cyberfight*d1monn: Greetings, Irina! I would like to welcome you and thank for doing this amazing coverage for our web-site from Nollelva (.ru only). You and your team had just came back from a very important tourney, please tell us your impressions?

Virtus.pro > Ru: Hello dear cyberfight readers, and a personal hello to you, Dmitry. You have to thank your readers for this amazing coverage, their feedback gave me strength to continue my work.Speaking about impressions from Sweden - it is hard to say the whole thing in one answer, and it is even harder for the players themselves. Yeah, it is true that we were aiming for better result. Yes, it is true that there were a lot of small things and huge bad things that were bothering our training. But to be honest, such things happened to a lot of great teams at many tournaments. But this 9th place gave us remarkable lesson, pretty serious and cruel. It seems that the team needed such lesson. A typical Swedish LAN amazingly differs from a Russian one. The teams are gathering and playing till the last round, however they are staying together with their oponents, having fun. It's all about the community you know. Of course I cannot say that there are no confrontations among Swedish teams,  we even faced one of those a couple of times, but still. The same thing goes about organizers, even the woman who was selling energy drinks - everyone was kind and cheerful. When we arrived to this small town it turned out that there is no address on our invitation, and there was no address on the web-site either. And then we bought this newspaper which had huge Nollelva banner on the frontpage. Different attitude, that's for sure.

cyberfight*d1monn: Virtus.pro turned 1 year old in Novembr. I think that this year for you Ira was significantly different from what you were used to do in the past time. So, how was a "Year with Virtus.pro" like?

Virtus.pro > Ru: Oh, I thought that this year will last forever. I am remembering Meridian Cup on the 1st of November, 2003 as long-time memory. The tournament was held in the same day with F_1N's birthday, and we won it. Later on we were trying to buy the cake, decorated it with candles. We had a huge moral inside our hearts. Recently we remembered a funny incident. Snoop was our latest buy and just one year ago when A-Line came to Virtus.pro tag the players decided to take him as the 5th player, the guy arrived at the tournament without his own team. Basically only Snoop and F_1N remained from the original team. And after one day we got Sally. A lot of time had and a lot of things had changed. We had many arguments - you cannot even guess how many, but each resolvement of one seems like a victory. Well, there's no reason to say anything more, I had given away a lot from my life in order this project to live on, and the players understood that. And now I can say that nothing would have turned out the way it is now if it wasn't for the players who showed amazing feedback. Few people know about critical moments in Virtus.pro history, there were times when I had to risk it all, but we went there and took 1st place at the tournament. We will do it again.

cyberfight*d1monn: Recently Virtus.pro is facing a slight number of misfortunes. What it is realted with? Of course it would have been amazingly nice to see how the players see this problem, their POV.

Virtus.pro > Ru: The players are now practicing. The certain amount of bad luck that we had at the tournaments seems different for everyone. I know my team and I know what the first weeks after holidays mean for them. I also remember how hard the first season was for them. It is related to the question about prett-much long vacations the team had had.  You should not be the ones who will tell us what to do and how much time the team needs for vacation, the team needs people and not zombies. Everyone knows Russian CS level of 2003. In order to come out and make our first stem we had to actually jump over our heads. I believe that a lot of Russian progamers know what it is like to train for 18 hours per day. Each of them. And now try to imagine the situation when starting from the 17th of January and till ESWC Grand Final. This was the required time for reabilitation - physical and moral ones. There is no sens in explaining it all before the upcoming tournament. Time will show and I will look that the things myself with great pleasure.

cyberfight*d1monn: We've just found out that the team is now missing one player - Groove. One of the key-players, coordinator and tactics-guy. Could you tell us a bit more about the motivation for this move? What changes occuring to this will affect Virtus.pro? Who replaced Groove?

Virtus.pro > Ru: Yeah, the newsmakers managed to be faster than our official press-release. I was planning to give out a lot of answers in this interview. Konstantin had to leave the team due to arguements with other teammates. We are talking only about player's ability to co-op with other members. We had some problems with that and especially during Nollelva. This turned out into such decision. Those who knew how we were struggling in order to keep our roster will understand how hard it was for us to make this decision. Konstantin's time spent in Virtus.pro will stay in history for all time. At Nollelva it was aumsing to see how the players were speaking during their games (other teams): "let's play Virtus.pro round" or "Let's play like against Virtus.pro". I hope that the readers will forgive me this example, it does not mean that we are thinking that we > all, it's just an example what Groove did for the team. I would like to thank Kostya for everything he did and wish him good luck in future, as well as faith.

The fith player had to be found in no time, as well as wisely chosen. At some point we had a pause - we received few offers from Scandinavia. But continuous trainings with five of the players being on one place was the most important factor for us. In the end we decided to take Woodzy as our 5th player.

Talking about the reasons for this choice.. There were a lot of them. The community was the witness for the fact that this player can adapt and recover amazingly fast. A talant? Certainly. I hope that in Virtus.pro he will be able to prove himself and develop even further. The human-factor was not even discussed among three players, who knew Woodzy for quite a long time now. LeX was asked to make the final decision, and I am sure that he agreed not only because others asked him to, but it was his will as well. Such will of the team could have not been rejected by me. I've heard a lot of good things for Alex, so please welcome Alexander S.

The team's captain from now on is LeX. This is a great responsibility. And Alexey has a lot of strength to deal with it. Right now he simply has to take it.

cyberfight*d1monn: What about your participation in CPL Turkey Qualifier? As far as I have understood - you have cancelled your trip to this country?

Virtus.pro > Ru: Yes, we have cancelled our trip to Turkey and few upcoming trips as well. I will tell you about this in more details in the next answer.

cyberfight*d1monn: Irina, as far as I can understand right now the things are very complicated, but still - do you have any long-term plans for future? (tournaments, trainings)?

Virtus.pro > Ru: Once you switch one player, and this time not just a player but a captain - we had to change our plans significantly. We are under the pressure of small terms and have to act quick. Right now all our attention is drawn into making the new player part of the team and switching our game style a little bit. I also have to make this annoying document processing part for Alexander, it is required for fast visa application. We already did that for the rest of the team. That's why a part of trips were simply cancelled. The new plans are in development and I am not sure if our team will manage to go outside Russia before the end of the year. But the winter season will not be left out without any trips, I even know one event for sure. But won't tell anyone :)))

cyberfight*d1monn: What would Virtus.pro say to their fans (since there are thousands of them here at Cyberfight and even more around the world)? Whom would you like to thank? During whole year the team was helped by someone, and without their help a lot of things would have not turned out successfully?

Virtus.pro > Ru: Say? Well, we would like to scream-out huge thanks! Virtus.pro actually are seldomly seen active in forums or comments. It is not only because of the rules that are required for the team, but huge overall pressure the practicing leaves on the players. But if you had seen how the players were surfing Cyberfight while being abroad, accepting all the good feedback and taking in mind the bad one. We have even friendly regions, even few secret trips were organized to some of them. Actually, if it wasn't for you and our native land - what would have been the reason to play hard and actually go pro? Thank you all. Especially to those who are mailing to our team's mail. Please do not blame us for delayed answers, he have a really busy schedule.

I would like to thank a lot of people, it is hard to name them all. But first and most important of them all - I would like to thank Kostya.
Special thanks to our Serbian teammate Dragan.
Huge thanks to ULTRA computers
Huge thanks to a lot of organizers around the world.
Thanks to the parents of the players - they have realized what their sons are doing and support them greatly.
Thanks to each other, and all the players, special thanks to w0rm and Gal and the honored fans.
Ah, somebody stop me! All who had been with us and helped us, as well as cheered for us (it is Cyberfight and you Dmitry, as well as other writers (Lexx1ch