The biggest question in CIS Dota 2 has finally been answered, as Virtus.pro promoted the lineup of VP.Prodigy to the main roster. Since as early as June 2020, questions have been raised as to when VP would cut the reins of the struggling primary lineup, and go with it’s surging youth roster. Now, with an announcement made early on November 5, we have our answer.
After months of besting the primary roster of the organization, VP.Prodigy were finally made the starting lineup for the org (Photo via Virtus.pro)
With the reveal, Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko, Danil “gpk” Skutin, Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, Team Captain Vitaly “Save” Melnik, and Illias “illias” Ganeev will now be Virtus.pro’s primary Dota 2 team. Meanwhile, Igor “iLTW” Filatov, Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko, Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok, Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov, and Alexey “Solo” Berezin are all now labeled as inactive. According to the official post on Virtus.pro’s website, the previous lineup has been “disbanded.”
Speaking in the announcement post, Sergey Glamazda, CEO of Virtus.pro described the reason for the decision: “We launched VP.Prodigy roster with one main goal — to give young talents a chance for development on the pro-scene. This team had already shown some phenomenal results by this moment: reached grand finals in five out of seven tournaments and won three of them. We had two strong rosters, though at the same time we were limited in tournament options.”
“By the end of September we faced a tough choice: to once again update our first roster or to invest in VP.Prodigy and put our faith in new blood. Today we transfer the VP.Prodigy squad to our first Dota 2 team. I would like to thank ex-VP players. A lot of them are the living legends, their names and victories have been written in the club’s history. Today we start a new chapter that will have a lot of trophies and memorable moments.”
The promotion of VP.Prodigy to the main lineup is not unexpected. After some incredible performances immediately after their founding in March 2020, the team outperformed many established EU and CIS teams in the WePlay! Pushka League S1 in May. This brought them into direct competition with the main roster, who they defeated at Epic Prime League Season 1. By July, VP.P were being sent to events in favor of the “main roster”.
The removal of VP’s previous lineup also puts to bed the legacy of a so-called CIS Super team. In early 2020, Virtus.pro courted controversy in its aggressive signing of Zayac. The organization also made headlines with its singing of Zaur “Cooman” Shakhmurzaev, only to drop the player after visa issues kept him from playing in the subsequently canceled ESL One Los Angeles Major. The squad struggled as events moved online, finally ending their run with the promotion of the youth team.
With a winning and proven roster now in place, the sky’s the limit for Virtus.pro. The team’s first challenge will be an interregional brawl in the EPIC League Division 1, facing off against top CIS and EU teams. You can catch all the action from that tournament as it kicks off on November 12th.
