Former 9Pandas and Virtus.pro coach Andrey ‘Xoma’ Mironenko has officially signed for Aurora and will join head coach Stepan ‘brain’ Sivoronov as assistant coach at the helm of the Aurora squad for the next coming season. He joins after a brief stint with Virtus.Pro, which ended after only 3 months.
The respected Russian CS2 coach, Andrey ‘Xoma’ Mironenko, began his professional coaching career in 2017 and has coached a number of teams in that span of time, most notably the Boston Crab, 9Pandas, Virtus.Pro, and now Aurora as an assistant. Xoma was previously a player who achieved moderate success in the CS space with teams such as M19, MYM, and ForZe before he turned to coaching. It didn’t take long before he landed a massive opportunity at 9Pandas, whom he coached for just under a year before his very brief time at Virtus. Pro
⚡️ AURORA: +XOMA
We are pleased to announce that Andrey @Xomacsgo Mironenko is joining our Counter-Strike 2 coaching staff. We are sure that Andrey will strengthen the team and bring us closer to the perfect CS we all strive for.
🖐 Xoma, high five!!! pic.twitter.com/ivqlejA59a
— Aurora CS2 (@AuroraCS2_GG) September 13, 2024
The acquisition of Xoma by Aurora is a great one, as he is a reputable coach with modest accolades who can bring a lot to bring to the team. On the other end though, the decision to join Aurora as an assistant coach seems to be a step down for him, as he has proven himself capable of leading a team as head in the past.
Situation with Virtus.Pro
Xoma’s move to Aurora isn’t exactly a straightforward one, as it’s quite clear that his tenure at Virtus.Pro was a frustrating one. Prior to the move, Xoma had been benched in the Virtus.Pro team with analyst Pavel “PASHANOJ” Legostaev stepping in to fill his boots. His replacement in the Virtus.Pro team came amidst struggles within the team to perform after their acquisition of Denis “electroNic” Sharipov. There was a clear stylistic mismatch as the team’s performance took a significant dip, with Xoma bearing most of the blame.
Xoma and Virtus.Pro also seemed to have issues regarding payment, as earlier this year the team did not want to give coach Andrey “XomA” Mironenko a percentage of the prize or sticker money made. This issue happened to be settled in a later agreement, but it being a bone of contention is highly likely but not confirmed.
The new deal between Virtus.Pro and Aurora was a swap deal with a player named Timur “clax” Sabirov going to Virtus.Pro in exchange for Xoma. Below is the new Aurora team after their recent acquisition of Xoma.
Team Aurora Current Team
- Russia Timur “clax” Sabirov
- Kazakhstan Viktor “Lack1” Boldyrev
- Russia Evgeny “Norwi” Ermolin
- Russia Aleksandr “KENSI” Gurkin
- Russia Denis “deko” Zhukov
- Russia Stepan “brain” Sivoronov (coach)
- Russia Andrey “Xoma” Mironenko (assistant coach)