The new project, dubbed VP.Prodigy, will help the Russian esports organisation scout for young talent while giving their fringe players a chance to attain professional experience without the enormous pressure of needing achieving instant results. VP.Prodigy players will also have a chance to prove themselves and earn promotion to the main roster.

“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,” said Sergey Glamazda, General Manager at Virtus.pro.

“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 expectation. The club has acquired players that might join the main roster later – or even replace it completely in the long run.”

The inaugural VP.Prodigy Dota2 roster features two ex-Virtus.pro members in Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko and Vitaly “Save-” Melnik, who left the main roster at the start of February. The young duo will now have a chance to hone their skills and cultivate the potential they have already displayed since they arrived at the team in autumn of 2019. Joining Save- and epileptick1d at VP.Prodigy are Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi, Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin and Albert “yume” Garayev.

Fn is the oldest and the most experienced member of Virtus.pro’s new Dota project. The 25-year-old Ukrainian pro launched his Dota2 career in March 2014 with Insane Gaming and has since played for Nightcore, Little Busters 4ever, newteam123123, PRIES Gaming, Arcade.PowerRangers, Vega Squadron, Team Empire, Virtus.pro and Gambit Esports. Although he is yet to lift the Aegis of Champions, fn’s career accolades include gold at Adrenaline Cyber League 2019 and ROG MASTERS 2017, silver at StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 1 and a seventh-eighth finish at The International 2017.

DM’s career is far shorter, but that has not stopped him from making his presence known in the top tier of Dota2 esports. The Russian offlaner claimed bronze at DOTA Summit 11 with HellRaisers and later made an appearance at the Leipzig Major with Chaos Esports Club, although they failed to make it past round one of the playoffs.

Yume began his Dota2 career in March 2017 and has since played for Double Dimension, M19, SFTe-sports, Gambit Esports, Team Empire and Team Singularity, who announced the disbandment of their Dota2 roster last week.

Fn will play as a stand-in, which suggests he will be replaced as soon as VP.Prodigy find a young and promising talent to fit in with the rest of the team.

VP.Prodigy’s debut will come at the US $15,000 GGBET StayHome Challenge, which will feature eight Dota2 teams from Europe and the CIS region. The tournament will run from April 1-12 and the team’s debut is scheduled for Thursday, April 2 against Danil “Dendi” Ishutin’s team B8, who recently signed ex-Singularity carry Steve “Excalibur” Ye to their roster.

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The news comes shortly after the firm indefinitely postponed the ESL One Los Angeles Dota2 Major due to the ongoing spread of coronavirus and the visa issues Dota2 teams have endured ahead of the third Major of 2019/20 DPC.

“After careful consideration of the current state and trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the health risk that this presents to competitors, staff and fans alike, we have made the difficult decision to cancel to the fourth Minor and Major tournaments of the DPC season,” read the announcement on the official Dota2 Twitter page.

“Given the high fluidity of the state of both the pandemic and geopolitical landscape, we will keep following the situation and decide how to approach the final Major and Minor of the season as the weeks progress.”

With this decision, Valve is supporting the idea of limited international travel in a bid to keep the fans, players and other individuals involved in Dota2 esports safe. That said, removing two DPC events will have serious consequences for those teams which have yet to secure their spot at The International 2020.

As it stands, only four teams have over 4,000 DPC points: TNC Predator (5,320), ViCi Gaming (5,100), Team Secret (4,950) and Evil Genuises (4,450). Filling the remaining eight spots in the top-12 are Invictus Gaming (3,100), Alliance (1,920), Team Liquid (1,820), business associates (960), beastcoast (820), Team Aster (440), Fnatic (400) and Chaos Esports Club (251.44).

Meanwhile, some prominent names in the Dota2 scene sit below the cut-off line, namely Royal Never Give Up (232.8), Gambit Esports (231), Natus Vincere (226), EHOME (216), Virtus.pro (172), Nigma (170), Ninjas in Pyjamas (151.2), Newbee (50), and even the reigning back-to-back TI champions, OG, who have accumulated only 100 DPC points after rebuilding their Dota2 roster earlier this year.

There are still two more Majors scheduled and 30,000 DPC points up for grabs, not including the last Minor tournament with 660 DPC points on offer. It is still unclear when and where the postponed ESL One Los Angeles Major will be played, while we can’t know for certain whether the last Major of the season (ONE Esports Singapore Major) will take place without any further complications.

The Singapore Major qualifier is scheduled to take place from May 17-22, with the Minor set to be played from June 9-13 and the Major tournament from June 20-28.

The cancelled OGA Dota Pit Minor 2020 was scheduled to be played from April 23-26, with EPICENTER 2020 initially slated to take place from May 2-10. Their cancellation gives teams a period of no international competitions up until the end of May when the qualifiers for the Singapore Major begin.

The scale of the COVID-19 outbreak could see all DPC tournaments cancelled – including The International 10, which is slated to take place in Stockholm, Sweden, in August.

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