One of the most storied organisations in esports and especially in Counterstrike, Virtus Pro made an announcement today. The Polish lineup for the organisation will immediately cease competing professionally under Virtus Pro. This comes after years poor performance and the recent roster changes made no difference to their results. The winner of the IEM Katowice 2014 CS: GO, Major, Virtus Pro has gained a lot of fans over the years.
The original lineup led by the likes of Taz saw its fair share of following. ‘Papa Taz’ as he is fondly known by fans is one of the most respected people in Counter-Strike. His video asking fans not to boo Fnatic when they managed to defeat Virtus Pro is legendary.
Our CS:GO lineup ceases competition. Read more on https://t.co/JGlDZBIKgE pic.twitter.com/sBqJpZkjOg
— Virtus.pro (@virtuspro) December 13, 2018
Virtus Pro might make a comeback.
After London Major, we were quite optimistic about the potential of the current lineup. Unfortunately, our expectations were not met. The long-term strategy for us is to build a competitive team around young players and we will follow it while making decisions. I’d like to ask our fans to be supportive in the next couple of weeks
Roman Dvoryankin, Virtus.pro General manager.
Virtus Pro has attempted to make changes in order to bring about success for the organisation. Over the past one year, they have slowly let go of players such as Taz, Snax and Byali. They brought in younger players from the Polish region such as Michał ‘Snatchie’ Rudzki and Piotr ‘Morelz’ Taterka. However, their recent run at the Europe Minor qualifier saw them lose in two straight matches. They lost to Team Vitality and then x-Kom in the lower bracket. This eliminates any hope for the team to play at the IEM Katowice 2019. It takes place in Katowice, Poland and it was a big deal for the organisation. Their inability to qualify definitely uproots any faith that the organisation had in them.
In the future, we might see Virtus Pro making a comeback with a new CS: GO roster. Organisations like EnVyUs have done the same when they moved from France to North America. For now, the Virtus Pro current lineup ceases operations.
