The Virtus.pro organization has disbanded its Dota 2 roster. The reasons for the team's dissolution were: bad results at tournaments in the last season.
After a successful performance at The International 2015, Virtus.pro's results began to decline. Not successful performances at the majors, failed qualifications for major tournaments - all this served as the reason for the closure of the roster. At the Frankfurt Major VP took only 7-8th place, at the Shanghai Major the team showed an even worse game, and at the last Manila Major and the guys didn’t qualify at all.
The last straw for Virtus.pro management was the results in the qualifications for The International 2016. The team took 6th place in the group and did not qualify for main tournament this year.
Virtus.pro roster that participated in TI5
Virtus.pro intend to collect new line-up within two months in order to show good results next season. In addition, the organization intends to change the management approach in the new team. It is also not denied that some of the old lineup will be in the new one.
Managers of the Dota2 roster were also removed from their positions. Namely - Georgy “drAmer” Faleev - and the sports director of Virtus.pro - Sergey “Diver233” Pisotsky.
Former Virtus.pro roster:
Fng
God
yoky
ALOHADANCE
NoFear
According to the Click-Storm editors, the dissolution of the lineup is a natural result. These are not the NVMIs that were shown excellent results immediately after appearance. The reshuffles also did not benefit the team. Former players VP - Lil and Illidan performed better in Fantastic Five and Polarity than God and fng, which already indicates problems within the Virtus.pro team. We hope that in the new season VP will start with a clean slate and also find a strong captain who can hold the team and lead it to success.
Virtus Pro, the largest eSports organization in the CIS, appeared in 2003. Starting line-up Virtus Pro for Dota2 was formed in May 2012. Over the past few years, the team has changed the composition of players several times.
History of origin
The basis of the Virtus Pro Dota 2 roster in 2012 was two “veterans” of the first Dota, Alexander Koltan (“Santa”) and Yaroslav Kuznetsov (“NS”). They tried to assemble a stable team, which, unfortunately, did not happen. Qualifying matches at The International 2012 ended in failure. Two founders remain in the lineup; new players cannot bring success in various tournaments.
Performances at TI 3
In 2013, Alexander “Santa” left the team and was replaced by Sergey Revin (“ARS-ART”). He came from Na’Vi, which took silver at second The International. Revin began to play the role of a hardliner. The first victory with the updated roster awaited Virtus Pro at the online competition The Defense Season 3.
Prize-winning places in several more tournaments gave the team the opportunity to receive a direct invitation to The International 3. However, already at that time a split was brewing in the team, the performances were unsuccessful. After the tournament, Virtus Pro disbanded their Dota 2 roster.
Lineup crisis
After the third The International, hard times began for the team. The management decides to focus on CIS eSports stars. The Virtus Pro Dota 2 team included Dmitry Kupriyanov (“LighTofHeaveN”), who won TI 1 with Born to Win. Arthur Kostenko (“Goblak”) and Sergey Bragin (“God”) were also invited. However, the constant change of playing positions and strategic experiments did not bring results. The team performed unsuccessfully at tournaments, the turnover of players was huge. In the summer of 2013, several players left the team - Sergey Kuzin (“KSi”), Oleg Kolesnichenko (“cRazY”), Ilya Pivtsaev (“Illidan”). After that, the squad assembled from Ukrainian players lasted for a couple of months.
2014 - hope for revival
Until January 2014, the leapfrog with the composition continued. But even the stabilization of the situation did not bring positive results. Managing to lose even to non-professional teams, the new Virtus Pro Dota 2 roster suddenly qualified for The International 4 in the spring of 2014 and got the opportunity to compete on the Wild Card. But the revived hopes for success were not destined to be justified. The Korean team MVP Phoenix received the last quota for TI 4 instead of Virtus Pro. Yaroslav Kuznetsov (“NS”) then ended his professional career.
After that, the core of the team was assembled from the players of the disbanded RoX.KIS. We managed to take gold at MSI Beat IT 2014, third place at ASUS ROG. However, this is where Virtus Pro’s successful performances in the cyber arena ended.
ASUS.Polar - the prototype of the new “bears” line-up
In 2015, the Virtus Pro.Polar team separated from the main organization. With a change of sponsor, it received the name ASUS.Polar and began to perform well at various tournaments. The team included Artyom Barshak (“fng”), Alexander Kucherya (“DkPhobos”), Andrey Chipenko (“Mag”), Ilya Pivtsaev (“Illidan” ) and Ilya Ilyuk ( « Lil").
At the beginning of March 2015, the current Dota 2 Virtus Pro roster was disbanded. And in April, ASUS.Polar becomes the basis for the newly formed “bears” team. A series of good performances at eSports tournaments began. The first prize for ASUS ROG is in the arsenal.
The International 5
In the summer of 2015, the team managed to take 5th place at the international Dota 2 championship in Seattle.
Virtus Pro played in Group B along with seven other teams. Having scored 9 points, they fell into the lower bracket, losing in a tiebreaker to the Russian team Team Empire 1:2. In the 4th round of the competition, the game was given to the Chinese team LGD Gaming with a score of 0:2. This is where the achievements of the Virtus Pro Dota 2 roster at TI 5 ended.
At the end of this championship, the team as a whole did not perform very well. It became more and more difficult to make it to major tournaments, and if it was still possible, the results of the performances were not encouraging. After disastrous matches in the TI 6 qualifications, the Virtus Pro Dota 2 roster was disbanded.
Revival of the 2016 team
September 2016 was marked by the announcement of a new line-up of the Bears, which is still in operation today. List of players: Alexey Berezin (“Solo”), Roman Kushnaryov (“Ramzes666”), Ilya Ilyuk (“Lil”), Pavel Khvastunov (“9pasha”) and Vladimir Minenko (“No[o]ne”).
In the first few months of its existence, the new roster was able to qualify for four eSports tournaments. We received first place at The Summit 6. In the grand final, the CIS team defeated OG - 3:0. The championship prize money was $100,000, of which $42,000 went to Virtus Pro.
That season, the team was remembered for a series of 17 unbeaten matches.
On Boston Major In 2016, the “bears” team was able to reach the quarter finals, failing to beat the champions of The International 2015, the Evil Geniusis team.
The following year, 2017, the Major was held in Kyiv and the CIS; the team was able to reach the finals. But in a stubborn struggle she could not defeat her eternal rivals - OG. Taking second place with a score of 2:3, they received $500,000 in prize money.
Performance at The International 2017
Having played very successfully in group stage TI 7, Virtus Pro ends up in the winners' bracket, where they beat LGD, but, not being able to beat LFY, they also lose to Team Liquid. In the first map of the match, the teams set a record for the duration of games in the playoffs - 103 minutes. In general, the meeting with TL was 2:1 in favor American team. The Bears finished the championship in 5th-6th place with $1,000,000 in prize money.
Corporate gaming style
Virtus Pro has a unique gaming style. The variety of tactics and strategies often confuses opponents. The team especially stands out for its ability to confuse the opponent at the draft stage, using heroes in a different way than everyone is used to. In the carry position, use Vengeful Spirit - only “bears” are capable of this. Shadow Demon and Luna in combination, using an infinite number of illusions, confuse opponents. This strategy allows the CIS team to act unpredictably on the lines and win games one after another.
An excellent demonstration of the Bears' unique playstyle was their performance at The Summit 7. At this tournament, the team managed to take first place using 81 different heroes. Of these, only 4 were repeated in the fifth map of the final.
Every Virtus player Pro is able to surprise opponents with non-standard leveling of characters; among the signature features of e-sportsmen is the purchase of unusual items during the game.
The captain is the heart of the team
Alexey Berezin (“Solo”), despite a difficult path in eSports, has become practically a Dota 2 legend. At one time, the player was involved in a betting scandal, but this is a thing of the past. Today Solo is the leader of one of the best eSports teams in the CIS. His outstanding leadership skills help the team win. Virtus Pro needed a strong and responsible captain, and the guys were lucky to find him.
The director of the Bears gave Berezin the opportunity to choose the composition of the future winning team himself. The captain looked closely at future candidates for a long time, assessing their human and professional qualities.
Berezin managed to play with some of the e-sportsmen who are now part of Virtus Pro in Dota 2; he considered some of them worthy candidates, observing their play and behavior at tournaments.
It is interesting that, fully coordinating the game, Solo entrusted the choice of heroes to Roman Kushnarev (“Ramzes666”). A risky move, because usually the player occupying the carry position does not make such decisions. However, this tactic works great on this team. Ramzes666 is a young and very talented player. He was the first in the CIS to reach the 9000 MMR mark.
During the game, Kushnarev, of course, consults with the captain, but by doing the bulk of the work of choosing heroes, he frees Berezin from unnecessary responsibility and allows him to fully concentrate on tactics and strategy.
We can talk about the Virtus Pro project, whose Dota 2 roster has been performing so successfully lately, for a very long time. Showing a truly “bearish” character at games, the team gives fans a lot of fun with interesting and unpredictable game. The variety of strategies shows how much work the team puts into training. By subordinating instincts to reason, Virtus Pro demonstrates the best Dota in the CIS.
Future plans
The International 2017, which ended in Seattle, allowed each team to draw conclusions about the mistakes made and positive aspects in their game. The coach of the Virtus Pro team, Ivan Antonov (“ArtStyle”), said that reshuffles are not expected in the team. Contracts with players were extended until the end of 2018. The captain of the “bears” stated that the team is one big close-knit family, and disbanding is out of the question.
The team manager believes that 5th place at the last championship is an absolutely adequate and fair result, all players showed themselves with best side. Despite all the successes of the team, Roman Dvoryankin believes that for a long championship the result is quite logical.
The guys have several weeks of rest ahead, and then new tournaments and active preparation for them begin.
Championship has already passed a month, and therefore almost all teams and their rosters have been fully formed. The reshuffle period turned out to be tense and intriguing, as usual. Many teams tried to appropriate mythical players, some even shouted about disintegration. Nevertheless, the current roster of Virtus.pro Dota 2 is ready to enter the eSports arena and fight for prizes. We'll find out what it will look like later.
Each team went through its formation and formation. Many players from the CIS played with each other more than once in different teams, changed teams and tried to achieve success. Before we find out what the new composition of Virtus.pro Dota 2 is, let's remember a little history of this organization.
How it all began
And it started back in 2003. The first participants in the production center were Counter-Strike players. The guys have come a long way, participated in various tournaments and glorified the organization. This lasted until 2007. In May, another team was created - this time in the DoTA discipline. Since this game did not achieve such stunning success as its second series, the team participated in few places and received prizes.
Despite the fact that the organization’s teams performed more or less successfully, at one point terrible problems began, from which the Virtus.pro team was able to get out of it only in 2011. Victories and defeats began again, but again, before the advent of Dota 2, all the successes of the Bears were more related to the CS.
"Dota 2"
But in 2012, they opened that very new discipline that is now collecting huge amounts of money - Dota 2. Then very strong players were recruited here: NS, KuroKy, Santa, AZEN and Dread. The guys were able to beat serious opponents and qualify for DreamHack.
After some time and a series of failures, Dota 2 players began to change again. All this happened due to the unmet expectations of the fans. The “Virtus.pro Dota 2” roster received an invite to TI 2013, but was never able to show itself in all its glory there. As a result, NS and Smile remained on the team; the latter was signed at the beginning of the year.
Difficult times
In 2014, things were also quite difficult. There was little time left until TI14, and the team was changing players like gloves. LightOfHeaven replaced newcomer JotM, and Illidan also returned to the team. Before the tournament, the guys even managed to sign up for a couple of tournaments. During the qualifications for the world championship, Virtus.pro reached the Wild Card and went to Seattle with high hopes. But there they lost to the Koreans, never reaching the main event.
Such failures significantly undermined the spirit of the team, and its old-timers NS and Smile announced the end of their e-sports career. Illidan left the team for the second time. They were replaced by BzzIsPerfect, yol and Sedoy in the “bears” team. Meanwhile, Illidan found another team, which Virtus management later decided to sign as a subsidiary and call it Polar. Now the Bears had two teams that fought quite successfully and made their contribution to the history of the organization.
New victories
The composition of Virtus.pro Dota 2 has undergone changes again. Fng, Illidan, Lil, God and DkPhobos were signed by TI 2015. The team began to win major tournaments and take prizes. For such merits, the organizers of the world championship did not ignore the team, and the guys received a direct invite to the tournament. This time everything worked out for the best. The team fought and fought as best they could, and in the end the team took 5th-6th place, which was a very large and significant achievement.
Taste of victory
Not everyone can withstand a series of such victories. And so it happened: the current roster of Virtus.pro Dota 2 in 2015 was unable to assemble for the season, and therefore success gave way to stagnation. No changes affected victories. Serious tournaments completely ceased to exist for the team. The competitions that we managed to qualify for ended before they even began.
This state of affairs, naturally, could not lead to a direct invite to TI 2016. Therefore, the guys again had to fight in the qualifications to get a slot for the main event. But even here the team faced defeat and sad failure. After such defeats, the team was disbanded, and fans began to wait for the new lineup of “Virtus.pro Dota 2” in 2016.
Truth or rumors?
Now it is unclear whether the organizers decided that they had chosen the strongest and most successful players, or simply wanted to create “hype,” but the preliminary composition of “Virtus.pro Dota 2” was announced two weeks before the end of TI 2016.
On July 31, the organization officially announced the recruitment of players. The managers decided to leave the old-timer of the God team, who has been serving the team and the Bears organization for the last three years. Next came the newcomers - Solo and No[o]ne, who left the Vega Squadron team, also took a place in the Virtus.
The organization announced another player - Lil, and a surprise for many fans was the inclusion of the famous “Navishnik” Alexander “XBOCT” Dashkevich into the team.
This 2016 roster of the Virtus.pro Dota 2 team looked quite convincing and was liked by many Bears fans. But, as we remember, this is only a preliminary selection of players.
Formation
Just a few days later, on August 5th, the organizers announced the final formation of the team. As a result, the composition of “Virtus.pro Dota 2” in 2016 became the following.
Vladimir No[o]ne Minenko was finally returned to his already familiar center line. The fact is that in the announced lineup he was supposed to play the role of carry. His former teammate in Vega Squadron, and now current in Virtus.pro G2A, Alexey Solo Berezin, was awarded the captain’s armband and the same role. Ilya Lil Ilyuk took his usual position and, along with the team captain, became another support.
But the newcomers who were not announced in the preliminary lineup and replaced old-timer Sergei God Bragin, as well as everyone’s favorite Alexander “XBOCT” Dashkevich, were no less popular Roman RAMZES666 Kushnarev and another Vega Squadron player Pavel 9pasha Khvastunov.
Now that the Virtus.pro Dota 2 lineup for this season is known, let’s look at each player individually and remember their successes and victories.
Captain, captain, smile
Well, the first one we should talk about is the captain of all captains, popular among the Russian-speaking community - Alexey Solo Berezin. His career began with Dota 2 in 2012. At one time, Alexey was drawn into a conflict with the famous 322, after which chaos came to his career.
For a long time Lesha tried to restore his good name, was engaged in streaming and performed as a substitute. Already in 2014, he returned to his home team, but after the unsuccessful game of RoX.KIS at TI4, the team disbanded. For the next tournament, Solo will compete with Vega Squadron. This team also became an important page in his career. Despite the success last year, the team achieved little this year. This is how Alexey got to Virtus.pro. Previously, he played in the mid lane, now as a support.
Young blood
Virtus.pro G2A also acquired a couple of young players. Vladimir Minenko, aka No[o]ne, takes the position of mid. The 18-year-old guy had previously played in mixes, but the most successful page in his career was his participation in Vega Squadron.
But Roman RAMZES666 Kushnarev is only 17 years old. His esports career began last year with the team ScaryFaceZ. His main refuge was Team Spirit, with which he was able to reach the Major in Shanghai. After the disastrous tournament, he left the team and later joined Team Empire. In Virtus.Pro he plays in his signature position as a carry.
Support from God
Ilya Lil Ilyuk is a boy from the pub. In 2014, Goblak decided to put together a team and, while playing MMR, found a promising and young player, who conquered the CIS-Dota in just a year. His crown on Visage is known all over the world. Then NVMI became Virtus.pro Polar, and Ilya continued to conquer the world with his professionalism.
Many believe that his success is due to the fact that the guy managed not to catch the “star” and not turn into a capricious and always whining e-sports player. With his play, he eclipsed the entire main cast and was able to earn $300 thousand in the first year of his career. Ilya has already performed with Virtus.pro at TI5, where he and his team were able to reach 5-6th place.
Through thorns to the stars
Pavel 9pasha Khvastunov began his career in 2013. He played in various mixes with No[o]ne and at the end of 2014 became a member of the Vega Squadron team. Pasha is a very strong carry who is difficult to deal with in the lane. He and his teammates went through a difficult path. In March of this year he had to leave the team. But since any player wants to perform at TI, he found himself a mix team F5.
Despite the fact that the team never played at the world championship, it was still able to show itself convincingly in the qualifications. In Virtus, Pasha plays the role of a hardlaner.
