Virtus Pro Dota 2 Roster Achievements

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Virtus Pro - the largest esports organization in the CIS - was founded in 2003. The Virtus Pro Dota2 starting roster was formed in May 2012. Over the past few years, the composition of the players has changed several times in the team.

History of occurrence

The basis of Virtus Pro's 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 for The International 2012 ended in failure. Two founders remain in the roster, new players cannot bring success in various tournaments.

TI 3 appearances

In 2013, Alexander "Santa" leaves the team, Sergey Revin ("ARS-ART") took his place. He came from "Na'Vi", which took "silver" at the second The International. Revin began to play the role of a hardliner. The first victory with the updated roster was waiting for Virtus Pro at the online competition The Defense Season 3.

Prize-winning places at 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.

Line-up crisis

After the third The International, hard times began in 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. Artur 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 in 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 a couple of months.

2014 - hope for a renaissance

Until January 2014, leapfrog continued with the composition. 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 passes qualifications for The International 4 in the spring of 2014 and gets the opportunity to play on the Wild Card. But the revived hopes for success were not destined to be justified. Korean team MVP Phoenix received the last quota for TI 4 instead of Virtus Pro. Yaroslav Kuznetsov ("NS") ended his professional career after that.

After that, the backbone of the team was assembled from the players of the broken RoX. KIS. It turned out to take "gold" at MSI Beat IT 2014, third place at ASUS ROG. However, onVirtus Pro's successful performances in the cyber arena ended with this.

ASUS. Polar - the prototype of the new composition of the "bears"

In 2015, the Virtus Pro. Polar team separates from the main organization. With the change of sponsor, it was named 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").

In early 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. In the arsenal, the first prize on ASUS ROG.

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 got into the lower bracket, losing in a tie-break to the Russian team Team Empire 1:2. In the 4th round of the competition, they gave the game to the Chinese team LGD Gaming with a score of 0:2. This is where Virtus Pro Dota 2 roster achievements 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 break through to major tournaments, and if it was still possible, then the results of the performances were not encouraging. After the disastrous qualifier matches for TI 6, the Virtus Pro Dota 2 roster wasdisbanded.

2016 team resurrection

September 2016 was marked by the announcement of the new composition of the "bears", which is still functioning today. List of players: Alexey Berezin ("Solo"), Roman Kushnarev ("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 got the first place at The Summit 6. In the grand final, the CIS team defeated OG - 3:0. The prize money of the championship was $100,000, of which $42,000 went to Virtus Pro.

That season the team was remembered for a series of 17 unbeaten matches.

At the Boston Major 2016, the Bears team managed to reach the ¼ finals, failing to beat The International 2015 champions Evil Geniusis.

The next 2017 Major was held in Kyiv and the CIS - the team was able to reach the final. 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 well in the TI 7 group stage, Virtus Pro gets into the winners' bracket, where it beats LGD, but, being unable to beat LFY, is also inferior to Team Liquid. In the first map of the match, the teams set a record for the duration of playoff games - 103 minutes. In general, the meeting with TL was held with a score of 2:1 in favor of the American team. "Bears" finished their performance onchampionship in 5th-6th place with prize money of $1,000,000.

Corporate gaming style

Virtus Pro has a unique play style. A variety of tactics and strategies often lead opponents into a stupor. The team stands out in particular for its ability to confuse the opponent at the draft stage, using the heroes differently than everyone is used to. On 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. Such a strategy allows the CIS-team to act unpredictably on lanes and win games one after another.

An excellent demonstration of the unique playing style of the "bears" is their play 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.

Each Virtus Pro player is able to surprise opponents with non-standard character upgrades, among the signature features of cybersportsmen is the purchase of non-banal items during the game.

The captain is the heart of the team

Aleksey Berezin ("Solo"), despite the difficult path in eSports, has become almost 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 qualities help the team to 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. The captain looked closely at future candidates for a long time, assessed their human and professional qualities.

Berezin managed to play with some of the esportsmen who are now part of Virtus Pro in Dota 2, he considered some worthy candidates, watching their play and behavior in tournaments.

It's interesting that, fully coordinating the game, Solo entrusted the choice of heroes to Roman Kushnarev ("Ramzes666"). A risky move, because usually the player who takes the position of a carry does not make such decisions. However, in this team, this tactic works great. Ramzes666 is a young and very talented player. He was the first in the CIS to reach 9000 MMR.

Kushnarev during the game, of course, consults with the captain, but, doing the main part of the work of choosing heroes, frees Berezin from unnecessary responsibility and allows him to fully concentrate on tactics and strategy.

One 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 the games, the team gives the fans a lot of pleasure with an interesting and unpredictable game. The variety of strategies shows how much work the team does in training. Subordinating instincts to reason, Virtus Pro shows the best DotA in the CIS.

Future plans

The International 2017 ended in Seattle allowed each team to makeconclusions about the mistakes made and the positive moments in their game. Virtus Pro team coach Ivan Antonov (ArtStyle) said that no reshuffles are expected in the team. Contracts with players have been extended until the end of 2018. The captain of the "bears" said that the team is one big close-knit family, and there can be no talk of a disband.

The team manager believes that the 5th place in the last championship is an absolutely adequate and fair result, all the players showed their best side. Despite all the successes of the team, Roman Dvoryankin believes that the result is quite natural for a long championship.

Ahead, the guys are waiting for a few weeks of rest, and then new tournaments and active preparation for them begin.