VP.Prodigy finalizes new team with Gambit's gpk, Na'Vi's illias

Virtus.pro’s secondary roster, VP.Prodigy, has completed its roster for the new season.

The CIS squad has added mid laner Danil "gpk" Skutin and hard support player Illias "illias" Ganeev. The duo steps in to replace Rostislav "fn" Lozovoi and Albert "eine" Garaev, who departed the team in November. With gpk and illias, the VP.Prodigy roster stands as follows:

1. Egor "epileptick1d" Grigorenko
2. Danil "gpk" Skutin 
3. Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin
4. Vitalie "Save-" Melnic
5. Illias "illias" Ganeev

gpk had something of a breakout performance last season. Playing for Gambit Esports, he helped the team notch strong placements in a variety of tournaments, most notably taking third in the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore. As the online league era kicked into full gear, gpk began playing as a regular substitute for other teams including Team Spirit, HellRaisers, and Evil Geniuses.

Gambit wasn’t able to properly highlight his considerable skill, but there is a very strong chance that he could establish himself as a major star with VP.Prodigy.

illias had a major jump up in competition last season, moving from the tier-three regional scene to Natus Vincere. The results were not positive.

Aside from qualifying for the DreamLeague Season 13 major, Na`Vi was generally ineffectual throughout the year and placed in the bottom half of every notable event it competed in. Like gpk, the move to VP.Prodigy should be a boon for illias as he joins a core of players that have proven success.

VP.Prodigy roster news interesting, but SumaiL questions linger

This VP.Prodigy roster is an interesting one and the team could pan out to be a serious force in the CIS region. At present, Natus Vincere is the top-ranked Dota 2 team in the CIS region thanks to the signing of the former FlyToMoon roster. VP.Prodigy dominated the head-to-head matchups with FTM, positioning the team to become the CIS region’s best.

That said, the big rumor that lingers over any discussion of the Virtus.pro organization is the rumor that the team is set to build a new squad that includes multiple members of its five-time major-winning lineup and former Evil Geniuses mid laner Syed “SumaiL” Hassan.

Though there has long been chatter about whether VP.Prodigy was the superior team, and even some speculation that VP.Prodigy would be rebranded as the actual Virtus.pro lineup. A new roster with SumaiL would likely change a lot of minds in that regard, but nothing has yet been publicly confirmed.