After the defeat in Shanghai Major, where will Virtus.pro go in the future?

Three years ago, electronic won the Major championship trophy with Natus Vincere in Stockholm , and was among the top 10 players of the year on HLTV for four consecutive years .

Despite playing for this team for many years, he still couldn't get rid of the halo of s1mple , and some even called him " a superstar living in the shadow of s1mple " . So he decided to leave NAVI , where he had played for many years , and join Cloud9 , and then brought his talent to Virtus.pro this year , hoping to create his own world in this new team.

Jame led the team to win the Majorin Rioachieved dominance. At that time, fans believed thatJamewasthe best commander inthe CISJame's game style was not flashy, it was very practical. Many people believed that putting these two pragmatic players together would definitely form a highly competitive team.

In April this year, the VP club made a major investment. They spent a large sum of money to buy out electronic 's contract from C9 , intending to use the remaining time to complete the lineup running-in and eventually launch an attack on the Shanghai Major at the end of the year .

Adding fame , FL1T and n0rb3r7 , on paper, VP 's lineup seemed to be a strong contender for the Major title. To paraphrase Thorin 's words on the show, this lineup has the potential to compete for the championship in all events. But things went against one's will, and things did not develop at all as expected.

The bumpy running-in period

There were eight months between the signing of electronic and the Shanghai Major , which was not a short time for the team to get used to each other. However, as the team repeatedly encountered setbacks in various competitions, the problems within the team gradually emerged. This summer, when a reporter asked Jame about the team's unstable performance, he replied: "We need to improve in all aspects. The team is not stable enough. The specific reasons for the failure are not clear. Everyone's performance is not good enough and needs to be improved."

The team's performance did not improve for quite a long time. In the following period, there were rumors that Jame was stripped of his command and even left the team.

Bubzkji said in the comments thatJame's tactical system is no longer as effective as before, and he has not been able to smoothly adapt to the transition to the new version. OverDrive confirmed these rumors, saying thatVPis considering parting ways withJameand plans to rebuild the team aroundelectroNic.

By AUGUST , VP 's management finally decided to put the controversy behind them, continued to believe that Jame and electronic could find a tacit understanding, and instead demoted coach Xoma despite huge pressure from the community .

However, this personnel change did not bring about a fundamental change to VP . Although the team still maintained its HLTV TOP15 ranking, its performance was still flat and no substantial progress could be seen. In an interview, former coach Dastan said meaningfully that VP was composed of experienced players who had their own "egos", so it was difficult to bring them together. Dastan 's words also implied that although VP seemed calm on the surface, there were undercurrents inside, and at this time, the Shanghai Major became the last straw that determined the fate of the team.

Dreams shattered at Shanghai Major

VP 's fate seemed to have been doomed in the RMR stage of this Major . They did not look like a TOP15 team in this event, which was seen as an appetizer for the Major . They lost to Passion UA ​​in the first match , then defeated TSM ranked 84th in the world and 9 Pandas ranked 29th with a score of 13-10 , and finally stumbled to defeat Sashi ranked 58th in the world in a BO3 , and got a ticket to the opening stage of the Major .

In the following games, VP went downhill. They lost to MIBR and BIG respectively , and lost the victory to Wildcard again. They only beat Rare Atom , which ranked 76th in the world , and bid farewell to the Major with a record of 1 win and 3 losses . This result was obviously not what VP expected when they signed electronic .

n0rb3r7 wrote on the social media platform after the game: " I have nothing to say. " But obviously, for VP 's management, keeping silent will not solve the problem. More importantly, the combination of Jame & electronic , which they had high hopes for, has proven to be a failure. Although in the past few months, both players have revealed in interviews how much they respect each other and how much effort they have made to cater to each other's tactical style, respect cannot be exchanged for results. What awaits this team will be the judgment of fate.

Who should pay for the results?

Although the team lost the Major , it is obviously unrealistic to single out a single player for ruining VP 's Major journey. It is an indisputable fact that this team lacks tacit understanding and performs poorly. As for individual players, fame is still in excellent condition, and n0rb3r7 has also completed the tasks that should be completed. The situation of Jame , electronic and FL1T is relatively bad. Among them, Jame only got a rating of 0.99 , which is his lowest in recent months. FL1T 's data was seriously affected because of the change of position, but this does not mean that he cannot show his previous level. As for electronic , after playing this Major , VP 's journey has become a more nightmare than that of C9 .

Captain Relegation

Shortly after the Major, on December 11, VP officially announced the demotion of captain Jame . VP CEO said: " Jame cannot play both the key roles of captain and sniper at the same time, so moving him to the bench is the best option so that we can calmly consider all feasible options to promote the future development of the team and Jame personally. " For the majority of CSers, it is foreseeable that VP will make lineup changes after this failed Major journey, but they did not expect Jame to become the main person responsible for the failure of this operation. This also makes the future of this VP more vague. After the commander who has served the team for many years is delegated, the team's tactical system and playing style will inevitably usher in earth-shaking changes, and other members of the team will also have to accept the impact of this change on themselves. Delegating Jame is most likely to give power to electronic , who wants to take over the command position in the team. What changes will the VP lineup have in the future is also a hurdle in the hearts of the majority of VP fans.

VP's future decision

For VP , although they lost the game, it is not the end of the world. It is just a brief pause in their pursuit of becoming stronger. As for whether to build a team around electronic , there seems to be no clear answer at present. What cards can be played in the current CIS market?

bb recently terminatedits contract with KaiR0N- . r3salt, a player from 9 Pandas who was eliminatedRMRcould also beone ofVP 's prey. Even Spirit Academy 's talented player kyousuke could also bea target ofVP 's pursuit. In addition, FL4MUS 's performance in the ShanghaiMajorcannot be completely ignored. In the future, let time make the decision.