Cover-Credits:
Virtus.pro earned a commendable top six finish at The International 10 (TI10), and while from an outside perspective this was a fantastic result, the players on the team had a difficult time following the tournament as internal and in-game issues were reported. As a result, Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko and Vitalie "Save-" Melnic departed from the active squad. The organization's CEO, Sergey "Fly1eaf" Glamazda, explained the reasoning for the players' departure in a recent video interview. As Fly1eaf revealed, both Nightfall and Save- have devoted their lives to Dota 2, so their sole motivation is to win, and they simply follow the best path towards their goal.
Virtus.pro CEO talks about Nightfall and Save-’s decision to leave Virtus.pro
As the roster shuffle post-TI10 unfolded, Virtus.pro was not expected to undergo any roster changes considering the year it had had. The team parted ways, however, with Nightfall and Save-. Both the players were not only important individually, but their opinions were also important in the team’s decision-making and drafting.
In an interview between Fly1eaf and the team's offlaner Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin last week, the former did not go into much detail about the internal and in-game problems that led to both players' departure but revealed much insight into the views of Nightfall and Save-. Fly1eaf explained the intense desire to win that drives Nightfall and Save-, mentioning that their only business is to take the right opportunity that will help them reach their goals. He clarified that there was nothing wrong with their decision and that they respected the two players.
“Guys, if we're talking about Egor and Save-, (they) have a pretty simple philosophy. They give their whole life to the game. For them the only goal of playing Dota is to win. So their logic and philosophy are as follows: "I want to play on the team that will get me closer to the goal of winning." Here it's not a matter of just sitting around, playing somehow, winning something. The only goal here is to win. If they see that opportunity on some other team, they choose that path. There's nothing wrong with it, it's their personal decision as to how much they sacrifice for the game. So there's only support from us, we respect the guys, we've come a long way with them.”
This TI10 Virtus.pro squad, when it first came together in late 2020, was a force to be reckoned with. It battled some of the best teams in the world and even exceeded a good number of them. In 2021, though the performances in the two Majors did not look great, the team overall was one of the best with strong performances in the leagues and at TI10.
So far in the DPC 2021-22, neither Virtus.pro nor Nightfall's Evil Geniuses squad has shown the best results. Nightfall has also switched to the position three role for Evil Geniuses. As for Save-, he's on Virtus.pro's inactive roster and has been streaming quite a bit lately.
[Transcriptions via cybersport.ru, Translations via DeepL Translate]
Subscribe to our business newsletter
Get a weekly recap of all the latest developments in the global esports industry with our esports business insights newsletter: AFK Weekly
Subscribe for free to receive insights, analysis and opinions on the biggest developments in esports business, provided by our team of experienced journalists in collaboration with thought leaders across the industry.
