Spirit lose two due to visas ahead of Liquid matchup

Liquid have been given a slight break ahead of their BLAST Premier Spring Group opening match as Spirit will be without Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets and Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev due to visa issues. The organization announced on Thursday morning that the two would have to be replaced as they are unable to make the trip to Copenhagen.

In their place, head coach Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev and Spirit academy player Oleg "⁠baz⁠" Kulynych will be slotted in. The news is a boon to Liquid, who have not looked like the dominant team many expected to see right out of the gate. With the Americas squad facing some tough matches in online qualifiers, they will face a weaker Spirit on their LAN debut.

Liquid will still have to contend with Spirit's marquee signing Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov, who returns to play after an unexplained departure from Cloud9. The AWPer remains one of the world's best and was recently awarded as 8th Best Player of 2023. His LAN debut with the full squad will have to wait until IEM Katowice.

Looking to hopefully capitalize on the unfortunately weakened Spirit, Liquid will make their LAN debut on Tuesday, January 24th at 08:30AM. Liquid are in Group B alongside FaZe, GamerLegion, and the aforementioned Spirit.

Spirit's roster for BLAST Spring Groups will be:

• Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov

• Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia

• Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov

• Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev (Stand-in)

• Oleg "⁠baz⁠" Kulynych (Stand-in)