electroNic: "That's the main problem for our team, we have a lot of aggro players"
Despite signing FL4MUS and ICY from GamerLegion and AMKAL for the 2025 season, the year has been somewhat of a struggle for Virtus.pro so far.
There have been bright spots, playoff appearances at PGL Bucharest and IEM Katowice suggest the team has more to offer, but as their captain electroNic states, the team could do "much better."
With Virtus.pro hoping to improve on their performances in the BLAST.tv Austin Major, we sat down with electroNic to discuss the amount of aggressive riflers on the team, his journey as an IGL, and how playoffs is the minimum expectation for Virtus.pro.
"I feel like [FL4MUS] could do much better"
We're five months into the year, how have you found the year so far?
I feel like we could do much better, but we have what we have, and we just need to keep growing and learning together.
Looking at yourself as an individual, you once said you didn't want to IGL again, why did that change?
It's more down to the fact that there isn't any captains on the market. That's why I took over as IGL, it was necessary.
So if a captain was to become available, you'd pick him up and stop IGLing again?
I just want to be the best person I can be, the best teammate I can be. I don't know, if they want me to keep on IGLing, then I can do it. If they don't want that, they only need to ask. But I feel like I have improved a lot since I started doing it again.
Photo: Michal KonkolIn that sense, you're experienced as an IGL now, how do you think you've developed in the role and what do you need to improve on?
It's still been a short period since I took back over, but I've improved in terms of how I want to lead the team and how I want us to play.
Also, I need to improve in terms of my emotional side, maybe the tactical side, everything can be improved and there is no limit for improvement.
When you say the emotional side, do you mean tilting yourself or helping teammates when they tilt?
It's not so much that I'm raging or tilting when things don't go our way, it comes from if we make shit mistakes that cost us important rounds. We are doing these mistakes.
So it's about maintaining composure?
Yeah.
Looking at the team you have, FL4MUS was brought in at the start of the year, are you happy with what he's done for the team so far?
He's a really ambitious player, a really good player, he has great mechanics. But I feel like he could do much better.
It depends on his confidence, his ability to do crazy things. He needs to find his confidence in his roles and in this team.
You mention roles there, is there any concern about the roles within the team given the amount of naturally aggressive riflers?
I feel like that's the main problem for our team, we have a lot of aggro players, myself, FL1T, FL4MUS, we like to play aggro and it's hard to change our playstyle. We're trying our best to improve our mechanics in our roles, and our understanding of our newer roles, we're just learning together.
Photo: Michal KonkolWhen you formed the team and you knew you had these aggressive riflers, did you expect it to take more time to improve because of the role changes that would need to happen?
We tried a lot of things, we've tried for all of us to be aggressive, and for some maps it's better for any one of us to be the aggressive player. It just depends on the map.
I feel like we could be good, even in this situation with a lot of aggro players, we just need to improve ourselves and our understanding of what we're going to do, how we can use the aggression in special situations.
We just need the experience in the positions because as you can see, there aren't that many players who have changed their roles and performed well from the first days. It's hard for everyone to change their roles, and we're just trying our best.
Do you feel like you will have had that time by the Major?
Of course, of course. We are bootcamping to make the best improvement we can, it's always good to be at a bootcamp and improve. Our preparation is going well, not as well as we wanted, but it's pretty good. We're just trying to connect with each other, and then in Austin we can show some good CS.
When you're trying to get comfortable in new roles, is it more about reps on the server or the theory work?
You need to think a lot about your new role, you have to play a lot in the new role, learn from a lot of demos of other teams and how the players in your roles perform well on those teams. It's a lot of work in every aspect, because in every aspect you have to improve.
What are the hopes for when you get to Austin?
Our minimum goal is playoffs, so we're going to go there and improve every game, and I hope we can do good and show some good CS there.
