Where did Virtus.pro go?
Fair question towards the team who are the last one to take down fnatic in a best-of-three or best-of-five series not called TSM. It's been a long time - a few days short of three full months - but the Virtus plow mode probably still exists within the Polish team, though it seems harder and harder to engage these days. Though Filip "NEO" Kubski has sparked up in 2015, it hasn't been enough to offset the relatively weaker play of Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski, or Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski's struggles to stay above a 1.00 rating.
The low point for this roster in 2015 came in late June, when they were knocked out of Gfinity Summer Masters I by mousesports in a best-of-three series. They had to miss ESWC due to Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas's wedding - which likely affected their preparation as well - and are now looking to get back on top in Valencia. Unfortunately, the field this week is likely tougher than at any non-major event in 2015, and it is going to take some work for Virtus to even get out of the group stage. Luckily, they can still easily do so.
The opener versus Na`Vi will be tough - but they have always matched up well against the ex-CIS powerhouse, and you can't rule them out ina best-of-one - or best-of-three, for that matter - setting. Virtus have a loss versus Kinguin in their record, but overall you probably still should favor Pogorzelski's team. Finally, there's Cloud9. Virtus have a good record versus them, but it's likely this is the match that will decide their fate. Lately the North Americans have been better, but it's definitely within reach.