Virtus.Pro go into the Shanghai Major as the prime representative of the CIS Dota Scene. With the decline of Empire, Na’Vi, Vega and only the still very untested Team Spirit as compatriots from the region in attendance in China, G & Co. have many expectations to fulfill. However, it is difficult to judge just how justified those expectations are. As they have only played five games on 6.86 (all during their unsuccessful showing at Star Ladder 13), VP might just be the biggest wildcard among the invited teams in terms of their current form.

Nevertheless, they are most certainly not to be underestimated as contenders to the title. Their consistently strong play during 6.85 (including their monstrous run through the lower bracket at The Summit 4) is a more than clear sign that they are not to be trifled with. With the lull before Shanghai we can be certain that Fng has been drilling his team after the disappointment that was Star Ladder to make sure that even the Far East has to fear the polar bear.

Gameplay

At the heart of VP’s play is their incredibly strong laning ability, from G’s exceptional play in the midlane to the strong synergy between Lil and Fng on their supports. Only in rare cases will they be unable to end the early game with an advantage or a draw. The other pillar of VP’s strategy is their ability to play around specific timings and power spikes. Usually they only require experience, not gold, but if the need arises, VP are also comfortable giving their supports farm priority in order to reach their levels and items for the desired effect. To this end, Dkphobos often rotates out of his lane, giving his supports the space to farm/level up, while also putting pressure on the enemy by being a constant threat. With Dkphobos on a strong ganking hero, VP execute strategic kills on enemy heroes to disrupt the incoming push (often times, they will target the playmaker hero of the opposing team, such as a Brewmaster who needs his Blink Dagger).

Once they have the composition they strived for, the group-up begins. Taking down objectives in a flurry of successive pushes, VP constrict the playing field of their opponents, choke them out of the game, and get their snowball running. Their pushes, however, do not necessarily need their entire team. VP will often only push with four heroes. The fifth player is usually on the opposite side of the map, either farming away for the next timing window to match up with their progress on the enemy’s towers or base, or just applying pressure by contesting the supposedly “safe” zone the other team has claimed. By this stage, if all goes according to plan, VP’s opponents are usually largely restricted to their base and whatever little area they managed to secure with wards; it only takes VP one or two more pushes to breach the base and collect the victory. If the opposing team is still able to hang on, they face the huge obstacle of overcoming the CIS squad’s extremely strong teamfighting capabilities. More than willing to take fights, their crisp communication and teamplay usually lets VP win fights easily (especially with all their accumulated item and experience advantage) and further take the game under their control until the enemy finally folds to the onslaught.

Players

How to Beat - Virtus Pro

There are in general two approaches to taking down the CIS powerhouse, but these are heavily reliant on what their opponents are actually able to do themselves. If you are confident in your own ability to win the early game and heavily disrupt VP’s gameplan, the obvious course is certainly to contest the laning stage as hard as you possibly can. In this case, one must focus on the playmakers for VP, which are usually G or Dkphobos. Heavily setting them back during the early game will postpone the timings Fng planned for, and in the end, might just derail the entire game for VP. VP are at their weakest when losing the early game, as they still show a rather unwise willingness to take fights; without the clear advantage VP usually have, they usually further delay their timings as core heroes get taken out and the initiative slips to their opponents. With VP’s plans in tatters, and map control and initiative firmly on your side, Virtus.Pro will have an exceptionally hard time in coming back and might just fold to the superior pressure. Another variant of this early game approach is having faster timings than VP; instead of resorting to all-out aggression during laning to snowball, a more controlled team can try to force a draw in the laning stage but have a team that is quicker in the midgame so that they can snatch the initiative from the CIS team and apply the VP-formula of winning for themselves.

The second approach is the complete opposite of the one before. Instead of taking VP head on in the early game to stop them in their tracks, teams can try to draft a lineup excelling at defensive play and counter-initiation. If choosing this strategy, the team must be ready to constantly teeter on the edge of the abyss. Not contesting the strong early game of VP is a large gamble, since if your defensive capabilities do not become available in time, you are very prone to just collapsing against the aggression. Small mistakes in key engagements while defending towers (or trading them in more splitpush-reliant lineups) such as your cores dying repeatedly will also cripple you to the point of being unable to stand against the follow-up attacks of VP. Conclusively speaking, the key to this approach is not only in crisp execution of your defensive measure (be it counter initiation or split push) but also a draft which lets you play around a potentially weak early and midgame until you have the advantage again as VP’s scaling begins to fall off. This is not to say that once you have reached the 40 minute mark you are safe; it just means that you stand a higher chance winning against most VP lineups. Highly farmed supports, which are one of Lil’s specialties, can still make the lategame a difficult struggle. However, if your draft has the better scaling cores, VP will be mostly unable to keep up and run out of steam as your heavy hitters come online.