Virtus.pro bench YEKINDAR and Buster 

On Monday, May 23, the Russian esports organization Virtus.pro announced changes in its active CS:GO roster, benching Timur “buster” Tulepov and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis.

As stated in Virtus.pro’s official press release, the roster “failed to meet the expectations” of management, fans and themselves, resulting in the organization’s decision to revamp the squad. Buster was at the root of the team for three years, however, the agreement about his departure was supposedly mutual.  

Reasons for YEKINDAR’s benching include war

The situation with YEKINDAR is a bit different. The organization claims that the decision was made based on a number of reasons, including the “current international environment”, or, in other words, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Virtus.pro is now open for transfer offers of both buster and YEKINDAR. Furthermore, the organization reportedly already found replacements for the two benched players, with the reveal expected to be dropped soon. 

During his time with Virtus.pro, YEKINDAR helped the team win the second season of Flashpoint back in 2020, as well as the second place at IEM Katowice 2021 and multiple victories in lower-tier tournaments such as DreamHack Open December 2020, cs_summit 7 and Pinnacle Fall Series #1.

Current Virtus.pro CS:GO roster:

• Aleksey “Qikert” Golubev 
• Dzhami “Jame” Ali 
• Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev
• Dastan “dastan” Akbaev (coach)

Due to the ongoing war between the two countries, having an international roster is complicated due to a number of reasons, including issues with obtaining visas for players with Russian passports, as well as no direct flights to Russia for European players who play for Russian orgs. 

Header: Virtus.pro