Qikert retires from playing to become Spirit Academy coach

Aleksei "Qikert" Golubev, who won the IEM Rio Major 2022 with Outsiders, has retired from playing. The 27-year-old Kazakh player has started work as the new coach of Spirit Academy.

Qikert took part in seven Majors during his career. With AVANGAR he reached the final at the StarLadder Major Berlin. His last Major was the StarLadder Budapest Major with MIBR.

The player left MIBR earlier this year and then moved to 1win. With this team he won MPKBK CIS LAN Season 4, raising his trophy count to 12. His trophy cabinet also includes wins at BLAST Pro Series Moscow 2019, ESL Challenger Rotterdam and ESL Challenger Katowice 2023.

Spirit's academy roster stands out as a structure that has developed talent for years. Names such as Danil "donk" Kryshkovets, Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia, Kirill "Magnojez" Rodnov, Timur "FL4MUS" Marev and Pavel "S1ren" Ogloblin grew under this roof.

The academy's previous captain, Vladislav "Flash_1" Bykov, will continue to stay with the organization. Bykov will coach the Spirit Academy White team.