Virtus.Pro Show Signs of Life by Qualifying for The International 2023
Virtus.Pro (VP) is one of the oldest brands in the Esports scene. Starting from the DoTA days, they built their way into the professional world of Dota2. VP has participated in 7 Internationals out of 11. They were considered one of the dominant teams in Europe during 2017 and 2018. Virtus.Pro won 5 Major tournaments during this time but was unsuccessful at The Internationals. However, they held one of the most famous matches in TI7 against Team Liquid, which took 103 minutes to finish. As the years went by, the team's performance deteriorated again, and the multiple roster changes did not help.
Virtus.Pro's DPC 2023 Run
VP entered the 2023 DPC with a new squad:
- krylat
- squad1x
- Noticed
- sayuw
- Dukalis
After Tour 1 of the DPC, Kiritych~ replaced Krylat and Fng with Dukalis. With three new faces joining the team in the core role, sayuw and Fng filled the support roles. An increase in performance was expected from the squad led by Fng. Having years of experience in the Dota2 scene and being a former VP player was not enough. Virtus.Pro consistently got 4th place in the regional qualifiers and never made it to any of the Majors.
Outside of the DPC, their results were similar in other tournaments, such as Pinnacle Cup and Riyadh Masters.
The International: Eastern EU Qualifiers
There was one silver lining for Virtus.Pro coming into the TI Qualifiers, their spot in the Upper Bracket. It was a result of keeping their Division I spot since the start of DPC 2023. VP had to compete with other strong teams such as Hydra, One Move, NaVi, and Nemiga Gaming. The performance of VP and overall skill increased, losing only one game throughout the qualifiers. With a clean and quick 3-0 Grand Finals, VP qualified for the last spot given to Eastern EU.
What Changed in Virtus.Pro ?
With the new update released before the qualifiers, teams had little time to experiment and figure out strategies. Though it was not a lot of time, VP were able to find a playstyle that helped their team. Coming into the qualifiers, they stuck to the new meta and drafted around that. Gyro, Sven, and Troll are some of the most picked heroes for VP during the qualifiers.
VP's understanding of the new meta, combined with the team's coordination, helped them beat One Move in the Grand Finals.
Want to know more about Virtus.Pro and their captain? Check out how Fng Prepared for the TI12 Qualifiers.
Featured Image: @virtuspro