Virtus.pro (VP) has announced that its main Dota 2 roster has been rendered inactive and will no longer be competing in the upcoming ESL One Germany online EU/CIS league.

VP’s decision to bench its main roster comes as a result of their lackluster showings throughout the 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season and the ensuing shift to online competitions after its suspension.

While the main VP roster has performed well in events with teams solely from the CIS, they have repeatedly faltered against stronger competition from European squads.

The team most recently finished in 7th-8th place in last month’s OMEGA League European Immortal Division, which followed a 5th-6th place finish in BEYOND EPIC: EU/CIS in June and a 4th place finish in Season 2 of the OGA Dota PIT online EU/CIS league in May.

Perhaps most telling of the main VP roster’s fall from grace is their 0-3 loss to the secondary VP squad, VP.Prodigy, in the grand finals of Epic Prime League Season 1 back in mid-May.

“The team has not been performing as expected in the recent months. The management, the players, and our fans can agree on that. Now is the time to put things on pause and make important decisions on the roster’s future,” said VP.

While VP’s decision on its main roster remains to be seen, they are not the only major CIS team to render its squad inactive following disappointing results this season. Natus Vincere also benched its previous roster last week in order to acquire the roster of FlyToMoon on trial as their new squad.

With the CIS Dota scene currently undergoing a major roster shuffle, there have been reports that VP’s former star carry player Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev may return to the organization to help its main roster bounce back from its slump.

However, it now seems more likely that another report saying that the roster of VP.Prodigy will soon be taking over as the organization’s main squad will end up being true.

After a disappointing 9th-12th place finish in The International 2019 (TI9), Ramzes was one of the three players to leave VP in the ensuing roster shuffle to play in North America with Evil Geniuses.

With only longtime members Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko and Alexey “Solo” Berezin remaining from its TI9 roster, VP added Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok and signed young pubstars Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko and Vitalie “Save-” Melnic to reinvigorate the team.

Following a disappointing 13th-16th place finish at DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major — after which Solo notably said it was time for the team “to seriously rethink everything” — VP added Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov then benched epileptick1d and Save in February to facilitate the formation of VP.Prodigy in early April.

Despite all of VP’s attempts to revamp and optimize its main roster this season, they have fallen far short of their success from the previous one, where they won one Major and placed in the Top 3 in three others.

Virtus.pro Dota 2 roster (now inactive):

Igor “iLTW” Filatov
Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko
Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok
Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov
Alexey “Solo” Berezin

Virtus.pro has benched its main Dota 2 roster