CS:GO team withdraw from $250,000 tournament to practice harder after missing Paris Major

Virtus Pro won’t participate in the upcoming $250,000 CS:GO event IEM Rio anymore after not qualifying for the BLAST Paris Major, which will be the last Valve-sponsored tournament until Counter-Strike 2’s first Major in 2024—and no one can blame them for making such a decision after the disaster that was the Europe RMR. Instead of flying to Brazil and potentially embarrassing their fans again, the team will focus on practicing, the org announced today.

“We believe that in the current shape, participation in the tournament [IEM Rio] will not bring satisfaction to either the team or the fans,” VP said in an official announcement. “Therefore, we are committing to enhanced training.”

On top of not making the Paris Major as the current reigning champions, VP also came under heavy criticism for one choice they made during the Europe RMR A. The organization flew backup player David “n0rb3r7” Daniyelyan to Copenhagen, Denmark last minute to replace Aleksandr “KaiR0N-” Anashkin, the youngest player on the team, in the decisive series against MOUZ. Kair0N- was the one who replaced n0rb3r7 in the first place back in January because the team wanted a more aggressive rifler.

Related: ‘Acting like crap’: s1mple issues harsh Virtus Pro warning for aspiring CS:GO stars

It’s unclear whether VP will play with Kair0N- moving forward or if n0rb3r7 will make his way back into the active lineup definitively. The CIS team have been going through a rough patch ever since they won the IEM Rio Major in November 2022 as they’ve failed to make a deep run in all their following tournaments.

IEM Rio will be played from April 17 to 23 and is the last tier-one tournament before the BLAST Paris Major in May. ESL will announce VP’s replacement “as soon as possible.” Heroic, Natus Vincere, Cloud9, and FaZe Clan are some of the teams set to attend the Brazilian event.

Update April 13 12:30pm CT: ESL decided FalleN’s Imperial will take VP’s spot at IEM Rio. The Brazilian team was the next team in line from South America.