History of Virtus Pro
The Esports organization ??Virtus Pro was founded by Irina "Runcha" Semenova in 2003. Until 2007, the organization had a team only for Counter-Strike 1.6, but in 2007, the first DotA Allstars roster was opened during the expansion. In the 2000s, Esports developed by much smaller steps, which allowed ??Virtus Pro to take a two-year break in 2009, disbanding rosters in all disciplines.
The second life for ??Virtus Pro began in 2011, with a change in leadership. Irina "Runcha" Semyonova handed over the club's management to Anton "Sneg1" Cherepennikov, and already in 2012, it was decided to create the first Dota 2 roster. The main reason for this was the annual tournament The International, which excited the entire industry. Right before the qualifiers for The International 2012, a team was announced and included: Kuro "KuroKy" Takhasomi, Roman "Scandal" Sadotenkov, Vladislav "blowyourbrain" Morozyuk, Alexander "Santa" Koltan, and Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsov. But the team faced a total failure there - it managed to take only 6th place in the qualifiers.
This unsuccessful performance forced the management to change a large part of the team. Thus, Kuro "KuroKy" Takhasomi, Roman "Scandal" Sadotenkov, and Vladislav "blowyourbrain" Morozyuk immediately moved to other teams. They were replaced by Sergey "KSi" Kuzin, Oleg "Crazy" Kolesnichenko, and Ilya "Illidan" Pivcaev. But the changes didn't end, and already at the beginning of 2013, Alexander "Santa" Koltan was replaced by Sergey "ARS-ART" Revin.
??Virtus Pro received a direct invitation to participate in The International 2013. But the team performed very badly, finishing in the last place. After that, a period of reshuffling began in the team. Before The International 2014, almost all the players of the team changed several times. The final version, which took part in the qualifiers for The International 2014, was: Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsov, Egor "JotM" Surkov, Ilya "Illidan" Pivcaev, Sergey "G" Bragin, and Sergey "ARS-ART" Revin.
The team took second place in the qualifiers for The International 2014. It meant that they had to play in the wild-card stage, where 4 teams had to compete for the last ticket to the main tournament. But the defeat to MVP Phoenix in the first round knocked the team out of the tournament.
Before the start of the next season, ??Virtus Pro announced big changes:
First, it was the creation of the second Dota 2 roster - VP.Polar. It included NVMI players: Ilya "Illidan" Pivcaev, Roman "Scandal" Sadotenkov, Alexander "DkPhobos" Kucheria, Ilya "Lil" Ilyuk, and Artur "Goblak" Kostenko.
The second change is the main team reshuffles. The ??Virtus Pro roster included Stanislav "Bzz" Glushan, Sergey "G" Bragin, Vadim "Sedoy" Musorin, Vladimir "yol" Basov, and Egor "JotM" Surkov.
Over the next few months, the ??Virtus Pro roster performed worse than the VP. Polar's one. On March 11, 2015, the entire ??Virtus Pro roster was disbanded, and VP.Polar players changed their tag to ??Virtus Pro. But one change occurred in the team: instead of Artur "Goblak" Kostenko, Artsiom "fng" Barshak joined the team. This roster brought the club its first huge success at The International, finishing in 5th-6th place and earning $1,197,925.
Despite the excellent result, the team had some reshuffles. Before the qualifiers for The International 2016, in the team were: Artsiom "fng" Barshak, Ilya "ALOHADANCE" Korobkin, Sergey "G" Bragin, Maxim "yoky-" Kim, and Alexander "Nofear" Churochkin. But with it, ??Virtus Pro couldn't even qualify. This result forced the management to disband the team immediately.
In August 2016, ??Virtus Pro introduced a completely new roster. It included Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev, Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko, Pavel "9pasha" Khvastunov, and Ilya "Lil" Ilyuk. Alexey "Solo" Berezin assembled this roster.
With the signing of the new roster, the golden era of ??Virtus Pro began: victory at The Bucharest Major and The Kuala Lumpur Major, second place at The Kiev Major 2017, 5-6 place at The International 2017, victory at ESL One Hamburg 2017, and a series of victories in smaller tournaments. Despite the strong roster and good results, in February 2018, the team decided to make a replacement, and instead of Ilya "Lil" Ilyuk, Vladimir "RodjER" Nikogosyan joined the team. After that, the team won two Majors - The Bucharest Major and The Kuala Lumpur Major and finished 5th-6th at The International 2018.
At the beginning of 2019, the team was one of the main favorites of any tournament. Unfortunately, ??Virtus Pro lost its game style. The average results in tournaments, as well as the 9-12 place at The International 2019, forced to make severe changes in the roster, after which only Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko and Alexey "Solo" Berezin remained. The newcomers were Zaur "Cooman" Shakhmurzaev, Egor "epileptick1d" Grigorenko, and Vitalie "Save-" Melnic. But they couldn't show the proper result, and the next changes took place already at the beginning of 2020. All newcomers were replaced by Igor "iLTW" Filatov, Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok, and Bakyt "Zayac" Emilzhanov.