Panto Speaks Out After the Match Against His Former Teammates from Team Spirit

Nikita “Panto” Balaganin stated that the match against his former teammates from Team Spirit at the Esports World Cup 2026 was extremely important for him, as the team needed to demonstrate solid gameplay following their defeat in The International qualifiers.

The MOUZ player made these remarks on Twitch.

“It was an important match for me because we didn’t qualify for The International, so we needed to show our best game here. And we played just great. I liked how everyone communicated even after we lost the first map.

I enjoyed the game—it was fun. We made a lot of good decisions. We lost—that happens. If you lose the first map and then the second right after, that’s a total tilt. But we discussed everything properly, drafted well, and I think the second map was easier than the first.

We had very little time between matches. We briefly discussed our communication and in-game actions, but the whole thing took about two minutes. After that, we tried to reset and go play the second map. We decided not to discuss the first match once the second one had started.”

According to Nikita “Panto” Balaganin, the esports player enjoyed the match despite the loss on the first map, as the team was then able to effectively discuss the situation, cope with negative emotions, and finish the series with a 1-1 tie.

As a reminder, Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov previously explained why Team Spirit was unable to gel with Nikita “Panto” Balaganin.