Denis 'diNGo' Kolomenskiy has departed from Virtus.Pro leaving the team needing a 5th member for the Arbalet Cup qualifier which began today and the upcoming WCG next week. As a replacement Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner will stand-in for the team he once played for at the Arbalet Cup qualifier, Arbalet Cup (should they qualify) and the WCG Grand Finals in Chengdu. groove told HLTV.org Virtus will be announcing a new player in mid-December.

diNGo was added to Virtus.Pro in late December from EYEsports. Before that he had played with Begrip.ru and Islanders, playing alongside current Virtus.Pro member hooch in the latter.

groove was a member of the old Virtus.Pro lineup which famously beat SK.swe on its way to a 3rd place at ESWC 2004. Better known as Konstantin P, according to the old Virtus naming scheme, back then his only wavering moment with the team was a three day period in April 2005 when he left to become the captian of Begrip.ru only to return. In 2006 groove moved to the position of coach when Virtus brought in the talents of HEL1 but filled in for the team at the WCG when LeX was unable to participate due to passport problems. At the event Virtus was eliminated in the first round of single elimination by Mouz.

Since then groove has filled in for Extreme Masters matches for Virtus.Pro when required and also helped out Kazakhstan's k23 via the role of coach.

Virtus.Pro's recent form has seen them win an Arbalet Cup in October, fail to get out of Group B at the Global Challenge Dubai and finish 3rd at the LCI SuperCup last week.

Source: HLTV.org
(Photograph copyright of HLTV.org)