This week saw the news break that Virtus.pro have made another attempt to resuscitate their all-Polish lineup, by kicking TOAO and making Snax in-game leader again. With the historical context in mind this is a classic case of repeating the same actions and hoping for different results, the layman’s definition of madness, and what makes it harder to fathom is the sheer resources VP have available, which are enough to fund a top tier team.
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CIS/EU is also one of the most productive regions for young talent and, with the Polish scene so utterly devoid of top-level performers, the time has to be right to make a move. Even if you exclude Na’Vi players, who would be prohibitively expensive, there is a lot of talent to pick from, as you can see from our ‘Dream VP’.
ANGE1 (IGL)
Every great team needs a great leader, unless you have s1mple, and we are assuming for this team that s1mple will stick to his gold and black handcuffs for a little while longer at least. If you don’t have the god, then you need someone to call the shots, and there is still a prevailing thought that ANGE1 is the best IGL working in the CIS region. Getting him out of Hell…Raisers won’t be easy, but with VP money anything is possible, and this team could do with an angel on their shoulders.
Poizon
Over the past six months, HLTV make Poizon the fifth-best player by rating, at 1.21, level with a dude from Denmark called dev1ce, and we already know what you’re going to say next. Sure, Windigo don’t play all their matches against tier one teams, but that didn’t stop them from winning WESG, where the likes of MIBR, G2 and Fnatic were all in attendance. His position in CIS is obviously sketchy, but he’s available at the right price, and way too good to overlook.
N0rb3r7
Even with the numbers, this might be our favourite name in CSGO right now, but that’s not what he’s in the team for. The man know to his mother as Давид Даниелян, and to the rest of us as n0rb3r7 has burst onto the scene as part of the Winstrike team, and seems ready to make the step up to the next level. At just 18 years of age he has all the potential to become a tier one talent, and improving should be pretty simple with the likes of Adren and ANGE1 to learn from.
AdreN
The AdreN you see at FaZe is not the real AdreN, and that should make fans of CSGO a bit sad. You can see his confidence in the system under NiKo doesn’t really exist, and rightly so, but moving him into a new setup and reuniting him with Hobbit could fix all of that. He is also an experienced mid-round caller and understands support roles, which every team needs, and we know he won’t crack under the pressure after his Major victory. Capable of big plays too, Adren is extremely underrated, and begging to be rescued from the FaZe dumpster fire.
Jame
For a long time, people have known the AVANGAR have a star, and that star is named Jame. Like his famous namesake from the Lecter books, Jame is a formidable and dangerous man, albeit on virtual maps rather than in works of literary fiction, and it’s time for him to rise to the next level. So far his development has been slow, but steady, and this could be the move he needs to play with the best of CIS, and prove he can hang with them.
Alternatively...
These are far from the only options, of course, and the players not in this list show you how much VP could gain by just dropping the Polish thing. The chance to rescue Hobbit from HellRaisers should be pricking many ears, and the likes of qikert, rallen, SHiPZ and a few other relative newcomers have made waves in the last few months. You also have suNny in free agency, the continuing saga of FaZe and even a potential collapse at Na’Vi, so there are few excuses for this Polish nightmare, unless the org just doesn’t want to spend anymore.
There you have it then, a CIS superteam assembled for less than the cost of one s1mple, probably, and Virtus.pro become a better team overnight. It would be amazing to see an all-Polish team in VP colours and flying high, but their commitment to the ‘golden five’ has ironically meant that the scene has no viable replacements, so it’s be crap or change, essentially. How likely it is to happen is anyone’s guess, but if you want VP back, you should want to see the back of Snax and co by now.
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Pictures: Starladder, Windigo Gaming, AdreN, Jestpic.
