AdreN assigned as new IGL of Virtus.pro
Virtus.pro CEO Sergey Glamazda announced Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev has been moved into the In-game leader role ahead of ESL Pro League Season 11.
The announcement surfaced earlier this Saturday, March 14, when Glamazda, who took over as Virtus.pro CEO in November 2019, went on the record to say AdreN will become the new IGL of the team, which should allow Dzhami "Jame" Ali and the rest of the team to focus on their individual performance, as the Russian squad looks for a way to escape the form slump they are currently in.
In December 2019, Virtus.pro acquired AVANGAR's roster which has reached No.3 in world rankings back in September when they finished second at StarLadder Berlin Major and won BLAST Pro Series Moscow. Since then, however, the Kazakhstani squad failed to live up to the expectations.
Shortly after AVANGAR's CS:GO roster joined Virtus.pro, they climbed to No.15 in world rankings but have since found themselves in a slump and are now barely inside the top-20 teams, having finished four of their last five LAN events in the last place.
Since December 16, when Virtus.pro acquired AVANGAR roster, they finished seventh-eighth at EPICENTER 2019, seventh-eighth at DreamHack open Leipzig 2020. fifth-sixth at ICE Challenge 2020 and most recently failed to make it far at Intel Extreme Masters XIV – World Championship, where Virtus.pro lost both of their opening fixtures against Team Liquid (0-2) and MAD Lions (1-2), thus crashed out of the tournament at a 13th-16th place.
Despite the team's poor results, Virtus.pro's coach Dastan "dastan" Akbayev just recently stated that there will be no roster changes ahead of ESL One Rio Major. Instead, the players will start working with team's psychologist and work on improving their mental performance in key moments of the games – something they failed to do so far, which cost them several maps and rounds.
Dastan also stated that if things won't work out by June, he will start looking for new players.
"We also believe that we can demonstrate better results with our current setup, instead of trying things out with new people. If things don't work out, then we'll be looking for new players come June," said dastan.
Although no roster changes are coming to Virtus.pro just yet, the team believes AdreN will be perfectly suited for the leader lore.
"We’re not planning on making any changes in the team before the Major to avoid unnecessary backfires at the present moment," Glamazda said.
"For now, AdreN takes on the captain role, Jame and others are focusing on their individual game.
"I also met up with team psychologists, who should help the team bond and get rid of nerves during crucial moments.
"Looking at our stats, I'm not upset with the fact that we have lost, but with the fact that it seems that we lack two or three rounds. Victory is seemingly so close, but it slips away.
"You lose confidence going into your next match, and when it happens tournament after the tournament you start to think there's no escape. That’s why we needed a bit of a shakeup to fix such mental blocks."
Virtus.pro's first match with a new IGL comes on Monday, March 30, during ESL Pro League Season 11 Europe. There the Russian team got seeded into Group C alongside TYLOO, OG, mousesports, G2 Esports and FaZe Clan. In his first game as IGL, AdreN will hope he can lead Virtus.pro to a win against his former team FaZe.
Virtus.pro CS:GO team:
Dzhami "Jame" Ali
Alexey "qikert" Golubev
Timur "buster" Tulepov
Sanjar "SANJI" Kuliev
Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev – IGL
Dastan "dastan" Akbayev – coach
