CEVO Series 9: Is Virtus Pro’s time up?
Just a few days ago, the Cevo Gfinity Professional Series 9 tournament kicked off with a lineup of top teams, including Tempo Storm, Dignitas, and SK. Despite being the most experienced team, Virtus Pro (VP) fell short and lost the tournament. This performance raises questions about the future of one of the oldest lineups in Counter Strike.
Virtus Pro’s Recent Offline Performances
Virtus Pro has struggled online recently, but their offline performances have been strong. Let’s take a look at their last two high-tier offline tournaments.
In this tournament, VP had a decent performance. They won against G2 in the group stage but lost to Na’Vi. Despite this, they managed to qualify for the playoffs by defeating G2 in a best-of-three match. However, they were ultimately beaten by Luminosity, who went on to win the major.
Virtus Pro showed promise in this tournament, sailing through the group stages by defeating FaZe and Tempo Storm. They faced NiP in the quarterfinals and lost 2-0. Ultimately, NiP won the entire tournament.
These performances demonstrate Virtus Pro’s competence on LAN. Despite being considered underdogs in the playoffs, the teams that defeated them ended up winning the respective tournaments.
CEVO Series 9: A Shaky Performance
CEVO Series 9 was anticipated to be VP’s tournament to win, especially considering the other teams were mostly up-and-coming squads. However, Virtus Pro struggled at nearly every stage of the tournament.
The Teams:
Out of the seven teams in the tournament, Dignitas was the strongest opposition for VP. Tempo Storm and other teams, such as Selfless, Splyce, OpTic, and HellRaisers, were still relatively new or had fewer offline performances.
Splyce vs Virtus Pro
VP’s first match was against Splyce, a team that had a disappointing performance at MLG Columbus Major. However, Splyce surprised everyone by qualifying for the major and even taking a map from VP. Although VP managed to win the series 2-1, it was a closer match than expected.
VP vs Hellraisers
In their second match, VP faced the newly formed HellRaisers. Despite HellRaisers showing strength and VP struggling with inconsistency, it was surprising when HellRaisers 2-0’d VP, leading them to the relegation match.
OpTic vs VP
Despite their poor performance against HellRaisers, VP managed to dominate OpTic and win the match easily.
Tempo Storm vs Virtus Pro
In the semi-finals, Virtus Pro faced Tempo Storm, a team considered strong but one that VP should have been able to beat with their experience. However, VP struggled once again and lost the series.
The Outcome
Tempo Storm went on to win the tournament, while Virtus Pro’s performance was a huge blow to their morale. It is clear that changes need to happen within the team after this disappointing tournament. VP has incredibly strong players, but maybe it’s time for a change after playing 704 official maps as Virtus Pro alone. Hopefully, in CEVO Series 10, we will see a regenerated VP ready to dominate once again.