Russian organization Virtus.pro has announced that it has established a secondary Dota 2 squad called VP.Prodigy, to be led by Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko and Vitaly “Save-” Melnik.
They will be joined by Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin and Albert “yume” Garaev, while Rostislav “fn” Lozovoy will stand in as the team’s midlaner.
Epileptick1d and Save- were notably part of VP’s main roster at the start of the season.
The pair of young pubstars was supposed to reinvigorate a depleted VP roster, which lost Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev, Pavel “9pasha” Khvastunov, and Vladimir “RodjER” Nikogosyan following the conclusion of The International 2019.
VP had middling results with epileptick1d and Save, however, finishing 13th-16th at DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major even after electing to skip the first Major cycle of the season to better prepare its new roster.
After the team’s disappointing showing, VP captain Alexey “Solo” Berezin notably stated that the team needs to “seriously rethink everything.” That was followed by the removal of epileptick1d and Save- from their active roster in early February and the additions of former Natus Vincere captain Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov and Zaur “Cooman” Shakhmurzaev.
VP general manager Sergey Glamazda stated that the name of the organization’s secondary roster reflects its nature and that their main goal is to qualify for a “Major-status [tournament] through open or closed qualifiers in 2019/2020 season, or the league system in 2020/2021 season.”
“The thought of the second lineup came to us back in January, however, only after the Leipzig series had it become more than just an inkling. The idea is fairly simple: the second lineup allows young players to attain professional scene experience and knowledge without the enormous pressure of instant result expectations. The club has acquired players that might join the main roster later — or even replace it completely in the long run,” Glamazda said in a statement.
VP.Prodigy Dota 2 roster:
- Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko
- Rostislav “fn” Lozovoy (stand-in)
- Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin
- Vitaly “Save-” Melnik
- Albert “yume” Garaev
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