balblna leaves K27 – Twizell takes over as interim coach

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15 months, several smaller titles, the first Tier-One appearances — and now the cut: On October 15, 2026, K27 publicly announced that Head Coach Gregory "balblna" Oleinick is stepping down. The 30-year-old is leaving the line-up of his own accord, as the organisation explained in a statement.

15 months that left a mark

balblna had been on K27's sidelines for around 15 months — a phase in which the team climbed out of nothing into the upper end of the rankings. CEO Ivan Kondratov sums up the journey in a single sentence that simultaneously looks forward and back: "Thank you for everything, Griga! Thank you for believing in these young guys a year ago and taking the helm of the team. We started at the very bottom of the rankings, and in just one year, we've reached such great heights! I am confident that the success achieved with K27 will propel Grigory toward new milestones with a new team — one he will undoubtedly find in no time!"

Documented building blocks of this journey: balblna coached K27 to victories at MPKBK CIS LAN Season 3 and Season 8, and he also stood at the organisation's first Tier-One appearances — at PGL Astana and the Esports World Cup. For you as a fan, this means: the departure is no quiet end, but a punctuation mark under concrete build-up work that culminated in two smaller LAN titles and two major international stages.

Twizell moves up from the back office to the front

The succession is no external solution. Dmitry "Twizell" Rygin, 26, takes over on an interim basis. He was "the better part of two years" active as an analyst for K27 — the man who watched demos, built scouting reports and delivered the data to the coaching team. Now he holds the call sheet himself.

This is more than a formal change. Analysts work before the game and between rounds, but they rarely make in-round calls. The fact that K27 is consciously making this jump from within its own ranks speaks to confidence in Twizell's game understanding — and against a hasty external casting in a hot qualifier phase.

The calendar immediately tightens

Because hot phase is an understatement. K27 is currently ranked #43 in the world rankings and is fighting for an invitation to PGL Singapore, whose deadline hits in early November. Before that date, two tournaments stand as chances: WINLINE MPKBK CIS LAN Season 9 and the RLG Tesla Cup. So Twizell won't be thrown in during warm-up — his first job is to deliver with the existing roster of Timur "clax" Sabirov, Daniil "X5G7V" Maryshev, Aleksey "xeedo" Mikulich, Danila "kashl1d" Dronov and Daniil "qw1nk1" Kabilov in real qualifier series.

What's missing — and why that stands out

What the announcement deliberately leaves open: the reason for balblna's resignation. Kondratov's words read like an amicable farewell, without a hard break — but "decided to step down" covers both internal differences and personal priorities. The statement is also silent on the duration of Twizell's interim role and possible head coach soundings. HLTV spread the news on 15.10.2026 at 15:15; whether a more detailed report or a statement from players will follow is not foreseeable at this point in time.

What remains: K27 has an interim coach with two years of analyst experience in its own stable, a full schedule through early November, and a departing coach who co-shared responsibility for the leap from the bottom of the table to #43. How solid all of this is, the coming weeks will show — tournament by tournament.