Virtus.pro won’t compete at IEM Rio

It appears that Virtus.pro want to fix their play style before taking part in another CS:GO tournament. Skipping IEM Rio 2023 may not seem to be a great idea, but from a financial perspective it probably is.

This LAN event offers just $250.000 in prize money and gives most of it to the top four teams. With 16 participants in the race and VP’s roster in poor shape, it’s understandable why the management decided to not send the team to Brazil.

Of course, for the fans, this decision is similar to the one taken by Magnus Carlsen. The world chess champion refused to defend his title and gave someone else the opportunity to compete. But chess fans wanted to see him making that title defense. Otherwise, it will feel like the new champion doesn’t really deserve his trophy.

Virtus.pro’s recent failure and decision

Virtus.pro are the winners of IEM Rio Major, a competition where they defeated the best of the best and received $500.000 in prize money. Back then, they were still playing as Outsiders.

After this great success, the players probably felt the need to take a break and ended up playing much worse at several important tournaments. The trend continued until the start of the European qualifiers for BLAST.tv Paris Major. At this highly important event, Virtus.pro finished 12th-14th and failed to secure a spot at the Major.

After this painful defeat, it became obvious to VP’s management that the team needed to train much harder before they could successfully compete at an S-tier event again.

The decision to not take part in the upcoming CS:GO LAN, which will happen in Rio de Janeiro, is a controversial one. Sure, the expenses would have been significant, but there’s still a lot of value in performing in front of a huge crowd as the champion of the last CS:GO Major, which took place in the exact same place.

But perhaps Virtus.pro didn’t want to be put to shame or were afraid that they would disappoint their fans. Not competing and making people wonder “what if?…” is sometimes smarter than competing and leaving no doubt that you are now a shadow of your former self.

Regardless of the reason behind the decision, what we know for a fact is that Imperial Esports will take VP’s place. The Brazilian fans will certainly rejoice at the organizer’s decision because this is the team of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, who is one of the most beloved CS:GO players in the country.

Header: Virtus.pro