Vitaly “Save-” Melnik, Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko, two current members of Virtus.pro with Major experience, were joined by Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, Albert “Yume” Garaev as the latter signed long-term contracts with Virtus.pro. Rostislav “FN” Lozovoy will play as a stand-in.
Sergey Glamazda, Virtus.pro General Manager: “The thought of the second lineup came to us back in January, however, only after the Leipzig series had it become more than just an inkling. The idea is fairly simple: the second lineup allows young players to attain professional scene experience and knowledge without the enormous pressure of instant result expectation. The club has acquired players that might join the main roster later – or even replace it completely in the long run.
Choosing the right name was a bit of an adventure for us. From the proven classics like “Young” and “Junior” to some community-related memes, but we have chosen “VP.Prodigy” in the end. Of course, the famous band instantly comes to mind, but we were going for the word’s original meaning in this case: “a young talented person”. I think this name reflects the roster’s nature to the fullest. At the moment, the guys are facing the main goal of attaining the level of play that would allow them to compete to advance to a Major-status series through open or closed qualifiers in 2019/2020 season, or through the league system in 2020/2021 season.”
The new Virtus.pro roster is to debut in StayHome Challenge that will take place from 1st through 12th of April. The team will face B8 on April 2nd at 18:30, Moscow time.