Virtus.pro has officially signed the former Avangar Counter-Strike roster, the Russian esports organization announced on Twitter today. The Kazakh-majority lineup climbed up the CS:GO ranks in 2019, making an unlikely run to the StarLadder Berlin Major Grand Final. Virtus.pro is a mainstay organization in Counter-Strike, having fielded teams since the CS 1.6 era.
The former Avangar lineup was completed in June of this year with their signing of PGL Krakow Major champion Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev. Following the former Gambit and FaZe Clan rifler’s addition, Avangar qualified for Season 32 of ESEA MDL and reached the semi-finals of the CIS Esports Pro Championship.
Their previous group stage appearance at the IEM Katowice Major earned them a spot in the StarLadder Berlin Major’s Main Qualifier. Wins over Complexity, HellRaisers, and Syman Gaming earned Avangar a spot in the group stage. There, unexpected wins over Team Liquid and G2 Esports propelled the CIS squad to the play-offs. Avangar raced through the knockout stage with wins over ENCE and Renegades, meeting Astralis in the Grand Final. Their unprecedented run came to an uneventful end as they fell 0-2 to the Danish CS:GO powerhouse in the Final.
Avangar followed up their Major performance with a Grand Final victory at BLAST Pro Series Moscow, defeating Natus Vincere, ENCE, and ForZe on their way to the trophy. More recent results for the lineup include a semi-final finish at DreamHack Open Rotterdam and a win at the WESG Central Asia Finals.
Virtus.pro now pick up the roster ahead of their EPICENTER 2019 appearance. Virtus.pro has been a prominent name in Counter-Strike, most notably fielding the legendary Polish roster that won the EMS Katowice 2014 Major. Recruited in 2014, the Polish squad took victories at Gfinity 3, the StarLadder i-League 2016 Invitational, Eleague Season 1, and DreamHack Open Bucharest, among others. Under the Virtus.pro name, they made the play-offs at ten straight CS:GO Majors, reaching the Grand Final of two. The team began to separate in 2018, leaving Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski as the only remaining member in 2019. Recent results for Virtus.pro include semi-final finishes at DreamHack Open Atlanta and cs_summit 5.
This signing marks a return to CIS Counter-Strike for Virtus.pro. This will be AdreN’s second tenure under the organization’s banner, having played for them in 2013. The roster will debut as Virtus.pro later this week at EPICENTER 2019 in Moscow, Russia.
