After failing to qualify for the BLAST Paris Major, the final Valve-sponsored competition before Counter-Strike 2’s first Major in 2024, Virtus Pro will no longer compete in the upcoming $250,000 CS:GO event IEM Rio. No one can blame them for making this choice after the failure that was the Europe RMR. The players will concentrate on practising, the organisation said today, rather than travelling to Brazil and maybe insulting their supporters one more.
“We believe that in the current shape, participation in the tournament [IEM Rio] will not bring satisfaction to either the team or the fans,” VP said in an official announcement. “Therefore, we are committing to enhanced training.”
On top of not making the Paris Major as the current reigning champions, VP also came under heavy criticism for one choice they made during the Europe RMR A. The organization flew backup player David “n0rb3r7” Daniyelyan to Copenhagen, Denmark last minute to replace Aleksandr “KaiR0N-” Anashkin, the youngest player on the team, in the decisive series against MOUZ. Kair0N- was the one who replaced n0rb3r7 in the first place back in January because the team wanted a more aggressive rifler.
It’s unclear whether VP will play with Kair0N- moving forward or if n0rb3r7 will make his way back into the active lineup definitively. The CIS team have been going through a rough patch ever since they won the IEM Rio Major in November 2022 as they’ve failed to make a deep run in all their following tournaments.
IEM Rio will be played from April 17 to 23 and is the last tier-one tournament before the BLAST Paris Major in May. ESL will announce VP’s replacement “as soon as possible.” Heroic, Natus Vincere, Cloud9, and FaZe Clan are some of the teams set to attend the Brazilian event.
Update April 13 12:30pm CT: ESL decided FalleN’s Imperial will take VP’s spot at IEM Rio. The Brazilian team was the next team in line from South America.