CR4ZY Drops Their CS:GO Team While Virtus.pro Signs New Academy Roster
Croatian CS:GO team CR4ZY has officially disbanded after releasing their entire roster to Project X - a squad that was signed on February 18 of this year. A month before the players were signed, CR4ZY had sold their original team to c0ntact gaming. The deal was apparently worth 1.5 million dollars, making c0ntact a worthy opponent in B-Tier Counter-Strike. So far c0ntact has failed to earn even a cent from tournament prizes. On the other hand, CR4ZY was left looking for a new lineup of players. Their original acquisition included dERZKIY, dOBRIY, Sergiz, Psycho, SENSEi, and Johnta. Duo players dERZKIY and dOBRIY would eventually get benched leaving room for DemQQ and 7oX1C - two independent players with a short history in competitive CS:GO.
CR4ZY MEETS PROJECT X
Besides dERZKIY’s stand-in with the team Moscow Five, both himself and dORBRIY have been inactive since leaving CR4ZY earlier this year. The past couple months have been an extreme letdown for CR4ZY and one of their worst quarters with just under ten grand in earnings. Their previous year was a huge success with over two hundred thousand in event prizes and a handful of top three placements. Most importantly, they had earned a first-place finish at UML Season 1 after beating Windigo Gaming. The legendary roster brought in fifty grand and had achieved peak success. Another A-Tier event they placed first in was at the DreamHack Open in Rotterdam. A six-figure prize pool full of worthy opponents such as Heroic, forZe and AVANGAR. CR4ZY beat them all and earned themselves another fifty grand.
Project X now consists of Sergiz, Psycho, SENSEi, DemQQ, 7oX1C, and Johnta. The most experienced player on the team would have to be Psycho, also making him the new team captain for PX. He started playing in 2018 for Windigo Academy, the farm team for Windigo Gaming that holds very little success. Psycho earned roughly a few grand with the team before signing with PX for the 2019/2020 season. After seven events and ten thousand in earnings, the team turned heads from the staff at CR4ZY. Psycho played with the team for seven months before once again being let go to PX.
Segiz had the same exact route as Psycho in CS:GO. He moved around from Windigo Academy, Project X, CR4ZY, and now back with PX. Almost a boomerang career for the young Ukrainian. DemQQ, SENSEi, and 70X1C, on the other hand, started their debut with CR4ZY. DemQQ has shown an average performance with the team holding a steady 1.00 player rating. SENSEi, on the other hand, has shown impressive gameplay with a 1.13 three month player rating. The last player, 70X1C, has the lowest score at 0.93 but to be fair, he’s new to the scene at only age eighteen. Project X is back and wants to have another winning streak that caught the attention of CR4ZY back in February of this year.
So far the team has played two sets since their release from CR4ZY. Both being devastating 2-0 sweeps putting them in eleventh at the Flashpoint 2 Open Qualifier. On October 9, PX played against Gambit, another newly set roster that was promoted from the youngster team. Sergiz put impressive numbers on the board after getting thirty-eight kills across two maps. He was also the only player to come out with a positive K-D. Sergiz was able to make the highlight reel with a 1v2 clutch as a CT. Next came their set against Team Unique, which was a much bigger team. DemQQ and Sergiz once again placed top two showing they’re the strongest players on PX. Hopefully, they can turn things around in their next event.
Click to enlargeThe staff at Virtus.pro have also made some roster changes with their new academy team VP.Prodigy. VP.P’s newest lineup will consist of mefixs, muR, awesome, h1glaiN, Norwi, and their coach Flash_1. On April 1 of this year, the newest org was officially founded and only received their players on September 24. While located in Russia, the team has a few Ukrainian players. So far, the team has only participated in two qualifiers. No first-place finishes yet but they’ve been able to sit in the top three bracket.
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VP.PRODIGY IS READY TO PLAY
Team captain Norwi has experience in qualifiers and small cup events, currently holding the previous HardCup title from his Season 6 win with ETHEREAL back in 2019. Next is muR who some might say has the same experience as Norwi. He’s also played in a handful of qualifiers and has even won his own cup. A small event called Kyiv Smart City that earned muR a few grand. With three events and no outstanding earnings, awesome is one of the more inexperienced players.
He’s played with teams including 5Balls and 100pinggods but has no substantial record in CS:GO. On the other end of the scale is rifler h1glaiN. He has just under four grand in earnings and has played with teams like ESPADA and HATOR. The youngest player for the team is mefix. He has no recorded experience before joining VP.P and is a true academic player, looking to learn from players that have been in his shoes. Flash_1 has coached muR in the past and has close to five years of experience in Counter-Strike. Besides playing for small Russian teams, the young coach has little to provide. VP.P is only an academic team, so this should be a good chance for everyone to learn and hopefully earn some money.
Images via CR4ZY | Virtus.pro