Virtus.pro won CIS LAN Championship #5 with their new CS2 roster, claiming the organisation’s first LAN trophy since 2023.
Virtus.pro win first LAN Trophy with new CS2 roster
Virtus.pro debuted their new Counter-Strike 2 roster at CIS LAN Championship #5 this week and secured the organisation’s first LAN trophy since ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta in 2023.
The victory marks a much-needed breakthrough for Virtus.pro, who endured a rough start to the 2026 season and failed to leave a lasting mark across several early-year events.
VP exited BLAST Bounty Winter in last place, failed to make it through the Intel Extreme Masters Rio qualifiers, and posted disappointing results at CCT Season 3 European Series #3 and Exort Cataclysm CIS Season 1.
That poor run of results led to a major roster overhaul, which lasted several months and brought in four new players. The rebuild included the arrivals of Dias “F0R3VER” Kutubay, Aleksandr “AquaRS” Kovalev, and Nikolay “mir” Bityukov, who joined as the new in-game leader.
The final pieces of the new roster, AquaRS and F0R3VER, joined Virtus.pro on March 12. However, CIS LAN Championship #5 was the first real chance for fans to see the new-look VP lineup in action.
After spending time together at a long bootcamp in Serbia, Virtus.pro looked much more settled. The new pieces appeared to gel quickly, with VP storming to the CIS LAN Championship title without dropping a match.
Virtus.pro swept through Group D with wins over 1w Team and CYBERSHOKE before carrying that form into the playoffs, where they defeated 33, K27, and ARCRED in the grand final.
The win earned Virtus.pro their first LAN trophy in three years and a US$15,000 prize share.
While CIS LAN Championship #5 was a lower-tier event, VP’s dominance gives the Russian squad a reason for optimism as they prepare for the rest of the 2026 season.
Following the strong debut, Virtus.pro will now head into a short break, with no tournaments scheduled in the immediate coming weeks.
The result also helped Virtus.pro climb to No.38 in the global Valve Regional Standings, which should improve their chances of securing direct invites to upcoming events.
That includes European Pro League Series 7, which is scheduled to begin on June 4.
Mark Prezelj
Esports Betting Analyst
Mark Prezelj is a Slovenian esports betting analyst with over 3,500 articles at EsportBet and the founder of Lines64.com — someone who has been reading odds longer than most readers have been watching esports.
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