Virtus.pro officially announced that Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko and Vitaly “Save-” Melnik have been moved to inactive roles as CEO Sergey Glamazda further addressed internal issues.
Nightfall and Save-, founding members of Virtus.Prodigy before the roster was elevated to the organization’s main Dota 2 roster, were put on notice earlier this month when Virtus.pro announced on social media that their spots were open for tryouts amid internal differences in playing philosophy.
One of those spots will now be filled by Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko, a young prospect from Russia.
“Not everyone in the team was on the same page,” Glamazda said in Wednesday’s announcement. “Some players believed that we could not work out our issues and succeed in the current roster. Egor and Vitaly are highly skilled players and natural leaders.
“We’ve had our ups and downs in the last two years and I want to say thank you to the guys for this amazing journey we had together. Our goal remains the same: winning The International. It can’t be done without constantly improving things and becoming a better team than we were a year before.
“We can’t put personal goals before professional ones.”
Glamazda said the moves with Nightfall and Save- were “mutual,” and acknowledged that Pure was not the team’s first choice to fill one of the two spots.
“Ivan wasn’t our first option,” he said. “His position in the European leaderboard wasn’t that high as he just moved to Moscow from Vladivostok where he used to play on the SEA servers. But when it came to the test games, he quickly made it obvious that his abilities, reaction, hero pool and communication skills are something worth noticing.
“He has huge potential, which, if put to good use, can help him grow into a tier-1 player.”
Pure’s biggest achievement to date was ranking ninth on the EU leaderboard. He now joins Danil “gpk~” Skutin, Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, Illias “Kingslayer” Ganeev and coach Anatoly “boolk” Ivanov on the current Virtus.pro roster.
“I’m delighted to have a chance to play for Virtus.pro,” Pure said. “The guys here are highly skilled and easygoing. All players are good at what they do, our games are really fun to play. We are about to meet in person at the bootcamp and start training to show our best in the upcoming DPC season.”
Virtus.pro finished fifth at The International 10, its highest finish in the event’s current iteration.
–Field Level Media
