Virtus.pro CEO: "The sky is the limit for us in terms of ambitions on the transfer market"

Nikolai Petrossian spoke to HLTV about Virtus.pro's electroNic signing and how the "massive" investment impacts the team's and organization's status moving forward.

To say Virtus.pro took the community off-guard with the signing of Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov would be an understatement. At a time when most roster moves are leaked well ahead of their official announcements, the blockbuster transfer from Cloud9 that saw the four-time top 10 player replace Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov came completely out of left field.

The writing was on the wall for changes in Cloud9, but hardly anyone could have expected electroNic would be the one making space for an AWPer as the team's best performer since his joining from NAVI last summer.

To learn just how the unique opportunity came around for Virtus.pro and how the organization managed to put together a deal within days and keep it all under wraps, HLTV spoke to the CEO, Nikolai Petrossian, about the transfer.

In the in-depth interview, the chief also commented on how big the transfer was and what statement it is making to the industry. He took the opportunity to send out a message to other star players, saying the "sky is the limit" for Virtus.pro's ambitions on the transfer market in the future should an opportunity to improve the roster arise again.

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How did the idea behind this move get sparked?

We weren't unhappy with the performances and current form of the team even though we didn't manage to make the playoffs in Copenhagen. That wasn't the result we hoped for, but, before, in BLAST qualifiers and in the RMR we were happy with the team's performances.

After the Major we suddenly learned about the opportunity on the market. You know how transfer markets work in esports — if there is an opportunity you have to grab it because there are no such things like transfer periods like in NBA or European football. If there is a chance you have to take it immediately, otherwise the window of opportunity will be closed very shortly. That's why, when we learned about this opportunity, we talked to Cloud9 and in about five days we found an agreement with C9. It was very fast, there was no auction or something like that. We had very good relations with C9 previously because we already struck a deal when we sold buster to C9 in January 2023. That probably also helped us. They were very quick, we were very fast, so we found the agreement and the rest was technical details how to proceed.

I would like to say thank you to C9, because thanks to their proactive and gentlemanly approach we managed to meet the deadline for EPL. That's why electroNic will play for us in Malta. It was a push from our side, but without the same motivation from C9 it wouldn't have been possible to meet that deadline. I hope that this type of negotations and overall approach could be a standard for the esports industry. We are still a very, very young industry, and sometimes it's hard to make business. For us, the overall process with C9 was very professional, very result-oriented, and we appreciate that and say thank you to C9.

You said you learned that an opportunity arose. How did you learn about it? Did electroNic get in touch that he wanted to make the move, did Cloud9 and wanted to see if you'd be interested, or how did it happen?

There were some signals, non-official signals. You know how it works in esports, you don't know but you feel it could happen, and we just double-checked our feelings with C9. I reached out to the team manager and asked if it's possible to talk about the transfer of electroNic, and he told us they are open to negotiate even though everyone realizes that these types of players don't move from one team to another immediately. We understood that it's possible, and the rest as I said was dependent on both sides' motivation to proceed, to go forward, to find a common ground, to find the solution that will serve both — or not both, but three parties, because electroNic was one of the parties of the overall process.

This is also very important, that the player himself also wanted to move, not to any organization, but to Virtus.pro in particular. I think my feeling is that, for the player, it wasn't that any solution would allow him to leave C9. I think that it was a very precise choice to come to Virtus.pro. That's why I doubt that any other organizations were informed about this opportunity, and we proceeded very quickly not to allow anyone else in the industry to learn about this. Honestly, we aren't huge fans of participating in auctions where you have to increase your offers and try to predict what the next step your competitor will take, etc.

Nobody likes to spend more than they have to.

Yeah, a hundred percent. I don't want to say it was destiny, but it was something that could happen in that particular moment of time, and we were in the moment with the right offer, and C9 were open to take this opportunity, and the player himself was opened to move on, which is not happening too frequently with such type of players of that caliber. Everything worked perfectly, and today we made the announcement.

You spoke about there being motivation from all sides. Not that I would like you to speak on Cloud9's behalf, but you were talking about there being signals earlier — why do you think Cloud9 were motivated to let go of a player like electroNic? He was a big piece of the team, performing well in recent times, and even though there's criticism of how the team functions, people would be surprised if he was the one was causing problems in the team.

I wouldn't comment on rumors, because there were rumors circulating about the future of some of C9 players, it is C9 who has to comment on that. When I said signals, well, we are in this business for a long period of time.

We know, and everyone knows, I think, the level of talent playing for C9, and based on that we can predict the minimum result this roster can achieve. And when we saw that C9 again didn't manage to meet the expectations — or not the expectations, but, honestly, we were expecting C9 playing grand finals before the Major. This is something they could achieve because they had that potential. Each of their players, this is their potential. And when we saw that their final result was below the grand final, they finished in the top eight, we felt that there could be a chance. We just checked our feelings that there could be some changes, and our prediction was right. We guessed right. That's how it worked.

For us it was about electroNic only. We didn't ask C9 about any other player of their roster, we asked particularly about electroNic because it was our intention to sign him. And we managed to do that.

Why electroNic, then? From a role perspective it is a good fit for mir — was that the main reason behind it? Why did you jump at the opportunity?

First of all, when you compare the roles on each of the maps, even though we don't play Nuke and electroNic plays, but nevertheless, on other maps it is like a 90% fit. That's the first factor.

The second one is that electroNic has huge experience, he's been a star player for many years, and we felt that we need that push, not only to bolster the chances of this roster to accomplish their targets to finally be in the top 3 of the world. We are currently like top 10, sometimes in top 5, but the ambition is to be top 1, at least top 3. And we felt that electroNic is the perfect solution for that.

But the story doesn't end here today. Our ambition is to continue searching new opportunities on the market — not right now, it's obvious that this roster has huge potential, massive opportunities to get some results and win trophies, but for the future the sky is the limit for us in terms of ambitions on the transfer market. Any other star player, this is a signal for each of them that Virtus.pro is ready to push any boundaries to get that player who we feel may make our roster stronger. There are only a few on the market, I believe none of them are available today, but I hope that this move on the market will be a signal to them, and with electroNic in the roster we have much more chances to get new stars to Virtus.pro than without electroNic.

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Stat Check: VP look for starpower and unpredictability from electroNic

Speaking of pushing boundaries, it sounds like it was a big investment, and of course for a player like this the price tag must be quite high. How much can you say about that?

We have an agreement with C9 and there are two sides of the agreement, so I cannot disclose the exact figures, but if we agree with C9, let's post on Twitter the exact amount, we don't have any problems with that.

Yeah, it's a huge amount, and any guess would be more or less right. We didn't spend money on electroNic's transfer, we invested money — this is a very different approach. We invested in him and we do hope that this investment will give us back not only trophies but also will change the status of Virtus.pro as an organization. We are trying to be a global organization and Counter-Strike is one of the most popular and one of the best in terms of professionalism within the discipline.

CS2 is one of the best disciplines where organizations may anticipate the return of the investment. You can have long-term plans, sign long-term contracts with players, so you can plan properly how you will get back your investment. That's why we decided, and thanks to the owners of the club, who agreed on that and approved our approach, to invest in electroNic that massive amount of money. But we are pretty sure that this investment will pay back for us in terms of sports and in terms of business as well.

What do you think about the reaction so far? You've taken a lot of people off-guard, and you say nobody else knew about this opportunity. What do you think about the response?

It was a challenge for us to keep it secret, and again I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to C9, their management, their media team, to my team, because we managed to keep this announcement confidential even though in esports everyone knows it's very hard. Rumors are circulating very fast. I would like to say hello to all insiders, who used to showcase their abilities to learn everything that is happening within the industry, and this time there were zero guesses or zero rumors. This is another sign of professionalism, not only of Virtus.pro, because we are trying to be as professional as possible for the young industry, but overall for all the participants of this process.

Yes, we were praying to make this as much of a surprise as possible, and I'm pretty sure today's announcement was totally surprising for everyone. I hope Virtus.pro will keep making these surprises for our fans, not only in CS2, and for the industry as well.

We didn't have much time to prepare the announcement, that's why the media team and marketing director, they selected the simplest creative option to make the video cut easier, to make sure we go live on Monday morning.

How did you manage to keep it under wraps? What did you do differently compared to all those teams whose roster moves get leaked pretty much the day that they happen?

I really don't know. There is no secret. We just asked everyone to behave like gentlemen and to keep the sportsmanship standard high, and it worked out. It might not have worked, but it worked. It was very simple — I asked the C9 management and they said they totally agree with us that it should be kept confidential, and we asked electroNic, even though he's not that type of guy who is trying to make headlines with inside information. We were probably lucky with our counterparts.

Even though the roles are a good fit, electroNic had a lot of space in all his teams, he had a big voice, he is much more aggressive than mir is inside the game. There's bound to be impact on everyone else on the team. How can you make sure this impact will turn out to be a positive result for the team?

The main thing is that everyone within Virtus.pro is ambitious. Jame is ambitious, he feels that the only Major he has won is not enough for him. He's mad about winning trophies. electroNic, I believe the last year and probably the last months in NAVI and nine months in C9 could be an additional source of motivation for him to prove that he's a star player and he's still a top player. Everyone is ambitious and we feel that these ambitions will unite the players.

When it comes to playing ideas, playing style, first of all there is room for improvement for Virtus.pro in Counter-Strike 2. Jame admits that and we know that there is still a long path to go to be title contenders, real title contenders. The second thing is that there is nothing eternal in this life. There is one playstyle, but when you feel that to get results you need to change something, you have to be open-minded for that. As an organization we were open-minded to take this opportunity to buy electroNic, and we anticipate from our coaching staff, from our in-game leader to be open-minded to those new opportunities which are coming together with electroNic.

It's not about the name of electroNic, but it's about his huge experience, his understanding of this game. So as an organization, we have to create, and we will do that for sure, the right atmosphere for the players for electroNic to adapt within the team. The rest is about Jame and electroNic and other players, because FL1T will definitely have his own say in this process, to build a new team. Even one substitution is a huge change in CS2, you change 20% of the roster. We can say that we'll have a new team, and the playstyle will probably be changing within the coming months. Everyone is ready to work and to challenge the status quo.

Do you have a roadmap for when you want to see results? Is there a short-term or long-term goal for this roster?

Virtus.pro as an organization and given the legacy in Counter-Strike is always trying to be among the best. The pressure was there before electroNic's transfer and the pressure is now the same because Virtus.pro has to be among the best. When it comes to the current roster, we totally understand that the guys need some time to know each other better and to understand where they can improve the playstyle, etc. Given the shortage of time, because in six days we start our adventure in ESL Pro League — I don't want to use it as an excuse, and no one will, but the team will need some time to adapt to the new reality.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 19
23/04/2024	Virtus.pro 13:30 fnatic	Match

So the pressure is always there, we want to win ESL Pro League because we are Virtus.pro. If we don't win ESL Pro League, we know the reasons, because we have a new star player and he needs some time to adapt. Without electroNic, again, Virtus.pro would want to win ESL Pro League. As an organization we always want to win, but we understand that there is some time needed. We have a very packed schedule, there is Malta, then it's Belgrade, then it's Dallas, and then it's London before the players' break, so at least we anticipate the wind of change. We want to see how the team's playstyle evolves and we are pretty sure that, once we get those changes done, the results will come.