D2CL Christmas Charity Magic has concluded and crowned Virtus.Pro the new champions. After wiping out Hell Raisers 3:0, the CIS team took their first championship title and second top 3 finish since TI5. The team walks away with $20,000 and the good deed of contributing via ticket sales to Food For The Hungry charity.
.@TeamVirtuspro [3:0] @HRdota2
And we have the new champion! Well played. And thanks everyone pic.twitter.com/yTjqS5vlkI
— D2CL (@d2cleague) December 23, 2015
Virtus.Pro didn’t drop a single match in the entire event. The squad had survived against the qualified team Siberian Valenki Black in the single elimination match, then swept through opponents PRIES and Team Spirit before continuing their winning streak against Hell Raisers in the Grand Finals.
Virtus.Pro seems to have broken their “5th place rut” in the last month. Taking first place in the D2CL Christmas Charity Magic tournament and a solid second place at the Summit 4, it is exactly the result the team was looking for when they made their last roster change.
Earlier this month, VirtusPro replaced Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev with Airat “Silent” Gaziev, most recently of Team Empire. Part of the rationale according to the organization was that the team was stuck, failing to progress further than 5th place.
D2CL Christmas Charity Magic
Dota 2 Champions League announced a very special event this season to warm the hearts of the community and fill the stomachs of those in need.
All the money from tickets went to the Food For The Hungry charity, with FaceIT and Dreamz Media contributing an additional $2 for the first 10,000 tickets sold.
Started in the first days of December, Dota 2 Champions League: Christmas Charity Magic was a unique tournament created for this holiday season. Dreamz Media together with G2A, Twitch, Egamingbets and FaceIT had collaborated to bring together a new tournament in the spirit of giving.
Eight invited teams – Team Empire, LC, 4CL, NLG, Arcade.PowerRangers, Na’Vi, HellRaisers and Virtus.Pro – and eight qualified teams competed for the $40,000 prize pool and for a good cause.
Christmas Charity Magic prize pool
$40,000 total prize pool:
- 1st place – $20,000 – Virtus.Pro
- 2nd place – $10,000 – Hell Raisers
- 3rd and 4th places – $5,000/$5,000 – Team Spirit/ProDota Gaming
Virtus.Pro
Virtus Pro and ViCi Gaming before their Frankfurt Major series © Steffie Wunderl
VirtusPro was one of the few teams to keep their rosters intact at the height of the post-TI5 reshuffle period and they have continued to show strength in their recent official matches.
Since TI5, they placed 7th-8th at the Frankfurt Major, 5th-6th at Nanyang Dota 2 Championships, 5th-6th at MLG World Finals 2015, 5th-8th at ESL One New York and 2nd in the World Cyber Arena 2015 European Qualifiers.
On December 2, they welcomed Airat “Silent” Gaziev in place of Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev.
They have since taken second place at The Summit 4 after falling to Evil Geniuses 2:3.
Artsiom “fng” Barshack’s strong drafting and aggressive tendencies were decisive for the CIS team during the fall season and Silent seems to be a good fit for the team’s synergy and chemistry.
VirtusPro current roster:
Airat “Silent” Gaziev
Sergey “God” Bragin
Alexander “DkPhobos” Kucheria
Artem “fng” Barshak
Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk
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