Virtus.pro (VP) has announced that their secondary squad, VP.Prodigy, will be competing with Danil “gpk” Skutin and Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk as stand-ins for the upcoming third season of the OGA Dota PIT online EU/CIS league.

Gpk is still formally the midlaner of Gambit Esports, though his team notably loaned him to Evil Geniuses (EG) for the duration of the OMEGA League European Immortal Division last month. He is notably one of the most promising young players to come out of the CIS Dota 2 scene, being one of four players in the exclusive 11,000 MMR club alongside his now-teammate Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko.

This roster move also sees the return of Lil to the VP organization after he was traded to Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) in February 2018. He will be taking over the position 4 support role from VP.Prodigy captain Vitaly “Save-” Melnik, who will shift to position 5.

Gpk and Lil will replace Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi and Albert “eine” Garaev in the active roster, though the latter two will remain part of the team.

VP CEO Sergey Glamazda explained said in a post on the official VP website that the move comes after VP.Prodigy came to a point “where it’s crucial to make changes in order to reach new heights.”

“For this upcoming tournament, we decided to switch things up not only by replacing two of our players for individuals as much talented, but also by letting our team captain Vitaly play the full support role. We are grateful to Danil for his willingness to play for us in OGA Dota PIT S3 and to Gambit Esports for their cooperation. We also highly appreciate Ilya’s agreement to temporarily come back under The Bear’s tag,” said Glamazda.

VP announced the formation of VP.Prodigy as a secondary, developmental squad back in April with the intention of allowing “young players to attain professional scene experience and knowledge without the enormous pressure of instant result expectations.”

Glamazda noted back then that they acquired players to develop in VP.Prodigy that “might join the main roster later — or even replace it completely in the long run.”

With the CIS Dota 2 scene now in the midst of a major roster shuffle, there have been reports coming out from the region that VP.Prodigy may indeed take over as the main VP roster.

With that said, Glamazda noted that the VP organization is “setting the highest goals” for their secondary squad as they compete against the best teams from Europe and the CIS in Dota PIT Season 3, which will run from September 23-26.

Virtus.pro Prodigy Dota 2 roster:

  1. Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko
  2. Danil “gpk” Skutin
  3. Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin
  4. Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk
  5. Vitaly “Save-” Melnik

READ MORE: Major CIS roster shuffle may see Ramzes return to VP