The Russian Organization plan on introducing two new players which will replace the duo of Timur “buster” Tulepov and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis on the starting five.
Virtus.pro have benched Buster and YEKINDAR, the Dzhami “Jame” Ali lead squad announced today on their Twitter handle and doing so will make them the first team to make changes post a Major tournament. Virtus.pro had played out the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 under the banner of “Outsiders” due to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict which had several tournament organizers banish Russian organizations from participating at CS:GO tournaments and others.
This announcement comes with no surprise as YEKINDAR had previously told sportacentars.com about the team’s inability to travel and compete at tournaments under the banner due to the above-mentioned political tensions between the two CIS countries.
“If there are any regulations or restrictions regarding the arrival of my teammate from Russia to the tournaments, visa, or rules from the organizers themselves, then it is very likely that there will be some changes. Well, most likely there will be. All I can do is wait and see how things unfold, the future is uncertain,” the 22-year-old Latvian had told sportacentars.com, just two days before the BLAST’s decision to not invite Russia-based teams such as Virtus.pro and ex-Gambit (now Cloud9) to their competitions. Although ex-Gambit was acquired by Cloud9 just before the PGL Antwerp Major 2022, the Virtus.pro core now looks ahead towards the betterment of things with respect to their homeland.
With YEKINDAR being a European resident, among all the players on Virtus.pro, the Latvian was under an impending pressure due to an estranged thought process of the Latvians in the wake of the Russian invasion while Buster’s benching clearly frames out the fact that Virtus.pro are indeed looking for a new direction in Counter Strike in a bid to get back to their winning ways.
Virtus.pro crashed out of the Group Stage of the recently concluded PGL Antwerp Major 2022 following an unsatisfactory finish at the ESL Pro League Season 15.
In a Tweet, Virtus.pro did state that the team will soon introduce their new duo who will replace these exiting players.
Until a further announcement, Virtus.pro have:
- Aleksei “Qikert” Golubev
- Dzhami “Jame” Ali
- Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev
- Dastan “dastan” Aqbaev (Head Coach)
