It’s the calm before the storm, which in this case, is the upcoming major. But with over 3 weeks of nothingness for us DOTA2 fans, we have to thank the non-DPC organizers for keeping us occupied with their own tournaments. And let’s just say it’s just as big as a minor in terms of prize pool while as interesting as ESL One tournaments due to the teams that are invited to play in it.

Besides, Team Secret, Nigma, and Dendi’s B8, the one team that we should be looking forward is the former Major Kings, Virtus.pro. However, recently, Virtus.pro has been infamously known as the poacher in CIS region. If you didn’t know, Virtus.pro picked up 2 players (3 supposedly) but in the process, indirectly disrupted the other competitors in CIS region. Starting off with Zayac, the player was formerly playing for Navi, who had recently been playing really well in the last major, securing top seed in its groups. However, Zayac left for Virtus.pro. This caused some issues between Navi and Virtus.pro as Navi accused Virtus.pro of poaching players through loopholes in player contracts. Many prominent figures have said some words regarding this, for instance, former Virtus.pro player, RAMZES666, even commented “you would be stupid if you didn’t accept the offer to play for Virtus.pro”, implying that it was a matter of a better career for anyone who gets an offer from Virtus.pro to play for them.

Anyways, the other player who wasn’t too successful in trying to get into Virtus.pro is gpk from Gambit Esports. Gambit Esports managed to “protect” its player from leaving the team, probably had a better contract terms and conditions. However, it still caused chaos and distrust among the Gambit players, where gpk refuses to play for Gambit anymore. Thus, instead of letting him go, Gambit decides to just bench him instead, so everyone loses in this trade. Let’s not forget about epileptick1d, the hard carry who is replaced by Cooman. While Virtus.pro stated that both epileptick1d and Save- will remain on the roster, it’s only a matter of time before we know whether if they will be staying, which is most likely after the major, depending on Virtus.pro’s performance.

Dramas aside, one thing’s certain is that Virtus.pro features a new roster entering the Los Angeles major. While they did do well enough to secure a ticket to the major, it is still a mystery on how good can VP hold up against the likes of tier-1 teams such as Team Secret, Ninjas in Pyjamas and of course, Nigma. However, we will be able to see first-hand how they go up against Lil’s stack, Aggressive Mode tomorrow. Stay tuned.