Spinx: from FACEIT Pro League kick out to Major champion

After winning the BLAST. Paris Major with Vitality at the famed Accor Arena, Paris, Lotan “Spinx” Giladi became the first Israeli to win a CS GO Major.

Israeli CS: GO superstar Spinx has won his first CS:GO major title with Vitality, proving all doubters and critics wrong. This comes three years after he was told he lacked the talent to play in the invite-only FACEIT Pro League (FPL), a league system for elite pros and hand-picked up-and-coming talent. After winning the Paris Major, the Israeli superstar posted an aspiring Tweet to express his joy at the achievement. He explained how his grind lead him to win a CS:GO Major despite being rejected by the FPL at an early point of his career.

Spinx’s aspiring journey in CS:GO

The Israeli player began his professional career in 2019 with NOM-Gaming, though he didn’t become popular until he joined ENCE in 2021. Spinx helped ​​ENCE achieve excellent results in several notable tournaments, including first place finish at the Funspark ULTI 2021: European Playoffs and second place finish at Malta Vibes Knockout Series #1, and the Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Fall: Europe.

After an unsuccessful attempt at IEM Katowice, ENCE eventually recovered its footing and advanced to the semifinals of the Elisa Invitational Winter 2021 and won Fantasyexpo EU Champions: Spring 2022. ENCE went on to secure a second-place finish in the ESL Pro League Season 15 and a top-four finish in the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 semifinals with Spinx leading the killboard for the team.

The success of ENCE in 2021 and 2022 was mostly due to Spinx, who received an overall rating of 1.17. His stellar performances for the Finnish team piqued the attention of the French organization Vitality, which was seeking to boost the squad’s firepower.

After establishing himself as one of the most skilled and consistent players in the scene, Spinx joined Vitality in 2022 with a great deal of responsibility. Although Vitality did well in their first two tournaments, they were ousted from the majority of the contests they entered later in the year. The Israeli rifler struggled to adapt to the new team’s playstyle, which contributed significantly to his poor performance and the team’s struggles.

Over the course of five events he participated in with Vitality in 2022, he hardly exceeded a rating of 0.99. However, it wasn’t until 2023 that Spinx and Vitality were able to change the situation, discovering the key to becoming the best CS:GO team. The Israeli rifler and Vitality vanquished prominent CS:GO teams like OG, Cloud9, and Heroic to win the IEM Rio 2023 before dominating the Paris Major. According to HLTV statistics, Spinx finished third among the top players for the Major with a 1.24 rating over 10 maps played.

Header: Stephanie Lindgren/BLAST.tv