Virtus.Pro woes continue as Kiev Major qualifiers draw near

Virtus.Pro woes continue to cast darkness on the CIS team’s results and prospects. The team encountered a myriad of trials since returning from ESL One Genting 2017. After taking a disappointing 5-6th place finish at Dota Pit Season 5, the team withdrew from StarLadder iLeague qualifiers, were eliminated from DAC qualifiers due to default losses caused by internet issues and ultimately fired their Dota 2 manager. The strain from the string of events comes at a crucial time leading up to the Kiev Major qualifiers.

The Virtus.Pro woes seem to have struck once again for the high profile organization.

On June 30th, Sneg1 dissolved the entire Dota 2 roster due to the squad’s lackluster track record during the season and failure to qualify for The International 6.

The new roster led by Alexey “Solo” Berezin,revealed in early August, struck out in the Fall 2016 season as relentless, powerful and too hot to handle.

VP took their first title for the new season in the BTS EU series #4 and followed up by qualifying for the Summit 6, Dota Pit League season 5 and, most importantly, the Boston Major. They then seized the championship title at The Summit 6 after they thumped over OG in the Summit 6 grand finals, 3:0.

But their fire has gone ashen, all but extinguished, leading to a rough stretch for the team once again.

Early January VP seized 3-4th place at ESL One Genting 2017 in Malaysia, looking to have continued to ride high on their success and momentum from the previous season. However, departing SEA, they flew over to Split, Croatia to compete in Dota Pit League Season 5 the following week. The team seemed to have sputtered, claiming a disappointing 5-6th place finish at the event.

In a surprising move, Virtus.Pro withdrew from StarLadder iLeague StarSeries Season 3 one day prior to Phase 3 of the European qualifiers beginning – citing the need to focus on the upcoming Kiev Major.

While at bootcamp in Russia, the team began to set their sites on moving forward and participated in the DAC 2017 qualifiers as well.

The start was as dismal as it could get. Internet issues in the first game against Effect forced VP forfeit the match and the series. Returning to the qualifiers for the elimination match against LQ, they once again were forced the team to forfeit after falling victim to DDoS attacks.

The string of woes experienced through the season have culminated into the dismissal of the team’s Dota 2 manager.

Last week, during the first game of the DAC qualifier, our Dota 2 roster encountered internet connection issues. It’s 2017 and such things would be unacceptable even at a mixed amateur tournament. On Monday, we were the target of a DDoS attack that was also preventable. As head of the organization, I bear the responsibility for this, and would like to apologize to the team’s fans and shareholders. We have also decided that our Dota 2 roster manager, Andrey Kvasnevsky, will be leaving the team. I’d like to wish Andrey all the best of luck in the future. It wasn’t an easy decision to make.

– Roman Dvoryankin, Virtus.pro General Manager

Virtus.Pro will continue to keep their sights set now on the Kiev Major qualifiers and attempt to put their problems behind them. The team will have over four weeks to prepare.

Open Qualifiers for Kiev Major will take place on March 6 – 9, and Regional Qualifiers on March 10 – 13. CIS region will have their own qualifiers apart from Europe, of which Virtus.Pro was expecting an invite for.

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Virtus.Pro roster:

Alexey “Solo” Berezin
Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk
Roman “Ramzes666” Kushnarev
Pavel “9pasha” Hvastunov
Vladimir “No[O]ne” Minenko