Team Spirit will head into the IEM Cologne Major 2026 playoffs without their head coach in the building. Sergey “hally” Shavaev has been ruled out due to ongoing health issues, leaving the squad to navigate the most important matches of the year with remote guidance at best.
That alone would be a significant blow for any top-tier Counter-Strike 2 team. But here’s the thing: hally isn’t the only coach missing. Assistant coach Dmitry “S0tF1k” Forostyanko was denied a visa, meaning Team Spirit is competing without any on-site coaching presence whatsoever.
A pattern that keeps getting worse
This isn’t the first time hally has been forced to sit out a major event in 2026. He previously missed both IEM Rio and PGL Astana due to health problems earlier this year. He managed to recover and rejoin the team in early June, which briefly suggested the worst was behind him.
It wasn’t. Hally was subsequently hospitalized ahead of the IEM Cologne Major, with his unavailability confirmed on June 15.
