HLTV spotlights K27’s teenage core in latest CS2 Prospects feature

HLTV’s latest Prospects spotlight turned into a three-player feature on K27’s teenage core, publishing interviews with Aleksey “xeedo” Mikulich, Danila “kashl1d” Dronov and Daniil “qw1nk1” Kabilov on November 3. The trio sit at #3, #7 and #11 respectively on the HLTV Prospects ranking, and the piece traces how each of them found Counter-Strike, joined K27 and set his sights on the next step up in CS2.

All three players are still teenagers, but their paths into the game look very different. xeedo’s route ran through Vitebsk in Belarus, kashl1d grew up in Voronezh before relocating to Moscow, and qw1nk1 came from Lipetsk before moving to the capital. What they share is a rapid rise inside K27, a team that has built its young lineup around players who started with FACEIT, local LANs and long hours in the game before earning a wider profile.

xeedo’s path from Vitebsk to K27

xeedo, K27’s opener and the highest-ranked player in the group, said he was playing all kinds of games by the age of six and had CS in the mix early on, though he only began taking it seriously in his teenage years. He started playing FACEIT in 2021, then moved onto his first LANs in 2023 with friends. A Belarusian scout known as dstr noticed him there and pulled him into more events in Minsk.

That stretch led to one of the first real turning points in his development. xeedo said his first LAN in Minsk came on a team with Svyatoslav “MaSvAl” Masko, and that experience made him understand he needed to grind harder. He also spent time in Nemiga’s academy before leaving in March 2023 and taking a six-month break from the game.

“I saw donk just tearing up the scene,” xeedo said. “It was one of the reasons I came back to CS.”

When he returned, he did so in CS2 and immediately focused on FACEIT, reaching the top 15 spots of the Elo ranking. He said several CIS teams tried him out, and one failed tryout included Vaseline Worms. From there, his route toward K27 moved quickly: zweih had just left for Nemiga and recommended him, coach Yuriy “Meand” Mandzhiev then messaged him, and two weeks later he was in the team.

xeedo also said he made his career take priority over university. His older brother helped explain the situation to his parents, he said, and the family backed him early. The only real complication came from university, where he enrolled, attended for a week and then stopped going before being expelled. On the server, he wants to be known for strong aim, being useful to the group and being a complete teammate rather than just an aggressive rifler.

He also pointed to the people who shaped him most: dstr for the original discovery, K27 CEO Vanya Kondrat for investing in the team, and in-game leader Daniil “X5G7V” Maryshev for improving his understanding of the game and its psychology. His long-term target is clear: “I’d want that to become the baseline for me, and to make it to every Major,” he said.

kashl1d’s long route and the weight of a VAC ban

kashl1d, the most outspoken of the three, said he is from Voronezh and lived there until adulthood before moving to Moscow, where he now lives with qw1nk1. He first played Counter-Strike at eight after his father downloaded Counter-Strike: Source for him, and he later moved into FACEIT and streaming around the age of 11 or 12. As a teenager, he began seeing a professional future in the game, even as school and sports made the balance difficult.

One of the biggest obstacles in his story was a VAC ban from childhood. He said he had a wrongful VAC ban that was lifted roughly a year ago, and that the issue had threatened to stretch his wait from five years to seven, which would have kept him out of Major play. He also described earlier bans tied to skin-changer use and cheats when he was younger, saying he spent three years trying to prove he deserved amnesty.

His list of inspirations also changed over time. He first looked up to s1mple, then later to sh1ro and m0NESY after Counter-Strike 2 arrived. Over time, though, he said he stopped modeling himself after anyone and started focusing on his own view of the game. He does not think of himself as someone with a clearly defined signature trait, instead describing his approach as a search for his own style.

“I don’t really have a desire to prove anything to anyone except myself,” kashl1d said.

kashl1d also explained how K27 took shape. He said he and xeedo were originally signed from Vaseline Worms after Kondrat approached them with an offer to form a roster under an organization. After that, he brought qw1nk1 into the lineup once the team was established. He credited Kondrat with giving the roster more than just a team environment, saying the organization’s relocations, flights and broader support taught the players what adult life looks like.

His future goals are framed around self-improvement rather than external validation. He wants to see how far he can get on his own, what sort of prime he can reach and what kind of player he will become by pushing himself as far as possible.

qw1nk1 joins later, but aims just as high

qw1nk1 is the youngest and latest of the trio to enter K27, but he also moved quickly once he did. Born and raised in Lipetsk, he said his life before Counter-Strike was straightforward: school, home and playing games. He does not remember his first match precisely, but believes he began playing in 2022 and started FACEIT in the winter of that year, mostly with friends and without any real idea that a pro career could follow.

He joined K27 in October 2023, after the organization had already been set up. According to kashl1d, the youngster stood out on FACEIT and looked like a potential signing before other teams could lock him down. Once he was invited, kashl1d messaged him one night, brought him into TeamSpeak and sorted out the move.

Unlike many rising players, qw1nk1 said he did not model himself on famous names or use star players as inspiration. He described himself simply as an anchor who lurks his positions and lets the game come to him. In the feature, kashl1d joked that he was his own enemy, while qw1nk1 brushed off the idea that he had copied anyone’s style.

He said the people who matter most in his rise are his team and the organization around them. As for what comes next, he wants a Major place of his own and hopes K27 can establish itself as a top-15 team that can compete to win tier-one events. For a roster built around teenagers who have already moved through local scenes, academy systems and early online rankings, that ambition now sits at the center of the story HLTV chose to tell.