El1an on Entropiq Reunion: SPARTA Roster Eyes Top 30 Return and Major Qualification

The reunion of the former Entropiq core is no longer just a nostalgic storyline. What began as an informal rebuild under WHITEBIRD in November has already turned into a more serious project, first with a rapid climb through the online circuit and then with a move to SPARTA in March. At the center of the story is Aleksei “El1an” Gusev, who says the roster understands exactly where it stands: this is not a team making reckless promises about beating the very best overnight, but a veteran lineup that still believes it can grind its way back into relevance. 

The current SPARTA roster brings back four players from the Entropiq side that made a real impact in 2021: NickelBack, Lack1, El1an, and Forester. The only difference is the fifth man. Instead of Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko, the team now fields Aleksandr “TRAVIS” Timkiv. That change matters, because this is not a full restoration of the old lineup, but rather a continuation of its core identity with one adjustment meant to fit the present moment. According to El1an, the reunion came together naturally after several members found themselves without long-term homes. He described it less as a carefully engineered project and more as a shared decision by experienced players who already knew each other’s tendencies, strengths, and limitations from years of playing together. 

That familiarity is one of the main reasons the team believes it can function even without a coach for now. El1an admitted that an outside voice would help, especially someone capable of adding structure and a fresh perspective, but he also made it clear that the current five do not need basic team-building from scratch. They have been together in different forms for years, going back beyond Entropiq to their earlier time in Winstrike-linked lineups. In practical terms, that gives SPARTA a foundation many new mixes lack: the roster does not need months just to learn how to communicate, distribute roles, or understand what each player can realistically deliver on the server. 

Still, this is a comeback story with realistic limits. El1an openly said SPARTA is not suddenly going to start upsetting a team like Vitality. The ambition is more gradual: become a reliable top-30 side within the next six to twelve months, then see whether peak form can carry the roster even higher. That long-term dream is rooted in what this core once achieved. Entropiq ended 2021 ranked No. 10 in HLTV’s world ranking, a reflection of how dangerous the lineup became during its rise. At the PGL Major Stockholm 2021, that same team came within one match of the playoffs before losing the deciding series to Vitality in the 2-2 pool. El1an still views that campaign as a painful missed opportunity, especially because Major stickers at the time were reserved for teams that reached the top eight, leaving Entropiq on the outside in ninth place. 

What makes the new project more interesting is that the early results have not been empty nostalgia. Under the WHITEBIRD name, the team won CCT Europe Series 16 on February 27, defeating magic, Alliance, SINNERS, and then TDK in the playoffs to take the title and a $22,000 prize. In that run, TRAVIS and Lack1 were especially productive, while Forester and El1an also posted solid numbers. That event did not prove SPARTA is ready for tier-one Counter-Strike, but it did show that this veteran lineup can still convert experience into results when the opposition level is manageable and the structure around the team is stable.

Their first LAN under the SPARTA banner offered a harsher reminder of how narrow the margin is. At MPKBK CIS LAN Season 4 in Moscow, SPARTA missed the playoffs after losing 0-2 to TDK in the group winners’ match and then falling again in a rematch against CYBERSHOKE Prospects. The event itself carried a $50,000 prize pool, and SPARTA entered it as one of the ranked teams in the field, but the campaign ended before the playoff stage. That result fits El1an’s broader point: the team has enough quality to be competitive in the wider tier-two and tier-three ecosystem, yet it is still far from proving that it can consistently break through against stronger opposition. 

A major theme in El1an’s comments is motivation. He joked that the players are “all 90 years old,” but the joke masks a serious point: this lineup sees the current competitive environment as one of its last meaningful chances to make a sticker run. The goal is simple and specific — reach a Major, earn stickers, and then try to build from there. That hunger also explains El1an’s earlier detour through JiJieHao. His stint there was never presented as a long-term sporting project. Instead, he described it as a practical move: an opportunity to keep competing and chase a possible Major route through a weaker regional pathway. Match records confirm that JiJieHao made it through the Middle East open and closed qualifiers before finishing 5th-6th at the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Asia RMR. 

In that sense, SPARTA is not simply a reunion for the sake of old memories. It is a final push by a group of proven CIS veterans who know both what they once were and what they still are not. They have already shown enough to suggest this is more than a sentimental last dance: a tournament win under WHITEBIRD, a quick rise back into the wider ranking conversation, and a core that once reached the edge of the world’s top ten all support the idea that the project has substance. At the same time, the setbacks in Moscow and El1an’s own careful wording make clear that this team is still in the grinding phase, not the arrival phase. For SPARTA, the immediate challenge is not to talk about miracles, but to stack enough results to become a stable top-30 team again — and to give this once-promising core one more genuine shot at the Major sticker that slipped away in 2021.