In the past ASUS Winter Cup (23-24 February ult.) Virtus.pro suffered a sudden, unexpected early defeat at the hands of its)our(time, a Russian team previously unknown to the international audience. Virtus.pro had reached the final in the foregoing three editions, when only the recently disbanded team sP[Palit] was able to actually play evenly with them.

Afterwards, Virtus.pro forfeited all the tournaments they were taking part in and refrained from commenting what was happening, even though there was obviously something wrong with the team. Virtus.pro had also won three MYM Prime Defending back to back, a streak so impressive that at the start of the past, ninth edition, even the players had ironically started naming the tournament "VP Title Defending". But right when Virtus.pro could have reached their fourth grand final, the aforementioned internal issues appeared and they forfeited the consolation final to WolkeR-Gaming.

Shortly after, Sergio "ARS-ART" Revin joined SK Gaming while rumors on Tokaev "Sahka" Alexander's retirement were spreading. The roster of Virtus.pro was henceforth down to four players.

Three weeks since then, Virtus.pro officially announces their comeback with a reworked roster. In the announcement posted at ProDota.ru (translated to English by DotA-Allstars.com), team manager Pikiner "Groove" Konstantine states that "further successful development of our team was impossible due to some internal reasons, and we decided to change the roster." We therefore see the former Begrip players Dimitri "LighTofHeaveN" Kuprianov and Vladyslav "blowyourbrain" Morozuk joining up while Igor "Admiration" Khalnish is also being removed.

"At Virtus.pro there was an excellent period in the summer," comments Vasiliy "JoliE" Pepelyaev, captain of the team. "Some problems have begun with autumn, which as a result have poured out in defeats on autumn ASUS, Clanbase and MAI cup. Gradually VP lost the former motivation and teamwork. So our defeats on 9-th tournament from MYM and on winter ASUS are quite logical. Having invited blowyourbrain and LightOfHeaven we at last have created a professional command in which we can train on a regular basis."

Begrip formed after the collapse of sP[Palit] to compete in the ASUS Winter Cup in question - which they won. Kuprianov (in the picture) has always been one of the most celebrated DotA players, especially famous to the most for his fearful Silencer. Being both him and Morozuk also viable members of the Russian national team, their contribution to the new Virtus.pro is without a doubt immense.

"Virtus.DotA changes its direction", continues Pepelyaev, "you won't see old VP in action. I would like to say a big thank you to Admir and ARS-ART for outstanding games which were very popular among fans.

"Light and blow are our new players - I'm sure with them Virtus.DotA will step on a higher level."

Source: ProDota.ru via Dota-Allstars Forums.