Streamer and former captain of Team Spirit Leonid chopper Vishnyakov shared his opinion on the chances of the "dragons" to take the title of champion at IEM Cologne Major 2026 during a Twitch stream.
chopperI think Spirit has a huge chance to win the major, guys. Let's take the diamond medal together with Spirit.
Chopper also talked about how he developed his skills in Counter-Strike 2:
chopperFor myself in life, when I played, I just found a lot of DM and watched demos. For example, sh1ro loved to play Aim Botz, DM, demos. Everyone has their own routine that they do day in and day out. The point is to find what works for you and do it consistently. Until you find the working moment, the effect, there will be no sense.
At the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, Spirit took 3rd-4th place, losing to Vitality in the semifinals. On December 18, 2025, Miroslav zont1x Plakhotia and Boris magixx Vorobyov returned to the roster, while chopper and Ivan zweih Gogin left the team. Subsequently, zweih moved to PARIVISION, and the former captain of the "dragons" began streaming – his broadcasts gather over 40 thousand views. Chopper plans to cover the major only within the framework of others' streams, as he does not have the rights for independent casting.
IEM Cologne Major 2026 takes place in Germany from June 2 to June 21, 2026, in LAN format, with the final stage hosted at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne.
Let us remind you that earlier the favorites of the major were named by caster DedOk.
