in the competition.
With a 6-0 record, Team Spirit enter the final stage of the Major as the hottest team in the tournament. However, their road to the trophy is far from done.
Spirit’s campaign continues on Friday, June 19, when they face G2 Esports in the quarterfinals, with either Team Falcons or Team Vitality a possible semifinal opponent on Saturday, June 20.
Mark Prezelj
Esports Betting Analyst
Mark Prezelj is a Slovenian esports betting analyst with over 3,500 articles at EsportBet and the founder of Lines64.com — someone who has been reading odds longer than most readers have been watching esports.
