Virtus.pro deactivates Dota 2 team ahead of ESL One Germany

After a string of poor results, Virtus.pro is looking to rebuild its Dota 2 division. The Russian organization announced that it will be skipping ESL One Germany 2020 as a result.

The news comes only a couple of days after rumours surfaced that Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev would be re-joining the team, while Danil "gpk" Skutin joined sister team VP.Prodigy. 

It is currently unknown how drastic Virtus Pro's roster revamp will be, nor if it will continue to play with longtime captain Alexey "Solo" Berezin. Russian news page CYBERSLOVO reports that Natus Vincere support Ilyas "Illias” Ganeev could be heading to VP.Prodigy together with gpk, at which point VP.Prodigy will be elevated to being Virtus.pro's primary roster. CYBERSLOVO also notes that this move would resolve the organization’s “issue of completely abandoning the main team” and clearing up large contracts the main roster has on its payroll.

With so many premier CIS teams making moves, this year's shuffle is proving to be one of the biggest in the history of Dota 2.

Virtus.pro had a rough season in Dota 2

Virtus.pro itself has largely underwhelmed this season. The organization which spent three seasons at the top of the scene looked like a shadow of its former self during this year's DPC season. The team's victories at Parimatch League Season 3 and ESL One Los Angeles have been largely offset by their inconsistent form. The final nail in the coffin seemed to be the team's lackluster seventh-place finish at the OMEGA League European Immortal Division.

Numerous roster shuffles have failed to recreate the team's past successes, with up-and-coming players like Egor "epileptick1d" Grigorenko and Vitalie "Save-" Melnic lasting only a couple of months with the main team before being moved to VP.Prodigy.

With such a big shuffle underway, there are certainly more surprises in store down the road. But Virtus.pro will definitely have to dig deep if it wants to emulate its past dominance.

Current Virtus.pro inactive roster:

• Igor "iLTW" Filatov
• Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko
• Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok
• Bakyt "Zayac" Emilzhanov
• Алексей "Solo" Berezin
• Ivan "ArtStyle" Antonov (Coach)