Virtus Pro, the largest eSports organization in the CIS, appeared in 2003. The Virtus Pro Dota2 starter squad was formed in May 2012. Over the past few years, the composition of the team has changed several times.
History of occurrence
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 roster, new players cannot bring success in various tournaments.
Performances at TI 3
In 2013, Alexander “Santa” left the team, in his place came Sergei Revin (“ARS-ART”). He came from Na'Vi, which took silver at The International's second. Revin began to play the role of a hardliner. The first victory with an updated roster was waiting for Virtus Pro at the online competition The Defense Season 3.
Prizes at several other 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 dismissed the Dota 2 roster.
Composition crisis
After the third The International, the team began hard times. Leadership decides to focus on eSports 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 unsuccessfully performed 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 composition assembled from Ukrainian players lasted a couple of months.
2014 is the hope of rebirth
Until January 2014, leapfrog with the squad continued. But even stabilization of the situation did not bring positive results. Managing to lose even to unprofessional teams, the new Virtus Pro roster for Dota 2 suddenly passes in the spring of 2014 qualification for The International 4 and gets the opportunity to speak on the Wild Card. But the revived hopes of success were not destined to be justified. Korean MVP Phoenix team got the latest quota for TI 4 instead of Virtus Pro. Yaroslav Kuznetsov ("NS") ended after that his professional career.
After that, the backbone of the team was assembled from the players of the disintegrated RoX.KIS. It turned out to take the “gold” at MSI Beat IT 2014, the third place at ASUS ROG. However, on this successful performances of Virtus Pro in the cyber arena ended.
ASUS.Polar - the prototype of the new composition of the "bears"
In 2015, the Virtus Pro.Polar team is separated from the main organization. With the change of sponsor, it was called 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 Ilyyuk ( “ Lil”).
At the beginning of March 2015, the current Dota 2 Virtus Pro squad was disbanded. And in April, ASUS.Polar becomes the basis for the newly formed Bears team. A series of good performances at eSports tournaments has begun. In the arsenal of the first prize at ASUS ROG.
The international 5
In the summer of 2015, the team managed to take 5th place in the international Dota 2 championship in Seattle.
Virtus Pro played in Group B along with seven more teams. Having scored 9 points, they fell 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. On this, the achievements of the Virtus Pro Dota 2 roster on TI 5 ended.
At the end of this championship, the team as a whole did not perform very well. Fighting for major tournaments became increasingly difficult, but if it was still possible, the results of the performances were not pleasing. After a failed TI 6 qualification match, Virtus Pro's Dota 2 roster was disbanded.
2016 team revival
September 2016 was marked by the announcement of a new composition of "bears", which is functioning to this day. The list of players: Alexey Berezin (“Solo”), Roman Kushnaryov (“Ramzes666”), Ilya Ilyyuk (“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. They won first place at The Summit 6. In the grand finals, the CIS team defeated OG - 3: 0. The size of the championship prize 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 Boston Major 2016, the Bears team managed to reach the ÂĽ finals, failing to beat The International 2015 champions, the Evil Geniusis team.
In the next 2017, Major was held in Kiev and the CIS - the team was able to reach the finals. But in a bitter 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 the group stage of TI 7, Virtus Pro falls into the winners' network, where he defeats LGD, but, not being able 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 games in the playoffs - 103 minutes. In general, the meeting with TL was 2-1 in favor of the American team. “Bears” finished their performance in the championship at 5-6 place with a prize of $ 1,000,000.
Corporate game style
Virtus Pro has a unique gaming style. A variety of tactics and strategies often lead opponents into a stupor. The team stands out especially for its ability to confuse an opponent at the draft stage, using heroes not in the way everyone is used to. At the Kerry position, use the Vengeful Spirit - only "bears" are capable of this. Shadow Demon and Luna in conjunction, 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 unique playing style of the “bears” can be called their game at The Summit 7. At this tournament, the team managed to take first place using 81 different characters. Of these, only 4 were repeated in the fifth map of the final.
Each Virtus Pro player is able to surprise rivals with a non-standard leveling of characters, among the corporate features of e-sportsmen is the purchase of non-banal items during the game.
Captain - the heart of the team
Alexey Berezin (“Solo”), despite the difficult path in e-sports, has become practically the legend of Dota 2. At one time, the player was involved in a scandal with bets, but this remained in the past. Today Solo is the leader of one of the best e-sports 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 at future candidates for a long time, evaluated their human and professional qualities.
With some cybersportsmen who are now part of Virtus Pro in Dota 2, Berezin managed to play, some he considered worthy candidates, watching their game and behavior in tournaments.
It is interesting that, in full coordination of the game, Solo entrusted the choice of heroes to Roman Kushnaryov ("Ramzes666"). A risky move, because usually a player holding a kerry 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 take the 9000 MMR mark.
Kushnarev in the course of the game, of course, consults with the captain, but, performing the bulk of the work on choosing heroes, relieves Berezin of unnecessary responsibility and allows him to concentrate fully on tactics and strategy.
The Virtus Pro project, whose Dota 2 roster has been playing so successfully lately, can be talked about for a very long time. Demonstrating a truly “bearish” character in games, the team gives fans a lot of pleasure in an interesting and unpredictable game. A variety of strategies shows how much work the team does in training. Subjugating instincts to reason, Virtus Pro shows the best DotA in the CIS.
Future plans
The International 2017, which ended in Seattle, allowed each team to draw conclusions about mistakes and positive moments in their game. Ivan Antonov (“ArtStyle”), a Virtus Pro team coach, said that no reshuffles would be expected in the team. Contracts with players were 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 disband.
The team manager believes that 5th place at the last championship is an absolutely adequate and fair result, all players showed their best. Despite all the successes of the team, Roman Dvoryankin believes that for a long championship the result is quite logical.
Ahead of the guys are waiting for several weeks of rest, and then new tournaments and active preparation for them begin.