A month has passed after the most popular tournament The International Dota 2 Championship, and therefore almost all teams and their squads have been fully formed. The reshuffle period turned out, as usual, to be tense and intriguing. Many groups tried to appropriate mythical players, some even shouted about decay. Nevertheless, the current squad of Virtus.pro Dota 2 is ready to enter the e-sports arena and fight for prizes. Find out how it will look.
Each team has gone through a thorny path to formation and formation. Many players from the CIS have repeatedly played with each other in different teams, changed teams and tried to succeed. Before we find out what the new composition of Virtuspro Dota 2 is, let's recall a little history of this organization.
How it all began
And it began in the distant 2003. The first participants in the production center were the players in Counter-Strike. The guys went a long way, participated in various tournaments and glorified the organization. This lasted until 2007. In May, another team was created - already in the DoTA discipline. Since this game did not achieve such stunning successes as its second series, the team participated in few places and received prizes.
Despite the fact that the teams of the organization performed more or less successfully, nevertheless, terrible problems started at one moment, of which the Virtuspro team could only get out in 2011. Again, victories and defeats began, but again, before the appearance of DotA 2, all the successes of the Bears were more related to KS.
"Dota 2"
But in 2012, they opened the very new discipline, which is now collecting a lot of money - “Dota 2”. Then we got very strong players: NS, KuroKy, Santa, AZEN and Dread. The guys were able to beat serious rivals and go to DreamHack.
After some time and a series of setbacks, Dota 2 players began to change again. All this happened due to unjustified expectations of the fans. The composition of Virtuspro Dota 2 received an invite to TI 2013, but there it could not show itself in all its glory. As a result, NS and Smile remained in the team, the latter was signed at the beginning of the year.
Difficult times
In 2014, everything was also quite complicated. Before TI14, there was little left, and the team changed players like gloves. LightOfHeaven replaced the newcomer JotM, also returned to the Illidan team. Before the tournament, the guys even managed to check out a couple of tournaments. In qualifications for the World Championship, Virtuspro reached the Wild Card and drove to Seattle with great expectations. But there they lost to the Koreans, and did not reach the main event.
Such setbacks significantly undermined the spirit of the team, and its old-timers NS and Smile announced the end of their esports career. Illidan left the team for the second time. They were replaced by a team of "bears" came BzzIsPerfect, yol and Sedoy. In the meantime, Illidan found another team for himself, which later the management of Virtus 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 Virtuspro Dota 2 has undergone changes again. By TI 2015, Fng, Illidan, Lil, God and DkPhobos were signed. 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 turned out in the best way. The team fought and fought as best they could, in the end the team took 5-6th 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 line-up of Virtuspro Dota 2 in 2015 could not get together for the season, and therefore success was replaced by stagnation. No changes affected victories. Serious tournaments completely ceased to exist for the team. Competitions, which still managed to pass, ended before they started.
This state of affairs, of course, could not lead to a direct invite to TI 2016. Therefore, the guys again had to fight in qualifications to get a slot for the Main Event. But here, too, a defeat and a sad failure awaited the team. After such defeats, the team was disbanded, and fans began to wait for the new line-up of Virtuspro Dota 2 in 2016.
Truth or rumors?
Now it is not clear whether the organizers decided that they had chosen the strongest and most successful players, or simply wanted to put on a “hype”, but the preliminary composition of Virtuspro Dota 2 was announced two weeks before the end of TI 2016.
July 31, the organization officially announced the recruitment of players. The managers decided to leave the old-timer of the God team, which for the last three years has served the collective and organization of the "bears." Next came the newcomers - who left the Vega Squadron Solo team and No [o] ne also took their place in Virtus.
The organization announced yet another player - Lil, and a surprise for many fans was the involvement of the famous “Navishnik” Alexander “XBOCT” Dashkevich into the team.
This line-up of the Virtuspro Dota 2 team in 2016 looked quite convincing and was liked by many fans of the Bears. But, as we remember, this is only a preliminary set of players.
Formation
A few days later, on August 5, the organizers announced the final formation of the team. As a result, the composition of Virtuspro Dota 2 in 2016 was as follows.
Vladimir No [o] ne Minenko was nevertheless returned to his already familiar midline. The fact is that in the announced roster he had to play the role of Kerry. His former teammate for Vega Squadron, and now the current one for Virtus.pro G2A, Alexei Solo Berezin was awarded the captain's "blindfold" and the same role. Ilya Lil Ilyyuk took his usual position and along with the team captain became another support.
But the newcomers who were not announced in the preliminary composition and replaced the old-timer Sergey God Bragin, as well as the beloved Alexander “XBOCT” Dashkevich, became no less popular Roman RAMZES666 Kushnaryov and another Vega Squadron player Pavel 9pasha Khvastunov.
Now that the composition of Virtuspro Dota 2 is known for this season, we will take a look at each player individually and recall their successes and victories.
Captain captain smile
Well, the first one to tell about is the captain of all captains, popular among the Russian-speaking community, Alexei Solo Berezin. His career began with Dota 2 in 2012. At one time, Alexei was drawn into a conflict with the famous 322, after which chaos came into his career.
Lesha for a long time tried to restore his honest name, was engaged in streaming and spoke on replacements. Already in 2014, he returned to his native team, but after an unsuccessful game RoX.KIS on TI4 the team broke up. For the next tournament Solo performs with Vega Squadron. This team also became an important page in his career for him. Despite the success last year, little has been achieved in this team. So Alex got into Virtus.pro. Previously, he played on the midline, now due to the captain's armband support.
Young blood
Virtus.pro G2A also acquired a couple of young players. Vladimir Minenko, aka No [o] ne, occupies a mid-position. An 18-year-old guy had previously played in mixes, but the most successful page in his career was participation in Vega Squadron.
But Roman RAMZES666 Kushnaryov is only 17 years old. His e-sports career began last year with the ScaryFaceZ team. His main refuge was the Team Spirit team, with which he was able to get to Major in Shanghai. After a failed tournament, he left the team and later joined Team Empire. In "Virtus.Pro" plays in his crown position Kerry.
Support from God
Ilya Lil Ilyyuk - a boy from the pub. In 2014, Goblak decided to gather a team and, playing in , found a promising and young player who won CIS-Dota in just a year. His Visage crown is world famous. Then NVMI became Virtus.pro Polar, and Ilya still conquered 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 did not turn into a capricious and eternally aching esportsman. With his game, he overshadowed the entire basic structure and in the first year of his career he was able to earn 300 thousand dollars. Ilya has already performed with Virtus.pro on TI5, where he was able to get to the 5-6th place with the team.
Through hardship to the stars
Pavel 9pasha Khvastunov began his career in 2013. Together with No [o] ne he played in different mixes and at the end of 2014 became a member of the Vega Squadron team. Pasha is a very strong carry, which is difficult to cope on the line. He, along with teammates, traveled a difficult path. In March of this year, he had to leave the team. But since any player wants to speak at TI, he found himself a mix team F5.
Despite the fact that the team never played in the world championship, it was still able to show itself convincingly in the qualifications. In Virtus, Pasha plays the role of a hardliner.