Virtus.pro CEO Nikolai Petrossian shared his thoughts on the performance level of Kaisar “ICY” Faiznurov and Timur “FL4MUS” Maryev, who are part of the club`s main CS2 roster. The head of the organization spoke about this in an interview on Erik “Shoke” Shokov`s YouTube channel.
[Question: `Your new players — ICY and FL4MUS — barely reach a 1.0 KD ratio, why do you think that is?`] This is related to the fact that it`s difficult for the guys at the Tier-1 level. ICY had some limited experience with Cloud9, but it was small. If I remember correctly, they played just two or three LAN events since he was acquired. Timur has even less of this experience.
And I`m saying — these are absolutely two different sports: CS online against the same opponents, and CS on LAN, especially when events follow one after another. You need to get used to this. What are we doing about it? From the organization`s perspective, we are doing everything possible: living conditions, bootcamp, accommodation, psychologist, a daily routine, and so on. But it`s important that the guys themselves can also mentally adapt to it.
Petrossian believes that analyzing players` individual statistics separately from the overall team results is not appropriate.
[Question: `Are you satisfied with the current results of ICY and FL4MUS? Do you see potential for them to change?`] I still wouldn`t separate them. It`s such an artificial separation that there are ICY and FL4MUS, somewhere separately there`s electroNic, there are veterans fame and FL1T. Perhaps from a journalistic point of view – yes. But in reality, you can`t separate them.
There is a monolith – five players plus a coach. Their result is unsatisfactory. This means that each of them needs to improve so that the team improves. Some to a lesser extent, some to a greater extent. But if we start discussing now what Kaisar and Timur need to do, it`s as if it gives a certain indulgence to the others, implying that these ones need to improve, while maybe the others don`t need to, they are already doing everything. Therefore, it`s important for Vanya [F_1N] to improve the team play, so that the team`s result would be different.
As for whose KD is what – honestly, it`s absolutely indifferent. Although it`s clear that without a positive KD, there won`t be an overall team result. But on the other hand, NAVI, in my opinion, partially disproved this thesis last year. So it`s absolutely indifferent.
The VP head also mentioned that the club was not considering player changes before the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 starts, but things could change after the tournament.
[Question: `So, do you currently see the roster as unchanged?`] Today it is unchanged, of course. But this is CS, this is esports. Firstly, there are market situations where something happens that you couldn`t even anticipate, and that can affect your strategy. Anything can happen. A player might become available, as happened, by the way, with electroNic: no one intended or planned to part ways with Kolya mir. But when you have the opportunity to acquire a player like electroNic, and you understand that this window of opportunity has opened today and will soon close, you have to make a decision: either yes or no. And it`s the same here.
We are sitting and discussing now, but after Austin, anything can happen. And I can say now: `Absolutely not, we love everyone, we believe everyone, we trust everyone, and so on`. But then life, circumstances, the market might offer something you cannot refuse in the moment. It will turn out that I wasn`t telling the truth today. But today I am telling the truth. What will change and how it will change after Austin – nobody knows.
ICY and FL4MUS joined VP in December 2024. As of the material`s publication, the sniper`s KD ratio during his time with the club is 1.17, and the rifler`s is 0.92. The team has not finished higher than 5th-6th place in any tournament since the duo arrived.
Finley Holt