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

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

Fariha Bhatti
Fariha Bhatti Published 23/09/2020
Google Preferred Source

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:

Fariha Bhatti Fariha Bhatti
About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

View full profile
Read Also
ESIC hand down ruling in EWC Dota match-fixing case: Lifetime ban for coach as DarkMago gets a nickel Dota 2
ESIC hand down ruling in EWC Dota match-fixing case: Lifetime ban for coach as DarkMago gets a nickel Michael Hassall South American Dota 2 player Gonzalo "DarkMago" Herrera will be banned for five years from competitive Dota 2, with his coach Juan "Vintage" Angulo banned permanently, following the results of an The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) investigation. ESIC handed down the findings and rulings from its investigation into match-fixing allegations leveled at members of South American Dota 2 team PlayTime during the Esports World Cup on Sep. 10, in a ...
Polystrike Turns a Dota 2 Mod Into a Standalone Tactical Shooter News
Polystrike Turns a Dota 2 Mod Into a Standalone Tactical Shooter Hannan Mundia After the community-made mod found success within the community, developer and publisher Robin Entertainment has decided to turn Polystrike into a proper standalone game. Community-made mods of games finding success within the respective game’s community is nothing new. However, only a handful of those mods are able to go on and become a standalone game. One of the more recent examples is The Forgotten City, which started as a mod ...
Team Spirit wins TI15 to lift a record third Aegis of Champions Dota 2
Team Spirit wins TI15 to lift a record third Aegis of Champions Michael Hassall Team Spirit has defeated TEAM VISION in the grand finals of TI15, The International 2025. In a full five-game series on Aug. 23, Spirit pulled out all the stops and narrowly defeated an incredible VISION team in a back-and-forth series in Shanghai, China. With Spirit’s victory, Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk and Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov become the first ever three-time TI champions, and Team Spirit becomes the first ever organization to lift ...
The International 2026 (TI15) Finals Preview and Predictions Dota 2
The International 2026 (TI15) Finals Preview and Predictions Michael Hassall The International 2026, TI15, has reached its final day, and just three teams remain in the fight for the Aegis of Champions. With the lower bracket final and Grand Final still to come, everything comes down to one final day of Dota 2 action. The lower bracket finalists will first battle for the right to reach the main event’s final series, while the winner will advance to face the upper-bracket ...
TI15’s opening ceremony weaves a tapestry of emotion for Valve’s storied title Dota 2
TI15’s opening ceremony weaves a tapestry of emotion for Valve’s storied title Michael Hassall The main stage of The International 2026, TI15, kicked off today with the traditional opening ceremony heralding the start of the biggest celebration of Dota 2 on the calendar. On Aug. 20 fans in Shanghai, China, and at home, were treated to a rousing 11-minute series of performances and video packages, introducing TI15’s main stage show. Here’s how the magic unfolded: The ceremony began with a graphic which quite literally ...
The International 2026 (TI15) Playoffs preview and predictions Dota 2
The International 2026 (TI15) Playoffs preview and predictions Michael Hassall The Group Stage of The International 2026, TI15, is in the books and we’ve whittled down 16 of the world’s best Dota 2 teams to just eight finalists. One of these talented lineups will be the ones lifting the Aegis of Champions come Sunday, Aug. 23, but until then, there’s plenty of playoff shenanigans that could go on. Below we’ve put together a preview of the upcoming Playoff Games, along ...
The Esports Nations Cup Has Been Postponed to November 2027 News
The Esports Nations Cup Has Been Postponed to November 2027 Ben Boland The 2026 Esports Nations Cup has been suspended until 2027. The Esports Foundation announced the delay on August 18, citing ongoing regional uncertainty. The inaugural competition was scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, comprising over 100 national teams and featuring 16 different games, including League of Legends. According to the Esports Foundation, this decision follows ongoing developments in the region and consultation with key stakeholders. Moving the event ...