(TalkEsport)

February 6th marked a historic day in Counter-Strike history, with the announcement that Wiktor “Taz” Wojtas, longstanding player for Polish team Virtus.pro had been benched from the lineup and temporarily replaced by Michał “MICHU” Müller.

The old Virtus.Pro roster had gone through a series of disappointing performances, culminating with a group stage exit at the ELEAGUE Boston Major (the second ever group exit at a major for the team, the first being DreamHack Winter 2013 under a different organization), and it has been clear for some time that the longest lasting 5-man roster in CS:GO has needed to make some changes.

However, while Taz has been statistically the worst player the past few months, this roster change isn’t enough to drag Virtus.pro out of disgrace. This Tuesday, Virtus.Pro were knocked out of the group stage of StarSeries i-League Season 4, and things are looking grim for the once legendary team.

(wgg.com)

To elaborate, we need to look at the VP roster as a whole, not just the player with the poorest performance.

Since mid-2017, it can be argued that not a single player on VP has performed well. The team has lost matches to lower-tier teams such as BIG, Heroic, Fragsters, Renegades, AGO, VenatoreS, and Jalapeno, all in the past three months. A team with that many upsets simply can no longer be considered top-tier. While VP is notorious for losing shaky matches but coming back to “plow” a tournament, the time of winning has passed, with their last relevant tournament victory over a year ago at WESG. The dead-last placement at the major is the nail in the coffin for this once-legendary team. Kicking Taz may help slightly, especially considering MICHU’s talent, but it simply is not enough.

MICHU (HLTV)

When we take a look at the current top-tier teams in CS, their firepower is easy to see.

Faze has four players in the HLTV top 20 player ranking of 2017. SK also has four. Astralis had four until Kjaerbye’s untimely leave. Gambit has two, and even G2 has Kennys in the top 10. VP has only Snax, at a lonely 20th place.

Since 2015, Snax has truly been the only consistent star player for VP, and even he has dropped considerably in ratings recently. Putting Snax into the in-game-leader position for several months was a huge mistake, causing VP’s star player to stop fragging, and leaving the job of getting kills to lesser skilled players like Taz and Neo. While Byali, Neo, Pasza, and Taz have had their tournament and moments, a frag movie only shows the best.

Every player has had a steady decline since the golden years of major winnings and high rankings in 2014 and 2015. VP’s few victories this year have been largely due to Byali and Pasza stepping up massively, but performing well a few times a year does not make a team top-tier.

Snax’s underwhelming 2017 performance, with a slight upward trend after dropping the IGL role in September (HLTV)

Forgetting the Past

Every time VP wins a tournament, their massive fanbase comes out to brag. VP is one of the most popular teams, due to their charismatic personalities and legendary skill in Counter-Strike 1.6, along with a zealous Polish fanbase. However, the glory days are gone.

Looking at some of the most famous plays, from Snax’s mirage sneaking to Pasza’s wild clutches, they all seem to be years old. When a VP player makes an especially good play now, or VP wins a match, the CS community rabidly exclaims that VP has still has it, and that the great team of the past was always there, only to become silent for six months waiting for another small victory. Pasza and Byali have doubtlessly had a few huge moments, but having a 0.72 and a 0.68 rating at the major respectively is abysmal.

Pasza’s twitter after the major loss

When considering VP’s issues, it’s important to think about the Ninjas in Pyjamas, with their 87-0 roster and legendary core. VP is about to go through what NiP went through after Fifflaren’s departure. NiP changed around their fifth throughout the years, achieving random winnings now and then, before kicking Friberg (and now Xist) and finally getting rid of the core four. NiP has not had great standings as of late, but they have certainly been performing better than VP, due largely to two reasons: acquisition of promising talent, and the simple fact that Get_Right and Forest are still excellent players. NiP has done what VP could not, taking the blow of losing friends to achieve victory.

While replacing Taz with MICHU is a step in the right direction, I believe that Neo must be next on the chopping block. He currently adds nothing to the team, not taking up the role of a star and not putting up numbers. Byali and Pasza could be next to be benched, but they still have mild potential, and a new team and new roles could help them out greatly. I think Snax should see a return to form as he adjusts from his IGL period and begins playing with younger players. VP doubtlessly needs to make massive changes. Taking one fly out of a bowl of soup with four flies still doesn’t make it any more edible. Taking out two flies maybe makes a difference.

Neo’s steadily decreasing statistics (HLTV)

However, the VP organization still has marketing to do. Pasza is one the most popular players in the game in terms of fanbase size, and Neo was arguably the best 1.6 player of all time. Cutting such important and legendary players is no easy task, and the organization could lose a lot of its massive support.

The community has nothing but respect for the players of Virtus.pro. All five members of the original roster are CS:GO legends and deserve to be remembered throughout the history of the game. Taz especially has had nothing but class during his run with the team. I have no doubt that Neo, Taz, Byali, Pasza, and Snax all have massive potential and can still perform well, but the roster is simply not working out. Adding young blood to the team is a great idea. Taz is 31 years old, Neo is 30, and Pasza is 29. To compare, the average age of recent major winners Cloud9 is under 22. With a younger, revitalized team and some wise older counsel, Virtus.pro could become legends once again.

The former glory of the legendary team (DOT eSports)