How Virtus.pro played for the national team before WESG era
In the first day of WESG 2017 regional Europe and CIS finals, let's reminisce the way Virtus.pro players represented the Polish team in the national tournaments. Сarefully: this post with a 1.6 nostalgia ratio.
European Nations Champions 2006 – 3rd place
The European 2006 national tournament became the Polish team's first success. TaZ, NEO, Luq, rulon and Rerdrum played for the Polish line-up. The Poles finished group A in the first place, outdone only by Norway that was represented by elemeNt, prb, REAL, DaY and jeve9le.
Poland dropped out of the race in the lower bracket final. The Swedish team, represented by f0rest, SpawN, zet, ins and Red, had previously halted their upper bracket advance. The Poles outdid the Germans before yet again succumbing to the previously mentioned Norwegians who later went on to claim the tournament's second place. This way Poland only lost to ENC 2006's champions and vice-champions.
European Nations Champions 2007 – 1st place
Already in the following year, the Poles claimed the first place with an almost unchanged roster. In the European championship, Poland was represented by TaZ, NEO, Luq, rulon and SheeN.
Four national teams advanced to Leipzig's LAN-finals: Polish, German, Norwegian and Dutch. The Poles once again faced the Norwegians in the first round and defeated them 16:9 on de_dust2. After that Poland won Denmark (16:6 @ de_train).
The Poles faced Germany, that was represented by mooN, Kapio, tixo, paN and roman, in the grand final. Unlike the previous year, where the champion was decided in overtime, the final match was record-breakingly fast – the Germans only managed to take 4 rounds on de_inferno.
European Nations Champions 2009 – 3rd place
National teams of Poland, Sweden, France and Germany took part in the final stage of the last tournament in ENC series by ESL (which eventually fell under ASUS' organization). The Poles finished first place in group B, and Sweden – in group A.
This time, Poland was represented by NEO, TaZ, pasha, Loord and dOk. This exact championship became Jarosław Jarząbkowski's chance, where his game was noticed by his future teammates who eventually invited him to the current roster.
The Polish line-up lost to Germany (apporx, cyx, Tixo, roman and Kapio) in the semi-finals with the score of 0:2. The Poles convincingly defeated the French team (Geno, MAJ3R, SIXER, ioRek and R!go) in the third place decider match.
European Championship 2013 and CS:GO
The first European Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament took place in 2013. The Polish team was represented by TaZ, byali, NEO, MINISE and innocent.
The majority of the matches happened online; the Poles didn't advance further than the first round of play-offs, finally succumbing to the Netherlands team (chrisJ, MikeS, stefan, ferrid and CRUC1AL).
The World Championships 2015 – 2nd place
The European Championship 2013's organizers abandoned the idea of the solely European tournament and upped the stakes to the worldwide already in 2015.
This time each country's national team consisted of 15 players instead of 5. This had a positive impact on national team's final participation despite the championships' tight schedule.
All Virtus.pro G2A players qualified to take part in Poland's national team, but none of them actually participated in TWC 2015 play-offs. NEO, Snax and byali helped the team to advance through the group stage thanks to their victories over Romania and Lituania.
SZPERO, innocent, MICHU, peet and Furlan qualified to the LAN-round. They were the ones to claim the second place in the tournament after losing to France with the score 1:3 in the grand-final.
WESG 2016 – 3rd place
The idea of the national team's championship was adopted by WESG who organized their first tournament in 2016. Our guys from Virtus.pro G2A advanced to the tournament after their victory in the Polish qualifiers and their victory over Team Kinguin with the score of 2:0.
The Poles advanced through the group stage in the second place after losing only two matches. In play-offs, our team defeated K23 (Kazakhstan) and Dark Passage (Turkey) but lost to their fellow countrymen, Team Kinguin.
Virtus.pro G2A faced Space Soldiers (Turkey) in the third place decider match. The Poles emerged victorious and claimed $200 000.
Author: Anton Kozlov