“After 8 hours practice Filip still goes to some deathmatch or aim servers”. Girl who inspires Neo

Asia Marks – about working in Virtus.pro, meeting with Neo and the main clutch in her life.

Hello, my name is Asia, I'm Polish VP editor and I'm taking care of Golden Five Store. My VP story is quite short. I joined VP a couple of months ago and it was a coincidence. I've talked to Roman, the VP general manager. He told me they were looking for someone for the Polish media, for translations and stuff like that. And he said: "Hey, I know someone who is quite related to the e-sports and the media!". As we started talking, he said: "Okay, just send us CV and some materials. We'll see!". This is how it started. 

When I was studying, I got into a female CS 1.6 team. So it was a long time ago, but it became my regular day – practicing with girls, participating in tournaments... So, because of that, e-sports became my world. I got a chance to be host in some tournaments, and, finally, to be the host of the e-sports TV show. 

Polish e-sports community is really strong and powerful. One of the reasons for that is Virtus.pro, because the Polish team is well-known. Also, we have a really good Quake player, who recently joined VP – Av3k. He is also renowned in the e-sports scene. We had StarCraft guys, we had some FIFA tournaments, so everyone was really happy that they could test themselves in e-sports competitions, and we are proud that we have the team that is really good at the worldwide scene.

I've met Filip because of our friends – he just introduced us at some kind of party. Nothing special!

Filip has never even thought about quitting cybesport because he never thinks about any other environment around him. He always just wants to play – and win. I'm watching Filip every day – when he's losing the game, he wants to play even more and more and more. After eight hours of practice, maybe after losing some online games, he still goes to some deathmatch or aim servers just to win some frags. 

I think the frustration exists nowadays that they aren't on such a high level as they used to be. And people, I would say not people, but kids that are coming to this scene, don't know their past and don't have this connection to them. And I can see that there are many people who support VP no matter what because they remember their last ten years or even more – when they were the only ones we could be proud of. They were superheroes, stars, sportsmen... Young kids that started playing CS:GO at most six months ago – they can read some things on the Internet, but they can never feel the things we felt when we stayed up at 3 A.M just to watch VP win some Chinese tournament. We were just exploring this e-sport together with them.

I have to say that I watched, I think, each map from the last eight or nine years. There were plenty of moments where I was crying, where I was happy. But I have one very memorable moment for myself. Last year, when our team was playing in Romania in the DreamHack, I was in the audience – it was one of the first tournaments which I went to with the team. And I was watching Filip clutching 1 against 5. The commentators said it was impossible, and he did it, and I was like: “Wow, this is happening!”. That was the best moment for me. And because all these people that I don't know were so happy for Filip, that he's doing such an amazing stuff – I felt this with all my heart and I think I will remember it forever. 

It's always easier to go up and earn your success than it is to go down and fall to the ground. I think the team has shown us for many years that they're on the highest level. Compared to their fifteen years of history, these eight months are not a long period. People have to understand that they're working very hard, but it's not that easy to switch so much and come back to the highest level. They were doing this for many years. The other teams were changing the players – and this is a short-term option. Show me another team that is staying together no matter what! I think there are some values that are stronger than just winning the game. I reckon that working on problems is the hardest thing you can do – not only in CS but in your work, with your family or your girlfriend. It's not always: "Okay, we can't be together, let's just leave."

And yet, they can solve their problems together. I think this is unique. Of course, it's easy to change someone, but what will be after five months? Six months? VP's strongest point is that they can work together to solve their problems.

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