Jame offered insight into shock swap in pre-elimination VLOG

Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali's comments in a VLOG made ahead of the Aleksandr "⁠KaiR0N-⁠" Anashkin-David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan swap offer some possible insight into why the shock move was made.

Just hours before entering the elimination match against MOUZ at the BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR, Virtus.pro announced that KaiR0N- would be replaced by n0rb3r7 as they hoped to turn their fortunes at the event.

Explained only in part by the management hinting at KaiR0N- struggling with the pressure of the Major qualifier, the abrupt decision was met with widespread criticism and has since backfired terribly. Virtus.pro went on to get eliminated from the tournament by MOUZ after a lopsided 0-2 series, causing the team to be unable to defend their IEM Rio Major crown in Paris.

Apparently speaking before the decision to swap the two players was made in Virtus.pro's VLOG, Jame shared his view that bringing in KaiR0N- at the beginning of 2023 had so far proven to be "a mistake" due to differences in roles between him and n0rb3r7.

"At this specific moment, I can say that this change was a mistake," Jame said following the team's second loss at the tournament to Into the Breach. "We didn't become stronger because we lost a good anchor in David [n0rb3r7]. For us to play good again in the current roster, we need Kair0N- to get used to the new roles. We've lost both an anchor and a rotator."

When questioned whether this could change, Jame said: "Yes, it is possible. I meant this specific moment."

Jame also shared his thoughts on the loss to Into the Breach and the previous to B8, both of which Virtus.pro let slip through their fingers in 13-16 and 14-16 affairs, saying he has "never lost in such a way in my career at Majors."

"Maybe it happened, but never twice in a row. We've lost some experience, I guess. In such matches, usually you get it over the line by experience. But as we could see today, it's us who were beaten by experience," he said.

"In the previous game [against B8], we had a 13-11 lead, then make two mistakes — we make these mistakes because of inexperience."

It's not clear whether the last comment related to KaiR0N- specifically or any mistakes that he might have made, but it's impossible to ignore the link to the reasoning Virtus.pro gave for swapping n0rb3r7 back into the roster. The organization's CEO, Nikolai Petrossian, hinted at the pressure of the RMR getting to KaiR0N- in a statement: "Young players do not immediately adapt to the pressure of LAN events, especially important ones like RMR."

You can find the full video in Russian with English subtitles below: