"We can win more than just Summits" Virtus.pro's path to the Major trophy
Virtus.pro's Dota 2 line-up has traversed a difficult path before winning their first Major and entering the stage with the ESL One Hamburg 2017 champions' cup. Let us turn our eyes to the past and reminisce the most crucial tournaments of the previous season together with the team.
The roster's formation
The history of the new Virtus.pro G2A's roster began from a disappointing result of the previous line-up on The International 2016. On the 4 of August of 2016, VP introduced the players for the new season:
- Alexei "Solo" Berezin
- Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev
- Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko
- Pavel "9pasha" Khvastunov
- Ilya "Lil" Ilyuk
The new line-up was formed around one of the most experienced CIS players - Alexei "Solo" Berezin. Alexei's first task was to form the roster. The immediate results instantly confirmed the flawlessness of Solo's choice.
Alexei "Solo" Berezin: “I had around two months to build a team from scratch after The International's qualifiers. Initially, I left Vega Squadron together with No[o]ne, I see a great potential in him and consider him to be the best player for his role. He also highly regarded my abilities, so we decided to stick together.
Lil is the best CIS player on the fourth position. We weren't really familiar with each other, so we could make the decision only based on his in-game qualities. RAMZES666 also has proven himself as a high-level player despite his young age. I gathered feedback from those who played with the guys earlier. Right now Ramzes reminds me of myself when I was at his age.
The notion that a person can't be mature at 16-17 is a huge misconception. Roman carries out the majority of the tasks; he drafts for our team. We discuss it together, but his vote is the deciding one for all the important decisions.
We have played together with 9pasha earlier in our careers. Despite us parting ways, we didn't lose our friendship. When there were already four of us, I decided that Pasha would be the fifth. I believed him – and, as it turned out, it wasn't for naught.
The Boston Major 2016 (5-8th place)
The Boston Major became the first serious stepping stone for the team. Virtus.pro advanced there via the European qualifiers. For the first time in a while Virtus.pro G2A arrived at the tournament as the favorites, as confirmed by both bookmakers and analysts.
VP ended up in the group B with Newbee, Team NP and MVP Phoenix and claimed the first place by defeating NP (2:0) and Newbee (2:0). Even if The Summit 6 victory didn't impress the gaming community, such a quick advance to the play-offs made everyone change their opinions on our team.
Vitalii "v1lat" Volochai: "I saw a light of hope. This light of hope has already turned to the whole beam of energy today. They have the game! When other teams try to find something somewhere, Virtus.pro just see the goal and don't see the obstacles. They remind me of Na'Vi's 2011 Golden Age.”
Virtus.pro overcame iG Vitality in the first round of play-offs, but their advance was halted by Evil Geniuses. The match for the semifinals was characterized by an equal struggle only in the second game as the first map was closed out in 19 minutes.
The Boston Major 2016's results for Virtus.pro – 5-8 place and $125.000 of prize money.
The Kiev Major 2017 (2nd place)
The spring brought us the first Major on CIS territory – The Kiev Major 2017. Virtus.pro G2A didn't receive the direct invite, but managed to pass the homeland's qualifiers in a convincing fashion. The CIS-qualifier deserves a separate highlight: VP finished the groups 9:0 and proceeded to obliterate all their opponents in the play-offs before finally defeating Natus Vincere in the finals.
Unlike Boston, analysts didn't believe in Virtus.pro's success this time around, but the team proved them wrong. Ivan “ArtStyle” Antonov in a role of a head-coach made quite an impact on VP's performance in comparison to the previous Major.
Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk: “Boston taught us to sometimes ignore what people say about you and what labels they project onto you, what hopes are laid on you etc. I and our team don't care about what analysts say and what place the comments predict for us. When you get on the stage, you must not think about anything. Especially about what other people say. You just go and play for the sake of playing.”
The group stage of the tournament was played by the Swiss system. Guys from Virtus.pro played three matches in two days and advanced to play-offs without dropping a single match. The exit from the groups was ensured by the victories against Team Faceless, Team Random and TNC Pro Team. The match against Team Random (ex-Wings Gaming) – the reigning The International champions – turned out to be the most intense one. The Chinese tied the score before finally getting taken down in the decisive match – 2:1.
VP challenged iG Vitality in the first round of play-offs. Two fast-paced games left no chance the opponents (2:0). The quarterfinals also went great: despite the unsuccessful start against Vici Gaming Jeremy, VP brought the match to victory – 2:1.
Virtus.pro G2A battled Invictus Gaming for the right to advance to the finals. Both games were executed in a cold and calculated fashion by VP, gradually closing out the lead by pinching the opponents inside their base. Two convincing victories advanced VP to the grand-finals of The Kiev Major 2017.
The match for the champions' title between Virtus.pro and OG heated the arena to the max – the viewers were indulged with a great and tenacious performance from both teams.
For the first time in a long history of Majors the grand-finals went for the whole five games. OG out-edged VP on the deciding map after exchanging victories twice.
The Russian broadcast of The Kiev Major 2017's grand-finals was record-breaking: the last map was being spectated by more than 397 thousands of viewers.
Virtus.pro G2A claimed the second place on The Kiev Major 2017 and won $500.000, and also nearly guaranteed an invite to the year's most important championship – The International 2017.
The International 2017 (5-6th place)
VP were one of the first to receive the invite to The International 2017 in July. The team was once again ranked as favorites of the tournament, but the first place in analyst's predictions was taken by Evil Geniuses.
The trip to Seattle was initially one of the new season's goalposts for the roster. A successful performance on a couple of tournaments after The Kiev Major 2017 allowed VP not only to receive a direct invite but also prepare to the TI7.
Alexei “Solo” Berezin: Ever since Dota 2 came out, my goal was to win a world championship held by Valve, the game’s creator. Winning a Valve tournament is what all Dota players strive for. I want to prove to myself I haven’t wasted 12 or 13 years of my life playing Dota. And I won’t lie, a 22-million-dollar prize pool means you can support yourself for years if you invest the money well. This isn’t the primary goal, of course, but it is a rather pleasant bonus."
Virtus.pro advanced to the upper tournament standing with a score of 10:6. 8 opponents in the group and a best-of-2 match format became a serious challenge for the team.
LGD Gaming were the first opponents of VP.G2A, having previously claimed second place in their group. Virtus.pro played two maps in their usual playstyle and secured a spot in the semifinals. It's worth to note that both games took no longer than 25 minutes.
Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk: “As a Virtus.pro G2A player, I can say that all Chinese teams perform quite simply and banally. Beating them isn't that hard."
The right to advance to the upper bracket finals was decided between LGD.Forever Young and VP. The game was started with Virtus.pro's 26-minute loss, which slightly resembled the match against Evil Geniuses in Boston. All forces were concentrated on the map number two, but ultimately, the CIS team was taken down after a 56-minute long game (0:2).
Virtus.pro G2A met Team Liquid – the future Aegis holders – in the lower bracket. Best-of-3 series was started by a record-breaking 103 minutes long game. VP tied the score on the second map, but succumbed in the deciding game - 1:2.
The team lost the tournament, ending the run with the 5-6 place, $1,111 Million and one of the most dramatic matches in the history of The Internationals.
Ilya "Illidan" Pivcaev, a former player of Virtus.pro: "In these moments you regret not watching it live in the arena. It was the most epic map in the entire history of The International. Let's see, maybe the entire series will turn out like this.”
The players and the management assured the fans that there'll be no disbanding after the end of the tournament. The team went for a short break and then started preparing for the new season.
Roman Dvoryankin: "It may be a tough pill to swallow, but as for today, the 5-6 place is a deserved result for us. We may show a champion-level performance in a single particular game, but the results over the marathon distance of the tournament are quite predictable. In a year of playing together, the guys won two tournaments, reached Major's finals and repeated Virtus.pro's best results by earning the biggest prize money in the history of the organization, in a particular tournament and in a year."
ESL One Hamburg 2017 (1st place)
Virtus.pro G2A yet again didn't get the direct invite to the new season's first Major. Once again, that had to walk a path from the CIS qualifiers, which VP did without breaking a sweat: three consecutive victories against Effect, Natus Vincere and Team Spirit. Only Na'Vi managed to take a single map from Virtus.pro.
Ivan “ArtStyle” Antonov: "Who do we want to face at Major? Team Liquid! We want to play another best-of-3 and a 100-minute map against them. Also, we'd like to meet Team Secret, they have a powerful and determined performance. I'd rank them on the same spot as the Chinese, if not higher.”
The first map turned out to be a confident victory for VP (1:0 against the Chinese Keen Gaming). The right to advance to the play-offs was played in a best-of-3 format, and Virtus.pro finally got the desired rematch against Team Liquid.
The first map of the series was taken by VP.G2A in a convincing manner. The second map was a real nail-biter – only slightly less impressive than its TI7 record-breaking counterpart – 59 minutes long. Liquid tied the score (1:1) but only angered the Bears: the CIS team defeated the tournament's main favorites 2:1.
Interestingly, VP were the first to end the TL's LAN winning streak that was started back in the TI7.
The first round of the play-offs started from a victory over Newbee for Virtus.pro. The best-of-3 series was just as spectacular as the group-stage match, spanning over 3 games. The first map was ended as VP's decisive victory as the Chinese's attempt to turtle fell fruitless – 1:0. The second game's series of blunders from the CIS team lead them to their downfall. Virtus.pro learned from their mistakes and confidently took the deciding map (2:1).
Alexei “Solo” Berezin: "NewBee made mistakes and we exploited them. They kind of surprised us on the map number two: we picked 4 Strength heroes and were debating if we should ban Timbersaw. We finally decided that Ursa is more dangerous, but in the end, it was Timbersaw who took us down.
The grand-finals became the VP.G2A's and Team Secret's battlegrounds. Despite their importance, the match was the only one to end up 2:0.
Both games very extremely similar: Virtus.pro with the early game lead pinched their opponents inside their base. The series of successful teamfights after claiming Aegis closed out two late-games in a row in favor of VP.
At the completion of the tournament, the ESL One Hamburg 2017's organizers awarded the cup to Virtus.pro, and announced that Alexei “Solo” Berezin has earned the title of the tournament's MVP. Electronic Sports League organization awarded him a Mercedes-Benz automobile.
The team left Hamburg with a new season's first Major trophy and $500.000 of the winnings pool!
Roman Dvoryankin: "We can win more than just Summits. Guys, you're the best!"