“tN1R brings a good atmosphere, extra tips, moves, motivation — that guy is hungry, his eyes shine,” says chopper

“tN1R brings a good atmosphere, extra tips, moves, motivation — that guy is hungry, his eyes shine,” says chopper

Team Spirit recently introduced Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich into their roster, following the addition of Ivan “zweih” Gogin just a few months ago. In an interview with HLTV, the team’s in-game leader Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov explained how tN1R has already impacted the team’s dynamics, playbook, and morale. 

Revitalizing the Spirit Roster

Upon entering ESL Pro League Season 22, Spirit faced a transitional period, having only a short time to train with their reorganized roster. According to chopper:

“We played around three weeks, only praccs, a lot of theory. We don't have official games … 3-0 is an amazing feeling because we saw that we need a lot more work, like structure, ideas, because tN1R has a lot of them, sh1ro has a lot, and me too.” 

Despite that, the team went 3-0 in their group stage run, an unexpectedly strong start for the new lineup. 

Chopper further emphasized how new additions like tN1R make Spirit less predictable to opponents:

“New players bring a lot more plays, and our enemies can’t predict what they play against.” 

tN1R's Tactical Contribution and Energy

Chopper praised tN1R’s on- and off-server influence:

“tN1R has a lot of tips from hero positions. He talks like, ‘Bro, I know you play like this, but I can try to do one more move maybe, two more,’ … Like today, he just calls in-game, ‘Let’s go, do this,’ and he kills three guys by himself. Easy.” 

He also spoke of tN1R’s motivation and attitude:

“He’s smiling every time, he pushes every time to work … Good atmosphere and more tips, moves, and more motivation to work because that guy is hungry. His eyes shine, he wants to do a lot more work and win.” 

Chopper characterized tN1R as bringing fresh energy and aggressiveness — factors that help Spirit break out of predictability. 

He added that the roster changes required reworking positional responsibilities and synergy:

“We just told and watched demos on how to play in a new position … Play praccs, watch demos, play praccs, watch demos (laughs).” 

Challenges Ahead and the Team’s Mindset

Though the start has been promising, chopper admits that Spirit still has vulnerabilities to address — such as economy management and retakes:

“We have some problems with economy, some problems with retakes. We have a lot of work and we’ll try to do it and upgrade our game.” 

He also emphasized a measured mindset going into playoffs:

“For me, usually, I don’t think about the trophy because we just need to focus step by step, game by game … Everyone from the team wants to win this tournament … but we try to think about winning the first game, winning the second game, like this.” 

Player Profiles & Additional Context

Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov is 28 years old and currently plays for Spirit. 

Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich is 24, from Belarus, now a member of Spirit.

In a related article, bo3.gg summarized many of the same points, emphasizing Spirit’s “breath of fresh air” after the roster changes, and noted that Spirit’s early undefeated run was unexpected given how little time the team had to train together.