Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro
Yuriy Sheremet![Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fegamersworld.com%2Fuploads%2Fblog%2F1633016361835.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
We continue getting acquainted with participants in The International in our section «Road to Bucharest». In the previous episodes we traveled to South America and North America, and have recently returned from Southeast Asia.
The world tour is going on and our today’s stop is going to be CIS, a region represented by two teams the tenth International. The first team on our trip around CIS countries is going to be Virtus.pro.
Team’s portfolio
Before the start of the adventure for several years, we offer to walk you through VP’s main features. Who introduces the Bears at TI10, and how they made their way to the event and other facts are below:
- Date of the club’s foundation: May 2012
- Roster at The International 10: Nightfall, gpk, DM, Save-, Kingslayer, boolk (coach)
- How they passed to The International: third place in the DPC rating
- Region: CIS
- Main achievement: 5th-6th place at The International 2015, The International 2017, The International 2018, first place at ESL One Hamburg 2017, ESL One Katowice 2018, The Bucharest Major, ESL One Birmingham 2018, The Kuala Lumpur Major, EPIC League Season 2 Division 1.
Having met the VP, let us start a more thorough examination of the club.
First appearance
![Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro . Photo 1](/uploads/blog/16330723179311.jpg)
Before VP started playing Dota 2, the club had already been a famous club in CIS countries playing a progenitor of the game by Valve – Defense of The Ancient. In May 2012 the Bears entered a new sphere announcing a debut roster: NS, KuroKy, Santa, Azen, Dread.
Later this roster would be modified a bit and a more stable version of VP would be introduced in September 2012. Then NS, Santa, KSi, Crazy and Illidan played in the team.
First tryout at The International 2013
![Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro . Photo 2](/uploads/blog/16330723179432.jpg)
The roster in 2012 was far from perfect and in 2013 VP again plunged into looking for an optimal variant of the roster. Partial changes took place for a year and it appeared to be a hard task to keep track of the flow of players in Virtus.pro.
Anyway, a persisting rotation of players did not hamper VP’s participation in tournaments, gamers were able to show worthy gaming. In a year VP managed to take second place at The Premier League Season 3, EMS One Spring Cup #4, Ritmix Dota 2 League, third place at StarLadder StarSeries Season 5, StarLadder StarSeries Season 6.
But VP’s main accomplishment of that year was a victory at The Defense Season 3. Thanks to it the team got a direct invitation to The International 2013.
The main tournament of the year for the bear was a real nightmare: the last place in the group and loss at the first round in the loser’s bracket. Taking 13th-16th place, VP turned to looking for a problem in the roster.
The team went through another loop of reshuffles which continued till 2015. Before making one of the key moments in the club’s history, VP were to play at the Wild Card round at The International 2014 where they lost to the Koreans from MVP which made their participation in the main event impossible.
The end of 2014 put an end to the old school of VP. The Bears had to face a sharp turn of events.
VP.Polar and the rise of new power
![Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro . Photo 3](/uploads/blog/16330723179453.jpg)
While the main roster of VP was trying to become a Tier-1 team, the management of Virtus.Pro were one of the first in the CIS and the European Dota stage started up a young division calling it ASUS Polar. Later ASUS was removed and replaced by a more familiar VP.
The results of the young roster was even better than good: second place at Esportal Dota 2 League Invitational Tournament 1, StarLadder StarSeries Season 11, victories at Battle of Central Europe Season 3, Esportal Dota 2 League Invitational Tournament 2 and won qualifiers at DreamLeague Season 3 and ESL One Frankfurt. VP.Polar’s hard work was not left without attention so in 2015 the young team turned into VP’s main roster.
Under the wings of VP, Illidan, God, DkPhobos, Lil and fng started to play better than before. In a year they won ASUS Play It Cool Dota 2 Invitational, DreamLeague Season 3, Esportal Dota 2 League. Moreover, they got to Top-4 at ESL One Frankfurt 2015 and Dota Pit League Season 3.
VP ‘s performance in 2015 did not leave Valve indifferent, and as a result the Bears got a direct invitation to The International 2015.
Nobody had great expectations about VP at TI, but it was in vain. Starting with the group stage, the team showed their serious mood.
In Group B Virtus.pro lacked one won map in tie-breaks to proceed to the upper bracket of the playoff. The main event started at the lower bracket for the Bears.
At the start of their trip around the loser’s bracket, VP defeated Fnatic, and then they vanquished Complexity Gaming. The Bears were to face a serious opponent and one of the main favourites of winning that year – Team Secret.
Having lost the first map, it seemed that VP’s goose was cooked, but a historical comeback happened. Virtus.pro kicked Secret out of The International, and in the next round and finished their performance defeated by LGD Gaming.
The Bears took 5th-6th place at The International 2015, which still remains the best result in the club's history.
Golden roster from the times of The International 2017
![Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro . Photo 4](/uploads/blog/16330723179494.jpg)
After their success at TI5, the team had a decline in their results. Till the end of 2015 VP took part in several local tournaments and then headed for The Shanghai Major 2016 for a debut.
The debut performance could not be considered successful. The Bears took 9th-12h place in Shanghai which gave a start to some changes in the roster.
Transfers continued till the end of 2016. The period of formation of the new roster finished in August 2016.
The new roster included RAMZES666, No[o]ne, 9pasha, Lil, Solo, ArtStyle (coach). The era of Virtus.pro started.
The first serious trial for the updated VP was a performance at The Boston Major 2016. In Boston the new VP showed a better result and finished fifth-eighth.
But it was just the beginning. Their next major stop was The Kiev Major 2017 where they played in one of the brightest finals in the history of the competitive Dota.
To CIS fans’ regret, that final resulted in the second place for VP. The kings of majors won The Kiev Major 2017 beating VP at the final match.
After Kiev, Virtus.pro continued getting into momentum. They won Mr.Cat Invitational Europe, Russian Esports Cup 2017 and DOTA Summit 7.
The fruitful work in a year let VP become one of the first teams to get invited to The International 2017. VP came to the event as one of the main favourites.
Justification of the status was partial. At The International 2017, VP took 5th-6th place in a vicious battle losing to the champions from Team Liquid.
VP did not intend to stop there. Their main goal was, and remained, Aegis.
After TI7, VP won ESL One Hamburg 2017, took fourth place at AMD SAPPHIRE Dota Pit League, got to Top-4 at MDL Macau and won DOTA Summit 8.
And again, it was just the beginning.
Golden roster from 2018 and VP legends’ slow fading away
![Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro . Photo 5](/uploads/blog/16330723179525.jpg)
In February 2018 VP replaced Lil by RodjER. The renewed roster of bears planned to win The International.
The Bears’ potential in 2018 had never been better.
In a year Virtus.pro won ESL One Katowice 2018, The Bucharest Major, ESL One Birmingham 2018, got to Top-3 Dota 2 Asia Championship 2018, took second place at 2 China Dota2 Supermajor and fourth place at EPICENTER XL.
TI8 welcomed VP as the first contender as the team had took first position in the DPC rating. But something was missing at The International again.
The team took 5th-6th place and stopped a couple of steps away from the cherished goal. VP took their next and last shot in 2019.
In 2019 VP got down to a new DPC season fully recharged. This time it was not fruitful even though the Bears appeared in Top pretty often.
Solo’s team took second place at The Chongqing Major and DreamLeague Season 11. They finished third at EPICENTER Major 2019. This was even more than enough to take second place in DPC and set out to The International 2019.
The main tournament of the year turned out to be a disappointment for VP. Instead of Top-6, the team finished in Top-12 which became the worst result for the golden players from VP.
The loss in 2019 tamed the Bears’ spirits and the lineup got disbanded. They managed to get into Top only in 2021.
Current times and a pass to TI 10
![Road to Bucharest — Virtus.pro . Photo 6](/uploads/blog/16330723179556.jpg)
A failure at The International 10 accompanied Virtus.pro for a long time. The Bears spend the next year looking for a new roster.
The Covid-19 pandemic did not let them go wild, so they had to settle for local tournaments. Even there Virtus.pro played imperfectly.
In April 2020 Virtus.pro set up a new division – VP.Prodigy. This was what was going to become a good basement for creation of new Bears.
Appearing in April, VP.Prodigy got into momentum fast and in November 2020 they got into the main roster. The updated Bears returned their undoubtful leadership in CIS.
In 2021 Virtus.pro finished first twice at regional leagues, but the situation at the majors is still tough. At ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 the team took seventh-eighth place, and WePlay AniMajor resulted in 9th-12th position.
Their points from the regional leagues and 200 points from Singapore were enough to proceed to TI10 directly.
After getting a ticket to the main tournament of the year, VP took part in two commercial tournaments: ESL One Summer 2021 and ESL One Fall 2021. At the first one Virtus.pro finished second, and the autumn ESL brought the gamers third place.
This is where their road to Budapest ends. Next time we are to see the Bears in October this year.
See you later on EGamersWorld.
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Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.