Virtus.pro to represent the CIS region at Green Rift Rival

Our League of Legends roster will represent the CIS region at Riot Games’ new tournament, Green Rift Rival. Conceived as a successor to IEM, the international championship will have one of its stages held in Moscow on July 6–9. The Riot Games studio will be the venue.

Green Rift Rival will pit the best LCL and TLC teams against each other. Besides Virtus.pro, our region will also be represented by Vega Squadron, M19, and Vaevictis Esports. SuperMassive eSports, Oyunfor.CREW, 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor, and Team AURORA will be representing Turkey in Moscow.

Ivan “Paranoia” Tipukhov, Virtus.pro captain: “This tournament is unlikely to be a full-fledged replacement for the IEM. At IEM, you could play against the world’s greatest, while at Rift Rivals, you only get competitors who are close to you: in this case, Turkey. The goal we’re setting ourselves as a team is to advance to the finals from the group, and win. What else could it be? We’re not counting on any kind of redemption for the MSI. We had internal problems in the team which we couldn’t solve, and which affected our performance. I don’t intend to offer excuses; yes, we played badly and didn’t advance, it’s as simple as that. It’s a fact. We’ll try to play much better throughout this entire split, and in the tournament. It’s hard to make predictions now, but I think we have every chance to best Turkey.”

Due to the tournament’s specific format, representatives of the same region will not have to play each other in it. First, each team will play a single game against a team from the other region, and then the two best teams from their respective regions will face off in a deciding battle.