TaZ opens up about his career at Virtus.Pro

Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas talked about leaving Virtus.Pro and meeting with CEO of ESforce Holding Anton “sneg” Cherepennikov. In the interview he recalled when he started his CS career, joined VP and the reason for leaving the team recently.

Practice

Crises do happen from time to time, but in my case it’s not just CS:GO. I always aim for perfection. I never tire of working out because the end result is what matters most to me. Crisis also occurs because I am often influenced by the atmosphere: an atmosphere that is favorable for me or being on a good team is very important to me. Without a good atmosphere, all the practice time is meaningless because I don’t feel comfortable. Very important when I feel calm. That’s why I’ve always felt happy practicing all these years. Tournaments, competition, meet people from all over the world, improve your English. In short, esports has made a huge impact on me. Not only did I meet many people, but I also learned how to think right. I overcame my fear of being in front of the camera during tournaments. Everything wouldn’t have come true if I hadn’t spent the past 19 years practicing./

First success in CS

We have contracted with an organization whose boss is someone we fully trust. I have learned a lot from him, he is my teacher in the market. I’m glad we met such a boss, since we had problems as 19-year-old young players.

I met him at a party. I said I wanted to switch to League of Legends like many people suggested to me. This is where Virtus.Pro beat Ninjas in Pajamas at DreamHack. They are celebrating their victory. Anton was very happy and told me: “If you say: “For Russia!”, you will get a beer.” I said: “No, I can only say that to my country Poland.” We met in such an odd situation. My impressions of him formed later.

At that point if VP hadn’t signed us, we might have retired from CS, because Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski was in need of money while Filip . and I “ANCHOR” Kubski is no longer young. Finally Anton said: “Win a tournament and we’ll see.” And we won and started to celebrate: “Fine, we’ll get the contract and the pay.” But then VP COS contacted us and told us that they were forming another team. I texted Anton: “So here is the weight of your words.” He replied, “Wait a minute.” He called me back in half an hour and said, “Congratulations to Virtus.pro.” That’s all. Then this CEO was fired and I realized that we had entered a new world where a person’s words really matter. When we signed the four-year contract I thought, “Now I can breathe a sigh of relief.”

Go to Virtus.pro

We cannot avoid suspicions. When we started playing CS:GO people started to doubt: “Okay, can they do well at their age?” Furthermore we are a team from Poland and compete under the name of an organization from Russia! We will be the first to break this stereotype. And everything went quite smoothly. There are now a lot of multinational squads around the world. I think it’s really great. What really drives esports is no longer just the money it used to be.

Personal awards

Some organizations prefer to discuss contract terms with individuals on the team. I prefer team meetings. All five players contribute 20% to the team’s success. However, now things have developed to the point where the players are not equally popular, so you have to reward them individually, because their popularity is not the result of team PR. . Players build their own popularity while popularity benefits organizations, so they need to be rewarded.

Leave Virtus.pro

In my career I’ve always said “Okay, that’s a good substitute”, or “You fired me, I hate you”, when someone leaves the team. Everything changed for me, I no longer thought “It could have been different, they would have realized they made a mistake.” Something has ended, something has ended, something has begun. We have had four great years. During this time we have done a lot for ourselves and for the fans. Something else will happen now, but something better. My life has begun a new phase, but Virtus.pro is still in it, with those four players who always support me. I wanted things to always be like this. That is very important, considering MICHU’s background. I don’t want people to badmouth him, I don’t want people to be angry because I got kicked out. I want things to continue as it was: the fans cheer for the Polish players, while the players win tournaments.

Source: cybersport