Aleksei "Qikert" Golubev has joined Spirit Academy as the team's new coach, ending a playing career of nearly a decade, HLTV reported. The 27-year-old Kazakh rifler won the IEM Rio Major in 2022 with Outsiders.
Qikert also reached the final of the StarLadder Major in Berlin with AVANGAR, and attended seven Majors in total, the most recent of them the StarLadder Budapest Major with MIBR.
He left MIBR at the start of the year and later joined 1win, winning MPKBK CIS LAN Season 4 with the team for a twelfth trophy. HLTV listed BLAST Pro Series Moscow 2019, ESL Challenger Rotterdam and ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 among his other titles.
Spirit's academy roster has been a consistent pipeline of talent for the organization, and HLTV named Danil "donk" Kryshkovets, Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia, Kirill "Magnojez" Rodnov, Timur "FL4MUS" Marev and Pavel "S1ren" Ogloblin among the players developed there.
Spirit Academy's previous coach, Vladislav "Flash_1" Bykov, remains with the organization and will coach Spirit Academy White.
HLTV listed the Spirit Academy roster under Qikert as:
- Kirill "Kiryasoo" Solovkov
- Nikita "s1nside" Besedin
- Vitaly "VILBy" Zakharyuta
- Kirill "k0gaSs" Emelyanov
- David "Netrix" Kudziev
