A team with five Major champions fall to one of the dark horses.
Virtus.pro are the fifth CS2 team eliminated from the Perfect World Shanghai Major following a disappointing loss to Wildcard this Monday, Dec. 2.
The Russian team headlined by Denis "electroNic" Sharipov and Dzhami "Jame" Ali struggled for most part of the tournament, only winning a match against Rare Atom. Before losing to Wildcard, Virtus.pro also lost to MIBR and BIG.
This awful result at Shanghai Major certainly will lead to roster changes in the off-season. Although Virtus.pro got praise for signing electroNic back in April, the former Cloud9 and NAVI star never felt comfortable under Jame's unique tactical system.
Virtus.pro lacked results all year, but this elimination to Wildcard is an all-time low for the Russian squad. Fans predicted Virtus.pro to at least reach top 16, so going out in the Opening Stage of the Shanghai Major is far from ideal.
Related articles
Wildcard 2-1 Virtus.pro at Shanghai Major
The elimination series started well for Virtus.pro as they won Ancient, their map pick, by 13-10. However, they looked lost on both Inferno (13-7) and Anubis (13-8) afterward.
While Virtus.pro displayed a clear lack of cohesion, Wildcard's in-game leader Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz rolled back the years and brought his A-game. The 30-year-old Canadian got important frags throughout the series, and most importantly, his calling was sharp as a knife.
Wildcard had good executes and most importantly, reads on how Virtus.pro were defending or attacking a bombsite.
This, paired with some truly atrocious individual performances on Virtus.pro's side, made it impossible for the Russians to win the game. Jame and electroNic are meant to be the team's main stars, but instead, they were the lowest-rated players against Wildcard.
The North Americans, on the other hand, saw their Swedish sniper Love "phzy" Smidebrant dominate with the AWP.
This result is simply not good enough for Virtus.pro, who has five Major champions in their lineup. Meanwhile, Wildcard played exceptionally well with a veteran IGL that most had forgotten about and a set of three players that are still developing.
Wildcard will have the opportunity to keep surprising as they play Passion UA, another underdog, tomorrow for a spot in the top 16 of the Shanghai Major.
That's all for now. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Shanghai Major coverage.
