Dota 2: Virtus.pro targets members of Na`Vi and Gambit

The first tournaments of this season for CIS teams did not go as expected. Virtus.pro, Na`Vi and Gambit.Esports, the three strongest teams in the region, are constantly struggling and have yet to win a series at the Major playoffs. Recently, Virtus.pro had to leave early at the Leipzig Major, sparking rumors that the organization will have personnel adjustments soon.

Virtus.pro started the new season with two strange faces in the professional arena and decided to start slowly to focus on developing talent. They qualified for the first Minor but abandoned it to give the members time to bond with Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko and Vitalie “Save-” Melnic. VP’s first LAN tournament was the ONE Esports Singapore Invitational, which gave CIS fans a lot of hope. Gambit ranked 3rd, VP top 6, and Na`Vi ranked in the top 8.

However, a month later, Gambit failed to make it to the Major; Na`Vi had a promising start to the group stage of the Leipzig Major, but lost two series in a row in the playoffs, and Virtus.pro was in the bottom four. Back home and with about a week left to prepare for the regional qualifiers of the third round DPC tournament, VP was supposed to replace epileptick1d and Save-.

Most recently, Tommy “Taiga” Le was playing a pub game with Oliver “Skiter” Lepko – who hasn’t had a team since December. That game was livestreamed by Taiga as Skiter shared something about the upcoming CIS bloodbath. Although Taiga warned him he was streaming, Skiter said the information was no longer secret and didn’t matter if it got out.

According to him, Virtus.pro will see off two young members and discuss with support 4 of Na`Vi, Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov, and Gambit Esports side, Danil “gpk” Skutin.

The interesting point is that gpk is Gambit’s mid player, also one of the promising young talents in this position. Meanwhile, the Leipzig Major was a complete disaster when Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko constantly handles bugs, adversely affecting Virtus.pro’s in-game plan.

The three teams have yet to comment, nor announce the official lineups for the ESL One Los Angeles Major and StarLadder ImbaTV Kyiv Minor regional qualifiers. But according to Russian esports site cyber.sports.ru, the gpk move from Gambit to VP is “very unlikely” because Virtus.pro is not willing to spend a lot of money to buy him.

The third DPC qualifier is scheduled to begin on February 7 with an open qualifier, followed by a closed regional qualifier, which will run from February 9-14.