The last DPC season wasn't good for Virtus.pro. Despite having a good performance, the Dota 2 team failed to be part of The International 2022 and it led to a major shakeup with the organization eventually signing a new management team. That looks to have been a good decision as the team officially revealed its roster for the upcoming season.
The new members are:
- Kamil "Koma’" Biktimirov (carry)
- Ilya "squad1x" Kuvaldin (mid)
- Evgeny "Noticed" Ignatenko (offlane)
- Oleg "sayuw" Kalenbet (soft support)
- Andrey "Dukalis" Kuropatkin (full support, captain)
- Timur "Ahilles" Kulmukhambetov (coach)
In a statement , Virtus.pro Head of Dota 2 department Alexander "StrangeR" Solomonov shared that this new squad is something that was "carefully assembled and tested over the past month." While it doesn't have the big names that fans are familiar with, it opens the next chapter for the team. He added that they're betting on players who are ready to give their 100%, constantly grow and develop, and listen and support each other. He went on to say that the synergy of the roster merged from the very first test games.
Saying Goodbye
The announcement of this new roster comes at the heels of Vitalie "Save-" Melnic who left the team and became a free agent. Then again, it's not that surprising considering he's been put on an inactive status after The International 2021.
Save- joined VP in 2019 before being moved in April 2020 to VP.Prodigy. During his time in this new team, he proved his worth by having a good performance and this moved him to the main roster in November 2020. As part of VP, Save- won seven tournaments and a 5th-6th place finish at TI10.
For those wondering, both Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin and Danil “gpk~” Skutin have been put on the inactive roster.
The Way Forward
It's interesting to see that this new roster combines little-known core players with experienced teammates. Koma’ and Squad1x, for example, have tournament experience but not much in high tiers. It would really be fascinating to see how they perform as part of VP. Fans though don’t have a lot to worry about since the other three are sure to give the necessary support.
What are your thoughts on this new roster?
